1) I am a gamer.

I’ve mentioned this once before here, but I’ve been into online games for a few years now. I started out with World of Warcraft, and I’ve progressed through several others. My current one is League of Legends. In the evenings, you can usually find me on skype playing a frost mage bird while hanging with a bunch of male gamers plotting how to kill other players. I also know at least two of them read this blog on a regular basis, so hi guys (Casey, you can stop laughing now).

2) I love dragons.

My first dragon experience was when my dad read The Hobbit to me when I was eight. I’m still a fan of dragon books as an adult, and I actually have a shelf in my office filled with various dragon figurines and finger puppets that I have collected over the years.

3) I am a serious introvert.

I love people, but people also exhaust me. I’m very good at socializing, but if I do too much of it at once I generally feel like I want to go hide out in some remote cave. My most exhausting work days are the ones where I have several phone meetings, even if I really like the people I’m meeting with.

4) My cultural references are completely inappropriate for my age.

I’m 24, and I don’t think I’ve seen many movies made past 1960. I blame my parents; they raised me on Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant movies and PBS, which isn’t entirely up to date either. I’ve never seen a zombie movie, a stoner comedy, or anything like that. My favorite movie is Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and I’ve always had a huge crush on Gregory Peck.

5) I didn’t like dogs until I met Didy.

I now pretty much love all dogs, but I was the biggest dog hater until Didy came into my life. I had several really bad experiences with dogs when I was a child; a rottweiler once jumped up to bite me and ripped the sleeve off my shirt when I was ten. I realize now that these experiences were not so much about dogs as badly trained dogs, but they made me think that all dogs were mean and aggressive. I’m now a huge dog advocate, and I wish I’d discovered that earlier on in life.

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As Holly pointed out in yesterday’s blog post, Monday was the start of LaVonne Ellis’ #customerlove challenge and Holly and I are both a part of it. And while Cottage Copy is planning to get an unconventional ebook put together out of the challenge, I also took up a smaller (depends how you look at it) personal challenge of teaching LinkedIn to people who don’t like (or get) LinkedIn this September.

I’ve been asked about it a lot, both online (at Kaffeeklatsch) and offline in my networking groups the last two months. And I’ve touched upon it once here on the blog, about how LinkedIn is not the scary boogey it appears to be.

In the last nine months that I’ve been in business, I’ve answered enough baffled questions about social media and just understanding the basics of integrity driven marketing on the internet that I know I love teaching this to people and answering all of their questions. And seeing someone’s eyes light up when they realize that building relationships through social media is not that different from the relationships they build in real life is completely worth it to me. (It’s one of the reasons I’m so heavily involved in offline networking). More good, honest business owners need to find their way onto the internet.

So what does this have to do with running your own business and me flaking out?

It happens.

When you start something new, especially something daring, and bold, and completely out of your comfort zone, you have that initial high moment where you see all of the pieces falling into place and nothing can touch you. Absolutely nothing. You are on Cloud 9 and you are invincible.

That was my weekend. And then Monday hit, I wasn’t ready with all that I wanted to do, and I froze up. My brain completely blanked and absolutely nothing would come out of it. Try as I might, when it came to my own special thing that I wanted to do, I couldn’t find the words for it. I had so many plans laid out in my notebook, but none of it made sense to me when I looked at it yesterday. I didn’t know what I had to do first and the reaction to feeling overwhelmed was a complete brain shut down.

I felt, because I didn’t start off the challenge on the right foot, that I completely failed as an entrepreneur and a participant. That I didn’t feel good enough to associate with all the awesome people that started popping up on the #customerlove hashtag and that I shouldn’t reach for them to pull me out of this drowning sea in fear that I’d infect them too.

It happens.

As a business owner, particularly a social one, you have to have your A-game on all the time. You see blog posts about unplugging from social media because that’s sometimes the only way to take off that persona you crafted around yourself. What’s nice about our community at Cottage Copy, and all the lovely people we have that are commenters, followers, or fans, is that we’re allowed to be real. To bleed a little publicly online. To share how difficult it is to be a start up business, or a one year old business, or even a 5 year old business. Because our plight is not just ours. I guarantee that every person out there reading this has felt low at some point. Has felt tired. Has felt frozen on what to do next with their business.

And there are no accurate words to express that feeling. When that hits you, it’s hard to reach out to someone who you know can pull you up.

