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For about a year now, I have been appreciating the email feed from Cats Who Code. The posts on the Cats Who Code web site are well written, easy to read and are chock full of good information. Nothing is dummied down nor do you need to be a rocket scientist to understand the concepts and steps as outlined. In other words, the posts written for basic procedures are easy to read and follow. The posts written to describe more complicated processes, outline all of the steps with clear instructions and diagrams.
Check out the Cats Who Code recent tutorial on how to use Table Gears to create advanced HTML tables.
- Explains why I want to take the time to read and follow this tutorial
- Code blocks are clearly defined and explained.
- Screenshots are clean and easy to read.
- Reference links are provided
Now there is a new cat in town! This fall, Jean-Baptiste Jung separated out the Blogging Tips from Cats Who Code and created Cats Who Blog.
Cats Who Code = Web development tips and tutorials
Cats Who Blog = Blogging tips and affiliate marketing
Just like the helpful and posts on Cats Who Code, the Cats Who Blog is full of well written posts that will help you be more effective and efficient in your blogging and affiliate marketing endeavors.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I am writing this post to enter a contest sponsored by Cats Who Blog. I think contests can be an effective means of blog promotion and I applaud Cats Who Code for showing other bloggers the benefits of running a contest and offering Templatic premium themes as the prizes.
 Woopra, the real-time statistical analysis and tracking program for web sites and blogs, has re-opened for registration. For over a year, Woopra has been beta, working with its beta testers to create a robust statistical analysis program. The Woopra beta version was available by invitation only and those invitations were highly prized. Recently, Woopra exited beta and has offered a tiered billing system to respond to the diversity of Woopra users, from the small business user who has less than 30,000 page views to the enterprise user who needs to track up to 4 million page views and keep those statistics for years. With the official full release of Woopra, and the new billing system in place, free Woopra registrations were to be limited to invitation only.
 Woopra Dashboard For a limited time only, Woopra has opened registration to anyone for the free Basic bundle, no invitation is required! The Woopra FREE Basic Bundle includes:
- up to 3000 page views
- 3 months of statistics stored
The free basic bundle doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of the paid bundles, such as segmentation reports, SSL support and email reports but it is a great opportunity to take Woopra for a spin. No word on how long free and open Woopra registration will last, don’t delay!
Lorelle VanFossen and Mark J Carter will be a guest instructors for the Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune Class at LVS Online. Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune is one of six classes that I am teaching next session for LVS Online, which begins on 8/29/09. The Blogging for Fun, Fame and Fortune course is different in the fact that it operates as a blogging studio for bloggers that want some structure as they learn to improve their blogs. Each week, written lessons are released and assignments given. Students can work through the lesson assigned or pick another lesson from the class wiki. Anything in the lesson or the wiki is fair game when it comes to students asking for assistance with their blogs. Instructor- student and student-student interaction occurs on the class message board. Some students take the course once and get what they need. Other students come back again and again for updates, networking and support. Some of my students tell me they have a lifetime membership!
Since some of the students have been repeating this course for over a year, I wanted to make sure that they truly got some fresh content. I also wanted to offer them another perspective. I am so pleased that and Lorelle VanFossen, aka the Fairy Blog Mother, offered to be my first guest instructor!
Lorelle VanFossen has been around the WordPress and WordCamp map. She’s presented keynotes and programs at WordCamps in Israel, San Francisco, Hawaii, Dallas, Toronto, Whistler, Portland, and will be speaking in Holland, Israel, and other places in the world in the next few months. She is the host of the Lorelle on WordPress, providing WordPress and blogging tips for bloggers of all levels, and a long time contributor to the Blog Herald. A web publishing consultant, she also serves as the editor-in-chief of Woopra, the hot new web analtyics program that is changing the web, and works with Bitwire Media and hosts the Liz and Lorelle Show podcast with Liz Strauss and featured contributor on WordCast, the WordPress podcast with Dave Moyer and Kym Huynh. Lorelle is the author of the fast-selling book, “Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging”.
