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ActiveRain Statistics - Comments, Views, and Clicks

ActiveRain Statistics - Comments, Views, and Clicks:
Your ActiveRain Statistics page shows an overview of ALL your Blog posts and the activity they are getting. This is a great tool to gage what is happening with each of your Blog posts in real-time.

The first column is the Title and Link to your Blog posts, there's no definition or description needed here.

The Second column is comments. Many members and consumers may be reading your posts but not commenting. Those that do comment are accounted for and shown as a total on your stats page. Don't think for one second that just because you're not getting mega comments that people aren't reading your posts. Out of the more than 1.3 plus million posts on AR, there's not a single post here has not been seen, read, or at least viewed, or clicked by somebody.

The third column is views. This shows how many times your post was viewed in a Blogroll. This includes any Blogroll on ActiveRain. A Blogroll is any place on ActiveRain where a list (called Blogroll) of posts are shown. Click on the "Blogs" link at the top of any AR page to see a sample of a Blogroll. A Blogroll includes groups, subscriptions, and even the feature board. A view simply means that your post appeared on someones computer screen as they were scrolling through the list and looking for a title to click on and read.

The fourth column is Clicks. This is when someone actually clicks on the title of your post, and loads it as the solo post on their computer screen to read. Clicks are accumulated not only within ActiveRain, but outside of the network too. Many clicks on your stats page are coming from Google searches and direct hits by consumers. The longer your post is out there, the more all of these numbers will increase.

Your comments will always be less than your clicks, and your clicks will always be less than your views. I'll explain. When a post first gets written, it shows up in the Blogrolls of all the groups you've added it to. It also shows on the Main Blogroll, and the "Subscribed" Blogroll meaning those who subscribe to you will see your new post on their "Subscribers" Blogroll. With the hundreds of posts that go up daily, in a very short time, your blog posts will roll off the end of the Blogrolls and into the B.P.C.A. (Blog Post Cyber Archives), only to be found again by someone searching through your Blog, or Google for your specific content.

Focus on "Building Your Blog Library" with quality content. You can always go back and send folks links to your posts. This will create more views, clicks, and comments in the future, and this activity can and will continue for as long as your posts shall live. In the chart below, I wanted to demonstrate how over time, the views and clicks will increase. This is a 30 day graph from oldest to most recent post.

How important is your Blog Post Title? Look at the differentiation between "views" and "clicks" to determine that.

The most important thing to remember. Any Clicks you get on your post after the first couple weeks or so are most likely coming from consumer searches and others that are searching your Blog. Comments, Views, and Clicks stats are a really great way to determine what your readers are liking, what consumers are finding, and what other members like to comment on.

This tool is not meant to be a replacement for a good stats widget or stats tracker, but it is an excellent way to start viewing what's going on with your Blog posts and content now. It will also help and assist you with creating more of "what's working" content in the future. Now don't just view it, you clicked it, so comment. lol~ Have a great week, I hope to see you all at NAR! :-))

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Posted by Brad Andersohn ~ Community Manager on 11/09/2009 12:21 AM

Comments (120)

ActiveRain Statistics in the ActiveRain Channel

statistics, activerain statistics, comments views clicks

Originally posted at: The Official ActiveRain Guide: ActiveRain Statistics - Comments, Views, and Clicks

Post is included in group: Active Rain Newbies
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120 Comments on ActiveRain Statistics - Comments, Views, and Clicks

NOV

Hi Brad - Very interesting post. Are you aware of any non-ActiveRain employees who get the high numbers that you get in views and clicks?

Hey Marc - only you can see your own stats page on AR. The answer to your question is an absolute yes! There are many members here who get far more comments, clicks, and views than I do. :-))

Are you going to RE Bar Camp in San Diego? It is sponsored by NAR, I believe? If so, I might see you there.

How do you know who are #1 and #2 when I am #3 in L.A. County?

This was great! The graphic surely helped too! Thank you Brad!

Each time I read a description of this it becomes clearer and clearer...... today i listened to steven graham's online seminar - and once again blown away by how much more there is to learn-that's what i love about this place - the learning never ends!!!

Thanks Brad that confirmed what I thought they meant but was never sure.

Very helpful. Thanks for explaining the difference between views and clicks.

