Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: All Blogs Are Not Equal
Chapter 2: Customize and Create Templates
Chapter 3: Social Bookmarking
Chapter 4: Joining the Blogosphere
Chapter 5: Using Widgets
Chapter 6: RSS and Atom Syndication
Chapter 7: Making Money with Ads
Chapter 8: Measuring Site Performance with Google Analytics
Chapter 9: Search Engine Optimization
Chapter 10: Website Integration
Index
- Chapter 1: All Blogs Are Not Equal
- Meet Georgia Peach, Fanatical Fruitier
- The Way She Blogs Now
- What's Out There
- Cooking with Amy
- Meeblog
- BoingBoing
- Innocent Drinks
- What They Share
- Time to Plan
- Defining Goals
- Attract More Readers
- Reinforce her Brand, Build a Community
- Sell More Fruits, Explore New Revenue Opportunities
- Measure and Improve
- Summary
- Meet Georgia Peach, Fanatical Fruitier
- Chapter 2: Customize and Create Templates
- Choosing a Theme
- Presentation—It's About the Visual Things
- Changing Blogger Templates without Code
- Use the Test Blog
- Customizing Page Elements
- Managing Page Elements
- Editing the Header Page Element, Title, and Description
- Replacing the Header Image
- Changing Blog Templates
- Changing the Fonts and Colors
- Choosing High Contrast Text Colors
- Matching the Font to the Blog
- Choosing an Effective Layout
- The Usual Suspects
- Pruning the Template Code
- Designing the Visual Look
- Preparing to Style the Post Content Block
- Adding a Custom Variable Tag to the Template
- Displaying an Image Next to the Title of Each Post
- Adding Background Images to Post Text Blocks
- Spicing up the Sidebar
- Styling the Footer Section
- Styling the Header Section of the Template
- Adding Polish to the Template with Style(s)
- Creating Visual Interest with Backgrounds and Borders
- Creating a Three-column Template
- Preparing to Modify Your Current Template
- Tweaking Template Images
- Summary
- Designing the Visual Look
- Choosing a Theme
- Chapter 3: Social Bookmarking
- How Social Bookmarking Works
- Submitting Posts without Bookmarks
- Sharing Posts by Email
- Adding Bookmarks to Blogs
- Choosing the Right Bookmarks for Your Blog
- Deciding Which Bookmark Services to Use
- Using Simple Text Link Bookmarks
- Adding Social Bookmark Buttons
- Offering Multiple Bookmarks with One Button
- Adding Dynamic Counters to Bookmark Links
- Adding Multiple Counter Scripts Simultaneously
- Choosing the Right Bookmarks for Your Blog
- Attracting Readers with Links
- What People are Tagging
- Planning an Article
- Building an Audience with Regular Posts
- What People are Tagging
- Summary
- How Social Bookmarking Works
- Chapter 4: Joining the Blogosphere
- Backlinks, Trackbacks, and Pingbacks
- Configuring Backlinks
- Why You Need Backlinks
- Trackbacks Added Automatically
- Viewing Multiple Backlinks
- Being a Backlinker
- Maintaining Backlinks
- Using a Trackback Service
- Trackbacking Non-Blogger Blogs
- Blogrolls
- Setting up Blogrolls
- Caring for Blogrolls
- Linkbaiting Bloggers
- Attract Attention
- Find a Unique Story Angle
- Create Controversy
- Attract Attention
- Technorati and Other Blog Networks
- How Blog Networks Work
- Summary
- Backlinks, Trackbacks, and Pingbacks
- Chapter 5: Using Widgets
- Adding a Blogger Page Element Widget
- Widgets Your Readers Want
- Adding a Custom Third-Party Widget
- Adding Interactive Third-Party Widgets
- Interacting with Visitors Using Chat
- Social Network Badges
- E-commerce with Blogger
- Using Product Sales Widgets
- Offering Products as an Amazon Affiliate
- Providing PayPal Service on Your Blog
- Blogger and Third-Party Widgets
- Crafting Custom Blogger Widgets
- Anatomy of a Widget
- Choose Your Widgets Wisely
- Picking the Right Widgets
- Widget Matching Matrix
- Ways to Pick Widgets
- Picking the Right Widgets
- Planning for Future Widgets
- Using Experimental Widgets
- Summary
- Chapter 6: RSS and Atom Syndication
- How Site Feeds Work in Blogger
- Choosing a Feed Protocol for Your Blog
- Multiple Feed Protocol Icons Confuse Visitors
- Discovering the Post URL of Your Blogger Blog
- Grabbing Feeds with Safari
- Choosing a Feed Protocol for Your Blog
- Managing Blogger Feeds
- Basic Feed Settings
- Advanced Feed Settings
- Redirecting Feeds
- Promoting Your Blog with Feed Chicklets
- More Ways to Publicize Your Feed with FeedBurner
- Updating Google Sitemaps for Redirected Feeds
- Give Visitors the Feed They Need with SmartFeed
- Notifying Services with PingShot
- Label Specific Feeds
- Offering Feeds by Label
- Measuring Feed Success
- Showing Your Success with FeedCount
- Using FeedBurner Stats
- Adding Outside Feeds to Your Blog
- Test Driving Blogger Subscription Links
- Making it Easy for Visitors to Add Your Feeds
- Subscription Links versus FeedBurner Redirect
- Making it Easy for Visitors to Add Your Feeds
