The Value of S3 Stat

If you own a blog or a website, there's a strong chance that you are at least curious about your traffic. Usually we try to avoid traffic, but cyber traffic is a different story.  Certainly there are people who blog for a small audience and have no ambition to grow the readership, and surely there are other writers who don't care anything about statistics and data. Most of us, however, who spend time creating and publishing work online are at the very least curious about the audience we are reaching.

When I started my podcast seven months ago, I faced a steep learning curve with just about every aspect of blogging and podcast technology.  I had to check out dozens of WordPress tutorials and learn how to use various software programs. After a couple of months of producing podcast episodes, I grew more curious about my audience.  Is anyone listening? What episodes are drawing the largest audience?

As it turned out, I had two means of monitoring my traffic, both provided by my web host. This was great!  Each month I reviewed the site visits and was encouraged by the upward trend.

But it didn't take long to realize there was a discrepancy.

My two reports were not telling me the same thing...not even close.  One, for example, was reporting 6,000 visits per month, while the other was reporting 1,200 per month.  The difference between the reports began to cause doubt and uncertainty.  It also tempted me to share either the higher or lower stat with whomever I was discussing web traffic.  This resulted in feeling like I was either not shooting straight with the other person (elevating my stats) or that I was selling myself short (using the lower count). Neither of these options was good.

And then I ran across S3 Stat.

Since I was already using Amazon S3 to host my podcast episodes, it made sense to give it a try...especially with their free trial.

What's been the result of using S3 Stat?
Great question!

No more guessing.  I can share my daily, weekly and/or monthly traffic results with confidence now. I can determine which episode is drawing the largest audience.  I can also get a global report, detailing where my audience is located.

S3 Stat has provided dependable reports that have allowed me to chart the growth of my podcast with confidence.

Bots Dominate Web Traffic: A Question of Click Ethics for Bloggers

You've probably seen the article headlines like this one from Time Tech that suggests "more than 60 percent of all Internet traffic now comes from bots." Maybe you saw the PC World article that stated that "nearly half of those bots are up to no good."

While many bloggers and surfers read this and feel concern about security issues such as malware and viruses, there are others who view it as a grand opportunity to work the robotic system for an increase in web traffic. For example, I recently read this article that outlines strategies for increasing your web traffic without paying for advertising. The suggested strategies key on words, phrases, and links that will draw the attention of bots busy about the work of indexing, searching for copyright infringements (on the positive side), or hacking, hi-jacking or impersonating (on the negative).

So, as a blogger, I want to be sure that I frequent my own site to be sure it has not been attacked; I want to be sure my virus protection and malware protection are up to date and active; and I want to ask myself a question about my purpose as a blogger. Here is the question: Do I blog to articulate important ideas, to share opinions or personal experiences, or to generate traffic in an effort to generate passive income?

There's nothing wrong with utilizing the internet for income, but I think we have to beware of the blurry lines of pragmatism. For example, I can compose blog titles like Miley Cyrus Does it Again or How to Go to College for Free that mislead or focus on sensationalism in order to get a click-- and most clicks will be from robots, and while that may increase traffic on my blog, I must realize that my credibility and reputation is at stake. Are a few robotic clicks worth it?


Do you have any thoughts on the issue?