How do you track your visitors?

Knowing who is visiting your site, and knowing how they got there, is important to building a following. If you know that most of your visitors are coming from google and most of those users are searching for recipes, for example, it may be in your best interest to write more recipe entries. Of course is you have a hamster and gerbil site, you may want to contact the authorities. ;-)




I use two different services and have not quite decided which I prefer. Both services are completely free and both provide referrers, keywords and more. Both sites also require you to embed a small piece of code in your site. The second option below is easier to use if you don't have the option, or the skills, to change your template.




The first is google analytics. It's an easy sign up to get an account. After you embed a small bit of html (in the body section of your template), you can visit the analytics site and get reports about visitors and keywords. It's very easy to use. Google Analytics is completely invisible and your statistics are as private as a google account can be.




You can get a nice tutorial and overview from google.




The second choice, that I have used anyway, is StatCounter. This is my favorite right now. It is super easy to get an account and super easy to add the required code. While Google Analytics requires a change to you template, StatCounter can go anywhere you can put javascript. There is also a pure HTML version but it cannot track as many statistics as the javascript version can.




You can get the same stats as Google but I just find navigation to be a bit more intuitive. I also like the fact that with StatCounter, you can download the raw logs and manipulate them as you like. StatCounter will store details for the last 500 hits and aggregates the rest. You can sign up for a premium service that will keep details longer. Or, you can just make sure to download the raw logs before you hit the 500 limit.




StatCounter can gather statistics invisibly or you can add a counter. I have a counter at the bottom of my blog (I just installed it on this blog actually). You can also choose to have a StatCounter button to help support the statcounter service.




You can read the complete list of StatCounter features. I didn't see a tutorial but the site is really easy to navigate.




The summary here is that if you want to build a following for your blog, you should be familiar with your visitors, where they come from and what they are looking for. If your content sucks, there's not much you can do. But if you plan to write good content, you add some kind of tracking code. Google Analytics and StatCounter are both free so check them out.

blog blogging visitor tracking stats google analytics statcounter counter

Unique Ways To Market Yourself

This is one of the most unique ways I have ever seen to get people to a blog. It's innovative and amusing. I'm talking about, the Next Internet Millionaire.




This is web marketing guru Joel Comm's latest venture. Basically, it looks like a reality show that gives away marketing tips. They take 12 people and set them up and give them tips. The contestants win prizes and such and the winner gets to partner up on a big project.




If you have a few million bucks laying around, this is an awesome way to get people to your site. For me, I'll just have to watch.




LewisC

blog blogging marketing reality

10 Principles of Successful Business Blogging

From Daily Blog Tips comes 10 Principles of Successful Business Blogging. This blog is one of the best, if not the best, out there for blog tips. I get the daily email.




Anyway, this article covers hot to blog for the professional audience. It covers using and keeping a professional tone while making a personal blog, editing to ensure the quality and consistency of your message, and treat it like a professional endeavor by treating your readers like customers and not abandoning your blog.




This is a good read.




LewisC

blog blogging

Anyone Can Write a Blog!

When I first started blogging and would tell people I was a blogger, they would ask what that was. Blogs have caught on like fire since then, I started at the end of 2004, and while most people still don't read blogs, they at least know what they are.




What I hear now when I say that I am a blogger is, "I could write a blog." I then get the "argue with me look". I don't argue, I agree. Anyone can write a blog. It's easy. Sign up with a host, start putting your thoughts down.




Writing an interesting blog is harder but it's still not that hard. No matter how mundane your blog might be, there is someone who will find it interesting. Even if it's just your family and friends.




Making money with a blog is harder but even that is not really that hard. I was doing it within a few months of starting to blog. I'm not a 6 figure blogger but I never really thought I would be a 1 figure blogger. Being a 5 figure blogger is pretty nice.




No, none of that is hard. You can tell that by the fact that millions of new blogs are started every year. According to some stats, like Sifry's The State of the Live Web, April 2007, there are 120,000 new blogs every day. If we are generous and say that 20,000 of those are spam blogs, that still leaves us with 100,000 per day or 3,650,000 per year.




