Blog Audience Measurement: What do you want to know?

A frequent question we get is "how do I know who is reading my blog?" And, "is anyone reading my blog?" 

Last month at the Business Blog Summit, Tris Hussey, a prolific blogger, addressed this question in an excellent session on Audience Measurement.  So, I invited Tris to be a guest on Conversations with Experts so we can share this information with you.  Here's the neat twist on this Conversation...Tris wants to get your questions about what YOU want to know about how to measure your blog's audience. Here's the Conversation info:

Is anybody listening out there? Measuring your blog's audience
Wednesday, November 29, 2006, 8:30 p.m. ET (no charge, registration required)
Guest Expert: Tris Hussey, A View From the Isle

You've started your blog.  You're writing great posts, but who is reading them?  Is anyone out there?  Blog metrics is still in its infancy, but there are some tools, tips and tricks that you can use today to get a handle on your current audience and learn how to grow it.  You'll come away with easy and effective methods to start measuring blog audience today!

Register:  www.ConversationsWithExperts.com

If you have a burning question about blog metrics, how to measure your audience, or anything else related to this topic, please post your question using the comments link below. To make it even more interesting, we'll give away 3 copies of "What No One Ever Tells You About Blogging and Podcasting" to those people who we think (yes, this is totally subjective) have posed the best questions.

After you post your question, then be sure to register (it's free) for the Conversation with Tris so you don't miss any getting a handle on this important aspect of your blogging plan.

Finally, check out Tris' many blogs:

A View From the Isle
Qumana Official Blog
One by One Media
Pimp Your Work
Homely Scientist

Comments

[Patsi M. Krakoff]

A question came up for me about 6 months ago, and I'd like to hear Tris' take on it even though I think I understand the answer now. How do you separate out the search engine bot traffic from genuine viewers?

[Tris Hussey]

Oooh ... good one! (scribble, scribble)

[John Trosko]

This is a terrific topic! I am so excited. I don't have anything specific at the moment, I am just happy to join in on the conversation!

Thank you for all the time you spend on these shows! - John

[Marc Lerner]

I direct my work to people with a chronic illness or a disability and the medical professionals that care for them. How can I track the number of people in each group that visit my Blog.

[Yaro]

I'd just like to throw in one of my favorite ways to test my audience numbers. It's not a "pure" metric of course, I have server statistic packages for that.

I like to do a post that asks my audience to do something, like fill out a survey, or download a book, but not on my site, and I track the number of clicks.

The number of people who respond (click), while not representing my entire readership, gives me an indication of how many "responsive" readers I have, which is often one of the most important numbers given you may try and make money via posts on your blog - you want to know how many people might actually buy from you.

Yaro

[Myrna]

Your teleseminars have been invaluable and I look forward to the call with Tris. I would like to know about the plug-ins like del.icio.us and digg(already on technorati) and some discussion on algorhythmns and how that plays a part in SEO.

[MarkP]

I track daily site visits by counting background image loads (which bots will never load). I can also do spot counts of a particular post by checking how many image accesses there are to an image used in that post.

[Glenn Ginsburg]

I notice that many blogs have icons for the various feeds - which ones are of the most benefit and how do you know if someone is getting your feed?

Are weblogs a good way of telling us the volume of readers?

What do other use to measure the volume of readership?

Should we being using "trackbacks"? I have read that they are no longer used due to spamming.

I also have noticed that many blogs use Technorati tags - how do you create the tags and do those help to measure traffic or readership?

Some of these questions maybe not applicable, but the answers would be much appreciated. Thank you. :)

[Bill McIntosh]

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