I’ve just rolled out two new features to UCalgaryBlogs.ca – Statistics for your blog’s activity, and Support.
Statistics
When you view your Dashboard interface, you’ll now see a new link – ShortStat. This page will provide you with some pretty detailed information about what people are viewing on your blog. What pages have been viewed, any search terms people are using on Google and other search engines to find your posts, and which websites are pointing to your blog posts. You’ll need to let the stats chew for a few days before anything interesting or meaningful starts showing up, but you’ve now got a basic stats package available. Note that external referrers and search keywords won’t show any data on private blogs – nobody else can see the blog, so they can’t link to it.
Here’s a sample screenshot from about an hour’s worth of data on the main blog here at UCalgaryBlogs.ca:
Nothing too interesting yet, but as data is collected it will start to make more sense. Just don’t get too hung up on statistics. They’re not meant to be a “report card” but rather as a way to get a feel for what people are finding interesting on your blog.
Support
We needed a system that was a bit more robust and scalable than “email D’Arcy if anything goes wrong” – so I just installed a great new Support system that shows up on your Dashboard – check out the new “Support” link on the right side of your Dashboard.
The Support system will let you file a “ticket” – complaint, bug report, feedback, gripe, etc… – that will be addressed and answered by an admin at UCalgaryBlogs.ca. These support tickets are confidential – only you and the admins can see your support tickets.
The system will also let you ask questions, which will be shared with all users in the FAQ section. It’s currently empty, but if you have questions (about how to do stuff? how something works? anything?) this is a great place to ask it so that we can all share the answers.