The following sitemaps are available at Blogger.
yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml
yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml
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Sunday, October 28, 2007
How do I track visitors to my blog
ref:http://bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com/2006/03/how-do-i-track-visitors-to-my-blog.html
Many bloggers are interested in knowing how often their blog was viewed. What you need is a hits counter. You can get a free hit counter here at StatCounter.com. After you sign up for an account, you will be taken through a series of steps to generate codes to paste into your template. You will have to provide a title and give the url of your blog, choose a category and select from a series of options. You may just accept the default if you want a counter similar to what you see at the bottom of this page (you may also select the invisible option). There will be just one option where no default is given and that is whether your website uses frames. Select NO. There is a further option of whether you want the script generated for your counter to be XHTML compliant or not. For the New Blogger, I have earlier found that leaving this unticked can give a working counter. But if you are using a New Blogger template, it is probably betting to tick that option. When the codes are generated, highlight it and copy the codes.
Sign into Dashboard, select the relevant blog, click the TEMPLATE tab to get to the template editor to edit the template. Paste the codes after the <body> tag and before the </body> tag. If you chose an invisible counter, you can follow the instruction in the post exactly, and it doesn't matter whether you are using the old classic template or the New Blogger template. If you chose a visible counter, the counter will appear at the bottom of the page. If you want the visible counter to appear elsewhere and you are using the old classic Blogger template, you will have to refer to this post Blogger template tutorial (old classic template): Adding stuff via the template for a guide as to where to paste the script.
If you chose an invisible counter, the number of steps is very much less. Note that Statcounter have changed a bit since this post was written and I think I need to do an update/redit or a new post,
--
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Many bloggers are interested in knowing how often their blog was viewed. What you need is a hits counter. You can get a free hit counter here at StatCounter.com. After you sign up for an account, you will be taken through a series of steps to generate codes to paste into your template. You will have to provide a title and give the url of your blog, choose a category and select from a series of options. You may just accept the default if you want a counter similar to what you see at the bottom of this page (you may also select the invisible option). There will be just one option where no default is given and that is whether your website uses frames. Select NO. There is a further option of whether you want the script generated for your counter to be XHTML compliant or not. For the New Blogger, I have earlier found that leaving this unticked can give a working counter. But if you are using a New Blogger template, it is probably betting to tick that option. When the codes are generated, highlight it and copy the codes.
Sign into Dashboard, select the relevant blog, click the TEMPLATE tab to get to the template editor to edit the template. Paste the codes after the <body> tag and before the </body> tag. If you chose an invisible counter, you can follow the instruction in the post exactly, and it doesn't matter whether you are using the old classic template or the New Blogger template. If you chose a visible counter, the counter will appear at the bottom of the page. If you want the visible counter to appear elsewhere and you are using the old classic Blogger template, you will have to refer to this post Blogger template tutorial (old classic template): Adding stuff via the template for a guide as to where to paste the script.
If you chose an invisible counter, the number of steps is very much less. Note that Statcounter have changed a bit since this post was written and I think I need to do an update/redit or a new post,
--
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101 Steps to Becoming a Better Blogger
ref:http://allthek.yculblog.com/post.1882958.html
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I have noticed that the most successful bloggers online have all taken similar steps in becoming great bloggers. After lots
of research and study, I can also tell you that blogging is much more complex than it seems to be on the surface. However, with a bit of effort, I believe anyone can become a successful blogger.
Here are 101 steps to becoming a better blogger…
1. First, I'm going to assume you're using Wordpress. You are using Wordpress aren't you? The built-in SEO and pinging functions make Wordpress a search engine machine.
2. Sign up for Feedburner.
3. Post at least once a day.
4. Optimize your blog for the search engines.
5. Make sure you have an "About Me" page.
6. Submit your blog to 9Rules.
7. Submit your blog to NewsNow.
8. Let your readers see the REAL you. Blogging is more personal than conventional websites. Don't be afraid to tell a few
stories from your own life. By being real and personal, you will build a relationship with your readers based on loyalty and trust.
