@PragueBob @cornyman @ahardrain @MomStart @PYNTK @tonyknuckles @jegan414 @titan7585 @bluecrystaldude @Mariuca @mariamichelle

Know your audience. It seems like a recommendation that just about everyone shares. The question is, how do you do that? To the greatest extent possible, the best approach is to get to know people individually. Respond to their emails. Visit their websites. Follow them on Twitter. If you write with a local twist, meet them face to face. Yet how do you find who has been visiting your blog?

MyBlogLog was the granddaddy of ‘Recent Reader’ tools. They were acquired by Yahoo! and last winter there were reports that Yahoo! would be shutting them down. Well, they are still up and running, but getting lots of competition from BlogCatalog, as well as newcomer BlogFrog. Often these communities over lap substantially.

In addition, there is EntreCard which gives users the ability to drop a card when they visit. Since dropping a card is rewarded behavior it pretty much indicates a visit and not much else. Elsewhere, I’ve written about using Google Analytics on EntreCard visits.

This week, I revisited TwitterCounter’s widget. They track visitors by their Twitter handle and provide interesting information about recent visitors. For example,
PragueBob shows up as the visitor with the most followers. He is following and being followed by around 68,000 different users. The problem is any of my messages are likely to get lost by him. Coming in second in terms of the most followers is my old friend from EntreCard and related sites, @cornyman. Third is another good friend from the same circles, @ahardrain. Also on the list is another EntreCarder that I don’t know quite as well, @MomStart. @PYNTK, and @tonyknuckles round out the list.

Yet what is more important to me than the number of followers is the number of visits. Toping this list is @jegan414 whose sites I regularly visit. Other frequent visitors include @titan7585, @bluecrystaldude, @Mariuca and @mariamichelle.

For me, TwitterCounter has proven a valuable tool in connecting with some of my regular readers.