Watching the pot boil

One of the biggest frustrations of putting what you hope is a great, viral piece of content out on the Web is the uncertainty. What actually happens to it? Unless it gets real media attention, you may never really know. Traditional "counters", visible or invisible, will not get you very far, and the resolution of the data is spotty. So what is the solution if you want to release content free of charge for anyone to pass on and at the same time keep your hand on the pulse of the campaign as it spreads?
My personal suggestion is to use so-called 'tracking URLs'. These collect data each time a hyperlink is clicked through, no matter where it might be embedded. You can get a free trial of the service I personally use from AdMinder. I had to really do some digging to decide on using them, but the feeling of fine-tuned control you get is well worth it, even if you're not a compulsive stat-checker like I am.
The one thing I had concerns about with tracking URLs was the usual necessity of using long, hard to remember hyperlinks containing all sorts of symbols (#, &, ?, etc.); they look ugly, they're impossible to remember and they're easily mistyped. So to get around that issue, I automatically set up a forwarding link that is much simpler-notice that if you click the link to AdMinder you will see "http://adminder.webscriptorium.com" in the address bar. That way I can see how many readers found the link useful. Handy, huh?
I perform that last little trick by using a nifty little service called Namestick, which effortlessly allows me to create easy-to-type tracking URLs. Check it out! You can also use it to register a domain name and have it point to free webspace you might have from, say, your ISP, that has a long and clunky-looking URL. So in instead of
"http://yourISP.com/freespace/?yourname.html", you can have "www.yourdomain.com"-all without having to purchase hosting...I hope this information saves somebody the trouble I went through trying to solve these problems.