The hard part of blogging is to continue blogging. Of those 100k blogs that are started today, how many are there tomorrow? How many next month? How many a year form now? They might still be out there at the end of a URL, but many, if not most, will be long dormant. The hard part is to sit down and write.




Ideas are easy and I think that's what people mean when they say they can start a blog. They have an idea. Might even have ideas. Ideas don't get it though. The ideas have to travel out of your brain and down your arms to your fingers so that they can be written. If you don't write, it don't matter.




When people give me that look and say, "I could write a blog." I say, "Yes you can. Here's the URL to blogger.com and wordpress.com. Send me an email after you get 30 posts and I'll link to you from my blog." I've heard that statement a hundred times at least. I've only linked twice.




Blogging is easy. Here's the URL to blogger.com and wordpress.com. Signing up is free. Send me a note and let me know what blog you created. I'd like to keep an eye on it.




LewisC

blog blogging

Squidoo For Me and You

Do you want to brag about your blog? Do you want an opportunity to make more money from your blog? Would you like to let the world know what an expert you are in your chosen topic?




Navigate over to Squidoo.

Squidoo's goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo's goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo's goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them.

The site was started by Seth Godin. Seth is a yahoo and a well known marketing guru. Squidoo is his online marketing plan for everyone.




If you browse around some on the site, you can see that people pick a fairly narrow topic and then put everything they know about that topic on the page. This is a very simple site to operate so you don't need any special skills. If you can create a blogger blog, you can do well at Squidoo.




A Squidoo blog or page is called a lens. As the lensmaster, you select modules like an RSS module, a text module, an amazon module, etc. There are several stores with modules and something called a plexo (that lets your readers vote on items in the store or even on links).




I primarily write database blogs, but I have several other interests, so I have several lenses:

• Lean Oracle


• EnterpriseDB


• PostgreSQL


• All Databases


• Lewis's Writing Credits


• New Orleans

You can also create groups that other lensmasters can join. I have two groups: Oracle and PostgreSQL.




In addition to getting your subject and name out there, it can be a good way to connect to a larger community.




Check it out. If you decide to start a lens, send me a note and let me know.




LewisC

blog blogging squidoo lens monetize community

How Do I Choose a Web Hosting Provider?

I have discussed web hosting providers like Blogger.com and Wordpress.com. I stumbled across the most complete list of web host providers I have ever seen. The list is from Mashable.com. It's called, 40+ Free Blog Hosts. This is a seriously useful list of providers.




The list is sorted by blogging software with a list of themed sites. This is a must see.




Ok, so you have a list of providers but how do you chose one? You need to read some reviews. One good site for reviews is Web Hosting Jury. Here is the description from the site:

Web Hosting Jury is a web hosting reviews site but with a difference. All the hosting reviews on our site are reviews submitted by past or present customers of that particular web host. Unlike some other web hosting review sites, we do not accept payment from any host in regards to getting a higher ranking on our site. Hosts are ranked according to our algorithm which is based entirely on user ratings. Please feel free to browse through existing reviews or submit a review. Even if the host is not already listed on our site you can submit a web hosting review about your web hosting company. By submitting a review you will be helping other people who are looking for a host. Also visit our Web Hosting Coupons section for some great exclusive hosting discounts and special offers.

Another review site that might be useful is Hostingreview.com, a webmaster oriented review site.




I'm not associated or affiliated in anyway with any of these sites. I would say hit all three review sites and see what people have to say.




LewisC

blog blogging host provider review free

Should you allow comments on your blog?

Are comments on your blog a good thing? Some say yes, some say no. I personally like to get feedback and share comments with my readers. Not everyone does.




Some people are afraid of allowing comments due to lawsuits that might arise from what people post. One way to alleviate that concern is to only allow authenticated users post comments. That can get painful though on a mostly anonymous internet.




A good article that you can read is The Legal Issues with Comments fromn the Blog Herald. The author, Jonathan Bailey, covers Libel, Copyright and Trademark issues. He concludes the article with:

All in all, there are many reasons to consider dropping comments from your blog, but legal issues should not be one of them. In the vast majority of cases, if you approach commenting with good faith, the risk is very low and you are more likely engaging in riskier behavior in your blog itself.

With that in mind, it is still very important to be careful about what you say and publish as the protections offered to you for what your commenters say do not apply to your own words.