But it happens. Most of my day yesterday was not the flash and bang running start that I thought I’d take off with in facing this month long challenge. But I stayed on Twitter. I tried my best, and I looked around for people I could sort of hang onto for a little while until I got back on my feet. And I think this tweet from @Fabeku when I told him I felt like I’d been sucked on by an energy stealing vampire really broke the paralysis for me.

fabeku @thecopycorner An energy stealing vampire? Oy. Dude. If that ever happens again, tell me. I’ll break out the extra large gong mallet.

It made my evening. It made my whole day.

There are people out there who do not care that you are down, or imperfect, and will not think less of you because of it. You’re human. That’s fine. Hang out with good people when you’re having a bad day. Eventually, they’ll break through the blank sludge you have. Because that’s what good friends do.

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So I suppose it isn’t surprising that when I saw Lavonne’s post about her Customer Love challenge this month, my first thoughts went to creating a shiny new book. Those of you who know me personally know that I think e-books are generally a sort of wasted opportunity in the current format. So many people download a strangely named pdf and either let it sit in a folder until their next hard drive cycle, or read it and forget it. My personal theory is that we don’t engage with e-books in the same way because they are by nature a static format, and many people don’t learn purely through reading. If you think back to the earliest reading experiences that make an impression on us, they’re all about more than reading. Some books for children use fur and fabric to reinforce the concepts that are being learned (think Pat The Bunny), and things like pop up books rely on that sense of happy surprise that occurs as you turn to the next page to see what information will stand out.

We know why these techniques work. Children see written information highlighted and reinforced in delightful and unexpected ways, and it causes them to engage with the book while retaining the information. So why the hell don’t we do this with e-books?

Well, because we’re adults for one, and there is a sad perception that we outgrow delightful books pretty quickly. Secondly, because e-books are generally a business resource, and business is well…even less fun and delightful.

Along with Lavonne’s challenge, we’re taking time this month here to declare that e-books, and running a business in general doesn’t mean that you have to lose that sense of fun and wonder that you approach learning with when you’re little. By the end of this month, we’re hoping to have a big copywriting e-book out that proves that you can produce something that is both a serious online resource and a delight to interact with, even if it’s a little unconventional in format.

In the meantime, go check out Lavonne’s blog post about the challenge, or even go ahead and enter on your own! It’s going to be crazy and fun; we can’t wait to see you there.

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Here’s the problem: when both of these things came about, they were new and exciting and lots of people jumped on the bandwagon. Like any popular industry, people got burned. I’ve seen some posts on Twitter where people talk about social media coaches like they’re a bunch of witches from Salem, which is unfair. Like any industry, you have to do your research and separate the good from the bad. The awful economy has done a lot of this for us, and the people leftover are generally a good bunch who are struggling to sell a product that is perceived as both expensive and slightly sleazy. It’s also useful for a hell of a lot of people and responsible for changing lives.

Sorry guys, I love you, but that’s the marketing reality.

However, that doesn’t mean all is lost; the trick is marketing things the right way. If you’re in an industry that is a hard sell, you need to figure out your emotional benefits. Truthfully, everyone needs to do this, but entrepreneurs in more crowded industries live or die by this rule. So today, I’m giving out some pretty specific tips for life coaches, since I’ve been consulting and writing for lots of them lately and I’ve come up with some theories.

First, another reality check: writing an honest sales page full of truthful emotional benefits is both a difficult and potentially painful experience. If you’re a life coach, you probably became one for a reason. In fact, I’m willing to bet that you had some kind of negative experience that changed you profoundly. Everyone has something in their past that put them on their professional path, and for many of us it isn’t a neat and pretty experience. The advantage that most of us have is that we don’t have to talk about it if we don’t want to. If you’re running a life coaching business, you do.

Imagine the kind of person who googles your website, or stumbles across you and stays. What kind of emotional state are they in? I’ll give you a hint. If your copy is full of your professional credentials, your shining success stories, and your perfectly designed coaching packages, that’s not what will sell your services. The people who are finding your website are there for a reason; in many cases, that reason seems so catastrophic and overwhelming that they can’t read your shiny professional credentials through their tears. Perhaps they feel so engulfed by the problems in their life that they can’t imagine how the people in your success stories could possibly ever relate to them. They could be so scared of the idea of asking for help that the more professional you seem, the further away you seem to be.

Your access point for these people is the part of your life that you don’t want to talk about. At some point or another, you knew exactly what they were feeling and you felt like that too. To get them to read all of the stuff that convinces them that you are professional and affordable and helpful, you need to make them feel safe.