I had the right idea, but not the thorough understanding. Had NO idea about how blogroll affects my stats. Didn't have to go to RainCamp for that last one. Thanks Brad. My question: Do you blog out these posts in response to multiple questions, or because it occurs to you that even though nobody has asked the question yet, you know we need the answer?

thanks for the helpful info

Brad, I was thinking about this very thing last night, thank you. Occasionally I go back to look at stats on older posts, but was just wondering where the outside blog fell into it. So, off I go to take another look at this!

I was just looking back into history on my stats page last night, noticing how some of the older posts had rolled up a lot of clicks since the last time I looked.

And I was thinking of writing a post about it. You beat me to it and did a much better job of explaining it.

Brad, Thanks for the reminder. I have not looked at the statistics recently.

Thanks for the explaination. So we should really look at clicks more than views (because views are on the blogroll and clicks mean it hooked them in to view the post) and look at the relationship of the two?

Thanks for sharing - I am always learning and this is very good for me!

Thanks Brad, I look at this often and know that I have quite a bit of improving to do. I appreciate your help.

Brad...Great information once again! I learn something really neat every time I read one of your post! Thanks and have a great day!

Brad, thank you for the explanation. . .I wasn't sure about the "clicks"

Great explantion of what the stats mean Brad. I know there are lots of folks here that have no idea what the difference is between views and clicks.

Hi Brad, As always, thanks! I am one who has to jump in with both feet, and then go back and read the directions. Every time you explain something it makes more sense than it did before! Thank again,

Verlyn

Brad,

Once in a while I copy & paste my stats into Excel. Then I can sort them. Helps me track my "success" in a variety of ways - say, tracking monthly posts on sales data for a city or looking at different pieces of a series.

Great post and thanks Brad!

Brad, I love it when I read a post by you and I already know what you are talking about!

Very informative post, I appreciate the explanation in laymans terms! Thanks as always for your posts and help!

Brad,

Thanks for the explanation. NOW I get it.

Brad:

I don't remember to look at my statistics as much as I should. This is a good reminder for me to do so. Also, that explanation about the clicks that come later on makes a lot of sense (that these are most likely consumers.) When a post is first published, I think the view and clicks are most likely by other Active Rainers.

You wrote: "Many clicks on your stats page are coming from Google searches and direct hits by consumers. The longer your post is out there, the more all of these numbers will increase."

Are views / clicks of a post on Localism and Outside Blogs of a post reflected in the ActiveRain clicks? Someone asked me and I could not answer that. If someone searches on Google, Bing Yahoo etc. and finds the content on your Outside blog or on Localism, so a diferent url is that reflected in the stats on ActiveRain?

Last night I finally took a look at this very thing and had questions about it. But now, I have a much better understanding.

Good morning, Brad. Thanks for sharing this information. I've been on the statistics page many times, but I wasn't sure what the "Views" column meant until now.

Hi Brd,

Thanks for the explanation. I should check out the stats more often..you gave us a good clear understanding of how to read the categories..thanks for all the educating you do for us!!

Brad,

Great post. I have not been checking the stats for awhile and need to get back on board with tracking the effectiveness of the blogs so I can fine tune my content and subject matter.

Thanks!

Hi Brad this is a great seies of tutorilas. I have directed a number of folks to subscribe to your blog . You have answered a bunch of questions in a way even I can uinderstand! Well done

Brad,

Clicks are accumulated not only within ActiveRain, but outside of the network too. I didn't know that, and I'm glad this was on the Featured list this morning!

Mike in Tucson

Thanks for the info. I never realized this feature existed.

Hi Brad,

Thanks for the info.

I have a question about the views/clicks:

I am working a blog - saved it as a draft - have been back and forth to it several times - it has registered 28 Views & 22 Clicks.

When it is finally published what will happen to the prior views/clicks stats - will they re-set to 0/0 or continue adding on?

Good point on if your clicks go up it is mostly consumers. Brad, I never thought about that.

Not that I go check that one very much but good to know if you wanted to follow a certain post.

And I was so happy having 500 views ... lol ... this pic gives us all something to reach for!!!

AARRRGGGHHH!!!! I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'd never even clicked on the "Statistics" button! I've never had a Featured Post, only get a moderate amount of comments, so imagine my surprise when some of my posts actually got 500+ click-thrus!!!

