Does anyone use Feedjit Live Traffic feed? I have mixed feelings about it, and I’m just wondering how it’s working out for people.
If you’re unfamiliar with this blogging toy, Feedjit is a free widget/box on your blog that lists where the latest viewer is from and how they arrived there. For instance, I found it by visiting a blog called Stamp & Sparkle (I had Googled for a craft glue by that same name). A blog came up, so I clicked on it. When I arrived at the blog, the top of the Feedjit box said:
“El Paso, Texas, arrived from google.com on Stamp n Sparkle.”
Using this widget would certainly solve the mystery of how some readers end up at your site, or at the least, where they’re coming from. But is that a good thing or a bad thing? It works for the blogger, but what about the searcher? The person who found me by Googling “young Phyllis Diller” probably wouldn’t mind, but what about the person who found me by Googling “sex toy pig”? Do they really want to come to my page and see something like, “Smalltown, Idaho, arrived from google.com on Sex Toy Pig” ?
Even I was somewhat taken aback to see myself on this stranger’s page, my location appearing on her blog at the exact same time I was arriving at it for the very first time. And I was just looking up an old craft glue, I can’t imagine if I was researching something weird or strange, or looking for news items on some freak like “Father Porter” or “Britney’s British accent” or whatever.
I’m interested in your thoughts about Feedjit. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I’m leaning towards bad. Also, in writing this post, I had to go back and forth on the craft blog, and it’s all listed right there on her blog. El Paso left on this click, El Paso returned on that click …. My coming and going must be quite curious for the blogger, don’t you think?
If you really want to read more about this widget and see the site, click Feedjit.
Ummm. Ya, I think I’d pass on that widget. It seems a bit too intrusive and I think it would turn off any readers who enjoy reading my blog or come out of morbid curiosity to see if I stuck a knitting needle in my eye yet. Besides, for the blogger, there’s SiteMeter. It does a great job of telling you when and where the visitor comes from. It tells you what page they landed on, or read, for how long… all that stuff. I don’t know if it tells you the search they entered, but WordPress tells you the search terms, just not by whom. Interesting. I will go look at their site though.
Little Miss – Yeah, I agree. SiteMeter is good enough, and I haven’t even bothered to check that in probably a month. It’s fun in the beginning, then it becomes yet one more thing to read online. My dance card is already full.
I can’t get Site Meter to work. I also can’t figure out how to get pictures and what book I’m reading on the side bar. Help!!!
I have never heard of either of these tools but am quite curious about them… I will have to check it out. Sometimes when I go to sites it tells me that I’ve logged on there from “wherever USA” and that weirds me out because… hey I’m from a small town I don’t want somebody to show up and say “Hey do you know Aimee H from Wherever?” and they’ll go “Oh yeah she used to date so and so and now she’s working here and left there and is married! Go see her at 123 That Street!” That’s where it left me feeling weird…
Also… everybody has the “Blogroll” or “Blogs I like to visit” on their sidebar… but I can’t find that widget! Want to clue me in on the mystery!?
I love the photo, and I agree with you. It’s just a little too much info. I’ll stick with Sitemeter.
@ Joan – I probably can’t help you with SiteMeter, but maybe you need to check your account and make sure everything is “checked off” that needs to be?
To get a photo of your book, you should Google it in the images section.
To get stuff in the side panel (photos or whatever), go to Dashboard > Presentation > Widgets. At the bottom of the screen you’ll see your “Available Widgets.” Drag the ones you want into your sidebar. For instance, I have Recent Comments, Text 1, Category Cloud, etc. Any codes you have for buttons, extra photos you want to display all the time, books your reading, all go in the “Text” widget. You have have several of the Text widgets, but each one holds a lot.
Note: To add a photo to your sidebar, you’ll need to get the code for it and put it in a Text widget. You do that by getting the Properties code off your Flickr account (or wherever the photo is), opening a Write New Post window, paste it in, then go to the second tab (labeled “Code”) and take THAT code and paste it into your Text widget. Sounds complicated, but it’s not too bad. Just be sure to “save” and “update” the widget so you don’t lose it.
The Archives widget automatically lists your past posts, but you can change the header to say anything you want.
@ Aimee – Yeah, I get a little creeped out by it too.
@ Moonbeam – Sitemeter is great, and like I said, I haven’t even checked in on that lately.
That thing seems just a little too “Big Brother” for me.
@ Susan – Yes! Big Brother is the perfect description. The Feedjit thing is something you don’t know about till you land at a new blog, and by then it’s too late. But because of it, I’ll never visit that blog again.
I don’t know if you’ve followed our discussion of Windows Live Writer here and on other blogs, but more and more people are using it. I think you’re responsible for some of that … if it hadn’t been for you I would have never known about it. Can’t thank you enough for that, and all your kind advice when I was a clueless lurker who wanted to come out of hiding. 🙂