Blogging

Google Analytics: Have you got it set up yet?

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Google Analytics has been around since November 2005, and was recently revamped with a new GUI as pictured below. Given all the other options that are around, including Sitemeter, MyBlogLog, and so on, Google Analytics is really the simplest solution and can provide a lot of useful statistics without much configuration.

analytics

Have you installed it on your website yet? If not, why not?…!

Step 1: Make sure that you have signed up for your Analytics Account (it’s free). If you already have a Google Account, so much the better.

Step 2: Log in, and create a new Analytics Account.

newaccount

Step 3: Then click on ‘Add Website Profile’ (Top Right in the image below).

websiteprofile

Step 4: Now you’ll see your website profile which is easy to fill out.

profile

Step 5: Once done, you’ll get your tracking code.

script

Step 6: Look for the tracking code at the bottom, copy the entire text in the box beginning <script>…</script>. It looks like this, but the UA number is different for each code.

<script src=”http://www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js” type=”text/javascript”>
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
_uacct = “UA-******-*”;
urchinTracker();
</script>

Now open your blog software (I’m assuming Wordpress 2.0+). Login to the administration area of your blog.

Step 7: Look at this image to identify the three mini-steps to locate the right file to edit for your current theme.

admin

  • i. Find the theme editor, under Presentation.

  • ii. Select your current theme.

  • iii. Click on the file called ‘footer’ to edit that file.

Step 8: Each footer file will be different, but the process is similar. Place the code at the bottom of the footer file, but BEFORE the last <BODY> tag. Then click “Update File”.

foooter

(Observant users will note that I didn’t paste my code in there! I can’t remember where I put it on this blog! … But for my other website, that’s where it is, right on the orange line!!! :D)

Step 9: You should go back to your Analytics account to check that the status has changed. You will see the following graphic.

wait

Step 10: Wait patiently for about 12 hours or more before data starts to show up in the reports!

Happy Googling!

Images for Your Blog – Five Good Sources You Can Use

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Images are quite important for blogs, otherwise too many postings full of words can make it much more difficult for readers to read and absorb the information you are trying to convey. Largely, this is because of the way computer screens display information which makes intensive book-like reading styles much more uncomfortable. Attention spans tend to be shorter, information can only be taken in in bite-size chunks; so images play an important role in alleviating this problem.

I didn’t use to use a lot of images in my blog, until I realized that the lack of images wasn’t encouraging people to read my pages. Since then, I’ve started to include a lot of different types of images. I don’t overload each posting with images, but I try to average at least one image per post.

There are many ways you can get images for your blog:

1. Screenshots: if you are featuring, discussing or reviewing a website, a simple screenshot can be taken by pressing your “PrintScreen” button on your keyboard. You will need to crop the image, using the Windows Paint Program. Or you can find other tools to help you do this!

2. Taking Pictures: Many of you already have a digicam or a DV video cam, both of which can take acceptable pictures for the web. Obviously, the better quality camera will likely produce a better finish, but if all you have is a webcam, that’ll be sufficient. Go out, take your own pictures, like I did for several reviews on this blog, and publish them.

3. Raid your archives: If you’ve had a digicam or DV video cam for a while, you’ll likely already have hundreds or even thousands of images that you can draw on. If you have good quality slides, or negatives, you can even convert those (though you may have to buy equipment or pay someone to do that for you).

4. Free Images: There are lots of places to get free images, this link from WikiPedia will help get you started and Stock.Xchng, though you need to respect copyright and any restrictions that the owner of the images places.

5. Movies: you can include movies from obvious sources such as YouTube, too. There are now dozens of movie websites, though. Perhaps even in your own archives there are short movies that you could use. Most Digicams now take clips, even long ones. One of my clips lasted over 5 minutes, though it kills the battery! So you could even take your own clips, upload them, and place them on your website. And remember, you can generate stills from movies, too!

In short, it’s easy enough to liven up your bloggings with images, so spend a few minutes extra and make it easier on your readers – INCLUDE an image! Do you include a lot of images these days or not? Where do you get them from?

10 PR7 Directories: Submitting won’t hurt you!

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I don’t generally submit to a lot of online directories, figuring it isn’t so useful. But I just came across a list of 10 PR7 Directories on the main page. So if you are looking to build traffic and ranking, you may want to start with this basic list.

  1. http://www.blogcatalog.com/
  2. http://blogflux.com/
  3. http://www.blogpulse.com/index.html
  4. http://www.blogdigger.com/
  5. http://www.blogarama.com/
  6. http://www.blogrankings.com/
  7. http://www.bloghub.com/
  8. http://blogstreet.com/
  9. http://www.getblogs.com/
  10. http://portal.eatonweb.com/

So get submitting and let me know if it helps or not! Not recommended anymore.