I recently posted an article on how to track clicks on URLs you share via TweetDeck. I've just done a bit of research and I've found the following articles on how to enable custom URL shortening with Tweetie and Tweetings. This means you can use the WunderCounter to track links via these clients as well:
http://developer.atebits.com/tweetie-iphone/custom-shortening/
http://www.tweetings.net/iphone/custom.html
If you know of more Twitter clients which support this feature, please let me know.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Use TweetDeck? Automatically Track Links You Post on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook
Please note: this functionality is currently available to Premium users only.
If you use TweetDeck to post to Twitter, Facebook or Myspace, you'll know that it can automatically shorten URLs for you. What you may not know is that TweetDeck allows you to choose your URL shortening service. You may choose from a list of pre-defined providers and you may also specify your own, custom URL shortener. The instructions are laid out for you nicely on the TweetDeck Support site.
The only other bit of information you need is the actual WunderCounter URL which you'll need to enter into TweetDeck. You'll need to do the following after logging in to your account:
- Select "API" from the "Options" menu
- Agree to the terms, if you have not already done so
- Copy/paste the TweetDeck URL listed on this page
Let me know if you have any questions/comments about this new functionality.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Don't have a web site? Get an email only hosting account.
If you've registered a domain name, but don't have any web content, you don't have to pay full price for a WunderSolutions hosting package. Both the Webmaster and Super plans can be ordered as "email only" packages.
An email only package comes at 50% of the price of the full hosting + email price. So, you save 50%, but still have full access to email address management, webmail, POP, SMTP, etc.
For example, $5/month will get you 10 POP email addresses, unlimited aliases, email forwarding, SMTP and 100 MB of email storage.
$10/month gets you 100 POP email addresses, unlimited aliases, email forwarding, SMTP and 1 GB of email storage.
If you're interested in an email hosting package, just send a note to support@wundersolutions.com and I'll get the ball rolling for you.
An email only package comes at 50% of the price of the full hosting + email price. So, you save 50%, but still have full access to email address management, webmail, POP, SMTP, etc.
For example, $5/month will get you 10 POP email addresses, unlimited aliases, email forwarding, SMTP and 100 MB of email storage.
$10/month gets you 100 POP email addresses, unlimited aliases, email forwarding, SMTP and 1 GB of email storage.
If you're interested in an email hosting package, just send a note to support@wundersolutions.com and I'll get the ball rolling for you.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Twitter Alerts Fixed
I've just a fixed a bug which was preventing a number of users from getting Twitter (Twitwire) alerts for flagged IP numbers. The system was not marking you as followers and, for that reason, you weren't being sent Twitter DMs when flagged IP addresses hit your site. This error has now been fixed. All Twitwire users who are following @wundercounter have now been updated with the correct information.
So, you should start getting tweets now when IPs of interest hit your pages. Thanks to Keith for pointing this out to me.
If you'd like to set up Twitter alerts, choose the Twitter menu item from the Options menu in your account.
So, you should start getting tweets now when IPs of interest hit your pages. Thanks to Keith for pointing this out to me.
If you'd like to set up Twitter alerts, choose the Twitter menu item from the Options menu in your account.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Track Links on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and more with wee.im
URL shorteners are becoming very common now. You probably come across them in some form or another daily when you're online. goo.gl, bit.ly and tinyurl.com are popular choices. They take long, unwieldy URLs, which tend to get mangled when sent via email and turn them into short URLs, which are easier to use. It's also a great tool for micro-blogging. For example, if you use Twitter, you're limited to 140 characters per tweet. A very long URL could easily take up 140 characters just on its own, so using a URL shortener leaves you more room for your content, while still allowing you a way to share your links.
Premium WunderCounter users will now find the URL Shortener option under the Generate HTML menu after logging in. This gives you access to wee.im (or wee), which is the WunderCounter URL shortener. wee works much in the same way as the examples above, but with the difference that it's also a click tracker. This means that when you post your custom wee links, every click can be reported back to you via your WunderCounter account.
Now, let's look at some examples.
(If you are not yet a WunderCounter user, you can get started with wee by signing up for a free trial of the Premium account.)
Premium WunderCounter users will now find the URL Shortener option under the Generate HTML menu after logging in. This gives you access to wee.im (or wee), which is the WunderCounter URL shortener. wee works much in the same way as the examples above, but with the difference that it's also a click tracker. This means that when you post your custom wee links, every click can be reported back to you via your WunderCounter account.
Now, let's look at some examples.
(If you are not yet a WunderCounter user, you can get started with wee by signing up for a free trial of the Premium account.)
Twitter
Twitter gives you an idea of how many people are getting your messages in the follower count, but it doesn't give you much more than that. By using wee, you can find out how many people are actually clicking on the links in your tweets. When you look at the click numbers on your tweets, you'll have a better idea of what your followers are actually interested in. You may then use this knowledge to write tweets which people are more likely to care about.
For example, if you send a tweet which gets a very low number of clicks, you can ask yourself why nobody really bothered to follow the link you shared. Perhaps your description was too vague or uninteresting. Improve this in your future tweets to get the message out to a wider audience. This is helpful to marketers as well as anyone who uses Twitter as a social tool.
