Some Common Google Adsense Myths

Some Common Google Adsense Myths

I get a lot of interest in my articles about Google Adsense on Blogger Blogspot blogs. In this article I discuss 6 common myths about Google Adsense that will help you get real about placing Adsense on your Blogger blog.

Google Adsense Myths Every Blogspot Bloggers Needs to Know

There are a number of myths about Google Adsense which can lead new bloggers in particular into believing that they need only slap a few Google Ad units on their blog and they will become instant millionaires. The reality can be a lot different especially when you consider that 95% of all blogs receive less than 100 visitors per day. Adding Google Adsense to your blog can generate some income but there is a need to be realistic. Here are 6 myths about Google Adsense that every blogger needs to know:

Myth 1. Google Adsense is a Get Rich Quick Scheme

False. Only a small percentage of bloggers actually make a living from their blog. It is definitely possible to make some money from Google Adsense Ad units but bear in mind that making money from your blog is commensurate with many factors such as types of advertising, placement of advertising, quality of your content, regular posting, number of articles, SEO, backlinks to your site, number of visitors to your blog to name just a few. The more articles you write, the more posts indexed in search engines like Google and Yahoo which may lead to increased traffic but not necessarily. The bottom line is that for your ads to be effective your blog needs to receive traffic so concentrate your efforts in this area and make sure that your blog is worth visiting once your visitors get there.

Do Your Sums

As Google Adsense itself says it is difficult to predict earnings however there are some general pointers to guide you. For instance if your blog receives 100 visits per day your likely revenue from Google is probably about 10 cents per day assuming that 1 in 100 people click on some form of Google advertising on your site and the page CTR is about 0.20%. Over a year that equates to about $36.50. Not a fortune in anyone's book. Likewise if your blog is fortunate enough to receive 1000 visitors per day you are looking at an annual income from Google Adsense of $365.00.

100 Visitors per day = Earnings $36.50 per year

1000 Visitors per day = Earnings $365.00 per year

5000 Visitors per day = Earnings $1825.00 per year

10000 Visitors per day = Earnings $3650.00 per year

The above figures are an optimistic view. I have not allowed for the fact that many of your visitors will be repeats so the likelihood of a repeat visitor clicking on an ad unit is less than for that of a new visitor. On this basis your earnings could be much less.

Google Adsense and Affiliate Marketing

About 95% of Bloggers would have less than 100 visitors to their blog a day. If your blog is in this category then Google Adsense alone will not allow you to quit your job and become a full-time blogger. You will need to display other forms of advertising on your blog as well before your blog will start to pay. Check out my article on other forms of advertising that may be suitable for your Blogger blog including displaying Affiliate Marketing banners.

Affiliate marketing banners can work as a form of advertising. Consider that if 1 site visitor in 100 actually buys something worth $50.00 you will immediately earn $5.00 assuming you receive 10% of the sale as a commission. Even if only one in 500 clicks through to the merchant and buys something you will still be ahead of the revenue earned from Google ads for the same number of visitors. $5.00 from Affiliate Marketing versus 50 cents from Google Adsense. In many ways Affiliate Marketing is a more profitable marketing strategy than having heaps of Google ads on your blog. However, in my experience a good mix of both is the way to go

Myth 2. Displaying More Ads on My Blog Will Earn More Money

False. Some bloggers mistakenly believe that placing more Google Adsense units on their blog will yield higher earnings. Sadly this isn't the case at all. By putting more Ad units on your blog you may actually reduce your earnings. There is a risk that the highest performing Ad units will shift to positions that are less frequently clicked on. For instance while the top right hand corner is a prime place for an advertising banner because it gets viewed by the most eyeballs it is also a spot that tends to get disregarded by savvy visitors who recognise it as an advertising zone and avoid it. At the same time a 336x280 Ad unit with a higher CTR is likely to display Google Ad units which pay less because the highest CTR has been transferred to the 468x60 Ad unit.

Myth 3. More Traffic Equates to Higher Google Adsense Earnings 

Not necessarily. Depending on your blog's content it might not always be possible to drive a lot of new visitors to your blog and you rely more heavily on your repeat traffic. However, due to the familiarity of the ad placement on your blog repeat visitors are less likely to click on your Ad units than new visitors. While you can expect more clicks on your ad units as traffic increases there is no guarantee that Google Adsense on your blog will deliver the kind of earnings you might expect.

Myth 4. The Ad Format of Google Adsense Ads is Not Important

False. The ad format you display on your blog is very important. You can earn more from some ad formats than others. For instance it is generally considered that the wide Google Adsense ads (336x280, 300x250 or 250x250) perform best. I like to position one of these directly above my first post.

Link units can be profitable too if strategically placed. One of the best locations for link units is in or just below your blog header as many people are used to looking there for a navigation menu. A 728x15 linked ad unit just below your horizontal navigation menu will very likely yield good results.

Myth 5. Placement of Google Adsense Ad Units Doesn't Matter

On the contrary where you place Google Adsense can be critical to earning revenue from your blog. One of the best places to position Adsense is above what's known as the fold. The fold is the top area of your blog visible to your visitors without them having to scroll down. A 336x280 ad unit in this space works well because on arrival at your blog the visitor sees what they are looking for and clicks on it. For instance if your blog is about mountain biking then Google Adsense will very likely serve up ads about cycling equipment, cycling tours etc. For the visitor seeing exactly what they are interested in on arrival is a definite bonus which may lead them to click on your Ad unit.

Myth 6. To Make Money from My Blog I Need to Add Google Adsense 

False. While Google Adsense is by far the most popular Advertising Network it is not the only advertising option. There are some good alternatives like Clicksor , Kontera and Chitika. Let the type of blog you have govern your decisions around which advertising mix you employ rather than just going for Google Adsense because its the easiest.