This is really great information. Thanks for posting.

Brad - I love numbers/stats. Thanks for the refresh on this subject. I didn't know it included outside AR clicks. Very, very cool! Thank you!

Brad, I had a client who questioned my marketing of her house by saying I should enhance my listings on realtor.com becasue that was the only way to get seen. I sent here the stats from Active rain on views, and she never asked me about realtor.com again.

Brad:

Thanks for the post. I like others was not really sure of the Clicks count.

Brad, once again another great tip. Now that you've taken the time to explain it in detail we will all have a better grasp on this great tool. Love all tips and information everyone shares on AR. Have a great Monday

Brad, Thank you for pointing it out. I rarely check this information although it provides us with more insights. I'll remember to check it more often, I'd like to see what people find interesting enough to click through to.

Keeping track of your stats is very important to guage how you are doing and more importantly, what you can do to do it all better!

Thanks for the info. I need to remember to point people back to my posts. I recently had a situation with this on a post I wrote on USDA.

I recently learned that the title is EVERYTHING in drawing people in...I think you all know what I'm talking about! ;) Thanks for sharing Brad!

Sincerely,

Kathleen

Is there going to be a tweet and reblog count in the stats the future?

Brad - This is great information. i'll use it in the workshop tomorrow.

Time to check all this important 'stuff' is an issue for me but I do appreciate your refresher course Brad. It was great seeing Jeremy in Raleigh-Durham on Friday.

Brad, once again you've given me a good education. I've been thinking about the stats page and wondering about a few of the items there. Thank you for the post!

Brad: Thanks for the tips. The stats. are interesting. Have a wonderful day!

Thanks for the info, Brad. It is always a big help!

You said that our clicks are mostly from consumers as time goes on. How do we know this definitively, without having a way to separate or identify whether the clicks are coming from AR members or not?

Thanks for the clear post. I have my stats page open more than my home page. Now I have to check out the "related post".

Hey Brad, thanks for the head's up on this post today.

Patricia/Seacoast NH

Now to just figure out how to fix the "Featured" count on the summary page! : )

Have seen comments where how come only a handful of comments but the eye opener when you see the rest of the stats spelled out and whoa...lots of interest but voyeurs not folks inspired to always be more than readers and who become active commenters. Another world class run down on a very important ActiveRain aspect/blogging success indicator.

Brad,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have much to learn. thanks!

Excellent tools as always. Did you develop this?

Great explanantion. This helps to explain the exposure of our blogs - Thanks!

Brad: I am so glad you are here to help us make the most of all the tools available through Active Rain.

I never even knew this existed! I am so excited to see my statistics! I feel pretty good today!

thanks for the helpful info.

Jane - I may be at REBarCamp San Diego, if so, I hope to see you there. Here's the answer to your question.
Sherry - great question, the answer? Both! :-)
Andrea - these stats are only your AR Blog posts, there is a Google analytics widget you can apply to your Outside Blogs.
Erby - write that post, you have readers and subscribers that will never see mine.
Dick and Dixie - you got it. I think "clicks" are the valued stat that every blogger should be attempting to increase.
Verlyn - haha~ I can totally relate, I've built a bicycle or two in my day and gone through the same thing. lol~
Irene - I did the same thing with the graph I added, in fact I got the idea from you on a previous post. Thanks. :-)
Hi Maureen - great question. These stats only reflect AR blog posts, not Localism or outside blogs. Adding the Google analytics widget to outside blogs will help with tracking those stats. We have yet to get a stats tracker for Localism.
Andy - excellent observation. Your views and clicks are counted and kept. I think when the stats page was implemented, the programmers never considered how many times many of us (myself included) would keep it in draft, and keep making edits until we went public.
Steve - I discovered the same thing when I first started on AR and thought no one was reading my posts. Congrats!!
Joe - that's an awesome marketing idea, you're the first I have seen or heard of using AR stats that way. Awesome! Thanks for sharing that, it sounds like a post worthy of your Blog to me.
Micheal - your comment sums up my entire post! Nice job, thanks. I could have just said that instead of all that I did. lol~
Integrity Mortgage Funding - Building your library of content and pointing people back to it in the future is a very important step in the effective Blogging process. This should be a basic fundamental that ALL bloggers incorporate as often as possible. I do this everyday with posts just like this one. Get a question? Send em a link. :-))
Kathleen - YOU SURE DID! haha~ You also started one heck of a rumor and now many of us are having to come up with an alibi.
Gregory - you can track your reblog count stats using the widget that is located in the upper right corner of your posts.
William - As your posts fall off the Blogroll, the views and clicks are coming from outside searches, or possibly other members searching your Blog posts. How do you differentiate the two? Your bank deposits usually will confirm that question. :-)
Karen - this tool was developed in the beginning by programmers when AR introduced the Blogging platform to the community.

