Connecting with readers: 10 reasons why I love HitTail

One of the widgets I’ve got in the sidebar here says “writing ideas by HitTail”. Now I’m sure we could all compose lengthy essays about where writing ideas come from and of course it’s not just a piece of software - but HitTail does help me to write, and I thought you might be interested to find out how.

Although this is one of those weekend detours that allows me to go a bit off topic - the reasons I love HitTail do flow from the sense of connection it gives me - connecting my words with yours.

10 reasons why I love HitTail

1. It’s free (a big plus!)

2. It provides live-time information on visitors to your site. In some odd way this helps me to feel like the blog is living, vibrant, the constant updates of information like a slow, reassuring pulse

3. Their customer service is fantastic. In a recent burst of blog housekeeping I inadvertently dropped the widget from my site (that’ll teach me to try and be tidy). I felt lost without it - disconnected, more isolated from you. I asked the customer service team for help and they came back to me with an answer and solution within a couple of hours (and remember, this is a free service)

4. They know how to write customer service e-emails! The mistake was all mine (and a pretty dumb one at that) but I never got a hint of this in the reply. Look at this perfectly crafted response from Tatiana - I love the way she points out what I’ve done with the “maybe you…” sentence

I looked at your blog “confident writing” and I don’t see the code installed on your pages. Maybe you updated your design recently and forgot to re-include the HitTail code. Once the code is up there it will be recording data again.

5. It’s intuitive. I have other widgets and trackers that give me information on numbers of visitors, key words and so on but I love the way HitTail presents information. You get a graph of your top 10 search results and it makes me smile, always, to see the search terms that doggedly sit at the top. “Slow down, you move too fast”. “Find out who you are and do it on purpose” “Bling writing”. They’re like some kind of potted history of the highlights of my blog

6. It throws up nice surprises. Sometimes you get pictures like this on your screen - a burst of visitors from Stumbleupon. It’s a fleeting phenomenon but welcome nonetheless - so thank you stumblers

7. It makes me smile. I love some of the search terms that bring people here.

Sometimes they come out like instructions to me: “slow down Joanna Young” “slow down you move too fast Joanna Young”.

Sometimes they anticipate a new venture here: “gifts for word nerds” (well you never know…)

8. Writing suggestions. Through an algorithm I don’t understand they send me writing suggestions to make the most of your ‘long tail’.

If they fit with the theme and purpose of your blog you can add them to your ‘to do’ list of topics to write about. Which means…

9. I know I’ll never run out of things to say

10. I learn from what you’re looking for. HitTail helps me to feel creative, intuitive, connected. It helps me to learn, always, from what brings you here and some of the things that you’re looking for. And this is how it features in the source of my writing ideas - not as a piece of writing software - but as a way of connecting with you.

In case you were wondering - I don’t have any affiliate association with HitTail. I just think they have a great service and wanted to tell you about it.

Maybe there are other pieces of software that have the same kind of effect on your blog writing ideas? If so, please let us know - I’m always up for new experiments (especially of the free sort!)

Joanna Young, The Confident Writing Coach
Because our words count

Tags: HitTail, writing coach, writing ideas, writing software