In this article I have explored 6 common myths about Google Adsense that every Blogger Blogspot blogger needs to be aware of when placing Google Adsense on their blog. This article will hopefully help you do a reality check and help you recognise that while you may be one of the 5% of bloggers sitting on a goldmine Google Adsense won't transform you into a millionaire overnight.

Submit Blogger Blog to Blog Directories

Submit Blogger Blog to Blog Directories

This article discusses the benefits of submitting your Blogger Blogspot blog to blog directories and provides a comprehensive list of some of the best blog directories on the internet. This is an introductory article aimed at the new Blogspot blogger but is suitable for any blogger who wishes to build site traffic quickly. 

Benefits of Submitting to Blog Directories

By adding your Blogger Blogspot blog to blog directories you are likely to increase your site traffic expotentially. If your site has been languishing in the doldrums and not getting the kind of traffic you were expecting it could be that you haven't generated enough inbound links to your site. Signing up to some top performing blog directories will create quality backlinks and expose your site to many potential visitors. 

I have signed up for each blog directory in the recommended list below and in all cases have found that they have generated at least some site traffic. A few have boosted traffic considerably and have helped me establish new blogs quickly by generating an audience. One or two blog directories have more than exceeded my expectations. TopBlogList and Blog Catalog fall into this category attracting 10 or so unique visitors within a day of sign up. 

How do Blog Directories Work?

Most blog directories require that you place their button somewhere on your blog. In some cases the button's function is to track visitors from your site to the directory. Some buttons may reflect the ranking of your blog in relationship to other blogs in your chosen category within the directory. If you see a number appear on the button it denotes your blog's position. 

Get Organized Before You Begin Submitting to Blog Directories

To add your blog to a blog directory you first need to register. The sign up process will run more smoothly if you get a little organized before you begin. I suggest that you take the following steps first:

Craft a description for your blog of around 400 words 

Check your feed details as you may be asked to provide the URL of your feed. This is especially important if you have burned your feed at a feedburning service like Feedburner

Make sure you know the exact URL address of your site. If in doubt navigate to your home page and check the the URL in the address bar

Decide which email address to use. Blog directories tend to create a lot of mail so unless you want to have your mailbox clogged up consider carefully which email address would be best. You may decide to start a new email address specifically to handle this kind of mail.

Decide on a username and password and stick to it throughout as it will make life a lot easier than trying to remember twenty different usernames and passwords

Determine your top six keywords and keyword phrases as most blog directories ask you to provide these tags

With such a big choice of blog directories to submit to I have found it pays to be systematic. Keeping a list of where you've signed up in Notepad or similar will help guard against double ups.

How to Add a Blog Directory Button to Your Blogger Blog

Most blog directories send out an email on sign up. Once you click on the link you membership will be confirmed. In most cases you will then be directed to a menu where you can begin adding your blog or blogs to the directory. Once you have entered the details of your blog the directory will generate the button code which can be copied and pasted into a HTML/Javascript widget. It is a good idea to place all buttons together in one widget for convenience and to reduce loading time. If you are uncertain how to add this widget to your Blogger blog please refer to my earlier post about Adding third party HTML/Javascript code to a sidebar widget. 

List of Recommended Blog Directories to Get Started

All of the blog directories listed below I have personally signed up for as mentioned above. The blog directories are in no particular order except that I have put Blog Catalog and Top Blog List first because I have found them good.

BLog Catalog

BlogCatalog is a social community for bloggers and one of the largest blog directories on the internet. It is a good option to begin promoting your own blog and to connect with other bloggers. BlogCatalog offers lots of linking options. You can add a button, a link to your blogroll or verify your site using a meta tag and dispense with a visible site link altogether. In addition you can add a Blog Catalog Readers widget to your blog like the one you see here.

Top Blogging 

Easy sign up. Only one keyword phrase permitted so make it a goodie. Ranking is based on unique visitors

TopBlogLists

Ranking of pages is done according to the number of unique visits each blog brings in to Top Blog Lists

Blog Top Sites

A nice control panel for site management. Ranking of pages is done according to the number of unique visits each blog receives in a month. 

Top of Blogs  

Ranks blogs according to the number of visits a blog receives in a certain amount of time (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.). 

BlogTopList  

Requires two buttons to be placed on your blog. One is the tracking button which tracks number of visitors and displays the rank of your site. The other button is the voting button. If a visitor votes for you it is equal to 100 unique visits .

BlogPulse

Tracks thousands of blogs. Submit yours. Try doing a check first though as you may be surprised to find your blog has already been located automatically.

BlogFlux

Over 140,000 blogs in the Blog Flux directory. Nice Control Panel interface.

Sign up is immediate although all blogs added are manually checked so there is a time delay before your blog will be included. 

Blogorama  

Top 100 most popular section. Score increases depending on variables like users ratings, incoming traffic and outgoing traffic.

My Blog Directory  

Blog of the day feature chosen on the basis of the number of unique visitors directed by the blog to the directory per day. The blog of the day gets the whole of the site traffic fof that day. Blogs are listed randomly so that every blog gets equal exposure. 

Other Blog Directories You May Be Interested In

I have not necessarily submitted a blog to these blog directories but I am providing a link if you want to follow it up. Not sure about overall chances of an increase in traffic with these ones though. 

Bloggernity

Free Blog Directory

Blog Rankings

Lists of Blog Directories

For a longer list of blog directories try: 

Great Blog Directories for a list of free directories

In this article I have discussed some benefits of submitting your Blogger Blogspot blog to blog directories. I have suggested ways to get organized to make the process less daunting and I have recommended some blog directories which I have personally signed up for to get you started. Adding your Blogger blog to these blog directories should result in an increase in site traffic. Good luck!

How To Burn Blogger RSS Feeds at Feedburner

How To Burn Blogger RSS Feeds at Feedburner

In this tutorial I will guide you through the step by step process of burning your Blogger feed at Feedburner, updating your blog settings to reflect the new feed and adding a RSS icon to the sidebar of your blog so your visitors can subscribe to your new RSS feed. Although redirecting your blog feeds through Feedburner is relatively straightforward I will be including some tips to simplify the process. This tutorial is suitable for all levels of technical knowledge but is particularly aimed at those readers new to blogging with Blogger.