9. Blog and ping.
10. Submit your blog to rss and blog directories.
11. Use trackbacks.
12. Get involved in the blogosphere. Being a blogger is about being part of a community. Leave comments on other
blogs and get to know your favorite bloggers.
13. Give your blog it's own unique voice… You!
14. Spend 99% of your time focused on creating unique, quality content. Content is King; or as John Reese says, "content is King Kong".
15. Add a large RSS subscription button to your site.
16. Place an RSS feed link at the bottom of every post.
17. Set up a MyBlogLog Widget.
18. Encourage social bookmarking after every post.
Install these plugins to optimize your blog:
19. Akismet - This plugin helps eliminate comment spam.
20. Optimal Title - This plugin allows you to optimize the title of your blog post in order to improve your search engine rankings.
21. Ultimate Tag Warrior - The best tag system for WordPress.
22. Google Sitemap Generator - This plugin will enable you to automatically generate a Google sitemap for your blog.
23. Show Top Commentators - This plugin encourages feedback and discussion by rewarding the top commentators with a link back to their site in the sidebar.
24. Related Posts - This plugin will find other blog posts that are related to the current post. This encourages extra page views and keeps readers at your blog for a longer period of time.
25. Super Archive - One of the best archives system.
26. WP-Cache - This plugin is an extremely efficient caching system that will make your site much faster.
27. WP-ContactForm - This plugin allows your readers to easily email you. It also helps avoid spam.
28. Popularity Contest - This plugin determines which of your posts are most popular and then puts them in the sidebar.
29. Adsense Deluxe - This plugin makes it easy to implement Adsense into your blog.
30. Sociable - This plugin helps you spread your content through social bookmarking sites like Digg, del.icio.us,reddit, and others.
31. Feedburner Feed Replacement - This plugin directs all of your feed traffic to Feedburner, ensuring accurate readership stats. This plugin will also convert any existing subscribers from the old feed to the FeedBurner
one.
32. Create a custom blog design. Your blog is a symbol of your brand. Make it uniquely you.
33. Add photos to each of your posts.
34. Use tagging.
35. Share the link love.
36. Publish a full feed instead of a partial feed.
37. Consider approaching newspapers with a story about your blog. Remember, journalists are hungry for content and if
you can come up with a unique twist, then you could get some great coverage.
38. Persistence is the key. Give your blog at least 6 months before you start expecting great returns on all of your hard work. Believe me, it will pay off in the long run.
39. Submit exclusive content to high-profile sites.
40. Syndicate a press release. Take some time to craft a truly compelling and newsworthy press release and send it to some of the top journalists and bloggers. You can then submit it to the main press release sites, including PRWeb and PRLeap.
41. Turn your articles into podcasts.
42. Turn your articles into videos using PowerPoint to create an entertaining slideshow. Submit your video to all of the
popular video sites, including Google Video, YouTube, and others.
43. Submit to blog carnivals.
44. Participate in and submit to social web 2.0 sites, including Reddit, Digg, Delicious, Netscape, and Stumble Upon.
45. Turn your articles into downloadable reports/ebooks.
46. Join Blogburst.
47. Syndicate your articles to EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare,
American Chronicle, and other high-profile article directories.
48. Exchange guest posts with other bloggers.
49. Participate in group writing projects and memes.
50. Create a Squidoo lens that links back to your blog and established you as an industry expert in your chosen field.
51. Interview industry experts. This is one of the best ways to create original, engaging content.
52. Offer an e-mail newsletter in addition to RSS. An email newsletter allows you to form a closer relationship with
your visitors and picks up those who still aren't comfortable with RSS technology.
53. Ask your visitors for suggestions on how to improve your website's content because in the end, it's really all about your readers.
54. Create a customized 404 page.
55. Claim your blog on Technorati.
56. Enable automatic trackback and ping functionality.
57. If someone mentions your website on their blog, thank that blogger in the comments of the post and send them a thank you note. You can monitor any mentions of your blog using Google Alerts, Technorati, and Blogpulse.
