Vinny Lingham's Blog - Latest Comments in Google offers Free Urchin Stats

Re: Google offers Free Urchin Stats

Rhianna — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:59:37 -0000

I said, "I do not engage in any bidding, PPC, Adwords, or any type of Pay for Click Ads, etc..." That is true. I still believe that I am an affiliate in the original sense: I like to take a product offered by a merchant on a network and I like to write a mini review of the featured product on my site and sell it. I rely on organic listings in search engines and word of mouth.

Re: Google offers Free Urchin Stats

Rhianna — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 19:45:02 -0000

Vinny,

I know that this blog post of yours is an older post but the words of your blog are timeless and an older post does not dissuade me from responding ;-)

Anyway, almost a year after the fact, how would you rate the free Google (Urchin) stats?

I notice that Google states in its TOS:

" You must post a privacy policy and that policy must provide notice of your use of a cookie that collects anonymous traffic data. "

I'm not sure if all webmasters who use Google Analytics do so.

I've noticed some sites that I visit on a dial-up connection will slow the process of connecting to a site using Google Analytics and the fact that Google Analytics is being used will be indicated.

My ISP used to offer limited Urchin statistics but I always favored eXTreme Tracking (http://extremetracking.com/?home)
Granted the free version of Google Analytics is private but the sign-up process with eXTreme Tracking is easier.

A webmaster using eXTreme Tracking can state in the site's privacy policy that the originating site does not use cookies -- I actually like being able to say that.
I know that if I use eXTreme Tracking that others will be able to view my stats, but I do not engage in any bidding, PPC, Adwords, or any type of Pay for Click Ads, etc... I still value search terms because certain words help me to create more pages and I like to be ranked as highly as I can be in search engines.

Do you think Google Analytics trumps eXTreme Tracking?

Re: Google offers Free Urchin Stats

Bobby — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 23:17:00 -0000

I for one am ecstatic after hearing this news. I am a rookie affiliate marketer who sees the need for web analytics but could not shell out the $200 per month. I've also been considering trying a geo-targeted adwords campaign. Now, with Google Analytics geo-targeting, i can't wait to see where the heart of my market is. Google has done it again! If only they'll make an OS X version of Google Earth!