How it works
From one question to an honest count.
Everything Hand Count does, in the order it happens. No hidden steps.
1. Write one question
A question of 5 to 140 characters and 2 to 5 answers of up to 60 characters each. Plain text only: web addresses and email addresses are refused, so a question can never be used to hand out links. When you save it you get your Count Desk, a private link that looks like talkwithwebtraffic.co/d/…. There is no account and no email; keep the link safe.
2. Put it where people will see it
On your website: type your site's domain on the question (for example example.com), then paste the one-line script where the question should appear. The script adds a small frame and tells it which page it is on (the path only, such as /pricing; anything after a "?" is never sent). Browsers show the frame only on your domain and its www. version.
Without a script: a plain <iframe> works too (it cannot tell pages apart), and every question has its own link page for emails, social posts or a printed sign.
3. A visitor answers
They tap one answer. That is the whole interaction. For each answer Hand Count stores the question, the answer, the page path, the date and whether it came through your site or the link. Nothing else.
To keep one person from answering over and over, each network address can give at most 5 answers to one question per day. The check uses a scrambled form of the address that is kept apart from the answers and deleted within three days. People who share one office or school connection are counted at most 5 times a day between them.
4. Read the count
Your desk shows the total, each answer's share, the last 14 days and, with Hand Count Plus, answers by page and a CSV of every answer.
Under 30 answers the desk says there are too few to read much into. From 30 on it gives the leading answer's share and the range a random sample of that size would have (the usual 95% range). It then says plainly that your answers are not a random sample: they come from visitors who chose to answer, so the result is a rough guide, not a measurement of all your visitors.
5. Limits and what happens at them
- Free: 1 open question, 300 answers counted a month across your desk.
- Hand Count Plus ($1.95 a month or $19.50 a year): 5 open questions, 10,000 answers a month.
- Single Question ($1.00 once): one question gets the Plus features for 30 days, up to 2,000 answers.
When a month's answers are used up, the question tells visitors it is resting until next month and takes no answers. Answers are never quietly thrown away.
Free during preview: checkout is not open yet, so every desk has Hand Count Plus at no charge.