Update: Please download the latest version to correct a flaw that prevents the daily count from incrementing.

If you want to know how much hits your posts are receiving on a daily basis, then the Daily Top 10 Posts plugin is just for you. What it does is track the hits of each blog post for the current day and cumulatively at the same time. You may also display sidebar widgets containing a list of the most popular posts for the day and most popular posts overall.

Plugin Name: Daily Top 10 Posts
Description: Tracks the number of pageviews per blog post for the current day and cumulatively with options to display sidebar widgets for both.
Author: Andrew dela Serna
Version: 0.3
Notice: Compatible with Wordpress 2.0-2.2.
Disclaimer: This is a standalone plugin. If you have been using the Top 10 plugin, please be advised that using the Daily Top 10 Posts plugin means your pageviews will, once again, start from zero.

Installation:

1. Download the plugin from http://www.alleba.com/blog/wp-downloads/dailytop10.zip
2. Extract and upload dailytop10.php to ‘yourserver.com/wp-content/plugins/’
3. Login to your Wordpress admin panel and browse to the Plugins section.
4. Activate The Daily Top 10 Posts plugin.

Instructions:

*A README.TXT file is included in the download. Please read that file if you’re having trouble viewing the instructions here.

1. Go to Admin Panel > Presentation > Theme Editor and click on Single Post (single.php).

Find this line:

<?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?> //date

Right after it, insert this line:

<br /><?php todays_overall_count($post->ID, 'Visited', 'times', 'so far today', '0', 'show'); ?>

*If set to ’show’, the line will display something like “Visited 300 times, 25 so far today” while viewing an individual post.
* You may edit the wording to suit your preference.
* If you wish to leave a word/phrase empty, use two quotes '' instead of just leaving it completely blank.
* Insert only one instance of this line to avoid double tracking.
* To track unique sessions, change 0 to 1 at the end.
* Change ’show’ to ‘noshow’ if you do not wish to display a visible counter.

2. To display the number of views per post on the main index page, click on Main Index Template (index.php) in the Theme Editor panel.

* Find this line:

<?php the_time('F jS, Y') ?>

* Right after it, insert this line:

<br /><?php todays_overall_main($post->ID, 'Viewed', 'times', 'so far today'); ?>

* The line will display something like “Visited 300 times, 25 so far today” under each post heading while browsing your main page.
* You may edit the wording to suit your preference.
* If you wish to leave a word/phrase empty, use two quotes '' instead of just leaving it completely blank.

3. To add the sidebar widget to show your most popular posts for the day, click on Sidebar (sidebar.php) in the Theme Editor panel.

* Add the following code:

<h3>Top Posts for Today</h3>
<?php todays_count_widget('views', 'ul'); ?>

* You may edit the word “views” to your liking (e.g. visits, pageviews or leave it empty '').
* The list format defaults to an unordered list (ul). If you would like an ordered list, change it to 'ol'.

4. To add the sidebar widget to show your most popular posts overall, click on Sidebar (sidebar.php) in the Theme Editor panel.

* Add the following code:

<h3>Overall Top Posts</h3>
<?php todays_overall_count_widget('views', 'ul'); ?>

* You may edit the word “views” to your liking (e.g. visits, pageviews or leave it empty '').
* The list format defaults to an unordered list (ul). If you would like an ordered list, change it to 'ol'.

Update: Now has the ability to track unique hits based on sessions. See instruction #1 for implementation.

0.2 Update: A serious flaw has been found that prevents the daily count from incrementing. Please download the latest version to correct this.

0.3 Update: Numerous bugs corrected. For more, read this post.

Credits: Thanks to Abe for the idea!

As always, I am open to your comments and suggestions. I hope you like this one! Thanks!