Lorelle VanFossen will be a guest instructor, presenting the content for one of the lessons in this six week blogging studio. In addition to providing her expertise, insight and humor during the written lesson, Lorelle will be available that week of the course to answer your questions on the class message board. This is a great opportunity to interact with Lorelle and I am so grateful that she will be joining us this session. If one guest instructor was a good idea, than TWO guest instructors is even better! Mark J Carter will be joining us for two weeks as our second guest instructor.
Mark J Carter Bio:
My professional trainings, seminars consulting focus on bridging the gap between the offline world (traditional networking and networking events) and the online world (social media, Twitter, Facebook, blogs) to create pivotal and profitable relationships.
The organizations I’ve started focus on niche arenas in business (non-profits, social media, entrepreneurs) and have all used my social media and offline strategies to successfully grow into multiple cities.
Always looking to connect with like minded people interested in or involved with:
1) Non-Profits & Community Causes;
2) Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurial Organizations:
3) Social Media Experts & People New to Social Media and
4) Mentoring Programs & Mentoring Organizations for College Students.
Carter and I have been involved in a number of projects together and we bring very different histories and perspectives to the table. Yet, we share passions together. Students will gain not only from the instructional material from both of us, but being part of the interaction with us. Mark will provide the majority of the content those two weeks and will be checking the messages boards those weeks to answer your questions about the material covered. Anita and I will be involved in answering questions, offering our perspective and and evaluating assignments.
Students will benefit this session, not only from the additional content that I will bring back from the WordCamps, but also from wealth of information and expertise of our guest instructors: Mark J Carter and Lorelle VanFossen.
Registration deadline is 8/26/09
I found this great quote today about social media messages:
But hear this trick: it won’t be because you gave the message to me in your words. It will be because the experience gave *me* the inspiration to create messaging of my own. It might be what you intended, but it might not. And it’ll never, ever be because you scripted it, or told me what to think. It’ll be because you gave me something worth talking about.Why Messages Aren’t Enough, Apr 2009
You should read the whole article. Amber Nashlund lays out an excellent argument on why simple awareness is not enough as a goal in your social media campaign. That awareness needs to be translated into experiences that your audience can relate to and/or wish to experience.
 Pajama Blogger Tweetups, Meetups, conferences and twittered invites are opening up the doors to pajama bloggers. Blogging in one’s pajamas is a stereotype, but like most stereotypes it is grounded in at least some element of truth. I like my pajamas and I am quite comfortable blogging in them, but there is something missing when we live our lives behind a computer screen. The explosion in social media offers a bridge for bloggers to interact in meaningful ways both on and offline.
I acknowledge that I am probably more prone to hiding behind the computer monitor than many, due to a physical disability. Living with MS has eroded my confidence in the physical world, so I do most of my interacting with the virtual world. But, I am not alone. Yesterday morning, Liz Strauss posted about pursuing dreams and visible authenticity, using Susan Boyle’s audition video for Got Talent? as incentive to look beyond. My comment sparked a lively discussion on her blog and on Twitter about how a lack of self confidence can imprison us and how little steps can free us to show ourselves with our authority and integrity.
Attending a tweetup can be one of those little steps. Tweetups can be spontaneous or planned in advance. A spontaneous tweetup occurs when someone tweets “hey I am downtown and hungry, who wants to join me for lunch?” Take the opportunity to eat your lunch somewhere other than in front of your computer today. Tweet ups can be fun, they can be educational, they can help you make connections and they can inspire you with new ideas for your blog posts. Tonight, I will be attending a scheduled tweetup with Social Media Club Seattle and SEOMoz at a local brewpub. The conversations around the tables may be about social media and search engine optimization but I already know that @simchabe and I are going to be talking about wine and FareStart.org because we initiated that conversation on Twitter.