There are lots of good reasons for burning your Blogger feeds with a free service like Feedburner. Among the advantages are better feed presentation, detailed tracking statistics and access to the large choice of feed readers available. For a full discussion of the benefits of burning your Blogger blog feed at Feedburner including an explanation of Blogger RSS feeds please refer to my article Blogger RSS Feeds and Feedburner.

How to Burn Your Blogger RSS Post Feed at Feedburner

If you want to add Google Adsense at the same time as burning your feed at Feedburner I suggest that you refer to my article on Adding Google Adsense to Your Blogger Feeds as this includes an explanation on how to do this. Otherwise follow the steps below to burn your post feed at Feedburner

1. Go to Feedburner and click on the Get Started link

2. Sign in to your Google Account if not already signed in. This will take you to your Feedburner Account page.

3. Enter the name of your blog name in the Burn a Feed This Instant box and click the Next button

http://youblogname.blogspot.com

4. A message will be displayed that you have more than one feed and asking you to choose. Select the RSS radio button for the RSS feed and click next

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

5. Feedburner will now display the proposed Feed Title and Feed URL. Unless you have a reason to change these accept by selecting the next button

6. You will now see the confirmation screen letting you know your feed has been burned. Select the Next Button to set up Feedburner Statistics options

7. Check the I want more statistics box to give you access to additional tracking statistics. Click on the next button

8. Feedburner will now inform you that it has successfully updated the burned feed you have just created.

9. Click on the Feedburner Analyze Tab at the top of the page and you will be taken to the Analyze Feed Stats Dashboard. At this stage you will receive the message: Your feed is so new, we’re still playing with the bubble wrap. It can take about a day before you will be able to see much action on your feed 

10. Under the title of your blog's feed in this screen click on edit feed details. This will give you the new name and URL for your feed. Copy the full feed address into Notepad or similar. Care needs to be taken as you will need to copy this in two parts. The new feed URL should be something like this:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/YourBlog

11. In a new window login to Blogger.com and navigate to the Settings > Site Feeds section of your blog

12. Click on the Advanced Mode to switch from the basic mode.

13. Make sure that the Blog Posts Feed, Blog Comment Feed and the Per Post Comment Feed are all set to Full.

Blogger RSS Feeds and Feedburner

Blogger RSS Feeds and Feedburner

In this article you will learn about Blogger Blogspot RSS feeds and about the benefits of burning your Blogger feeds at Feedburner. 

What are RSS Feeds? 

Your Blogger feeds are a means of distributing your blog content to the world. Feeds make it possible to maximise exposure of your blog's content beyond a few visitors browsing your blog. Feeds can be subscribed to via a web portal, news reader, or email. Feeds allow your blog content to be packaged into all sorts of widgets and gadgets and mobile devices that can be displayed just about anywhere.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a standardized web format used to create a document containing your blog posts, blog comments or any other content on your blog you choose including images, music and video. As Blogger has built in RSS feeds, everytime you publish a post Blogger automatically adds your post to the default feeds. How much of your Blogger post that is displayed in your feed depends on whether you have chosen your feed in full or short format. To check this setting in Blogger navigate to Settings > Site Feeds of your blog. 

Blogger automatically produces your blog's feed in both Atom and RSS. RSS is becoming increasingly popular as the preferred format for feeds. Both Atom and RSS were developed to enable people to receive automatic updates of their favorite blogs and websites. While the format of each is different they do pretty much the same job which is to output updated content from your blog in a format that can be easily read in a feed reader. 

The URL of Default Blogger Feeds

Default Blogger Post Feeds

Atom 1.0: 

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

RSS 2.0:

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss 

Default Blogger Comments Feeds

Atom 1.0: 

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

RSS 2.0: 

http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss 

Default Blogger Label-Specific Feeds

Atom 1.0:

http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/-/labelname 

RSS 2.0:

http://blogname.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?alt=rss/-/labelname

Encourage Visitors to Subscribe to Your Feeds

Whenever you see the familiar orange icon  on a website that denotes a RSS feed. By adding this RSS icon to your Blogger blog and setting up a link to your posts feed or other content visitors will be able to view your feed on click. If you have enabled the Subscription Links widget in Layout > Page Elements > Add a Gadget visitors are given the option to subscribe to both your posts and comments feeds in a reader such as Google Reader, My Yahoo or Bloglines. Alternatively you can burn your blog feeds with a free feedburning service like Feedburner.

Feed Readers Make it Easy for Readers to Keep Up-to-date

Your readers don't have to worry about manually saving your blog to their browser favorites anymore as Atom and RSS feeds make it easy to subscribe to a feed reader instead. Rather than visitors manually checking back on your site and trying to manage a bunch of bookmarks they can choose to subscribe to a reader. Subscribing in a reader means they will get up-to-the-minute content automatically without fear of missing any new entries.

Burn Your Blog Feeds with Feedburner

To make it even easier to get subscriptions to your blog it pays to burn your feeds with a feed burning service like Feedburner. The Feedburner service is now owned by Google and can accessed from your Google account. If you do intend to include Google Adsense on your feeds it is a good idea to burn your feeds. Please refer to my article Adding Google Adsense to Blogger RSS Feeds for help in setting up Google Adsense for your Blogger feeds. For assistance with burning your feed at Feedburner please see my article Burn Blogger RSS Feeds at Feedburner.

Make Money Online With Banners Ads to Blogger Blog

Make Money Online With  Banners Ads to Blogger Blog 

One of the things that makes Blogger such a great blogging platform is the facility to add advertising to your Blogspot blog and make money from it. In this article I will be discussing how banner advertisements on your Blogger blog can make money for you. By banner advertising I mean advertising in addition to Google Adsense or Adbrite that you may have already added to your Blogger blog. For information on adding Google Adsense to your blog please read my articles on Google Adsense.

