WTF?! COUNTERS AND RSS?!

What Are Counters??

Counters are these little HTML links that people put on their websites so that they are able to tell how many people have accessed their web page by looking at the number. Pretty simple, right? Counters are used so that the owner of the site is able to determine whether or not his/her website is increasing in popularity or not. It is a good way to be able to gauge the viewers interest in a page without actually needing feedback. What are some other Web Analytics Tools?

• Clicky is a clean, all-encompassing analytics package. The service is tailored for small websites and blogs. It's easy to implement and contains advanced features such as real-time visitor tracking and in-depth content analysis.
• Enquisite is focused specifically on incoming search engine and PPC traffic. It provides in-depth statistics including page position, landing pages, and specific geographic data.
• CrazyEgg provides the ability to track, evaluate, and optimize your site based on where your visitors click. Heatmaps and overlays quickly provide perspective into user behavior and habits.

What is RSS???

"RSS is a way of delivering and retrieving information from web sites which is structured in specialized XML formats without HTML or other markup."

Basically what this means is that RSS is a way to gather information from a website without using HTML or other markup languages. Pretty much just a copy and paste job. RSS Feeds are feeds which are constantly updated, such as a blog or a news website. Having an RSS feed available means that you are kept regularly up to date on that feed with a simple click of a button. I have never really used RSS feeds before so I am still a little inexperienced in this field. Bah! I will get better I am sure. "RSS is a file format that allows anyone with a website — from large media companies to individual commentators — to easily "syndicate" their content, similar to how comic strips and popular columns are syndicated by their owners to hundreds of newspapers. Except that on the Web, the RSS syndication is usually free, and the content that is syndicated is often not the full entry, but excerpts and links back to the originating website. Technorati uses RSS to track updates to millions of blogs."-Technorati