My last stats related post I was laying out my baseline group of trackers and widgets. I also said that I wanted to look for a newer, more comprehensive stats tracker. Thanks to two of my commentors, R.Mainz and Scott over at TechFires I found two very nice counters/trackers … really!

R.Mainz suggested I try GoStats (who is a fellow Entrecard user, like me) and check-out their in depth stat tracker. I can tell you, for drilling down on your site clicks, these folks at GoStats have this friggin’ thing buttoned down. While I am unable to access some very specific analysis tools, because I am using the free version right now, this site has massive potential for everyone! And, using the free version is purely my choice - do not read anything into this one bit, please. I am on a very fixed income presently and free is my way, today!

Scott (TechFires) sent me over to GetClicky. Scott’s site TechFires also uses Entrecard, which for me gives very serious street-cred when it comes to a referral to another site/tool. And, I have to tell you, hands down, these folks make an awesome tool! I have pretty much moved all the other trackers OUT of my daily start-up routine in the morning. All my bookmarks are out of the Firefox start-up bookmarks group I use - it just has GetClicky! You just have to see the tool to believe it - truly. I, and this is always personal, love their interface, ease of use, and powerful incorporation of AJAX. Not overdone at all, it just moves the way I like to move around a site. One caveat for now, from the folks at GetClicky, is that they cannot CURRENTLY support sites that get 50,000 page views per day. I am, a small fish, so this was a no-brainer for them to sign me up. And, I can have up to 3 sites with less than a combined traffic rate of 3,000 page views per day (1,000 page views per site), for FREE! Not bad, eh?!

Anyway, wanted to update you all on my search for a nice, throrough, and pleasing tool for stats and trackers to use with all of my blogs and sites.

Almost Done Looking …

It’s been a few days while since my last post, I know! I’ve had a very disruptive last week or so, good, but disruptive to the development of the Staff IT Right© tools suite.

As you may know (or may not know) Staff IT Right© was started by our parent company, Snowlark Software. I’ll post more there about Snowlark once I get the blog up and running. I wanted to share with you a short backgrounder for what Snowlark is all about.

Snowlark Software is currently filing for a formal LLC. We are also aggressively developing two products that live within two very distinct niches: business intelligence and social networking. The Staff IT Right© suite is in the business intelligence niche, and shall remain there. Our newest product is in stealth mode, and will be available soon. The main interruption is primarily the search for funding - where the rubber meets the road, so to speak.

I’ll post more about our funding initiatives, the trials and tribulations, and our outlook for securing a safe first round of funding … be right back! (i have to go pick up my kids at school - can’t be late!)

Alright, now that this new blog is getting a little traffic (thanks to Entrecard) I’ve been looking at the numbers. I’ve used mostly StatCounter and SiteMeter over the last 3 years of blogging. On my other blogs, the data isn’t as important to me, just that I see who is clicking through and how long they stay. However, today it is a very different story because I’d like to confirm the response to an add placed on an Entrecard site I’ve chosen. Therefore, for this new blog, I’ll enumerate for you all the tracking widgets and services I’m using - you’ll see how eclectic this is right now!

Here’s a quick list, with a little extra background on each:

• Added StatCounter first, because, well, I’ve always used them
• Added SiteMeter because TTLB requires a SiteMeter tracker (see next item)
• Added an “old standby” for me, which is The Truth Laid Bear (TTLB)
• Added the WordPress stat plugin so that I could track from within my own site (clever, eh?)
• Added another new site/ranker I found on another site, IZEARanks
• Added an Alexa tracker - for the fun of it ’cause I’ve never ever showed any sort of kick-up on Alexa.
• Added Technorati ’cause it goes well with other StumbleUpon users - they like to have ya “Fave” them (even though I’ve not been faved back - hey, FAVE me!)

I’ve gotta say, all these crazy counters are just not giving me what I need or want! I know, you’re saying, “But Steve, you picked all the free ones, Dude! So, spend some coin!” That’s all well and good if the company was generating revenue and also I had a JOB!

You’d think that there would be someone out there with a site that truly saw every flippin’ hit … wouldn’t you?

Still Looking …

A friend of mine proposed that I take my product/service/process out into the OpenSource market to build a customer base. You know, develop a project on SourceForge and get more of the community involved thereby acquiring a virally generated install base. While I love SourceForge, why would I put the first phase of my product out there for free? Just to save me the hard work and time it is going to take to market and sell my product?

To that, I say, Bah!

It’s hard work that rewards, not taking the easy way out. Let me clarify, I am not advocating, in any way, that to provide a product/service/process to a larger community is wrong. In other words, I’m not dissing the SourceForge community! But everyone chooses their path, and Staff IT Right© is taking the hard, bumpy road, of those that have gone before us.

I’ve been at startups that chose (or were forced to choose) to begin to distribute via the open source arena late in their development phase. The strategy was proposed as a shot in the arm to an already stalling customer growth model - or, well, the hockey stick was busted and out comes the duct tape! While that was de rigueur back in the day (pre-DotCom-implosion), I’m unaware if it is still being proposed in back alleys board rooms. I believe this is more a last gasp than a first breath.

I am, at root, a capitalist folks. Sorry if that is unsavory, making you uncomfortable, but the tools we are developing are for profit. I believe that no matter what effort you have expended, you should be compensated at the value the market can afford. And, in capitalism, there is truly no easy path to success. There are always hard times that make us all pray for just a little less challenge, just a bit more momentum rowing through the muck-N-mire, to have a warmer day from which to bask … you get the picture.

Staff IT Right© is not going open source, just so you know.

