Google Friend Connect to be abolished, my Google Analytic numbers, Why WordPress? and Advertising

It’s true. It’s happening. For non blogger-blogs, Google will be deleting their Google Friend Connect widget. This is what was said on their blog this week…

We’re retiring the service for all non-Blogger sites on March 1, 2012. We encourage affected sites to create a Google+ page and place a Google+ badge on their site so they can bring their community of followers to Google+ and use new features like Circles and Hangouts to keep in touch.

So what will this mean?

It means if you encourage your readers to follow you via this gadget (which I have sitting on the top right) you’ll have to find a new method.

If you added your widget a long time ago you would have been collecting ‘numbers’. I have been blogging about 5 years and only added it last year, so I won’t be devastated if it’s gone from my blog.

If you have a wordpress blog and use this widget, then you might want to start thinking about your new methods for following…

Where do your readers come from mostly? Do you read your analytics? I recommend that you use Google Analytics. I think if we are all comparing Apples with Apples we should use the same program. If you are writing a media kit, your numbers should come directly from Google Analytics. If you are only reading your numbers from your blogger statistics, well I hate to tell you that they are usually higher than what they actually *are*.

So above is a screenshot of where my traffic came from last Monday. The arrow points to google/organic. So most likely people typed in my address, or came to me from a bookmark, or a reader. This is my number 2 source. This is what I want to maintain. I will be trying my hardest to merge the Feedburner traffic with this ie. get more people to SUBSCRIBE to my blog.

Have you got clear and easy to find SUBSCRIBE buttons? Will you be asking people to subscribe to your blog instead of following if you have a wordpress blog?

The number one position is DIRECT. This would be twitter. Are you using twitter? If not, why not? These numbers don’t lie!

I will be thinking about some new options for my own blog and I’ll share the options as I go along. This might mean I will change my layout (no, really?? LOL!). Well, I have some new photos I want to share in the banner and I have found some new fonts I love! You know me, always ch-ch-ch-changin’.

Why WordPress?

Some of you may have noticed I changed my blog to wordpress. I have been asked why did I do this?

I used blogger for a really really long time – like 5 years. I’ve had quite a few blogs and only settled in to this domain name in early 2010. I realised then the importance of keeping the same blog.

However, I do still love blogger but it was time to move on. I know just about every single hack there is to tweak a layout on blogger. I know how to fix every crash, every glitch…

BUT, it is limited in it’s customisation and SEO.

In a nutshell, I can now:

☻ Have lots of navigation menu’s and drop down lists without hacking everything in sight and hoping it works.

☻ Easy slideshows wherever I want them. You want it on this page, but not that? Done!

☻ Each page can have it’s own layout – full width, 2 columns, 3 columns, different headers..

☻ I can use gadgets like Linkwithin is areas I choose. For example, I don’t have it under each post when you land on my page. It’s now only visible when you go to leave a comment for me. This makes sure I don’t clog up my landing pages.

☻ I have added additional links to my social media in the comment sections.

☻ My footer is just as good as my banner.

☻ Share buttons, date, post title etc can easily be moved to wherever you like it. You can turn these on and off according to whether you want it on a certain post or not.

☻ Add more key words to the SEO for a particular post whilst drafting it up.

☻ Host your own images.

I am sure there are other reasons, but this is what works for me! I am happy to answer any questions you have.

Advertising

I love that some of my bloggy friends are making some coin out of their blogging. I am not against it, but I’d be happy to help any of you considering it ‘make a special spot’ in your blog layout to accommodate it. You have to be very careful when placing ads on your blog that you don’t let them overcrowd your content (well that’s what we come to your blog for isn’t it?). I’ve seen some awesome layouts that really nail the use of advertising and I still love visiting their blog.

Myself and Advertising? I thought I’d do it, but I’ve decided not to. My direction is to use my blog to make money elsewhere (eg. The Media Maid). I asked myself where do I want my blog to be this time next year? And when you can answer that, then you’ll know whether advertising is right for you or not.

So, I think this blog post got a little long and out of control! Ha! Sorry! 😉

Happy Blogging and I’d be more than happy to help you turn your blog in to a new masterpiece. x