Safety, when it comes to life coaching, is the reigning value in copy. Understanding is pretty damn close to it. Convince people that they are safe with you, and the sale is yours every time.

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We have a guest post today from Cristina Fugaru, a fellow copywriter and crazy Facebook fanatic! We met because I somehow ran across her website, fell in love with the design, and poked her gushing about it. We’ve been friends since. And she’s here today to give us the skinny on being a ghost(writer).

I love what I do. And what I do is I write and occasionally ghostwrite. When I decided to start my career as a freelance writer/copywriter, I wasn’t very much aware of how ghostwriting works, what are the advantages and disadvantages of being a ghostwriter, how much does it pay or where do you find ghostwriting jobs. It sort of just happened.

When you are a ghostwriter, you agree/contract to write someone else’s story in a book, article, newsletter, blog posts or any other relevant media you can think of and most important, all credit is given to your client. After being the “voice” behind someone else’s story for quite a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that both individuals and companies hire ghostwriters for the following reasons: lack of time and lack of writing and organizing information skills.

As a ghostwriter, it’s your job to make the final product look like it has been written by your client and that’s why you need a set of skills in order to be able to tell the story right:

• be creative and flexible enough to adapt your unique style to what your client asks for;
• be discreet and act like a “ghost”; as a ghostwriter you are trading your writing skills and agree on receiving no recognition for your work;
• be able to work on your client’s outline;
• Most important, know how to listen, know what questions to ask and when to ask them because it is your job to understand the client’s story and then successfully recreate it.

Advantages of ghostwriting

Ghostwriting is a simple and easy way to make money.
I speak from experience when I say that at the beginning of a freelance writing career it’s easier to get ghostwriting projects and from my point of view this can be helpful for a beginner because it allows you to develop your skills and keep focus on writing. Plus, you may not yet have what it takes to come up with something that’s worth publishing so ghostwriting is the simpler way to get started.

You have complete access to the main (re)source of your project: the client itself.
You can easily obtain all the information you need by interviewing your client and listening to the complete story at once, but you’re also allowed to ask questions every time something crosses you mind. What I’m trying to say is that when you’re ghostwriting you benefit from not having to spend lots of time researching. This means more time for you to write and take on other freelance writing jobs.

Ghostwriting done right can be steady work and it’s easier to find.
Once you find a reliable client, all you have to do is concentrate on delivering accurate, original and quality content.

Of course, ghostwriting has its disadvantages as well.

Disadvantages of ghostwriting

Lack of attribution
For most writers (including me) attribution is extremely important. It’s natural to want official recognition for your writing and it’s also natural to feel a bit sad when someone else gets credit for your work.

Unable to use as portfolio samples
Once you’ve given up the copyright, you are not allowed to use the project as a sample of your work. This means no chance of enhancing your portfolio with a book or article you’ve ghost written.

Limited expression
There are times when ghostwriting does not allow you to express yourself and write as you’d naturally do; instead, you have to transform yourself into a different person;  be able to mimic someone else’s style.

Possibly sacrificing personal principles
In order to be a successful ghostwriter, you may have to sacrifice personal creative principles in favor of the work. There will be times when the client will present you with nothing more than a title or topic idea and you’ll have to work from scratch. Or, in case of book ghostwriting, he may come to you with one or two chapter outlines and request that you mimic the writing style of another author. And you may not agree with all those requests because you might feel that they’re compromising your principles. So my advice is that if you don’t feel comfortable with taking on a ghostwriting project, simply say “no” and try to find one that’s suited for you.

In case your goal is to become a successful and well paid ghostwriter you have to try and balance things. Always sticking to your principles may get you to lose ghostwriting projects, much needed income and contacts. Think about what you are willing to do and what not, and carefully accept or reject ghostwriting offers.

A very important piece of advice, and something that’s true for freelance writers in general not just for ghostwriters, is choose your clients carefully, be professional, write creatively, pay attention to your client’s demands and under no circumstances work for free-you’re talented and your talent should be awarded!

I choose to end this guest post with a very important piece of advice given by veteran ghostwriter Clifford Thurlow during an interview:

Negotiate your name on to the cover. Some of my books have “with Clifford Thurlow” slipped inside on the verso page and it just doesn’t have the same thrill as seeing your by-line on the front of the book. On a practical level, I’d say make sure you have lots of spare batteries for your tape, write notes as well as taping, and don’t be afraid to ask awkward questions – questions, that is, about sex, money, business, drugs, alcohol and all those things that – whether we like it or not – fill the pages of best-sellers.