Everyone can be held accountable for what they post, just not what other people say, at least in the vast majority of cases.

This is a very clear and easy to read article from a very informed writer. He's not a lawyer but he also writes Plagiarism Today.




So how would i conclude this? I say you should allow comments. We become better bloggers by interacting, not by being talking heads.




Take care,




LewisC

blog blogging comments libel lawsuit Plagiarism

Why Join a Blog Community?

What is a blog community? A blog community is a site that links related blogs and drives more traffic than an individual blog will alone, especially for new blogs. You might join a community that blogs about topics that interest you, or you might join a community for your age group or profession.

For those who want to make money, one bonus of joining a blog community is that, for paid communities, the income will usually start rolling in quicker than it will if you blog on your own.

Sites such as Wordpress.com and Blogger.com are not really communities. They are blog hosting companies. They host your blog for free but don't really do much to create a community.

Some free blogging communities are:

• MySpace.com - Everyone must have a page on myspace
  
• CREN - Christian Real Estate Network blog
• Blog4Rock - Rock Music Blogging

As you can see, there is a blog community for just about anyone and any interest. If you want to make money, you may want to blog on one of the sites that either pays directly or that shares revenue.

Some paying blog communities:

• ITToolbox - A Professional Blog Community (I blog here). Pays depending on average hits per day.
• 451 Press - This one turned out to be bad news.
• Helium - Many topics. Shares ad revenue.
• Weblogs, Inc - 90 categories to choose from. I'm not sure how they pay as I don't currently blog for them.

Another nice thing about a blog community is that you have more experienced people that can help you out in a bind. I like having my own blogs where I can post as often as I like about any topic that I like, but I also like being parter of a larger community.

Take care,

LewisC

blog blogging community paid

How often should I post?

One of the golden rules of blogging (if you want to grow readership) is that you have to post frequently. That's doesn't mean multiple times per day but it does mean multiple times per week. It doesn't have to be long (I will talk about content and quality in a post later on) but it should be more than just, "I don't have time to post today".

If nothing else, do a google search on an interesting topic and post some links on that. For example, I can search on "blog frequency" and see what pops up.

Interestingly enough, I find a few good links such as, "Why blog post frequency does not matter anymore" and "Optimal blog posting frequency". I just both of these and they are very good.

Also, if you are posting for your own enjoyment, post as often, or as rarely, as you like.

That leads me to make the point that if you aren't having fun, it's just not worth it.

Take care,

LewisC

blog blogging frequency posting

Free Pictures for your Blog

Putting pictures on your blog is a great way to get people to notice it. When the eye catches a picture, it tends to stay longer.

I found the best list of pictures anywhere on the GraphicsAndDesign Blog. The blog entry, Free Stock Photos for Graphic and Web Designers lists many, many sites. I have used photos from BurningWell.org, which contains totally free (public domain images).

Make sure to read the Terms of Use on the individual web sites to make sure you can use them. Many of the sites allow you to use the images for personal use but not for commercial use.

blog blogging photos graphics

What should I write about in my blog?

This is an easy one. Write about whatever you want. Write as often as you want. It's totally up to you.

Now, if you are looking for a regular following, you should pick a topic and stick to it. That doesn't mean never write about anything but that one topic but, in general, the majority of your blog entries should relate to the topic of your blog.

If you want to write regularly on two unrelated topics, start two (or more) blogs. For example, I am writing this blog and I have my LewisC's Random Thoughts blog as well as several pure tech blogs, like my Oracle DB News Blog.

A quick tip to help you focus on your topic is to put a very clear topic description in your blog header. If that topic is not clear, people won't know what you're about and might not stick around. Make sure the message is clear.

Once you have a clear message, check each post as you post it. Does the topic of your post agree with the topic of your blog? If not, you may want to think about creating an additional blog.

Here is the "but" that you had to know was coming. If you are writing a blog for you, your family, or your friends, write about anything you want at any time that you want to. My Random Thoughts blog is really about whatever interests me. It really gets random at times. Then again, I am ok with not having a large readership on that blog. I hope people stick around but I understand if they don't.

Take care,

LewisC

blog blogging topics write