Google Analytics

One Google tool I am purticularly fond of is Google Analytics. By inserting a code into the site’s code, this simple tool allows me to track traffic to my site but what it does in detail is of purticular use.

First of is the Visits chart. It gives me a visual representation of my site’s hits over a period of time that can be changed. I can track the interest that my site has generated and how it changes as I post different articles. More important I think would be the Visitors chart. It is one thing to generate many hit but when it is the same person reading many articles, it means that word about the site is not getting out. This is related to the Visitor Loyalty percentage. It is important to retain a core readership that one can rely on.

Analytics also tracks technology. It can tell me what kind of brower, monitor resolution and internet connection my visitors are using. This lets me optimize the site according what seems to the majority. The Map Overlay gives a representation of where the readers are coming from. Some bloggers may be only targeting a specific country and region and this helps to know if this audience is being attracted.  This tracks any country as long as it has an Internet connection, going down to individual towns and counties. It even tracks to places like the South Pole!

Traffic Sources tells me how much of where my readership is being directed from, be it direct, referred or from search engines. By having a large direct traffic count, I can be assured that people check my site on a regular basis by bookmarks or RSS, rather than waiting for new posts to turn up on a blog aggregator. But the most important feature for me is Content Overview. This tracks the amount of hits that each of my articles get over a period of time. By knowing this, I know what is popular with readers and what isn’t. This allows to adjust my content to suit what my readers like.

Social Media and Me

I’ll be frank. I was never really into social media up until six months ago. For years, I have been reading blogs all about anime and manga. That’s all I have been doing, never taking part in the discussion. Sure, I have a friend or two who were relatively prominent bloggers in the anime blogger community. Then it all changed.

Back in September 2008, my good friend, Bjorn Tan, decided that instead of using his own blog, he would set up a team blog that would talk about a new multitude of subject, rather than focusing on a single subject. He roped in people from within our circle of friends to do the writing. This blog became known as nk-ds.org. When we first started out, people were skeptical. Here was a big shot leading a group of unknowns, how far would they go? The site continued to attract hits, mainly due to Bjorn’s advertising and contact.

Then about a month into the site, we received an e-mail from the organisers of Anime Festival Asia. We were invited to their offices to participate in their event’s website launch. After the introductions, the organisers informed us that they would to use our blogs as information platforms for the event. Needless to say, we were shocked. Hoping to gain some exposure, we signed on with the plan. In return, we were given special media accessto their event.

I learned first hand how powerful social media can be when it comes to the promotion of a certain event or product. Because of new technology like RSS, information can be spread around communities at incredible speeds, sometimes even seconds after a post is made. The buzz generated as a result of the posts made could be tremendous. Our site once got a thousand hits in a single day.

Our site has now been recognized as one of the more prominent anime and manga blogs on the Internet, touching from various topics like motorsports and current affairs.

However, I find myself not really into social networking sites like Friendster or Facebook. They claim that one is able to make more friends through these sites. However, most of time, people do not meet these new friends and still stick to those whom they already know face to face.

So on social media, I am divided.