Add a Social Bookmarking Button to Blogger

In this tutorial you will learn how to add a free Social Bookmarking button to your Blogger (Blogspot) blog. By adding this feature to your website you will enable visitors to your blog to create links to popular social bookmarking sites such as Google, Technorati, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, Stumble Upon, Reddit, Delicious, Furl, Yahoo etc. Adding personal bookmarks enables visitors to share these links with others thereby helping your attract more traffic to your site. For more information on the benefits of social bookmarking please refer to my article - Benefits of Social Bookmarking for Blogger bloggers.

Add This Share ButtonThis tutorial shows you how to place a social bookmarking button on your site by accessing a free social bookmark and feed button builder service called Add This. Add This will supply you with a simple piece of code which when placed in a widget will insert a button either at the end of each post or in the sidebar. If you wish you can do both as I have done on this site. For those new to blogging don't worry if this sounds complicated as this article gives you step by step instructions suitable for any Blogger user including beginners.

How does an Add This Social Bookmarking Button Work?
The code from Add This places a button on your site which when clicked on by a visitor to your site opens a menu of the most popular social bookmarking services. When a selection is made by a visitor eg Delicious, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, MySpace, