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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Get Clicky With It

Web analytics have long been in need of sexing up. If you run sites, you're probably used to looking at things like Awstats or Webalizer. Both are good and very useful, but if you're like me - you're willing to do with them rather than pay for similar things. Well, in the true mash-up tradition of Web 2.0, there's now something out there for us stats junkies - a new service called Clicky (yes it's a stupid Web 2.0 name but the service rocks so there.)

Before I get into it I need to thank Dave Naylor, the infamous UK SEO, for pointing it this out - his description of it being as addictive as when you first got an AdSense account (those were the days) intrigued me - so much so I jumped over and jumped into Clicky. He wasn't wrong, I can't keep away from it. The flaming thing is addictive. What's more it's also helped me plug a couple of holes and spot a couple of potential earning opportunities I would have missed in the mass of results I normally get from Awstats.

So, what does it do that's so good you ask? Well, it does all the things you'd expect from a stats package, but it does it in real time, and better still groups it all in a way that the information is both compelling and useful. It's had a good whacking with the Web 2.0 design stick, and features a range of things you've seen elsewhere in mash-up land. The best thing is the Spy feature. It works like the Digg Spy and gives you a rolling view of what people are doing at the site - where they hit, where they go, where they came from, etc. It's awesome frankly.

You can dig right into it and see things grouped by actions, country (with a Google Maps mash-up) and all sorts of information as it happens. It shows you if they download something - tells you what time they got there, how long they stayed and on and on. There's just so much good stuff. I know you get all this in other stats packages, but there it's all after the fact and jumbled. Clicky is the opposite.

Now, there's one slight problem. You can sign up for a free trial account - it allows you to try it on three domains - you get 27 days trial then you can either pay for the pro service and get up to 10 domains on there, or drop down the features and keep a basic account. I'm itching to get more domains on this given the power of it, my credit card is in my hand awaiting to pay. Thwarted! I have to wait 14 days for them to check my sites aren't going to overwhelm their servers. Curse you! Yes. It's really that good and I'm logging in way more than I did when I first got AdSense. Top marks from here.

Posted by Dio Bach at 10:44 AM 5 comments links to this post