Two new (to me) thingies
If you scroll down to the bottom of this page (go ahead, I'll wait...), you'll see that there is some new decor below my inspirational quotation.

Site Meter
Props and snaps to Richard Eriksson of Urban Vancouver and Just a Gwai Lo blogging fame for pointing me in the direction of my new favourite shiny thing: Site Meter. It's the multi-coloured cube you were so transfixed by a moment ago.

A bit of background first. I found Richard's work through my regular perusal of The Standard. On my first visit to Just a Gwai Lo, I became unreasonably excited to see that he has a colophon. (Shut up, I'm sick that way.) I always look for them in print publications but rarely find them. It hadn't even occurred to me to have one on a website, but you can bet I'll be incorporating the idea in the next iterations of Hamster Salad and my other enterprises.

It was at the colophon page that I first noticed the coloured box, promptly clicked on it, and discovered a magical world of numbers.

What Site Meter does is track the traffic to and from your site. There are options to to switch out different aspects of the visual display and to have the visitor number displayed (we've all seen this before, and how sad is it when you come across a website that declares "You are Visitor Number 00000104 Since May, 10 1999"?).

Is that all?
Well, it's free and it's easy. Those are two good things. Hamster Salad is a Blogger blog; all I had to do was give Site Meter three pieces of information and the counter was automatically placed in my blog template.

Another nice thing is that it makes doing a quick check of your site stats painless. Click on the icon and you're taken to a summary page. I like this because it saves me from the tedious double-login/six-page-click process it takes to get my stats the traditional way.

Oooh. Potential downside: everybody else can see your stats too just by clicking on the same icon. Well, it's not a bad thing for Richard because he's got major traffic; advertisers love to see that kind of thing. My tiny numbers, however...

Moving right along
I mentioned there were two new thingies. The other is Creative Commons. If, during your journey to the bottom of this page, you clicked on either the icon or the text link you would have been taken to a document that informs you of the conditions under which re-distribution of my riveting words can be achieved.

There are different types of licenses available for different types of intellectual property and end uses. Again, it's free and it's easy. You know I like that. Moreover, it shows clearly that I recognize my rights as creator and copyright holder of my work.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization; you can support it by becoming a "Commoner," donating money, or buying something from their store.
- posted by Sandra Smith @ 8:38 PM