Banner advertising is FREE. And Banners Do Make Money.

It is no secret that banners make money provided you choose your merchant program carefully and have enough traffic accessing your site. In my experience once you reach around 100 visitors a day is a good time to add a few banners to your blog.

How Do I Make Money from Banners on My Blogger Blog?

Affiliate marketing banners make money for the publisher - that's you. When you place a banner on your blog the affiliate program gives you a snippet of code to add to your template which makes the banner display and identifies you as the publisher. When a visitor clicks on a banner on your website that click is recorded as originating from your site and you make money as a result of that click. Depending on the merchant program that you have signed up for you can earn a commission for providing a lead, or receive a percentage of the sale.

An Example of How Banners Work

After having placed your banner ad on your Blogger blog your site gets 100 visitors in a day. Out of that 100 people 5 people click on a banner which takes them through to the merchant's website. From those 5 people one person makes a purchase of around $100.00. Assuming your commission is 10% of the sale you have just made yourself $10.00. It's that easy.

Making the Most Out of Advertising Banners

To make money from banner ads you need volume as only a small percentage of your visitors will take any notice of the advertising on your blog and only a much smaller percentage of that pool will actually buy anything once they click. That's why it is really important that you focus your energies on building site traffic. If you need to grow your traffic read my articles on tips to increase traffic to your Blogger blog. 

Of course you do need to choose your affiliate banners carefully as obviously some advertising will have more appeal than others. To some extent this is a matter of trial and error as you can never be completely sure how a banner will perform until you try it. You can increase the odds of success however, by choosing merchant programs that are related to your blog in some way. For instance if your blog is about cars then advertisers of car accessories like audio units would be a good place to start.

How Do I Add Affiliate Banners to My Blogger Blog?

Adding affiliate banners to your blog is pretty easy. Pretty much copy and paste stuff which anyone can do. Please read my article providing step by step instructions on how to Add Affiliate Banner Ads to the Blogger Sidebar of your Blogger blog if you are unsure. If you want to place a banner in the header of your blog please refer to Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Header

Disadvantages of Banner Ads

Too many banner ads can give your visitors the impression you are just in it for the money. So make sure you don't go overboard with too much advertising that will overshadow or detract from the content of your blog. Remember less is more so place your banners ads strategically on your blog. I like a small cluster of about 4 banner ads usually 125x125 somewhere fairly close to the top in the sidebar and a 468x60 banner in the header. The header is a prime position for an effective banner advertising campaign. Read more about how to place a banner ad in the header of your Blogger blog in my adding banners to Blogger series of tutorials.

The other main problem with banner ads is that they encourage visitors to leave your site and as we all know one of the hardest jobs is to attract the visitor in the first place. Do you really want them leaving your site before they have had a chance to look around? I don't think so. Only place banner ads on your blog that you are confident will reap you some rewards otherwise forget it. You might actually lose traffic if you provide too many inducements to leave your site.

Banner Ads Make Money

In this article I have discussed banner advertising as it relates to Blogger Blogspot blogs. You have learned a little about how affiliate programs work and how you might use banner ads on your own blog to make extra money. For tutorials on adding banner ads to your Blogger Blogspot blog please refer to Add Affiliate Banner Ads to a Blogger Sidebar and Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Header.

How To Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Sidebar

How To Add an Affiliate Banner to Blogger Sidebar

A lot of people want to make money from their blog and for this reason want to learn how to insert affiliate banners into their Blogger Blogspot blog. In this Blogger tutorial which is the first of a series I will show you how to place a banner in the sidebar of your Blogger blog (Blogspot blog). 

Even if you are new to Blogger and have very little technical knowledge this tutorial is still suitable for you as I will guide you through every step in the process of adding a banner ad to the sidebar of your Blogger blog.

How to Add an Affiliate Banner To the Sidebar of Your Blog

It is relatively easy to add an affiliate banner to the sidebar of your blog. 

1. Sign up with an affiliate marketing program like Commission Junction and select your merchant

2. Decide on the size of the merchant banner or banners you wish to display in your sidebar making sure that whatever you choose will fit into the sidebar space otherwise your banner ad may not display properly on your blog. Typical sizes suitable for sidebars are:

small rectangular banners 125x90 or 125x125

square banners 200x200 (if space allows)

short vertical banners 120x200

long column style skyscraper bnnners 120x600 or 160x600

3. Choose your banner and you will be presented with the merchant code to display the banner. Right click to select all and right click again to copy the code to the clipboard of your computer

4. In a new window login to Blogger and navigate to Design > Page Elements

5. Click on Add a Gadget in the sidebar. If you are using a customized template you may have 2 different sidebars so decide which you want the banner ad to display in.

6. Select HTML/Javascript widget from the Add a Gadget menu

7. Place your mouse in the content box of the Configure HTML/Javascript widget and right click. Choose paste to insert the merchant code of your banner ad into the content box 

8. In the title box add a Title like Sponsored Ads if you wish otherwise leave it blank

. Click on Save

10. Using Blogger's drag and drop feature to pick up your new HTML/Javascript widget and position it where you want your banner ad to show up in your sidebar. 

11. Save your layout

12. Click on View Blog to see you new banner ad in action. 

Add Space Between Your Banner Ads

If you want more space between your banner ad and the previous widget you can add <p> before the code your inserted in the HTML/Javascript widget. If you need even more add another <p>

To Center Your Advertising Banner

If you want to center your banner ad insert <center> before the merchant code and </center> after it.

Add More Than One Banner

If you want to add more than one banner ad to the same widget you can just by pasting the code for the second banner ad below the first lot of code. If you want some white space between the banners ads insert <p> between each lot of code.

Troubleshooting

Your Banner Does Not Display

Your banner ad should appear right away. If your banner ad doesn't display at all then there is a problem with the widget you have just created. Retrace your steps making sure you have got all the code.