- Summary
- How Site Feeds Work in Blogger
- Chapter 7: Making Money with Ads
- Eating a Google AdSense and Blogger Sandwich
- Setting up Google AdSense for Your Blog
- Creating AdSense Ads with Blogger Page Elements
- Using Custom AdSense Ads
- Considering Your AdSense Options
- Designing Your AdSense Ads
- Putting YouTube Videos to Work with Video Units
- Before You Begin
- Managing Video Unit Players
- AdSense for Search
- Adding a Custom AdSense for Search to Your Blog
- Setting up Referral Ad Units
- Why Not to Use Referrals
- Getting the Most Out of AdSense Ads
- Managing Ads in AdSense
- Using Advanced Reports
- Generating Reports
- Viewing Reports
- Using AdSense Filters
- Monetizing Blog Feeds with FeedBurner
- Ways to Monetize
- FeedBurner Ad Network (FAN)
- Displaying AdSense Ads with FeedFlare
- Managing AdSense Content Ad Units in FeedBurner
- Ways to Monetize
- Discovering Other Advertising Programs
- Amazon Affiliate Ads
- Project Wonderful
- BlogAds
- Summary
- Chapter 8: Measuring Site Performance with Google Analytics
- Setting up Analytics
- Time for Action!—Activating Google Analytics
- Adding Tracking Code without Editing Your Template
- Administrating Google Analytics
- Managing Website Profiles
- Adding Additional Profiles
- Managing Users with Access Manager
- Preparing to Add a User
- Editing Existing Users
- Deleting Users
- Controlling Data with Filters
- Setting up Filters
- Understanding Regular Expressions
- Processing Data Using Custom Filters
- Types of Custom Filters
- Managing Website Profiles
- Managing Ad Campaign Metrics
- Tracking Campaigns
- Tagging Campaign Items
- Experiencing URL Builder
- Identifying Campaign Tags
- Tracking Campaigns
- AdWords Integration
- Analyzing Keyword Effectiveness
- Driving the Reports Dashboard
- Navigating the Dashboard
- Using the Left Menu of the Dashboard
- Exploring the Main Dashboard Overview Section
- Customizing the Dashboard Overview
- Viewing Reports
- Analyzing Reports
- Emailing Reports
- Navigating the Dashboard
- Evaluating Performance with Goals
- Tracking Performance with Goals
- Editing Goals
- Tracking Performance with Goals
- Improving Your Blog with Google Analytics
- Analyzing Navigation
- Exploring the Navigation Summary
- Entrance Paths
- Optimizing your Landing Page
- Examining Entrance Sources
- Discovering Entrance Keywords
- Interpreting Click Patterns
- Understanding Site Overlay
- Analyzing Navigation
- Summary
- Chapter 9: Search Engine Optimization
- Seeing a Blog through Search Engine Goggles
- Performing a Search—Which Blogs Rank High
- What High Ranking Blogs Do Right
- Using Tools to Evaluate a Blog
- Using the Google PageRank Button
- Discovering Search Engine Reach Using Tools
- Improving Search Engine Rank with Web Standards
- Validating Your Blog Template
- Blog SEO Checklist
- Performing a Search—Which Blogs Rank High
- Planning Improvements
- Creating a List of Improvements
- Ten Ways to Optimize a Blog for Search Engines
- Wearing a White Hat
- Developing Improvement Strategies
- Prioritizing Improvements
- Creating a List of Improvements
- Optimizing Your Blog for Search Engines
- Optimizing On-site
- Seeding the Blog Title & Description with Keywords
- Allowing Search Engines to Find Your Blog
- Fertilizing Content with Keywords
- Optimizing Image and Video Posts for Current Searches
- Submitting Rich Media Content for Indexing
- Improving Template Validation
- Optimizing with Off-Site Techniques
- Adding a Blog to Google Webmaster Tools
- Adding a Sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools
- Communicating with Search Engine Spiders
- Understanding User-Agent Behavior in Robots.txt
- Optimizing On-site
- Measuring Optimization Success
- Evaluating the Impact of Improvements
- Tools and Resources
- Maintaining Your SEO Status
- Controlling the Destiny of Your Blog
- The Secret to Search Engine Attraction
- Search Engines Crave Rich Media Content
- Why Search Engines Care about Rich Media Content
- Controlling the Destiny of Your Blog
- Summary
- Seeing a Blog through Search Engine Goggles
- Chapter 10: Website Integration
- Adding Website Navigation
- Preparing to Add Navigation
- Creating a Multi-Level Menu for a Blog
- Preparing to Add Navigation
- Using Widgets on Your Site to Share Your Blog
- Publicizing Blog Articles with Headline Animator
- Publicizing Your Blog with SpringWidgets
- Adding Twitter Updates to Your Website
- Integrating the Look of Your Blog & Website
- Using the Same Fonts
- Choosing the Same Colors
- Using Blogger with a Custom Domain
- Deciding How to Publish Your Blog
- Publishing to a Current Domain Using FTP
- FTP Errors and Solutions
- Using a New Custom Domain
- Purchasing a New Custom Domain
- Summary
- Adding Website Navigation