Now that I have expressed my likes and dislikes, I would like to ask you: do you think that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages or is it the other way around? Also, since I am aware that we all have different thoughts and opinions, I’m curious to know what other ghostwriters consider to be the advantages and disadvantages of ghostwriting.

Cristina Fugaru is a freelance copywriter, blogger, and occasionally ghostwriter living in Timisoara, Romania. She spends most of her time at her laptop writing, networking or developing marketing strategies. You can contact her via Facebook or simply visit her blog where you should leave a message petitioning her to join twitter.

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I didn’t have one before. I couldn’t. I moved states. That’s pretty much enough said on how unpredictable your daily life can suddenly become.

I ran, for the last two months, basically on a “what do I need to do today” mentality, stuffing in tasks that came my way and events that I somehow had to squeeze in between realizing that I wasn’t at “home” anymore and being okay with this. And everything that I couldn’t hit today, automatically got shoved over to tomorrow.

I never saw any sort of long term goal or plan past the upcoming 24 hours. If I was lucky, I saw the forecast for a few days.

Now there’s a time and place for this sort of reactive mode of living; this emergency autopilot that kicks in and just helps you survive until the next day. And sometimes, running a business can completely feel like this.

You can fall into “damage control mode” where you try to fit in all urgent tasks that should have been addressed yesterday on today’s to-do list, and you stop either when the fire is put out or you are just too damn tired and you need to sleep.

And this can lead to feeling very, very harangued. Stressed. Sometimes a bit crazy.

And I realized, after two months, that while this is a very viable reaction in an emergency, you can’t do it all the time.

Can you imagine if you ran your business on this high octane state of mind 24/7, flying by the seat of your pants?

• You would never feel like you had control of your business, because if you spend all your time putting out fires, then your time is actually not your own.
• You would never rest, or if you did, it’d be more because you passed out from exhaustion.
• All the bigger personal projects you had in mind would never get done, because it’s very easy to cut your personal wants out of the equation when you’re in a time crunch.
• You would never be able to get ahead of your own workload, because you’d only be reacting to what needed to immediately be done.

This is not the way to run a business. Nor is it a way to run a life. But sometimes, we cannot help falling into this state. It catches the best of us off guard, and for some, this might even be the norm.

So how do you stop something like this and get to a point where it feels like you have control of your business?

Ironically, by having a schedule.

I used to think that schedules weren’t for me. That because I’m a freelance business, I can do whatever the hell I want. That’s the perks of being self-employed, after all. But even the most flexible business owners have a structure underneath their work week that keeps them on track on their long term goals and most importantly, keeps them sane.

Schedules keep you out of reactive mode that can make you feel you have no control. Schedules help you block off time for meetings and puts a limit on how many things you can do in a given week so you don’t swamp yourself. Schedules give you a structure in which you can say ‘no’ to something and not feel bad about it. Because if it doesn’t fit in your schedule for the week, it’s not really your fault, right?

But most importantly, at least in my book, schedules tell you when you have time off and you better damn well take it. When you know that you’re off the clock at 7pm, you are way more productive on your actual work hours. It helps you focus. It gives you an end in sight. And knowing you have time that you can spend however way you want helps charge your energies for the next day.

You worked hard and so therefore you earn a break in having the rest of the day off.  You need moments of gratification and reward, and as a business owner who’s solely in charge of yourself, you need to consciously schedule in that time.

Schedules are much like contracts. Contracts are to protect yourself. It’s that iron shield that if you need to, you can hide behind in a dispute. Schedules are the same. They’re actually there to protect you and keep you on track, make sure you have enough time to relax and enough time to work on the projects that rejuvenate your business.

Contrary to popular belief, a schedule doesn’t box you in. At least I’ve found it to free me up from a lot of worry and guilt I had. Because now I have the power to say “I can’t do that this week, how about next week?”

That being said. Here’s my weekly schedule:

• Monday/Tuesday – client work (writing, tech, emails, and follow ups)
• Wednesday – day off (though I can work on this day if I want to)
• Thursday/Friday – networking (usually filled with meetings and home errands)
• Saturday/Sunday – Fun stuff (fiction writing/info product creation/drawing)

What does your schedule look like?