Only Placeholder for the Banner Displays

If you see a placeholder but no ad displays then the affiliate website may be off line or there is a problem with the code in some way. Go back and make sure you copied all of the code correctly

In this Blogger tutorial you have learned how to add an affiliate marketing advertisement banner to the sidebar of your Blogger blog (Blogspot blog) and about some common problems that you may encounter. In my next tutorials on banner advertising I will show you how to place a banner in a variety of other spots on your blog including the footer, above the first post and in the header. Why not bookmark this site so you can return easily?

How To Add Feedjit Live Traffic Feed to Blogger

How To Add Feedjit Live Traffic Feed to Blogger

Would you like to know more about the traffic visiting your Blogger blog (Blogspot Blog)? Feedjit is a free tracking tool that tracks visitors to a blog in real time and identifies what pages are visited. In this Blogger tutorial you will learn how to add a Feedjit widget to your blog which will track where visitors originate from and what pages they viewed. Adding a Feedjit widget to your Blogger blog is easy and takes less than 5 minutes. This tutorial is suitable for all Blogger bloggers (Blogspot beginners). Updated 10 October 2009.

Feedjit monitors traffic to your site and ranks it based on popularity and relevance against the traffic received by other Feedjit users in your local area. There is a choice of 4 different widgets: Live Traffic Feed, Live Traffic Map, Recommended Reading, and Page Popularity. Each of these widgets has different functions.

Feedjit Live Traffic Feed Widget for Blogger

Places a widget on your Blogger blog of the last 10 visitors. By clicking on the real time link you can actually view the last 50 or so visitors along with the keyword search phrase used to find your site. The Feedjit's Live Traffic Feed shows statistics in real-time about: 

Feedjit Traffic Map

The Traffic Map widget places visitors to your site on a world map according to their physical location

Feedjit Recommended Reading

The Recommended Reading widget makes suggestions to visitors about what other blog posts they might be interested in based on general page popularity

Feedjit Page Popularity 

The Page Popularity widget lists the 10 most popular pages that have been accessed by visitors on that day.

How to Add a Feedjit Live Traffic Feed Widget (Gadget) to Blogger
Visit Feedjit

Select Live Traffic Feed. 

Click on the Customize It link under Live Traffic Feed. This will allow you to enter colors to match the theme of your blog. If you are in doubt I have found that the easiest method to get the custom colors of a site is to go to the Layout > Page Elements screen in Blogger and click on Add a Gadget and then Adsense. From the configuration screen that pops up you can get the colors of the background, border, title (heading in Feedjit), URL, text. If you use these same colors in your Feedjit widget it will blend in with the rest of your site. You can preview your widget to make sure it looks as you would like it before adding it to your blog.

To automatically add the widget to Blogger select the Click to Add to Blogger Link and follow the instructions. Or to manually add it which I myself prefer right click the code in the box under the heading Live Traffic Feed and select copy.

Navigate to Layout > Page Elements in your blog if that page is not already open 

Select Add a Gadget in the Sidebar and then HTML/Javascript

Paste the code by placing the mouse in the box and right clicking and selecting paste

Save the widget and then using the drag and drop feature of Blogger move it to your desired location. Note HTML/Javascript widgets are best placed after your other widgets for faster loading.

Save Template

Click on View Blog to view your newly created Feedjit widget

Click on Options in the Feedjit widget and then Ignore My Browser otherwise the widget will record your visit each time you view your blog. The option on the widget will now change to Stop Ignoring Me which you can reverse by clicking on the link again.If you use more than one browser you will need to tell Feedjit to ignore you for each browser.

This Blogger tutorial has discussed how to add a Feedjit Live Traffic Feed widget, gadget or button to Blogger to track where visitors are being directed from and what posts they are most interested in. A Feedjit Live Traffic Feed will help you learn about the visitors to your blog and what search phrase they used to arrive. To add a Feedjit Live Traffic Feed widget to Blogger is simple and takes less than 5 minutes to install.

Avoid 6 Common Blogger Mistakes in Your Blogspot blog

Avoid 6 Common Blogger Mistakes in Your Blogspot blog

If you want your Blogger blog to sizzle and really take off there are some pretty important blogging pitfalls that you need to avoid. In today's article I will be talking about 6 of the most common mistakes new bloggers make on their Blogger Blogspot blog and how to avoid them.

1. Avoid Poor Content

I can't emphasize enough that the standard of your content will make or break your blog. Poor content = few return visitors. Good content on the other hand will attract visitors and keep them coming back to check out what's new. 

Successful bloggers write clearly, know their subject and develop their own unique voice. A conversational style is often recommended but I suggest just write naturally and that naturalness will shine through. 

Post quality well researched content that is interesting and topical. To do this you need to know your audience. Who are your readers? Do you know? If you don't know your target audience it will be hard to put yourself in their shoes which is exactly what you need to be able to do when you sit down to write a post. Ask yourself what are my readers looking for that would make them visit my site and read my post. Are they looking to be entertained, informed or a bit of both? Sign up for visitor tracking such as Google Analytics if you aren't already so you can get an idea of your visitor base. For help with implementing Google Analytics please read my post on adding Google Analytics to your Blogger blog.

2. Avoid Hopeless Headlines

I've seen some pretty hopeless headlines that don't give me enough of a clue about what a post is about to entice me into reading the article. If you want to attract readers to your site you need to grab them. That means putting some thought into crafting headlines that have punch. Remember your headline needs to reel your visitors in so make sure it is well thought out and punchy. Your headlines have to stand out to be noticed as so many people read headlines in RSS feeds.

Another important consideration when deciding on a headline is SEO. Consider what your readers might search under to find your post. "Blogging pitfalls" and "common blogging mistakes" are more likely keyword search phrases than "bad blogging practices." So knowing your keywords will help you craft headlines that are keyword rich.

