Online Tools I Use Daily
As a writer and blogger, I use several tools daily to check on my published work and my online work.
To Monitor Sales of my Published Books
Salesrankexpress.com
This site will quickly return the Amazon Sales Rank of books. (Of course, you may have many other sales on other websites or offline; this is ONLY Amazon rankings.) You can search by author, title, or even publisher; it’s great to check the best sellers for a small publisher. I check it obsessively, I know, but it’s fun to see the numbers bounce lower when there are several sales in an hour.
Blogging Audience
Feedburner. Now a Google subsidiary, Feedburner (feedburner.google.com) tells me how many people are following my blog, Fiction Notes, by RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or by the Email option for subscribing to my posts. (See the bottom of this post to sign up to get Fiction Notes daily in your email!)
Statcounter.com This site provides you with a java script code to put on your website and counts visitors to each page tagged. In Word Press, the blogging platform I use, it’s simple to add this code to template pages, which means I do it once and don’t worry about it again. Except to check how many countries have read my blog posts! (About 200+)
Google Analytics. Another Google offering (log into your google account for more info), the analytics program offers even more in-depth stats about website traffic. I want to know if you’re reading! Neither Analytics or Statcounter collect personal information, they just monitor the number of times certain pages are pulled up. Talk about vanity: you can get lost in things like, 35 people from India read my blog this month; or, my readership is up 3.74325234% for readers from Australia. Vanity, it may be, but I still look at it about once a week. Woman, thy name is vanity. (Don’t you love the picture of the vanity pedicure?)
To follow other blogs
Google Reader. Yes, another Google widget; again, log onto your google account for more info. This one keeps track of the blogs I want to read and has the new posts available on one page whenever I’ve got time to browse. I’m following ALL your blogs, I’m sure! To find out if I am, you could look at your own Feedburner stats – I’m there. And loving everything you post, even if I don’t always leave comments.
That only skims the surface: I also use dictionary.com, thesaurus.com, bartleby.com (Bartlett’s quotations), and many other online tools. What are your favorites?