Participating in social media exposes you to other opportunities to connect. In the Blogging Basics class, I have my students read Eugene Cho’s post on why he blogs. This session in particular the students have been interested in his work so I decided to follow him on Twitter. His tweets about Jesus wanting to dine with us, piqued my interest. The Easter service was at a school to accomodate the crowd so I knew it would be accessible, so I decided to attend. I often feel isolated because walker + service dog = seating in the back, out of the way. But, here people escorted me thru a shortcut door, made sure that I was settled and retrieved a program for me. Although we had not met, Eugene made a point to greet me. During Communion, the sacraments were brought to me. I had several invitations to stay and enjoy the communal feast afterwards, even though I was too tired to stay. Now you might expect that in a church setting, but just because you expect something doesn’t mean you will get it. But, by following twitter updates and blogs about a person or organization you can get a pretty good sense of what you might be getting into before you venture forth.
I will be attending SOBCon 09 this year. Traveling to Chicago for a convention is a big deal for me and I definitely have some anxiety. I used to speak present at state and national conventions but that was a long time ago, I communicate via computer now not lecterns. But through Pathable, LinkedIn, Twitter and their blogs I already “know” some of the people. I have a roommate that met via Twitter that is not only sharing the expenses with me but has also volunteered dog walking and support for my service dog. My students raised the money for me to attend this conference via my blog and their own blog posts. I will be going there in person to bring back the information to them via my blog and lessons. I might be blogging about SOBCon 09 in my pajamas, but more likely live from the conference.
How was social media gotten you out of your pajamas?
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UPDATE: Twitter has confirmed that they have blocked the hole that allowed the StalkDaily worm to invade Twitter. For a comprehensive explanation of this worm and remedy, please read the explanation at Mashable.
Have you seen all of the links today for the new, improved and oh so much better Twitter? Don’t click on that link! Visiting the stalkdaily.com site will infect your Twitter account. This worm works by sending out tweets about the better Twitter from YOUR account automatically.
Twitter is aware of the problem and is working on it. Here are some things you can do it help.
- Make sure that you are not infected.
- Check your profile and make sure there are no scripts in any of the form fields. Some people have reported a strange script in their Location.
- Do a search on your username and stalkdaily to see if any tweets were sent out on your account.
- If you are infected, change your password and double check all of the form fields in your profile.Twittercism was one of the first to report this worm, and they detail how to remove the stalkdaily worm.
- Spread the word about this worm responsibly. Do NOT put links to the stalkdaily web site in your tweets or blog posts. Your good intentions will back fire when your readers click the link that you so kindly provided!
The good news is that passwords were NOT compromised in this attack.
What is happening on your blog or web site right now? With Woopra Analytics Live view, you can determine who is doing what, where on your website.
 Woopra Analytics 1.3RC1 Live View Woopra Analytics Live provides you with a wealth of information about the current activity on your blog. Even while perusing daily statistics or summary statistics, Woopra keeps you apprised of current visitor activity. The number of live visitors on your site is displayed on the top tab, the top left panel and next to Live in the Menu. As visitors enter or leave your web site, there is a brief color change to unobtrusively alert you to the change. The Woopra Analytics Live panel is divided into three sections: Geographical Live View, a multi-tab panel below the map shows statistics categorized by features and the right side panel shows statistics by visitors.
 Woopra Live map Geographical Live View
The Woopra Geographical Live View illustrates where in the world your current visitors are located as they are viewing your web site or blog. Your visitor’s location is depicted by a dot on the map. Hover your mouse over the dot and the specific town and country are revealed. Click on the arrow in the top right corner to toggle this map into full screen view.
Woopra Live View Data by Category
 Woopra Live Data Many web site tracking platforms will break down your data by browser, platform, location etc. The exciting part about Woopra is that it also provides that data for the visitors currently on your blog. I hosted a blog carnival for World AIDS Day. Not only did I get to monitor the results over time, but I got to watch my map light up as people from all over the world checked out the blog carnival. I could watch as they clicked through the different blog carnival topic pages. I could check the Referrers live to see immediately the impact of post in a Blog Catalog discussion or a tweet on Twitter. This allowed me to fine tune my marketing strategy, literally on a minute by minute basis. This was a time sensitive issue, and I needed to be responsive to bring the maximum exposure to World AIDS Day, on World AIDS Day.