3. Avoid Posting Too Infrequently

Once a visitor has found your site you want them to keep coming back. One way to ensure repeat traffic is to post frquently. Many new bloggers start a blog but find it hard to maintain a posting routine that is frequent enough to retain traffic. 

Just the other day I had someone comment that one of the reasons why they liked my blog was the frequency at which I post. I try to post a new article every second or third day if possible. I usually am working on lots of other articles in the background so that I might have two nearly finished and half a dozen or so at various stages of completion. Using this system I have some flexibility and a cushion if anything comes up to interrupt my posting schedule.

Whatever you do don't make the mistake of posting just for the sake of posting otherwise your readers will see through this and you will lose readership.

4. Lack of Overall Focus - Trying to Paint the Whole Wall

So many new bloggers start their site without a clear focus. What kind of focus you may ask? Well making money is not enough of a focus. I am talking about identifying your niche and sticking to it. If you try and paint the whole wall your visitors will be confused about what your blog is about and you will very likely lose traffic rather than gain it. 

Having a focus is important. On Blog Know How for instance, I concentrate on helping webmasters of Blogger blogs get the most out of their blog. I particularly aim my site at the new blogger and provide detailed step by step walkthroughs with them in mind. At the same time, however, I cater for all Blogger webmasters who access my blog. What I don't do though is go outside the theme of Blogger by writing about blogging in general. Instead I write articles that may be general in nature but are tailored to Blogger webmasters. 

Yes I could get more traffic perhaps if I widened the scope of my articles to include Wordpress or blogging in general put what would then make my blog stand out from a whole heap of other blogs giving advice on blogging? Having a niche earns me traffic that is focused. Site visitors come with the goal of becoming more informed about using Blogger. If they go away having learnt more than when they arrived my site will have done its job and I may have just found myself a repeat visitor.

5. Avoid Too Much Advertising on Your Blog

New blogs need to build traffic and too much advertising can be a big deterrent in 

achieving this goal. When your site is very new it doesn't pay to have too much advertising at all. Err on the side of less advertising rather than more. Bear in mind of course that Rome wasn't built in a day and your site won't be either. Have faith that your traffic will build and you can gradually introduce more advertising like Google Adsense as visitor numbers increase. 

6. Avoid Too Many Social Bookmarking Buttons

Too many social bookmarking buttons can clutter up your blog and slow it down. Many people still don't know too much about social bookmarking so avoid the temptation to overuse these icons. Rather than use a whole bunch of popular icons like Digg and Technorati which can lead to a cluttered look and feel I use a single consolidated button like Add This. Share This is another popular button for sharing your posts. 

To install a social bookmarking button on your Blogger blog follow the step by step instructions contained in my article on Add This 

This article has discussed 6 common mistakes new bloggers make when developing a new Blogger Blogspot blog and given suggestions on how to avoid them.as visitor numbers increase.

How To Hide Remove Navbar from a Blogger Blog

How To Hide Remove Navbar from a Blogger Blog

The more professional you want your site to look the more you are likely to want to remove the navbar from showing above the header of your Blogger Blogspot blog. Removing or actually hiding the navbar is very easy to do as it only requires a small tweak to your template. This tutorial is suitable for bloggers at all levels but is written with new bloggers and the beginner blogger in mind and provides step by step instructions to guide you through the process of hiding the navbar from your Blogger blog.

How Useful is the Navbar of a Blogger Blog?

Blogger provides the facility to search your blog by entering keywords or a search phrase into the Search Blog box. This is a useful feature and if you remove the Blogger navbar you will lose the search facility from your blog. If you are using a custom template with a search box already built in this won't be a problem but if you are using one of the Blogger templates deleting the navbar will leave your blog without a search function. Another useful feature of the navbar is the follow button which encourages bloggers to start following your blog. 

The random blog feature is not particularly useful unless you have a lot of time on your hands and just feel like a browse. For most serious bloggers looking to create a professional look and feel to their blog the navbar can be a distraction. And let's face it you've worked hard enough getting the traffic to your site right? without encouraging them to leave it too quickly.

The other main feature of the navbar is the ability to navigate back to your layout menu or posts quickly no matter where you are in your blog when signed in. Personally I like this feature and use it a lot. Its particularly good if you are on a page other than your homepage and want to quickly go to another of your blogs as you can get there in 2 clicks. The same goes if you want to visit some other area of your Google account such as Google Analytics or Google Webmaster Tools. You can get there in 2 clicks too when the navbar is enabled.

To navigate with the navbar disabled you simply have to double click the back button in your browser to navigate away from the home page of your blog. If you are in another part of your blog then it can be annoying not to have the navbar functionality. The way I have gotten around it is to usually disable the navbar and click on blogger.com in the google search box on the toolbar of my browser. Provided I am signed in to Blogger this will take me straight to the dashboard.

Overall my view is that what you lose on convenience you gain on professionalism. Losing the navbar is a sacrifice but it is a small price to pay for a much improved look to your blog.

How to Get Rid of the Navbar on your Blogger Blog

1. Login to Blogger and navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

2. Find the Template Credit Section

3. Insert the following code directly below the template credit section. Select the code and right click to copy to the clipboard of your computer. Right click to paste into your template:

#navbar { 

height: 0px;

visibility: hidden;

display: none;

}

4. Click on the Save Template button

5. Click on View Blog to view you blog without the navbar

Troubleshooting

If you later decide that you are not happy with the missing navbar all you need do to reinstate it is to remove the code you inserted. This works as the code you inserted actually only masks the navbar rather than deletes it.

In this tutorial you have learned about some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Blogger navbar and how to hide, disable, remove or delete the navbar in order to promote a more professional looking blog.

How To Make Online Money/Income with You Tube Videos.

How To Make Online Money/Income with You Tube Videos.

Are you interested in making money online with You Tube? Am sure your answer is yes. I cannot grantee that you will make money right from the start it will take some carefully planning plus promotion to give the edge or boost for you to earn.

