The love that dare not speak its name: stats.
Some of us are proud hit whores: some of us are closet cases. But quite a LOT of us care, quite a lot more than we let on, about who is reading our blogs, how deep, and how often.
This talk will look at this fascination in terms of an alternative market, ie working for hearts and minds, not money. Many are content to work twenty, thirty, forty years at a job they dislike, yet claim not to understand how bloggers can enjoy working for a non-commercial reward. Every hit is a chance to impact someone else's world, and every returning reader is an indication that, in some way, you have. I think taking the shame away (tearful testimonials will be allowed, if entertaining enough) will allow us to look at our deeper motivations and where, if anywhere, we get the payback.
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Here's some of the URL's of the stats packages I mentioned just in case someone didn't take a photo of the ones listed on the whiteboard.
someone also mentioned Mint
and I know there were also a few others mentioned. Pete Quily