Webcounters for beginners

As Graham Jones reports this week, the much trumpeted Web 2.0 revolution appears to be slowing down. For those of you not plugged into the nerd matrix and not aware of this buzz word, it basically refers to a wide set of technologies, that began to appear on the web in around 2003. They are easy to use and free to operate, and encourage user creativity, information sharing and collaboration. RSS Feeds, Wikis, social networking sites and lovely old blogs are some examples of these techs.

One core principle of Web 2.0 that may well be holding back it’s uptake amongst organisations and businesses is transparency. Most people in the corporate world have a natural inclination to hide any facts about themselves from public view as if they were as important as Britain’s nuclear codes. Public comment, discussion, content rating, published visitor figures and other stats are completely avoided on most “official” websites you’ll visit. By doing this businesses and organisations are passing up on a wealth of free feedback from their target audience as well as making themselves appear closed, fusty and, lets face it, a bit of a git.

One very small baby step to making yourself a bit more open is adding a webcounter to your site. This shows how many times your page has been visited and lets the browser judge whether your site or blog is making the impact that you might be claiming all over your webpages. It really is the first rung on the transparency ladder - and yes, I can hear the groaning and I promise not to use that analogy again.

Setting up a webcounter is easy and once again free. There are various sites that will help you embed one on your site, one of the simplest being freelogs.com.

Today’s how to guide runs you through their very, very simple set up routine. Our webcounter, set up this morning, is on the right hand menu.

How to set up a webcounter ... on blogger

1. Log on to http://www.freelogs.com/

2. Click on “create your free counter”.

3. Fill in the set up table’s tabs with a username, password, start count – be good and don’t set it to 3 and a half billion – email address, your page’s link in the URL box and choose the style of counter you want.

4. Decide whether you want the counter to show the number of visits or unique users. Then click on agree policy before pressing on create counter.

5. Your counter will be set up and you’ll go through to a page with a webcode. Copy this.

6. Log into your blogger account and click on customise from your dashboard so you’re through to the page element section.

7. Click on the add element tab and select “add text”. Paste the code in, give the counter a title, select save and a counter box will appear in the page element and on your blog. Move it around until its in the right location.

For corporate websites and business sites, just call your tech guys!