OK - gotta run over to my stats page now and see how this post is doing!?! lol~ Thanks for all the great comments and questions, I always learn as much from all of you as you learn from me. Thank you.

Brad- looks like you have more questions to answer. I had a rough idea of Views, Clicks, etc but didn't know that when you post, included in the stats were those from outside the network. I'm coming back to look at your answers to some of the questions above. Always grateful for your posts!

Hey Brad-This may be slightly off topic, but is there a way to see who may be ranked ahead of you in a given area? For instace, if I show as #3 in my city, can I see who is #1 &2, and their point total?

Thank you, very good post and something we all should be watching.

Excellent post Brad... I often look at the views / clicks ratios to see what works... and does not for titles.

For example... the "Call Me - Do Not Call Me - No Call Me... Wait, are you confused?" title in your example with 5,985 Views but only 693 clicks suggests that the title did not peak too many peoples interest compared to the "How to Get Started in Activerain" post...

Headlines sell as they say....

Hey Brad - Thanks for the detailed explanation. I look forward to meeting you at RainCamp in San Francisco next month. There will be so much more to learn ...... what a ride!

Good post - thanks for your insight Brad!

Statistics are always fun to look at. Realistically, I not so sure that the views are entirely that relevant, but the comments are clicks-throughs certainly are.

Brad, I had no idea stats were available! I'm still a newbie and I'm going to go view mine right now!!

I have known about the statistics page for quite some time....... I alwasy wondered asbout the difference between views and clicks until I got set straight bt an Ar employee.....

Thanks for posting this, Brad...... there are a LOT of people (members) who need to learn MORE about using AR.....

Brad,

Good explanation that the first two weeks' clicks are often consumers. I hadn't thought of that before.

Interesting post Brad. I've never looked at my statistics page, I'll have to do that now. You're exactly right about the title being so important. If it doesn't grab you, you probably won't read the post.

I've never looked at my statistics before today. I noticed that my first blog posts, got little traffic at all, even now. Seemingly as my content and blogging skill increased, and ofcourse time alone helps with clicks, but the number increased greatly for some of my blogs that are a few months old. I honestly had no idea I was getting that kind of clicks. Nice.

Thansks for explaining the difference between those clicks and views.

If someone is viewing the post multiple times, to check back on comments, are those in the "views" column again, or does the system recognize it's the same person?

The only thing I did not know was the Blogroll but I like Donna above, am interested in whether multiple hits from the same visitor get counted more than once or does the system log IP addresses and ignore multiple visits?

Great post Brad. Just more information to support all of us Rainers!

Thanks for the information. I'm still finding my way around. I'm going to take a look at my statistics. Of course they will get better when I post more.

Brad, this kind of cleared it up for me. I have gone to my statistics and looked at the numbers, but didn't really know what each column meant.

Thanks for the post, Brad, and the reminder that we need to be actively tracking our stats.

Thanks for that useful explanation Brad. I think I'll go have a look and see what my statistics have to say.

Brad, I needed this information. Now I have a better understanding of what I should be doing to get more clicks.

Brad ~ Thanks for taking the time to explain all this Tech stuff with us. It makes it much easier to digest and learn.

Blog-N-Roll Brad...

Due to blogging nickname etiquette standards, I do not believe you can use the word 'blogroll' in your blog :)

TLW...ROAR!

Great information Brad. And also a great reminder to use catchy Blog titles too.

Brad - Good to know the difference between clicks and views....

Brad, I just gave you a view, a click and a comment. No thanks is necesary since I feel I got value from your article.

