I have just started a blog and want to know how well it is working for me?
Are there ways of collecting stats in the same way as say Constant Contact does for a newsletter?

If you are thinking of a traffic for your blog than Social Media Profiles is the best way.That is the most important way for generating the natural traffic,also good for generating good contacts.The main points for which we should take care are "Highly Relevant Backlinking" and "Naturally Occurring Backlinks".