The Woopra Live View Data categories include Visitors, Countries, Pages, Referrers, Platforms and Browsers.
The Visitors panel shows the flag from the country that they are viewing from and the Visitor ID. If you have tagged this visitor or this visitor was tagged by leaving a comment on your blog, their tag will appear instead of a numerical visitor ID.
 Woopra Live Pages The visitor count for each country is displayed on the Countries panel. The Woopra Countries panel shows the flag for each country that has an active visitor on your blog.
The Woopra Pages panel displays a list of all the pages that are being viewed currently on your web site. A total visitor count for each page being viewed is displayed in descending order.
The referrer for each active visitor is listed under the Woopra Live Referrer panel. This is the panel that held most of my attention during the World AIDS Day Blog Carnival.
The Platforms panel displays all of the operating system platforms that your current users are utilizing.
Browsers are listed by name and version, in ascending order, in the Woopra Live Browser panel.
Woopra Live View Data by Visitor
 Woopra Live Visitor View The right half of Woopra Analytics Live displays the live data by organized by individual visitor. This treasure trove of information is a marketer’s dream! Whereas on the left side, Woopra organized visitor data by features, on the right, all data is organized by visitor. For each live visitor, you can view Visitor Details, Visitor Navigation, Visitor History and Location on Map. Each of these categories can be hidden or shown by clicking the buttons at the top.
Woopra Analytics displays the following Visitor Details: Browser, Platform, IP address, Country, City, Language, Screen Resolution and current page viewing.
The Visitor Navigation displays the navigation path of this visitor. This path begins with the Referrer and lists all of the pages that the visitor has accessed since this visit began. The time that each page was accessed is listed on the far right. This information is invaluable to monitoring the usability of your web site. With this information, you can make informed decisions about optimizing your site.
Woopra Analytic Live view of Visitor History provides you information about the current visit as well as summary information for this specific visitor. Visitor History data includes: Total number of visits, Total number of pageviews, Average pageviews per visit, Total time spent, Average Time spent per visit and the Original referrer for this visitor’s initial visit to the blog.
The Location on Map feature for Woopra pinpoints the location of this specific visitor on the world map.
Disclaimer: Remember that this is a Release Candidate, not a stable release yet. There are going to be some rough spots. All of the screenshots here were taken on a Windows computer running Vista and using the Woopra 1.3RC. Woopra may look slightly different on your computer.
Explore the new Woopra 1.3RC for dynamic blog and web site statistics. Starting with the newly revised Woopra dashboard, continue your Woopra exploration with analytical reports on Visitors, Systems and Pages. Here, you will explore the analytic reports on Referrer and Search. In addition, we will look at powerful segmentation reports and filters to really dig deep into your data!
Referrer
The Woopra Referrer statistical reports are organized into Overview, Regular Domains, Search Engines, Feedreaders, Email, Social Bookmarks, Social Networks, Media, News and Community.
 Woopra Referrers Overview The Referrer Overview displays a bar graph representing the actual number and percentages of each referrer category. What makes Woopra unique is that it doesn’t just give you statistics about search engines and back links. Woopra also analyzes your email campaigns, your RSS feeds and social networking efforts. The overview panel gives you a quick summary of how your visitors are finding you, including categories that other statistical programs might miss. Do you get more traffic from social networks or social bookmark sites? Are the links on other web sites driving traffic to your site? Check your back link stats to find out.
You can also access this proportional data by clicking on the donut chart icon.
 Woopra Domain Referrrers This blog post title boasts about drilling down into your statistics. This is where we can start. Open up the Regular Domains panel to see a table listing the domains that had referred visitors to your blog. At first glance it looks similar to the other tables in Woopra but take a closer look. On the left, you see a simple arrow. Click on that arrow and all of the referring pages within that domain will appear in blue. With a simple mouse click, you know not only what percentage of your visitors came from a certain domain, but you also can ascertain which specific pages directed that traffic to your web site.
