On the recommendations of a couple of folks here, I've been trying out Podtrac. The stats seem to be accurate but there are a couple of things I don't like about the service. The website design is awful (the stats are presented in blue, on a blue background .. damned hard to read). Additionally, I don't like the fact that they only update your stats once per day. I do like the options they give you for the listener survey and I also dig their podcast player.

While I was waiting (for almost a week) for setup on Podtrac I briefly tried out a service called Ripple. It's from a company called Radiotail. For the day I two that I tried it, the stats seemed to be accurate. They update whenever you log in, and you can subscribe to your stats via RSS feed .. which is kind of cool. I haven't determined just yet whether they can track plays in a flash player (I like offering an episode player and a podcast player on my site). Podtrac claims they do, and I *assume* Ripple can if you set up the stat-collection redirect properly. Problem is, while the folks at Ripple offer a great way to send feedback ... they just don't seem to answer questions when you post them.

Have any of you tried out Ripple? Any good or bad stories? I'm thinking of using the Podtrac player and audience survey, but using Ripple's stats.

I use Ripple also. It's kinda funny as I have multiple website trackers for my website (AWStats and Google Analytics) and for my podcast I use Podctrac, Ripple, and my own stat tracking service from Podpress. I feel that with those three services tracking my podcast that I can get a more accurate view of my listener base. I like Ripple for their instantly updated chicklet, which is on my site. I have Ripple and Podtrac link to my mp3 file, so I get stats from flash players also. I use Podtrac's flash player on my site, www.taylormarek.com, if you want to check it out, but I encourage my listeners to listen in whatever they want to.

Any questions you might have, feel free to ask.

Okay ... some questions:

-How do you use both? Do you have both redirects before the URL of your file? This might be a good way to compare the services.

-Does Ripple track flash player stats?

-Does Ripple track RSS plays through Feedburner?

If Ripple can't track RSS plays through Feedburner AND flash player play stats (at least counting a play as the same as a download) I won't bother with them. Podtrac claims to do both and I don't think I need to use two stats services.

I've been using Ripple for about 9 months now and have had only a handful of issues during that time. When I first started using them they had some scaling issues with their backend,which resulted in the site being very slow to load for a while. They fixed it some time ago. They only other issue that I have had is on a rare occasion my summary page will stop reflecting downloads but the other "trackers" (ie geography, referrers, downloads by time) will show that I am having the additional DLs, as my overall aggregator indicates.).

They approached me way back when to sign up as they had an advertiser wanting to target politically active podcast listeners, so I signed up. Got paid for my trouble per show DL'd at a fixed rate.

My experience with Gregory Galant, who runs the show over at Radio Tail, has been nothing short of fantastic. He's always responded to my emails within a day and is very attentive to resolving any issues that may have arisen. Good guy, in my opinion.

As for your other questions, I'm not sure if redirecting to Feedburner would work with their system, as in my rss feed I replace the file URL with Ripple's, which passes the request on to my server after it records the hit. I also know that when you are running an ad campaign with them they cache your file on their servers to both ensure that it is delivered and to avoid any issues of DL contention with the client.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more info.

Tom

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately if no one has an answer (and they aren't responding to my "communications" on their site) to the question of whether Ripple will pick up Feedburner stats, I'm not going to switch over. Podtrac claims on their site to work with Feedburner, so I'll just have to assume they do. Shame ... I like the Ripple setup better than Podtrac's.

I use both of them like this: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?ht...podcastfile.mp3

Does this help?


If you use the setup shown above, it will track everything. So the answer is yes.


Yes. It does the same as Podtrac. You can't see the feedreader they are using, but you can tell if they are using a podcatcher, iTunes, website, or other.

Have any more questions?

Thanks for the help, Taylor. I actually figured out how to have tracking from both on my own. I'm currently testing it on my promo. It's working great. I also noticed that it showed a referer as my flash episode player, so that answered that question. With just the few downloads I have since I set it up this morning I don't show any feed listeners, but I'm sure they'll come at some point so I can test that. I'll probably set up all of my episodes like that tonight, and then compare stats on the episodes. Podtrac hasn't updated my stats since yesterday morning, which is rather irritating to me.

It probably IS a good idea to keep both of them, though. One of my concerns about using these free stat services is that happens if one of them goes out of business. If that were to happen I'd lose all my stats. This way there's a backup.

Thanks again!

So how did you do it? I have feedburner and would like to incorporate ripple as well


under redirection settings it is seeing the feedburner link, is that how to do it?

No problem Steve. Glad to be of help.
Another thing to add to my list of having two podcast tracking systems. One is that I have a more accurate view of my listener base. Number Two, which you introduced, is that I have a backup in case one of the tracking systems fails.

As a matter of fact, I use Feedburner for my feed. I don't use the Feedburner tracking system as that isn't as accurate as Podtrac and Ripple combined.


Ok, Here is how you do it. When you write your blog post with your mp3 url in it, you will put in the following code instead of putting in the link to your mp3 file:

Of course you have to sign up for Podtrac and/or Ripple in order to do this. You will get a tracking code to insert next to the mp3 file you are linking to.

For example:
When you usually write out the post with your podcast in it, you would type in the location of your mp3 file as such: http://www.yoursite.com/podcast/todaysepisode.mp3 or http://media.libsyn.com/media/yourpodcast/todaysepisode.mp3

Now that you are using Podtrac/Ripple, you would link to your mp3 file like this: http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3?ht...podcastfile.mp3

Does that help any, or do you need further explanation?
-Taylor

Im an idiot with this stuff...
I dont have podtrac, but i did register at ripple.

So in my RSS feed id change the mp3 location to:
?

You have it correct. It works as simple as that. If you can change your feed manually, that is how to do it. If it doesn't work, let me know and we'll try to fix it.

-Taylor

Ok ripple is recording hits, so now all thats left is to see tomm. that feedburner is still working ok.

It'll be fine. Ripple doesn't get in the way of Feedburner. I was actually concerned about Feedburner getting in the way of Ripple, but Taylor tells us it doesn't.

yep, everything is looking smooth.
Always a little surprised when everything works. haha

thanks all!

No problem. Glad to help you out

If you have any further questions, feel free to ask.
-Taylor