Use WunderCounter? Tell Your Friends!

You may or may not know that I don't run big ad campaigns to advertise the WunderCounter. I don't spend a lot of time promoting this site at all, actually. The reason for this is that if I have a choice between working on new features or maintaining the site and putting together some advertising, I'd rather be working on the site. So, I spend the time I have available trying to create a better experience for you, the user.

Over the past 10 years, a lot of the traffic to WunderCounter.com has come via word of mouth. This is very effective and it's really the best kind of advertising you can hope for.

So, I just wanted to take a moment to remind you that, if it's something you find useful, your friends may feel the same way. You can tweet about it, share it on Facebook, put a link on your Myspace page or recommend it on your favourite forum. The more new users the WunderCounter gets, the more time I can devote to improving the site rather than marketing it and I think that works out best for everyone. Thanks for continuing to tell your friends about the WunderCounter. All of your referrals are very much appreciated. :)

Tracking Facebook Links is Easy with TweetDeck and WunderCounter

In an earlier post, I gave instructions on how to start tracking links you share via TweetDeck. As a follow-up to that post, I just want to reiterate that TweetDeck shares links on more than just Twitter.

In fact, TweetDeck is really good at sharing your links on Facebook. What's the point in sharing links if nobody clicks them? With TweetDeck and WunderCounter you can get a better idea of how many people actually care about the content you're sharing with them.

TweetDeck is flexible. It gives you the option of auto-shortening (ie tracking) your links automatically or only shortening the links which you specifically want to track.

TweetDeck is easy. When you're using TweetDeck, you don't need to log in to Facebook to post an update. You also don't need to log in to the WunderCounter to get a trackable URL. It all happens in the background -- seamlessly. You don't need to worry about the details. Just enter your status update, submit it and you're done. Then, check your WunderCounter account at your convenience to see what your link activity is.

TweetDeck is free. It runs on Mac, PC and Linux and is available for your phone in your favourite app store. Check it out and let me know what you think!

WunderCounter Now With Twitter OAuth Integration

Twitter.com disabled Basic Authentication on Aug 31, 2010. This means that sites which integrate with Twitter may no longer do so using your Twitter username and password. As a result of this, I've updated the WunderCounter's Twitter integration to use OAuth, which Twitter has switched to fully now.

This means that when you enable the WunderCounter's Twitter features, like getting a daily summary of your stats via a Twitter DM (Direct Message) or getting a DM when certain IPs visit your site are still available to you, you do so without providing your Twitter password. Instead, you'll be forwarded to Twitter where you may give permission to the WunderCounter to access your account. This permission may be revoked by you at any point and, since you don't have to reveal your password, it's more of a "feel good" experience. :)

WunderCounter's Twitter OAuth is now live. You can get to it by selecting "Twitter" from the "Options" menu after logging in to your account.

No Credit Card? No Problem.

If you don't have a credit card or if you prefer not to use credit cards as a payment method, it's never a problem with the WunderCounter. When you're on the billing page, scroll to the bottom and you'll find the "Cheque or Money Order" option.

To get to the billing page, choose "Billing/Payments", which is under the "Options" menu. You can choose the same billing periods as you normally would when paying by cheque/money order. All payments can be sent to the PO Box.

If you have sent a payment by mail, feel free to let me know via email that the payment has been sent so that I can confirm with you when it arrives.

My First Published iPhone App is for Perl Hackers

This past June (2010) I released my first iPhone application. @ioncache and I had put our heads together to build a tool we felt was lacking in the Perl community. All of the documentation for Perl's massive software archive, the CPAN, was not available as an iPhone application. If you're a Perl hacker, you may well find this to be a very useful tool. You can grab it here.

iCPAN brings you the documentation for over 60,000 Perl modules in the palm of your hand, for offline browsing whenever you may need it. You can bookmark your favourites and also view your recently searched modules. I've used it many times myself and I find it to be a great tool for reading up on modules with which I am already familiar and also for discovering new tools I can use when hacking on code (like the WunderCounter).

After getting lots of valuable feedback, we're now optimizing this application for the iPad. I'll post again when the iPad version is available in the Apple app store.

Using Tweetie and Tweetings to Auto Track Twitter Links

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.

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

That's it! Just enter that URL, which already has your API credentials embedded into it and paste it into your TweetDeck preferences. You'll be able to auto-shorten and auto-track any URLs which you post via TweetDeck.

Let me know if you have any questions/comments about this new functionality.