Requirements to You Tube?

All you need is a Gmail account and a Google Adsense account, which You Tube will use to pay your earnings. Note: You can still upload you video’s and monetize without the adsense account and later apply for adsense and still get paid.

What can you upload in You Tube?

Anything multimedia so long as you own the rights to the video.

How do you create a Video?

You do not need complicated equipment and an editing video studio. Just use the simple available resources like webcam on your Pc or Laptop or a camcorder or your smart phone.

How do you edit your video ?

I use entry level editing software like the Apple iMovie for apple Mac operating system and Windows Live Movie Maker for Windows operating system.  The above editing software are more than sufficient to create videos for You Tube.  If you want to create videos using your computer like recording an onscreen video you can use Camstudio ( Free), Camtasia (Paid) or Animoto (Free and Paid).

How to upload your video in You Tube?

Simply go to youtube.com and sign in with your Gmail account

. 

Then Click on upload. You will find a number or options Webcam capture, Photo Slideshow and Google + hangout these features are simple to use just experiment with any before settling to a specific one.

Tips on how to get good rankings!

Before uploading do some research on the keywords of your title of your video. You can use Google Keyword Tool or You tube search bar to give an idea of the best title you can coin for your video.

Make sure your description is short and detailed using keywords so as to encourage one to view your video.

Tags tell what your video is about allowing it to be found by people looking for your video. Put in at least 10 tags or more for your video so that it will be returned as a related video for as many searches as possible.

How monetize your videos after uploading?

Use video manager and locate your video. Click the “Edit” or “$” button next to your video. Click the Monetize my video check box and select the ad formats you want to enable for your video. Save Changes. Now your video is monetized.

Promoting your video!

After uploading your video you tube gives you are URL to your video. With these link you can share it via social media like facebook, Twitter, Google + and any other social media you are part.

You can also embed your video on your website or blog to get more views.Note you tube is also a great way of promoting your products and services if done correctly.

How to Add Google Adsense Ads To Blogger

How to Add Google Adsense Ads To Blogger

What is Google Adsense?

An advertising program allows publishers (websites/blog owners) to insert relevant and targeted ads on behalf of Google in exchange of revenue that is if a visitor clicks on the ads placed on their site. It is one of the ways that publishers use to make moneyonline. It is not a quick rich scheme it takes time and loads of traffic to earn from these strategy. The Key is writing quality content using keywords and being persistent.  

You might ask me about Keywords?  Keywords are the lifeline of articles you post online or make on your blog or website. Keywords are used by search engines to give relevant information to users whenever they are searching for a particular thing or information.  For example if you are blogging about gardening tips, go to Google Keyword tool and type gardening tips 

You see results like these.

From here, you get ideas of the keywords to use for your article. Do not over use them. Use 20% in your article.

The next step is getting the Adsense account. First Step is having a Gmail account then sign in. Go Adsense then follow the simple instructions  laid out for you by Google. It takes  8 hours for the first phase of approval then they will send you an ad code to add to your site. Unless you add the code to your site then you will never be approved for Adsense.

Once you have added the code they will monitor your blog or site between 2 to 7 days for them to approve. The best way to be approved is by posting several posts to your blog then apply for Adsense. Once approved the next step is configuring Adsense to blogger.

After Google improving on blogger nowadays it’s automatic not manually as before. Simply go to your blogger and select earnings.

Select show ads on blog and display select the first option.

Now by doing so you have monetized your content on your blogger. The remaining thing is driving traffic to your blog. Note don’t click on the ads posted by Google on your blog reason being Google will lock your Adsense account and reactivating it will be a problem.

How to Add Google Adsense ads in a Blogspot Blog Sidebar

How to Add Google Adsense ads in a Blogspot Blog Sidebar

Assuming you have already signed up and been approved for a Google AdSense account, you should be able to log in here. Once you're signed in, click the AdSense Settings tab near the top of the page. To cut right to the chase, focus on these steps:

Choose Your Ad Layout - To fit ads in your sidebar, it's best to choose one of the following ad layouts.

Button (125x125)

Skyscraper (120x600)

Wide Skyscraper (160 x 600) 

Vertical Banner (120 x 240)

Small Rectangle (180x150)

Choose a color palette - They are very cleverly named but it's really just a matter of your preference.

Copy your AdSense code - At the bottom of the page, there's a box with code in it. Highlight all of that code and copy it.

Paste the code somewhere - Notepad or Text Edit or something like that is a good place for now.

Go to Blogger.com and sign in - Choose the blog you want to put ads on and click the template tab.

This is less of a step and more of a precaution - Copy your entire Blogger template and save it in Notepad or Text Edit just in case.

Find the place in your template that says this; you might have to scroll down pretty far:

<!-- Begin #sidebar -->

<div id="sidebar"><div id="sidebar2">

Paste the AdSense code you saved earlier right after that part.

<!-- Begin #sidebar -->

<div id="sidebar"><div id="sidebar2">

PUT YOUR ADSENSE CODE HERE!

Save your template changes and republish your blog.

What is Best Place of Google Adsense Ads in Blogger

What is Best Place of Google Adsense Ads in Blogger

To increase the performance of Google Adsense on your Blogger Blogspot blog you can extend the choice of placement options of your Google ads with some simple tweaks. This involves making a few minor adjustments to your Blogger template to increase where widgets can be created and how many widgets can be placed in your template. 

In this second tutorial of the series on placement of Google Adsense in a Blogger Blog you will learn how to place Google Adsense between the header and the first post. This will allow for a variety of Google Adsense ads to be added of which the 728x90 leaderboard is probably the most suitable. This tutorial assumes no particular technical knowledge of Blogger and is suitable for bloggers of all technical abilities as it gives step by step instructions to implement the changes.