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Put simply, if you’re just getting started writing online, you need this program.

It’s common internet wisdom that there are millions of writing jobs all over the internet. The problem comes when you start looking, and all you can find are jobs that A) require you write on spec, and B) aren’t in an area where you can convincingly position yourself as an expert.

As ambivalent as I am about some of the writing job sites online, I’m definitely of the opinion that writing on spec is pretty much always something that you should say no to. There are too many writing jobs out there that pay (even if it’s not much) for you to be giving someone your talent for free. Matt’s course gives you a pretty much endless number of places to find paying jobs, and he breaks them down neatly into different categories. If you don’t want to deal with the job sites, you’ve got lots of other options. If you don’t like the content sites like Demand Studio, you’ve still got lots of places to pick from.

What’s even better is that Matt goes through all this information(in both written and video form), and tells you what makes all of these sites different from each other from the user’s perspective. He explains how to sign up, how to easily use them to find the jobs that you want, and the positives and negatives of each.

I’ve done a fair amount of research into freelance writing online, and Matt had job sources in this course that I had never found or heard of. They were also job sources that looked really incredible (there’s a whole site for just awesome blogging jobs?!).

While this course has something for everyone, I suspect that people who are just starting out online would benefit hugely from it. Matt’s course takes the scary out of finding the work, and allows you to spend more time actually writing. If this had been around when I started I would have been all over it.

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The place is called Pete’s Corner Cafe, and it gets fabulous reviews on Yelp. The inside was beautifully decorated with cute tables and real dishes with palm trees on them. They brought me my coffee in a matching cup. They had real butter for the pancakes. All of these things made me think I might have found the perfect cafe. I ordered pretty conservatively because I didn’t know how good it would be, but I’m now determined to go back and try something more interesting. Their pancakes were the best I’ve had in years; almost like my grandmother’s recipe.

As I was finishing up, the chef/owner came out to ask how my food was. We ended up sitting and talking for ages, since I mentioned that I ran a small business too. He said that he’d been there a year and three months, and was proud of that, but that money was tight for him. He needs to make $500 a day to make the diner run smoothly, and he normally made half of that. He didn’t say it to get sympathy; he was clearly proud of making ends meet and dealing with things like they were. He also fed meals to two homeless people who he spotted out on the street as we talked. I asked him why he did it, and he said that he believed that if you did good things you got good things back.  I asked him if he had a website, and he looked confused and told me that he might have a Myspace page for the business. On the way out, he shook my hand and handed me a small package of homemade buckeye candy from his fridge. I told him that I did advertising, and that if his wife (who handled that side of it) could come meet me tomorrow around ten am I’d come back down for breakfast and try and give them some ideas for free things they could do.

I then wandered over to a dog grooming place that I had driven by previously. Didy currently gets groomed at a place with at least ten other dogs, and it freaks him out. I came in and asked about grooming services, and the woman who did the grooming came out. Her name was Judy, and she was holding her granddaughter. She not only gave me a quote, but took me through all the grooming facilities and asked about Didy’s background and temperament and took notes. She only grooms one dog at a time, and she says that she frequently grooms dogs that other grooming places won’t take, and that they’re wonderful for her. I told her that I would bring him in tomorrow except for the fact that they didn’t open until noon, and she told me that she’d happily show up at ten so I could drop him off after my run.

There was a homemade dog treat display there full of treats that she baked herself, and I looked at them and hesitated. I told her that Didy probably wouldn’t eat wheat germ treats, but that I thought they looked great. She handed me two small packs of them and told me to take them for free and try them, and if I liked them I could buy him some when I brought him back for grooming. When I got them back home, Didy amazingly wolfed them right down. Maybe it was the carob coating or the sprinkles, but something about them worked for him.

We internet based entrepreneurs (myself included) spend hours each week arguing about social media strategies, styles of advertising, and stressing over all the ways that the internet allows us to use it to make money. What amazed me the most about these places was not just the owners or their generosity, but the fact that these people have no web presence, and probably have no idea that social media marketing exists. They’re brick and mortar businesses, they’re struggling, they’re dealing with it gracefully, and the idea that you can go out and do all this scary advertising stuff on the internet is a totally alien idea to them. They’re sticking to the basics: quality products, amazing customer service, and a passion for what they do.

As I got home, I wondered how much better our businesses could be if we took a little bit of time off from the internet and put it into the things that Pete and Judy value. In a vast and impersonal network, how can we make our businesses as wonderful and personal as possible?

