As a blogger I like to know how many folks are visiting my blogs, what posts are popular, how they got to my site etc.

Out of the box analytics is a KEY factor for non-technical folks. As far as I’m concerned it must be provided by Blog providers in order to be taken seriously. But more importantly, it must be provided out of the box with no configuration or add ons or extensions…etc.

So, here’s two examples of out of the box analytics from Typepad and WordPress. I pay $150 USD for Typepad and $0 for my WordPress account.

Typepad:

One word: Sucks

WordPress:

Note – to view this clearly click on the image, then click on it again and you’re good.

This shows number of visitors, page views, trends and search terms used by a person to get to my blog.

And there’s more!

This shows how many RSS feeds are being capture by RSS readers.

So, what am I getting for $150? Good question. Typepad, care to answer this question for us?

A couple of things about this. I’ve broken the 50 views in a day plateau! Watch out. Thanks to you for reading my blog. It’s all about quality not quantity. I like having fun with this because quite honestly I’m flattered and humbled that some folks are getting value reading this stuff.

Second, I’m trying out WriteToMyBlog and while it is promising I cannot easily copy and paste images into a post. With LiveWriter it’s very simple.

Tool Used: WordPress
Ease Factor: :-0
Efficiency Factor: :-0
Effectiveness Factor:
Grade: Passed(Barely)
Comments: This time I uploaded the JPEG image directly in WordPress and sized the image to 500×750. You can now right click on the image and select view image and then you can magify the page to actual size. The problem is that a reader my hover her mouse over the image and if she doesn’t think to right click on it she won’t be know how to see the full page view either. There has to be a better way!

Summary: WordPress worked. Performancing and LiveWriter didn’t for a image this big. While WordPress won, it wasn’t the easied thing to do. Three clicks or less is best. If LiveWriter can be enhanced to allow full in-post or one click full views it would win hands down. LiveWriter has all categories in full view so it’s easier to remember and select categories. With WordPress you’ve got to scroll within a frame. I’ll put some comparison shots up sometime so you can see what I mean. This H2H Round goes to WordPress.

Tool Used: Microsoft LiveWriter, Capstone Capture
Ease Factor:
Efficiency Factor:
Effectiveness Factor:
Grade: Failed
Comments: This time I inserted a JPEG image which I saved to my computer using Capstone Capture. Unfortunately, you still cannot see the report.

Tool Used: Performancing, Capstone Capture
Ease Factor:
Efficiency Factor:
Effectiveness Factor:
Grade: Failed
Comments: It didn’t work. Efficient and Easy  but not effective.

This Lab mash up ties in these Lab Experiments: WordPress, Performancing and LiveWriter.

My task will be to upload a screen capture of my Top Posts Web Report for the past 30 days. Not only will you see the most viewed posts on my blog but you’ll also learn which method worked best uploading a fully webpage into a post.

This Head to Head to Head comparison is between Microsoft LiveWriter, Performancing and WordPress editor.

[TO VIEW FULL PAGE: Put your curser over the screenshot above>right click on your mouse>select view image. You should then be able to magnify the image to full size - I'm using Firefox.] 

I’ve spent way too much time figuring out how to use Performancing blog traffic stats reporting for my Marketing Superhero blog which uses Blogger.

WordPress includes blog and feed stats and below is a screen shot from today’s results.

We need to remember that ease of use is critical. WordPress may not report as much as I will want one day, but they’ve wet my appetite for blog analytics. It may make sense for them to offer an enhanced service for a small fee.

Ease factor: 1(smile)

Performancing beats Windows Live Writer for this H2H task.

Here’s my attempt to post a YouTube video while working in Windows Live Writer. Here goes:

Well, it didn’t work. The reason? When using Windows Live Writer the URL to the video becomes HYPERLINKED. This results in WordPress displaying a blank (see above). What Live Writer needs to do is strip the hyperlink from the URL code so that WordPress can embed the video.

This begs the question. Does Performancing (see H2H posts)allow for YouTube video posting? Let’s find out.
Ease factor: 4(Grrr)

Task #1: Post photo and text. Winner: Windows Live Writer.

Why: Easy, fast and allowed category tagging within Editor.