How to Add Google Adsense Between the Header and First Post

If you want to increase your earnings from your blog you may decide you would like to have a full length advertising banner between the header and the first post. For instance it can be very effective to have a 728x90 leaderboard in this prime position. To add a Google Adsense unit to this position take the following steps:

1. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

2. Back up Template as a Precaution

3. Check Expand Widget Templates box

4. Find the following code:

<div id='crosscol-wrapper' style='text-align:center'>

<b:section class='crosscol' id='crosscol' showaddelement='no'/>

</div>

5. Replace

showaddelement='no'

with

showaddelement='yes'

6, Save Template

7. Navigate to Layout > Page Elements

8. Click on new Add a Gadget option that will now have appeared between Blog Posts and the Header. 

9. Choose Google Adsense and Add Leaderboard 728x90. Save

In this tutorial which is part of a series on placement of Google Adsense in Blogger Blogspot blogs you have learnt how to add Google Adsense between the header and the first post section. As this is a prime position for a 728x90 leaderboard ad unit I have concentrated on showing you how to add this Google Adsense ad unit to your blog. For more tutorials on Google Adsense please refer to the related posts as the bottom of this article. 

How To Submit a Blogger Sitemap or url to Major Search Engines

How To Submit a Blogger Sitemap / url to Major Search Engines

How to Check If Your  Site Is In Google?

Just type your website address in the Google search box. If Google knows about your site, it will tell you. If your website doesn’t come up as a result, you need to submit your site to Google. Another way to check if a page is in either of the search engines is to lift a piece of unique text from the page, put it in a search “in quotes”. Your page should come up.

Do I need to pay to get into Google and BIng?

No.

How Do You Submit A Site To Search Engines?

f you haven't submitted your Blogger website and sitemap to the major search engines yet this article will help you through the process. Submitting your Blogger (Blogspot) blog to the two most popular search engines Google and Bing is a must if you want your site crawled and indexed quickly and, of course, to receive visitors. You may also want to cast your net a little wider. If so there are a couple of other search engines worthy of note that you may not have even considered. This article explores the steps involved in submitting your blog and sitemap to  major search engines like Google,  MSN Bing , Moreover.com and Ask.com

We highly recommend manually submitting your website pages to the search engines.  That said, the search engines give no guarantee of ranking your page because you have manually submitted it.  It is a tool that we use to let the search engines know that we have new information to share.

I personally  suggest manual submission of your site's pages to Google and Bing because they have made it apparent that it is what they prefer.  The search engines have implemented manual submission as a best practice to protect themselves from extreme levels of spam.    

It is important to submit your site's pages to all of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing) because even though the other engines have less traffic than Google, they still have millions of users.   When you submit a URL or domain name to the search engines, it could take anywhere from two to four weeks to get indexed.  Sometimes your page will not get indexed after you submit it, if that occurs, wait four weeks and then resubmit the page again.

If you are unhappy with your web page's ranking results, take a look at what your competition is doing.  Make sure you are following the basic rules of search engine optimization.  Make changes to the page and resubmit it to the search engines.  You can submit your pages a maximum of two times per month until you are listed in the major search engines' results.

Google

Google's URL submit is very quick and easy.  Just go to Google's web page for URL submitting, type in your URL, type in the message that ensures Google you are an individual not a software robot and click "add URL."

You can also submit your site map to Google via their Webmaster Tools.

Submit Your Site and Sitemap to Google Webmasters Tools

For a step by step walkthrough of how to submit your Blogger blog to Google, verify your site and add a sitemap please refer to my article Submit Your Blogspot Blog Sitemap to Google.

Bing

Bing allows you to submit your URL, just like Google.  Go to Bing's site submission page, type in the URL of your homepage (this is different than Google and Yahoo!).  MSNBot will follow the links from your homepage to all of the pages on your site.  Bing also requires you to identify yourself as a person, not an automated program, by typing the characters that you see in the picture.

Submit Url To Ask

Ask presently does not allow you to submit URLs.  However, they do allow you to submit your sitemap.  Their interface for this isn't as straight forward as the other engines but, you can submit your sitemap by pasting this URL into your browser bar and inserting your actual domain name...

http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http://<your domain name>/sitemapxml.aspx

Here are some quick links to submit your website to search engines : - 

1.Google
2.Bing
3.Open Directory
4.ASR
5.Yandex
6.ScrubTheWeb
7.ExactSeek
8.FyberSearch
9.SecretSELabs
10.GhetoSearch
11.Anoox
12.FreePRWebDirectory
13.SoMuch
14.SWD
15.Viesearch
16.Web World
17.A1WebDirectory
18.SonicRun
19.1WebsDirectory
20.oneMission
21.IS
22.Elite Sites Directory
23.Info Tiger
24.OneMillionDirectory
25.Link Centre
26.Directory Free
27.Nexus Directory
28.KiwiDir
29.MasterMOZ
30.DirectoryFire
31.IllumiRate
32.Synergy Directory
33.Online Society
34.SurfSafely
35.GigaBlast
36.Info Listings
37.PiSeries
38.RDirectory
39.Submit
40.YooFindit
41.9Sites
42.Triple W Directory
43.24/7 Web Directory
44.The Web Directory
45.DirectoryINT
46.Gain Web
47.W3 Catalog
48.Amfibi
49.Prior Directory
50.The Great Directory

Using Website Url Submitter  Services

As easy as this site submitter process is, some webmasters prefer to offload the task to a site submitter service. These services let you enter your URL once and then submit your site to multiple search engines and directories; they handle all the details required by each search engine. Given that many of these services are free, it’s not a bad way to go.

Some of the more popular site submittal services include these:

1 2 3 Submit Pro 

AddMe

AddPro.com 

SubmitExpress

ineedhits

Freewebsubmission

Beware those services that charge a high fee for search engine submission—they don’t do anything that you can’t do yourself, for free.

Increasing your search optimization is key to driving traffic to you blog or website, and the process couldn’t be easier. Good luck and submit your sites url for free. 

Get listed and Get Noticed.