After posting my last development update, and as I was clearing my workspace to begin coding, one of my all-time favorite songs began to play, “Cinderella Man” by Rush (A Farewell to Kings, 1977). There is one specific verse that always caught my attention:

Cinderella man
Hang on to your plans
Try as they might
They cannot steal your dreams

LYRICS: “Cinderella Man”, Rush, A Farewell to Kings, 1977

Back in those days, the exit from the sixties and entry into seventies was changing rock music. In a very short time stadium rock was really taking hold - in fact, we had the “Day on the Green” series here in the Bay Area. War protest rock grew up and transitioned into bringing the plight of the every-day man to the fore.

Did you read the verse above? If you have the heart of an entrepreneur, does that verse ring true, to your core? Every dang day that you get up, it’s a new day, and this new day brings another opportunity to fulfill your dreams in a big way. Whether you’re the “big cheese” or a one-person company, your dreams are important and those dreams will propel you to success - no matter the era from which you hail.

Just 100 years ago, it was a rarity that an every-day man would be the head of a company, large or small. In fact, those that were in charge of driving the economy were often benefactors of an inheritance. Today, anyone, woman or man, any race, any ethnic background, from any country around the world, can realize their dreams and succeed. No matter the size of the company and no matter how long it takes, realize your dreams!

In the powerful voice of Geddy Lee, “Hang on to your plans … They cannot steal your dreams.”

Been off the mark these past 2 weeks. We’ve been focused on our “day jobs” as well as a few side projects (2 website development projects, some plugin development for WordPress, and 2 system administration projects). We intend to refocus our efforts on the Staff IT Right© tool suite this week.

At this time two major components are under development: phone screen guidance and GUI controls. These two projects are actually more difficult than expected and therefore has extended beyond our original estimates.

To address a more objective approach to the phone screening process, we’re developing a structured series of questions to ask the candidate. This is not a form of placement test but more of a way to provide a suggested path of questioning.

A few GUI controls would make the website, blog, and application/tool suite work seamlessly. While this is not required so as to provide the best tool in the world to our users, it is just the way we’d like to present our product. The GUI controls we’ve envisioned also include a few blog plugins - more to come.

So, we’re plugging along here at Staff IT Right©, just not as quickly as we’d like …

Our weekly updates this year will focus on three primary areas of concern to you, our readers: software development updates, research efforts, and finally general changes or updates. This is not a fixed list but provides considerable insight into what is going on at Staff IT Right©.

The new web application front end is being developed and is on track. Considerable progress has been made regarding the business logic and data store, to include a flexibility in the comparison of a candidate’s education and experience attributes with other candidates in the active queue. In fact, we’ve begun to add a new module that will provide an excellent transition from resume review to phone screen. And, the phone screen process is the topic of this weeks article in the Hiring Needs Objectivity series.

In last weeks update we mentioned that phone screens are a very important part of the hiring process and that it is important to be fair, or more appropriately to be objective. Several pieces of research have uncovered the need for some very important changes to our chosen direction in leveling the results obtained from the phone screening process. In fact, we planned on writing an article last week on phone screening, but research caused a hiccup, so to speak. Hopefully the article will be ready for this weeks installment. Cross your fingers!

Helping you to staff your IT organization, right … Staff IT Right© … stay with me on this …

It’s the first week in the new year so we wanted to provide you all a quick update on what we are working on right now. A new web application front end is being developed, as well as follow-on articles in our Hiring Needs Objectivity series. Both of these projects, as well as the Holiday Break, and some California History project(s) for my daughter’s 4th Grade class homework, we’re pretty swamped!

Just to give you a small bread crumb on our objective hiring series, phone screens are a very important part of the hiring process. When we attempt to be fair as we decide to compare and contrast before bringing someone in for a physical (onsite) interview, how do you go about remaining, objective? Do you remember every nuance and answer during the phone screen? Can you honestly say, when phone screens are spaced out over a week or two, you remember how each candidate stacks up one by one, each to their own merit equally?

We know we can help here at Staff IT Right©, stay with me on this …

Yep, it’s happened, we’ve all made it to 2008!

The next few months are going to be action packed here at Staff IT Right©! We are working very hard at our tools suite and hope to have something scratched together near end of February. That’s a very aggressive goal, but without goals who ever knows if they’ve gotten to where the wanted to be in the time it needed to happen?

So, for all you major-partying-types that just woke up to find you are not sure if it is 2008 or not - it is, so GET MOVIN’ !!!

As we here at Staff IT Right© get closer and closer to completing our debut version of our software, we would like to expand our reach into the staffing and recruiting industry. While we have developed a wonderful tool for you, it would be extremely helpful to receive input on our approach from industry experts like you.

I am beginning to build a team comprised of a few very close contacts. Several of our early members have spent the greater part of their careers dealing with various challenges and innumerable tools, processes, and approaches in the staffing, recruiting, and HR field. I truly value the input these industry experts provide me.

However, our membership is very one sided - everyone I know or have known over the past 20 years! I would really appreciate your helping make us - and you - a success! Let’s face it, no one can “go it alone” out there. I would love to get your input, suggestions, critical reviews, and even upgrade suggestions!

Please contact me if you are interested in participating. And, as an extra incentive, a select few Staff IT Right© Advisory Council Members will receive a free version of the software to use!

Please, let me know if you’d like to join us: advisors AT staffitright DOT com Better yet, just leave a comment and I’ll trace that back to you - if that is easier for you.

In the e-mail you are going to send, please provide as much information regarding your history in the field of staffing and recruiting. In fact, if you are also a member, feel free to include your LinkedIn profile link/URL in your correspondence. I’ll be sure to use your profile as your “experience of record”.

Thanks so much for your help, in advance!