Click on that specific page with your mouse and the page will open in your default browser. This allows you to really dig down deep to see where the traffic was generated. Did it come from a comment that you left on someone’s blog? Did it come from a blogroll list? Or maybe the traffic was generated by a review on that page about your product and services? Based on the origin, you can determine what action, if any that you want to take.
Take a close look at that screenshot, you can click on it to see the full size image. Notice that search.twitter.com is here. You might be thinking that Woopra is confused and it should appear under social networks. Search.twitter.com is unusual in that it is part search engine and part social network. The referrals from this domain aren’t the result of someone seeing a tweet about your blog showing up on their home page. Someone typed in a term and found a tweet with a link to you and clicked on that link. That is more of a search engine behavior, but since it is a hybrid, this domain is showing under Regular Domains. It is worthwhile to look at not only the specific domains referring traffic to you but also the type.
 Search Engine Referrers Woopra will tabulate a grid of the search engines that sent visitors to your site or you can study the donut chart.
The Feed Reader panel answers several questions for web developers and bloggers. Is anyone visiting your blog from the feed of your blog? Which feedreaders are those visitors using? What is the break down, percentage wise, of the feed readers utilized.
Are your readers finding your posts via their email? The email panel can help you find out!
 Social Bookmark Referrers Analyze the data to determine where and what your visitors are social bookmarking about you. This panel has the same cool drill down features as Regular Domains. Select a bookmarking service and click the arrow on the far left. This will expand to show all of the pages of that service that referred to your web site. This drill down for the bookmarking site shows the specific pages for that particular social bookmarking service that sent visitors to your blog.
Woopra provides the means to dig deep when it comes to Social Networking referral statistics. This panel is formatted the same as Social Bookmarking and Regular Domains. Go for the overview of which social networks are driving traffic to your site. Then, drill down to see who and where the referrals are coming from. Is it from a discussion at Blog Catalog, the favorites page of one of your Twitter followers or maybe a LinkedIn recommendation? Woopra documented all of those sources for my blog and many others.
- Media, News and Community
These categories don’t generate referrals to my blogs so I wasn’t able to test these first hand.
Searches
The Woopra Searches reports focus on queries and keywords.
 Woopra Search Queries The Queries panel shows the actual search phrases your visitors entered in search engines to find your blog or web site.
The Keywords panel varies f rom the Queries panel. This panel shows the count of the individual words used in search queries.
Report Filters
We have been exploring the standard analytic reports that Woopra provides, but we can do so much more.
 Woopra Date Selector In the top right corner, Woopra provides a date selector filter. Filter the results on any of your reports by date. You may choose to inspect your data for Today, Yesterday, Last 7 Days, or Last 30 Days.
 Filtered Report On the bottom of most reports, you will see a Filter box. If I wanted to know how many visits were made to any one of my category pages, I could scan the standard Popular Pages report and pick out the category pages from the resulting grid. That is tedious and time consuming. Type in the word category into the filter box and the it becomes an easy task to analyze the visits to my category pages.
 Segmentation Report A Segmentation report is an analysis based on single segment of your data, like a specific page or query. Go to the Woopra dashboard and right click on a page under My Pages. You will have three options: Visit Page, Check Page Rank (one of the new webmaster tools), and Analysis. Select Analysis and go back to the Analytics section. Now most of the reports have been filtered to apply only to the page that you selected. Find out exactly how many visits have been made to that specific page, which browsers were used, the searches utilized to reach that page etc.
You can also create segmentation reports on the Referrers on your dashboard by right clicking on the one that you want to study in more depth. When you right click on a Referrer on the Dashboard, your options are: Visit Page, Check Page Rank, Check Whois and Analysis. You can also right click on the a search query under My Searches. The options include: Show Query Results, Analyze Query and Analyze Search Engine.
Tomorrow will be the last day of our Woopra 1.3RC series. Check back to learn more about the Live views of your data.
Disclaimer: Remember that this is a Release Candidate, not a stable release yet. There are going to be some rough spots. All of the screenshots here were taken on a Windows computer running Vista and using the Woopra 1.3RC. Woopra may look slightly different on your computer.
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