Online counters show the number of counts. They may show the number of hits, unique users, user online etc. Here I will not be discussing hits counters. I personally do not feel there is any need of displaying them on the page.
I will be discussing about 3 counters which are worth displaying on your blog or website. They are as follows.
Feeds/RSS counter
Most of the Bloggers already use FeedBurner and know how to display the feeds count. For those who already do not know, FeedBurner is the leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds. Now by using it we can get stats on the number of feeds subscribers and other vital and useful stats. We can also display the number of Feeds subscribers. You can see my Feeds Counter at the top right of this page. This counter looks just like below. I have more than 55 Feeds subscribers but the display is always less.
Why we should display it? Well it represents your active readers. For a blog active readership shows its worthiness. If your feeds subscriber number is big then it will surely attract new visitors. A feed count of more than 100 is considered good. Even if you have small amount of users you should display the count. For blogs it is really important to display the Feed Counter. As far as I know it does not have any bad effect on any blog. If you want yours Feed Counter than sign-up at FeedBurner .
Twitter Counter
Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people using the web, your phone, or IM. Join today to start receiving. If you are already using twitter you know how useful it is to reach others in the world and also is a great source of new targeted traffic. What Twitter counter does is, it show the number of followers under you. You can see my Feeds Counter in right sidebar. This counter looks just like below.
Why we should display it? As it shows the number of followers, it is telling about your reach. Now if you want more twitter users to follow you then give them a reason to follow you. The number of followers can become a reason too. If you already have a good number of followers, than more people will follow you and eventually it will serve as a good traffic source (This is just my idea). To get it go to Twitter Counter. Follow me in Twitter.
User Online counter
This is a very simple counter which represents the number of users currently online. You can see my User Online Counter in my footer. This counter looks just like below.
There is also a beautiful verson too which looks like Below
Why we should display it? First of all this counter will have a positive effect if you have got a good traffic. It goes like this, if a new visitor visits your page and sees that there are more people viewing you page at that time. He will think the page is really worth a view. He will simply want to know how good your content is and why others are reading it. It may sometime have bad effect when the case is opposite. But it is sometime only while the positive effects are more often. You can get one for your self at Amung Us.
For today I only have these 3 counters to share with you. I have come across many types of counter and will discuss about then later. Tell me how useful this article is. Please Digg this article if you like it.