58. Make contact with related bloggers online as well as offline.
59. Build up the readership of your blog using StumbleUpon Ads.
60. Edit yourself ruthlessly.
61. Translate your site into multiple languages. This is one tactic that few sites are taking advantage of.
62. Have your blog reviewed by ReviewMe.
63. Become a Guest Blogger.
64. Use Google Analytics.
65. Validate your feeds.
66. Claim your blog at Feedster.
67. Interact with your readers. Blogging is a two-way communication tool. The most successful bloggers interact with their readers. They answer reader emails and comments and ask for feedback and suggestions on a regular basis.
68. Write about something that you love. You will not succeed if you are working at something you don't enjoy. As Dale
Carnegie once said, "People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing."
69. Attend blogging conferences.
70. Invite your readers to submit articles.
Top Ways to Monetize Your Blog:
72. Text Link Ads
73. BlogAds
74. Ad Brite
75. Direct Ad sales & Sponsorships
76. Affiliate Sales
77. Google Adsense
78. ReviewMe
79. Bidvertiser
80. AuctionAds
81. Some of the best ways to monetize your RSS feed include the FeedBurner Ad Network and Text Link Ads.
Blog Writing Tips:
82. Learn to write great headlines.
83. Make your articles scannable. People don't read on the Internet. They scan.
84. Use numbers in your titles to attract attention.
85. Vary your content. Be unique. Create a quiz. Interview a fellow blogger. Poll your readers. Review a book. Shake it
up a bit to keep your readers interested.
86. Edit your writing ruthlessly.
87. Write like you talk.
88. Write with passion. It will come through in your writing.
89. Say something worth reading.
90. Always write with your reader in mind. Imagine that you are chatting with them over lunch at a local cafe.
91. Make your important points up front.
92. Include bullet point lists.
93. Create a "top 10″ list.
94. Create a "How To" article.
95. Create a weekly or monthly roundup of great posts from around the blogosphere.
96. Watch for trends in your industry.
97. Read voraciously and bring your readers the golden nuggets of everything you learn.
98. If you ever find yourself with writer's block, check out 101 Great Posting Ideas.
99. Leave your readers hungry for more. Give them a quick preview of what you'll be posting the next day. They
are much more likely to come back if they are already excited about the next days post. Anticipation is
one of the greatest marketing tactic.
100. Have fun! Blogging doesn't always have to be serious. Feel free to make your posts fun and entertaining.
101. If you're still looking for blogging tips, then here are some great resources: ProBlogger, JohnChow, and Successful Blog.
Kim Roach is a productivity junkie who blogs regularly at The Optimized Life. Read her articles on 50 Essential GTD Resources, How to Have a 46 Hour Day, Do You Need a Braindump, What They Don't Teach You in School, and
Free Yourself From the Inbox.
--
Happy day, happy life!
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Adding Google sitemap to your blog
ref:http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/2006/04/adding-google-sitemap-to-your-blog.html
Adding Google sitemap to your blog is an easy way to add your blog URL to Google index and get your blog crawled. With Google sitemap, you can get better crawl coverage and search results to help people find more of your web pages. You also get detailed reports about how Google directs traffic to your blog and how Googlebot sees your pages. (Note: there is some controversy over the usefulness of this Google sitemap. with Blogger, you have no access to Blogger's servers and thus have no chance to upload a real sitemap. Google came up with a way for bloggers using Google Blogger to add a kind of sitemap to their blog by making use of the feed. Note this this is in no way making a real sitemap, but I supposed it is still better than nothing. This would be especially true if you set you feed to "Short" and not "Full". I set my main blogs feed to short and am thinking a doing my own version of a sitemap which will consist of a post with links to all the posts in the blog and place a link to that post in the sidebar of the blog. In this way, there will be a links for the search engine spider to follow all the posts. However, this will involve updating the post each time you make a new post, and a lot of work if you frequently update your blog. Maybe I would do both. This is because although some doubt the usefullness of adding a Google sitemap for a blog this way, you will get a report of any problems that the Google spider may encounter when indexing your blog and having my own version of a sitemap in the sidebar will help the spider crawl all my posts.
