WordPress.COM Providing Stats for Self-hosted WP Blogs
Posted on May 6, 2007 
5 Comments
One of the common questions folks have when moving from a WordPress.com to self-hosted WordPress blog is, “How do I get stats just like I had when hosted at WordPress.com?”
The traditional response has been, “You can’t. But try Google Analytics, Feedburner Stats, Performancing Metrics, or any number of other options that are similar.”
Until now. Now you can get those same stats for self-hosted WP blogs as well.
The new Automattic Stats plugin is available for download. It lets self-hosted WordPress bloggers use the exact same traffic metrics system we provide to WordPress.com users. It tracks post and page views, referrers, search terms, and clicks on your external links. It takes moments to install if you already have a WordPress blog and a WordPress.com API key. And it’s totally free.
Download and install the plugin, you’ll get a little image on each page of your blog. That image is hosted by a wordpress.COM server and that’s where you’ll see your stats. So not totally unlike the services I use or suggest — everything is hosted.
This is not unlike Akismet (antispam service) in that you’ll need to have a .COM account to get the necessary API key. And just like Akismet, that’s just going to confuse the hell out of folks who don’t read the directions… [hint: Where is my WordPress.com API key?].
To see your status, go to your self-hosted blog dashboard and you’ll see a new sub-menu item for “Blog Stats.” When clicking that link, you’ll be leaving your blog and logging into the “Global Dashboard” over at wordpress.COM. Don’t panic! Just use the username/password you used when you registered for your API key.
Tags: analytics, API, blog, feedburner, metrics, pmetrics, WordPress
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5 Responses to “WordPress.COM Providing Stats for Self-hosted WP Blogs”
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if I’m already using google analytics, do you think it’s worth it to download this plugin? Can you comment on which is better? thanks!
I don’t know that I’d say one is better than the other (at this point).
The WP one is probably easier to digest at a glance. Google Analytics has a lot more info and is a bit more complex. Depends on what you’re after.
To be honest, right now I’m still experimenting with this new WP one, Google Analytics, Performancing’s metrics and Feedburners stats. Some day I’ll settle on one or two (probably two)…
Use both! There’s no harm in having multiple views of the same data.
I’ll have to give it a try! I never had a blog hosted by WordPress so I haven’t ever seen the stats they provide. I’ll have to give it a shot!
Yeah, good call Matt. I’m going to install this plugin and compare it to Google Analytics (which just updated their tricky interface BTW). Thanks for pointing this plugin out to me Chris.