P. S. Speaking of dog things, Didy’s birthday sale is going on through the end of the week, so get in on it if you can!

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Here at the Cottage this week, we’re celebrating a very cool event. Sir Didymus, the copy spaniel, will turn three years old on Wednesday. In honor of his birthday (and his first year out of the shelter and in a forever home) we’re having a sale to both bring the celebration to you, and to help out some other dogs in the process. Since the beginning of the business, Didy has been a integral part of both the branding and my life, and he shows up on the blog frequently. More recently he’s even been helping with some product reviews.

Anyone who has done a skype consult with me knows that Didy is a very real presence in my house. I once did a two hour consulting session where he slept in my lap the entire time, and he spends most of my meetings showing off for the camera or trying to talk into the phone. As silly as it sounds, he’s a huge part of the business in terms of moral support and keeping me sane, and I’m so thankful to have found him and to have gotten to see him grow this past year.

So, in honor of Didy, here is the sale offer. It will run until Sunday the 22nd, at midnight.

• Any and all work for pet businesses or businesses with pet mascots is 18% off, since Didy’s birthday is technically the 18th.
• This offer includes anything (excluding Kaffeeklatsch memberships). Consulting, writing, copyediting, branding, marketing; the world is your oyster. Or, at least my inbox is.
• 10% of the proceeds from the sale will go to the English Springer Spaniel rescue, to help other ESS dogs spend their next birthday in a home with their forever family.

I’ll be monitoring my email pretty closely this week, so if you email about work you should get a response back very quickly. If you want to see what we offer, you can check out the list here. If you want something that isn’t on the list, email me (holly [at]cottagecopy [dot] com) and we can work it out.

I can’t wait to hear from all of you, and to work with you!

P.S. If you want to give Didy his very own birthday gift, email me for his mailing address (I know several of you have already asked). I promise to take pictures of him enjoying it, or write a testimonial if that would help you out!

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Item One: Disabling Skype auto formatting

Okay, I’ll have to admit, this post really was born out of the above. I was formatting some of Kaffeeklatsch’s email reminders for our upcoming call and finally had enough of the way Skype would automatically insert code around phone numbers I’d type in. If you know even remotely what I’m talking about, you know how this can quickly turn into a formatting nightmare.

So to disable the auto formatting, go into your web browser of choice (Don’t disable it from Skype itself. You’re not going to find it. ), go to Tools –> Add Ons –> Select Skype add on and disable it.

Every browser is different, but this short but sweet article shows you how to turn off Skype’s auto formatting for Firefox and Internet Explorer. If you use any other browser, just find where your add ons are stored and look for Skype and turn it off.

Item Two: Customizing LinkedIn links

If you’re on LinkedIn (or thinking about it in the future) there’s a section in your profile where you can list websites (kind of like a limited version of a blog roll for yourself). You get up to three links, and when you fill it out, there’s a little drop down menu that lets you select what kind of link it is. i.e “My blog” “My website” “My RSS”. In other words: very boring unhelpful labels.

Many people select this instead of customizing because it’s an option in the drop down menu, and usually when you’re given categories, you connect the link to the right category for organization. It’s human nature. But you can skip all of this (because we all want to stand out) and select “Other” from the drop down menu.

This won’t label your link “other.” It’ll actually give you an extra box where you can write your own title for your link. Like for example “My Kickass Website” or “Where I Blog About Socks.”

Item Three: Stat Tracking on Steroids

So this isn’t a tutorial, but if you are the type of person who obsessively looks at website stats (well, you don’t have to be) you should try GetClicky.com. Their free trial version only allows you to track one website (I tried tracking our FB fanpage and it wouldn’t let me ) but if you are just watching your business website, this is all you need. It gives you everything, including referral sites, an easier way to view different countries that might be stumbling onto your website, and what are the most viewed pages of the day.

The only thing about this site is that it’s on a day to day basis. Meaning that it only lists the day’s stats in comparison of yesterday’s stats, and doesn’t keep the long term graphs and data for more than 24 hours unless you are paying for premium service (I think). But I like it to get a quick glance of daily activity and where it’s coming from. It’s also fun if you’re just the very curious type.

And that’s it for today’s roundup! If you like what we did here, I’m thinking of opening up the comment section for questions/requests for tutorials and I’ll answer them next Friday. Have a great weekend!

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