A WordPress Visitor Counter, Redux

Important note: This counter has been revamped into a WordPress plugin widget for your sidebar – get it now at ActiveBlogging

On my other site a long time ago I discussed adding a counter to your WordPress blog.

And left it.

After all, there’s better stats packages available, so why a little counter at the bottom?

But I guess people liked it, and used it…

Then not too long ago I got this email (edited for the kiddies) – naturally, with no valid return address:

Hey coding JERK OFF!

Just wanted to respond to you posting of your SIMPLE counter by saying (QUACK) YOU!!!

You coders think your so (QUACK)ing smart and brainy, when your all dumb asses. When you post code for the general public who are not code officinado’s, you just leave out simple steps like..you supposed to KNOW x or y ..so your other little coding geek friends will pick it up but the general public won’t…so after over 24 hours of total and complete PAIN from you dumb ass (QUACK)s talking to each other.. I just wanted to say..(QUACK) YOU!!!

And I did it exaclty as you have it on your site ..here’s what happend…BLANK PAGE..

oh ya the little part about:

Now look through your php code for a place to display your counter. When you have a spot, add this code to the html there:

<?php displayCounter(); ?>

WHAT PAGE…WHERE???

AGAIN (QUACK) YOU!!

So of course I just had to rush out and program something!

But seriously, I recently needed to create a simple tutorial on editing and uploading WordPress plugins, and decided this would be good code to use. So I updated the plugin to make it as goof-proof as possible. It just puts a visitor counter at the bottom, and you simply upload and activate – nothing else.

It has no cookies to note repeat visitors, no longterm stats – but if you want a counter at the bottom, this will do it. I have no doubt it will irritate my ‘little coding geek friends’, but if anyone finds it useful, I’ll just have to live with the uproar…

And to my anonymous complainer, please don’t email me again (although I did enjoy your missive) – but I hope you blood pressure settles and this plugin makes life a tad easier.

Download the easy WordPress counter plugin here

16 thoughts on “A WordPress Visitor Counter, Redux

  1. Hiya!
    Hey your link to download your plug in isn’t working!? Help! BTW I thought it cool of you to post the irrate letter which sadly is the way most of us computer-challenged feel, it’s not personal just frustration!

    Thanks!

  2. Sorry – I’ve changed the link to my plugins page on ActiveBlogging since it’s there as well.

  3. Still no link to your download. I don’t know “Active blogging” or how to find your plugin now.
    Now I will google activeblogging and try to find the download.
    This stuff can be very frustrating. I am trying to work with wordpress widgets and I find no detailed directions for anything. My Amazon plugins did not work and I am not a rookie, but I found no help at Amazon and now I just doing my usual scouring the web until I find someone like me that has already done this before.

  4. Hi David, thanks for the plugin, unfortunately it’s not showing though it is installed & activated

    I made a text file and put it in the correct themes folder in case it needed it, or maybe I should put it somewhere else?

    or what did I do wrong?

    Rob
    Cairns
    Australia

  5. My visitor counter is working, didn’t need the text file.

    I couldn’t see it because of the dark background!!

    I see it is sent to wp_footer – can I change that to put it in my sidebar? I tried wp_sidebar but nothing was visible.

  6. To change the background/text, you’ll have to edit your theme, for example to surround the counter text with an HTML font tag. Unfortunately, the plugin just adds it to the footer – for the sidebar, you’d need custom coding.

  7. Nice letter !! 🙂 Bad hair day or something…. Im going to try the counter NOW 🙂

  8. Vipil – the counter is just a simple page one for all pages on a site – if you need to count a specific page, or want to count different pages, you might be better off using your server logs.

  9. When use this plugin it shows an error saying “Fatal error: Call to undefined function displayCounter() in /…./…./…../…../wp-content/themes/…../footer.php on line 87”

  10. Not sure which plugin you are using – the widget over at ActiveBlogging.com should have no problem like this…

  11. Yeah adding visitor counter to WordPress blog is really wonderful idea.It not only provide you the valuable information about your visitors but also shows your popularity as well.Third party free online user counter are much easier to deal with and are more likely to offer a better website hit counting experience.