1. Get a better URL



Your blog address is important it is more likely to bring traffic if it memorable, It also tells the potential viewer a bit about what the blog is about. A lot of the good blog addresses in Blogger are gone so just get the best one available that you can and I will show you how to get a better URL.

Say for example you decided to make a Make Money Secrets blog and the only address you could get was something like jakesmakemoneysecretsonline.blogspot.com with this URLdoctor you could get a blog address like jake.hasasecret.com

Which one sounds better to you? You still can use your original blogspot address as well, so you can try using both URL's in your Adwords campaign and see if one works better then the other.

OK to do this go to http://www.urldoctor.com/ and fill in you details it's pretty easy. For the option part, click on the +2500 options above and pick one out of there. Within 24 hours your new domain should be active.

2. Get an Opt in list script

Capturing emails is a great way to bring back traffic to your website as well as promote your other products/services. (just make sure it doesn't become spam). I use http://www.notifylist.com/ It is very easy to use, Simply copy and paste the code they provide you with in your template depending upon where you want the form to be shown on your blog.

This one however doesn't offer a great amount of features, If anyone knows a better one please let me know. Thanks.

3. Analyse your blog

A blog is just like any other website. It is important to know all about your traffic and where it comes from. I use http://www.statcounter.com/ It's free and provides a good range of data. Simply sign up add the code to the bottom of your template and your done. You don't have to display a link back to their site if you don't want to.

You can then look at where the visitor came from, how long they spent, what page they left from, what path they took on your website, and much more. Great information to analyse and optimize your blog.

Here are a list of other free site monitors:

http://www.easymonitor.com/

http://www.internetseer.com/

http://www.siteuptime.com/

http://www.internetsupervision.com/

http://www.onestat.com/

4. Be different

Before you make any modifications to your template I strongly suggest you make a backup of your current one. You will also have to add any add-ons you had again. Simply go your dashboard, go to template, copy and paste all the coding into notepad or Microsoft word and save it.

When you look at many blogs after a while they all look the same (because of the limited templates blogger provide you with) and put you off regardless of the content. So unless you know to code one yourself your will be another one of them.

Here are a list of sites offering free blogger templates:

http://www.pannasmontata-templates.net/templates/blogger-templates-01-10/ Good

http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/

http://thrbrtemplates.blogspot.com/

http://freebloggertemplate.blogspot.com/ Request a custom one here FREE

http://www.isnaini.com/blogger-templates/ Excellent -Loads here

They are simple to use once you download the code simply copy and paste them into your template in blogger. (remove the old code first).

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication it is basically a way for you to tell readers “what's new” on your website. It announces any change that you make to your blog, by creating a “feed” that can be picked up by the spider from an aggregator.

An aggregator keeps track of your links to favorite blogs, much like the bookmarks section of your browser. It's different than a bookmarks section, because the aggregator can alert you to the frequent updates to blogs, which your browser can't do.

A good free aggregator can be obtained from http://www.rssreader.com

Why is RSS important for me?

RSS is important because first it allows people to subscribe to your blog, and every time you make updates they will be notified and come back to your blog, bringing return traffic. Another reason is to establish your readership, the stat counters will give you information about how many people are visiting your blog, but this will give you details as to how many people are actually reading your blog.

How do I get RSS for my blog?

The best free service I have found is http://www.feedburner.com

It is simple to register a pretty straight-forward process. Once registered add your blogs and your done. Then you simply need to add coding for readers to subscribe to your blog do this click on the publicize tab at the top. Then click friendly graphics in the sentence “Chickletize your web site. Encourage people to subscribe to your feed by posting a friendly graphic in an easy-to-find location”

Here you will get the different type of aggregators and their codes. I put all of them in my blog, however it is up to you which ones you put. I suggest always putting the standard one, as this is the official logo now. Once you select the one you want to put the coding is at the bottom of the page, again simply copy and paste the code in your template depending upon where you want the button to show on your blog.

Feed burner also allows you to select an option where it will automatically ping your updates for you when they are made.

They include:

· Technorati

· My yahoo

· Bloglines

· Pubsub

· Ping-o-matic

· Newsgator

And you can add up to five more of your own.

That's the end of my tips. Hope you found them useful.

John.