Facebook currently does not give you a lot of options for tracking who cares about what you've posted. Profile counters did work at one point, but Facebook changes disabled that feature as early as 2008. You can use wee to track clicks on links you share in your status updates, notes or anywhere else you post on Facebook. Now, Facebook will do its best to obscure the referring URL of the click, but, like Twitter, you'll get an idea of whether people actually care about the links you're sharing.
For example, if you send a tweet which gets a very low number of clicks, you can ask yourself why nobody really bothered to follow the link you shared. Perhaps your description was too vague or uninteresting. Improve this in your future tweets to get the message out to a wider audience. This is helpful to marketers as well as anyone who uses Twitter as a social tool.
Facebook
Facebook currently does not give you a lot of options for tracking who cares about what you've posted. Profile counters did work at one point, but Facebook changes disabled that feature as early as 2008. You can use wee to track clicks on links you share in your status updates, notes or anywhere else you post on Facebook. Now, Facebook will do its best to obscure the referring URL of the click, but, like Twitter, you'll get an idea of whether people actually care about the links you're sharing.
Myspace
Myspace has traditionally been easier to track than Facebook, so using wee gives you an extra layer of functionality over your existing tracking. Track links on your profile page, in your blog posts and anywhere else you decide to share links, like messages, comments etc. Be creative!
Myspace has traditionally been easier to track than Facebook, so using wee gives you an extra layer of functionality over your existing tracking. Track links on your profile page, in your blog posts and anywhere else you decide to share links, like messages, comments etc. Be creative!
LinkedIn
Similarly, LinkedIn doesn't give you a way to track clicks on your profile pages, but it does let you share links. Use wee to get a better idea of how successful your link sharing is.
There are many other use cases for wee and I'll post about some of those in future. I'm also working on integration with TweetDeck. So, lots of stuff is in the works right now. Follow this blog for updates!
Similarly, LinkedIn doesn't give you a way to track clicks on your profile pages, but it does let you share links. Use wee to get a better idea of how successful your link sharing is.
There's More to Come
There are many other use cases for wee and I'll post about some of those in future. I'm also working on integration with TweetDeck. So, lots of stuff is in the works right now. Follow this blog for updates!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Dashboard Charts Now Clickable and Interactive
Several weeks ago, I updated the charts which appear on the dashboard page when you log in. These new charts aren't just prettier -- they can also be clicked and manipulated. First off, you'll notice that when you hover over any of the data points, you'll see a small window which gives you more information about that particular point of data. This allows the graph to map out your data in general terms, while still giving you access to exact points used to create the map.
On the right menu of the charts you'll also find a colour coded list of the weeks represented on the image. If your account has been tracking for more than a week, you'll see up to three weeks here. Try clicking these menu items and you'll see that the data points toggle on and off as you do so. This allows you to view one, two or three weeks simultaneously.
Once you're aware that the charts can be altered, they become much more helpful. As the rest of the site is updated with the new charts, keep in mind that this will also be clickable and that there may be more information available to you than may initially appear to be the case.
I welcome all feedback about the new charts. Please feel free to get in touch with suggestions and other comments. If you'd like to see a demo of the types of charts which could be added to the WunderCounter, have a look at the HighCharts demo page.
On the right menu of the charts you'll also find a colour coded list of the weeks represented on the image. If your account has been tracking for more than a week, you'll see up to three weeks here. Try clicking these menu items and you'll see that the data points toggle on and off as you do so. This allows you to view one, two or three weeks simultaneously.
Once you're aware that the charts can be altered, they become much more helpful. As the rest of the site is updated with the new charts, keep in mind that this will also be clickable and that there may be more information available to you than may initially appear to be the case.
I welcome all feedback about the new charts. Please feel free to get in touch with suggestions and other comments. If you'd like to see a demo of the types of charts which could be added to the WunderCounter, have a look at the HighCharts demo page.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
www.wundercounter.com Has a New Home
I've just moved www.wundercounter.com to a new server. I tested it pretty thoroughly before moving the site over, but please do let me know if you come across any bugs. This would affect the front end of the site (including the login process) as well as counters and link trackers. The actual reports are run off a different machine, so those won't have changed at all.
This move is part of a plan to move www.wundercounter.com to a load balanced pair of servers rather than just one unit. If things look good on the new machine, I'll move the traffic over to the load balancer and that will add another layer of redundancy to the whole network setup.
You'll notice that they layout of the site has changed, so please let me know if things don't look quite right on any of the pages. I develop on a Mac, so if there are issues on MSIE 7 and up, I may not have caught all of them (though I did some testing in Windows). MSIE 6 is not supported as it's a real mess. ;)
This move is part of a plan to move www.wundercounter.com to a load balanced pair of servers rather than just one unit. If things look good on the new machine, I'll move the traffic over to the load balancer and that will add another layer of redundancy to the whole network setup.
You'll notice that they layout of the site has changed, so please let me know if things don't look quite right on any of the pages. I develop on a Mac, so if there are issues on MSIE 7 and up, I may not have caught all of them (though I did some testing in Windows). MSIE 6 is not supported as it's a real mess. ;)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