You will get a "Your site has been added to your account. Verify your ownership to view detailed statistics and errors for it" message and a button to verify your ownership.
Click the "Verify" text hyperlink, and you will be taken to a selection box to select your verification method.
Choose "Add a Meta tag". A meta tag will be generated for you.
Highlight this meta tag and copy it to clipboard. Sign into Dashboard, select your blog, click TEMPLATE tab and paste the meta tag in between the <head> and </head> tags. Save and republish. Check the "I've added the META tag in the home page of http://your-blog-url.com/" box and click the [verify] button.
There will be a message "We do not know about all the pages of your site. [Submit a Sitemap] to tell us more about your site. Click [Submit a Sitemap] and in the "Choose type..." selection box, select "Add General Web Sitemap".
Tick
[tick] I've created a Sitemap in a supported format. [?]
[tick] I've uploaded my Sitemap to the highest-level directory to which I have access.
[tick] My Sitemap URL is: [ ]
then enter the site feed URL into the "My Sitemap URL is: box. You can get the site feed url of your blog from SETTINGS. Click SETTINGS, SITE FEED tabs in the Dashboard. In the case of blogspot, just add /atom.xml to the end of the blog URL. (For example, the site feed URL of this blog is http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/atom.xml.) Then click " Add Web Sitemap" and you are done.
Update 22 April 2007: This post was written before New Blogger (formerly Blogger Beta) was introduced. If you are with New Blogger, use the feed URL. There are 4 possible feed URL for the New blogger:
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
substituting "your blog" with the actual name of your blog. The feed found by Feedburner for this blog are:
http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
There is one further thing you can do, and that is to enable enhanced image search. At the bottom of the page, tick "Enhanced Image Search".
What does it mean to opt-in to enhanced image search? If you choose to enable enhanced image search, Google will use tools such as Google Image Labeler to associate the images included in your site with labels that will improve indexing and search quality of those images.
Bookmark this page so that you can return to it whenever you want to ping Google Sitemap, which should be whenever you update your blog.
Update 11 July 2007: I think I need to draw your attention to My Advice on Google Sitemaps - Verify, but Don't Submit. There was a comment in that post which makes me want to rethink and hopefully do some research when I have time and if I remember.
For your convenience, I paste that comment from that site here:
"Hello i'd like to share my experience of sitemaps with you... i have a small site - 170 pages that i launced with a sitemap - after 3 months i was frustrated with only a handful of pages showing up in the SERPS - so i removed the sitemap and voila - within 48 hours 90% of my site was crawled and my traffic rocketed. I used a Google sitemap generator tool to create the sitemap in the first place - probably wasnt correctly formatted but it still verified ok with G. The moral of the story - IMO don't use a sitemap unless you A) Know exactly what you are doing and B) you have to."
You have any information or experience regarding this, I hope you will comment and let us know.
--
Happy day, happy life!
Haven't got your own portal? Get it here! http://www.diyportals.com/
Portal Features:
A.Signup Free
B.50MB of disk space
C.1GB data transfer
D.Plenty of free Modules
E.Custom Business Module Development Services
F.The Latest DotNetNuke (04.06.02)
Adding Google sitemap to your blog is an easy way to add your blog URL to Google index and get your blog crawled. With Google sitemap, you can get better crawl coverage and search results to help people find more of your web pages. You also get detailed reports about how Google directs traffic to your blog and how Googlebot sees your pages. (Note: there is some controversy over the usefulness of this Google sitemap. with Blogger, you have no access to Blogger's servers and thus have no chance to upload a real sitemap. Google came up with a way for bloggers using Google Blogger to add a kind of sitemap to their blog by making use of the feed. Note this this is in no way making a real sitemap, but I supposed it is still better than nothing. This would be especially true if you set you feed to "Short" and not "Full". I set my main blogs feed to short and am thinking a doing my own version of a sitemap which will consist of a post with links to all the posts in the blog and place a link to that post in the sidebar of the blog. In this way, there will be a links for the search engine spider to follow all the posts. However, this will involve updating the post each time you make a new post, and a lot of work if you frequently update your blog. Maybe I would do both. This is because although some doubt the usefullness of adding a Google sitemap for a blog this way, you will get a report of any problems that the Google spider may encounter when indexing your blog and having my own version of a sitemap in the sidebar will help the spider crawl all my posts.
