Download Squad

FeedBurner has solidified itself as the statistics package of choice if you want to know how many RSS subscribers you have, and learn details about how your feeds are used. I don't think there's any question that they've got a solid product on their hands; there are very few web publishers I know that use syndication in any capacity that are not heavy FeedBurner users.

In a move that surprised me at first, but seems to make absolute sense once considered, FeedBurner has introduced a more traditional web traffic statistics package, dubbed StandardStats. StandardStats is a free service that is fully integrated into the FeedBurner interface, giving users a one-stop shop for insight into the content that is helping their site, and where their traffic is coming from.

Once you've included FeedBurner's FeedFlare code (a small chunk of code that allows you to add FeedBurner functionality to your site), it's a simple matter of turning on the "Track metrics for my site" checkbox under the StandardStats menu option, and you're all set. You get a second menu under Feed Stats called Site Stats, with the following headings: Dashboard, Visitors, Pages, Incoming (links) and Outgoing (links).

So far I've only had it running on my personal site for a few hours, but already it's clear which posts are most popular, and how people are reaching my site. Very cool stuff, and very easy to read. My only reservation is that as with any time you include code from another site on your site, it can potentially negatively impact the speed your site renders at. FeedBurner seem to have a handle on keeping their web properties responsive, so this definitely isn't a problem at the moment, but is worth considering.