I like the way you give small doses of topics one at a time. Now I know what click versus views means.

Donna - I just tested and checked on my very first AR post, clicked on it and it did show as a click, so the system is not IP address sensitive.

Brad, thanks again and more proof positive why you get the big bucks,LOL

Brad - I have always found these statistics to be useful, especially the clicks. The comments are predonimantly members and while we love to have them, and they add so much to the conversation, having lots of folks just clicking (and presumably actually reading) is a grea thing. Newbies who are worried about comments ought to be reading this!

Jeff

Brad, thanks for helping us to not only understand the stats but giving us helpful advise to enable us to use so that our posts can be more relevant to our audiences. Continuing to learn so much from Active Rain.

Brad, I have some old posts still getting good clickage and it seems like the ones with the least comments get the best results - which means my phone rings or I get an email. Many of those clickers are going on to sign up on my MLS page - we still don't have a real IDX program here - :(

Brad, it's great to see the comments from people who were not aware of the stats tool, and they see how many clicks they are getting, I watch them all the time. Love it!

How depressing - LOL. Long way to go to get as many clicks as you have! or more. :) ~Rita

Rita - don't feel like that, I work here full time. It's my job to get clicked!! lol~ I'm way beyond getting help for my Blogging addiction. hahaha~ If I wasn't getting any views or clicks, you think they'd keep me around here? :-O There are members who get way more than I do, so just keep plugging away, pretty soon you'll have more business than you can handle, then views and clicks won't matter nearly as much anymore. Awww, who am I kidding, they'll always matter. :-))

Virginia - is the Diverse Solutions IDX available in your area? Have you checked that out yet? Just curious...

Good post! Sometimes you think people know the obvious... and it turns out they don't. It would be nice if Active Rain put ? icons to answer these questions on the corresponding page.

I was excited when I first learned about the statistics page and still use it frequently.

I hadn't thought that as posts get older more clicks are probably from consumers. I like that realization.

NOV

From the desk of David Dee, Great summary Brad. Very helpful and clearly written. Comments are not the end all. Some posts may not get comments but do get plenty of clicks.

Thank you Brad for the excellent explanations. You have given me the good idea to have links to my favorite posts in my new posts to drive additional traffic to them.

Will the learning never end! ActiveRain needs to become an accredited institute of learning...ARI...the Active Rain Institute!

Hi Erin - on your stats page, there is a "I" located on each of the columns, I just wanted to explain each in a little more depth.

Tamara - I love that idea! Maybe we can create an accredited "badge" for those who graduate "RainCamp Trainings" - ARI :-))

Thanks for the explanation. I am addicted to the stats page.

NOV

This is a really good post, im just getting started with Active Rain and am fairly new to social media in general, this is very visual and helps me get things started the right way.

Thank you Brad for distinguishing between views and clicks. I think I understand it much better now. Charlie Gantz, Greenwood, IN; J.D., M.B.A.; owner/principal broker, Atlas Commercial Real Estate, LLC

NOV

Thanks Brad, once again good information. I like the idea of sending links to related links, comments. Thanks Again

It is always good to track your success in everything you do.

Thank you

NOV

Thanks for the info! It was good to get a confirmation of what I thought to be true! Now...back to thinking up more creative blog content! Oh, to be a natural writer! :)

NOV

Thank you for reminding me about this. I will go look at my stats.

NOV

Great info. You can only improve what you can track. Most sales professionals do not track their stats. This is exactly how they can find the "weak link" in their marketing.Great leadership.

Aleksandra

www.UltimatMarketingOnline.com

NOV

Thanks for another great post. I have to agree with Joe Pryor, more people hit my website from AR than from realtor.com. I only started checking my stats a few months ago. We really need an AR Manual to help us navigate the site, because it has so much to offer its easy to miss some great features. Thanks a million!

Betina

Betina - I think I have enough posts on my AR profile page to finally write a book, or at least create a Hard Copy ActiveRain manual. If I can find the time, I will create it and put it on Amazon.com for members. Key words there... "find the time" lol~ :-))

Very good explanation/clarification, could you make the book available to be downloaded, please?

NOV

Thanks for breaking it down Brad!

DEC

Hello Brad,

This is great! Thank you for the explanations. I appreciate it! Have a great weekend!

Chris

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