I’ve been using Mint for a few months now and am fully addicted to it. I’ve used other stat tracking software before, but I’ve never had so much fun! And just when I thought things couldn’t get better for Mint, a dude by the name of Beau Collins released a great Pepper called Session Tracker.
As you probably assume, Session Tracker records the path of your visitors… in real time. Not only where they’ve been on your site – but how they got there, how long they spent on each page and now thanks to Download Counter and Outclicks, what they downloaded while on your site and where they went when they left. It also shows you how many people are currently on your site. Seriously good stuff!
I was pretty stoked on Session Tracker from the get-go. But now I’m just plain hooked! Let’s take a look at an example of just how valuable this can be, shall we?
So, what do I know about this user? He/she…
- Made 5 hits while on my site (page loads or downloads).
- Spent a total of 7 minutes and 8 seconds on my site.
- Came from a message board at xbox-sky.com (clicking the url takes you to the exact page they came from).
- Spent 21 seconds reading Xbox 360 Controller For Windows: Review before moving on to Configuring Your Xbox 360 Controller For Windows.
- Spent 2 minutes and 56 seconds reading before click on this screenshot.
- Returned to read for another 3 minutes and 6 seconds before downloading the Xbox Imageguide I created.
- Viewed this screenshot.
- Returned to read for another 45 seconds.
How fucking cool is that?
I’m sure some of you are thinking this is a little too much information to be collecting from every user. But you need to look at it from a site owner’s perspective. My Configuring Your Xbox 360 Controller For Windows article was my first (and only at this point) ‘how to’ guide. I did something even more out of the ordinary by attaching a file I hoped would help others who found themselves in the same boat. If you take a look at the post, there’s only 6 comments and 2 of them are me. One might think this post was failure and that there’s little to no interest on the subject. But thanks to my good friend Mint and his buddy Pepper, I know this is hardly the case. I’ve been getting hits from gaming message boards all over the place, including GameSpot, IGN and Eurogramer. I’m getting even more hits from all of the top search engines. And the Imageguide (which would be of use to only those that own the controller) has been downloaded over 300 times. Needless to say, I’m glad I spent the time setting up the Imageguide… and writing the article, for that matter. It’s currently my most popular post – 2 weeks running.
It you don’t already have a good stats reporting tool and could benefit from one, I’d definitely recommend Mint. As I said, I’ve tried tons but nothing has satisfied me the way Mint has… and that sounds just plain dirty!
19 people have had something to contribute so far.
I’m glad to see she’s behaving well.
Here’s to spying on our visitors!
“Big Brett”
j/k! I’ve been visiting your site for a long time, but never posted a comment. This makes me one of those people you can now see browsing your site through Mint, so it’s a great advantage to have it on your site! I’m not a blogging kind of person, but when I ever start a blog/portfolio/…, Mint will be part of it!!
Mint is looking better and better. But I’m yet to pay for an online service as of yet. I think next year will be the time to start; Mint and the Ctrl+Alt+Del animations, FeedLounge also is pay-only to start with too.
For me, when I pay for something, I want to get something, physical, so that’s what has put me off buying the services mentioned above.
Hilarious that Beau is the first comment! Further proving my point of how great Mint is.
@Tim: I use Mint on a couple client sites as well. Very good for seeing where people are talking about them. Bands in particular. Cool to see music news sites linking to them and what not.
@Trovster: I know what you mean. It takes some getting used to – paying for things that don’t really exist. Took me a while too… and I almost wish I was still in the same boat as you. Now I buy things online left-right and center.
Maybe Shaun could send some Mint bumber stickers that say “I’m watching you” with a Mint logo with every purchase of Mint. But that would just be ridiculous.
I found Beau’s plugin recently too, it’s great to finally be able to see the paths people are taking. It would be nice if you could ignore sessions with only one or two hits though, or be able to see a view that has recent sessions with more than two hits.
You get addicted to Mint, but it’s great. Just being able to actively see how people are visiting your site at the moment is worth it. I’ve been able to increase my readership by a factor of five since I picked it up (although cause and effect are different beasts).
that’s it, i’m getting mint. enough reading log files.
Amazing! Sadly I can’t expend $30 in a web-tool, it’s expensive to me (a 3rd world boy) and my personal site.
It’s plug-ins (or “peppers”) like these that make me want to drop 30 dollars on Mint…
I too am a mint whore. I recently added session tracker to my mint install a few weeks ago and couldn’t be happier with it. I’m just waiting for that geo mint to come out.
It’s soo strange how much spying that actually entails…it’s weird but I guess it’s the only thing on anyone’s site that is constantly being updated, which is why it’s adictive.
I use Session Tracker and agree that it is really cool to be able to see how folks are moving around in your site.
How does Mint compare to Google Analytics?
I have google analytics adblocked to stop me from being stalked around the internet. I forgot about mint. Time to block that. Both are very good at what they do but I really would like some privacy. I’m still gonna stick to server logs to get the real stats incase others do like me >.>
I’ve had Mint since October and it is amazing. I don’t find a need for a lot of the peppers (at the moment) but I’m sure I will be downloading some of them.
I think the best part of it has to be the fact that I can change what domain it is associated with, without having to pay for another license.
I am using Mint and would like to have Session tracker. It is nowhere to be found though. Beau’s page seems to be gone…
Perhaps you could tell me where to download it from.
Regards Fredrik
@Fredrik: Just looks like Beau’s working on a new site. I’m sure it’ll be back “in a few” as it states. You might want to check the Mint forum. Probably a direct link to the download package there.
Fredrik,
You can still download it here.
Beau: Thanks! I did not get it to work before!