How to add Google sitemap to your blog
To add Google sitemap to your blog, go to Google sitemap, and sign in with your Google Account (create one if you don't have one). In the Add site box, enter your blog url as shown in the screenshot below, and click OK. (In this post, there will be many screenshots. To enlarge them, click on the screenshot)
You will get a "Your site has been added to your account. Verify your ownership to view detailed statistics and errors for it" message and a button to verify your ownership.
Click the "Verify" text hyperlink, and you will be taken to a selection box to select your verification method.Choose "Add a Meta tag". A meta tag will be generated for you.
Highlight this meta tag and copy it to clipboard. Sign into Dashboard, select your blog, click TEMPLATE tab and paste the meta tag in between the <head> and </head> tags. Save and republish. Check the "I've added the META tag in the home page of http://your-blog-url.com/" box and click the [verify] button.
There will be a message "We do not know about all the pages of your site. [Submit a Sitemap] to tell us more about your site. Click [Submit a Sitemap] and in the "Choose type..." selection box, select "Add General Web Sitemap".
Tick[tick] I've created a Sitemap in a supported format. [?]
[tick] I've uploaded my Sitemap to the highest-level directory to which I have access.
[tick] My Sitemap URL is: [ ]
then enter the site feed URL into the "My Sitemap URL is: box. You can get the site feed url of your blog from SETTINGS. Click SETTINGS, SITE FEED tabs in the Dashboard. In the case of blogspot, just add /atom.xml to the end of the blog URL. (For example, the site feed URL of this blog is http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/atom.xml.) Then click " Add Web Sitemap" and you are done.
Update 22 April 2007: This post was written before New Blogger (formerly Blogger Beta) was introduced. If you are with New Blogger, use the feed URL. There are 4 possible feed URL for the New blogger:
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/rss.xml
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full
http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
substituting "your blog" with the actual name of your blog. The feed found by Feedburner for this blog are:
http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
There is one further thing you can do, and that is to enable enhanced image search. At the bottom of the page, tick "Enhanced Image Search".
What does it mean to opt-in to enhanced image search? If you choose to enable enhanced image search, Google will use tools such as Google Image Labeler to associate the images included in your site with labels that will improve indexing and search quality of those images.
Ping Google sitemap
Now, whenever you update your blog, just ping Google sitemap by filling in the form below. Enter your blog feed url (***.blogspot.com/atom.xml) and click "Ping Google Sitemap" button.Bookmark this page so that you can return to it whenever you want to ping Google Sitemap, which should be whenever you update your blog.
Update 11 July 2007: I think I need to draw your attention to My Advice on Google Sitemaps - Verify, but Don't Submit. There was a comment in that post which makes me want to rethink and hopefully do some research when I have time and if I remember.
For your convenience, I paste that comment from that site here:
"Hello i'd like to share my experience of sitemaps with you... i have a small site - 170 pages that i launced with a sitemap - after 3 months i was frustrated with only a handful of pages showing up in the SERPS - so i removed the sitemap and voila - within 48 hours 90% of my site was crawled and my traffic rocketed. I used a Google sitemap generator tool to create the sitemap in the first place - probably wasnt correctly formatted but it still verified ok with G. The moral of the story - IMO don't use a sitemap unless you A) Know exactly what you are doing and B) you have to."
You have any information or experience regarding this, I hope you will comment and let us know.
--
Happy day, happy life!
Haven't got your own portal? Get it here! http://www.diyportals.com/
Portal Features:
A.Signup Free
B.50MB of disk space
C.1GB data transfer
D.Plenty of free Modules
E.Custom Business Module Development Services
F.The Latest DotNetNuke (04.06.02)
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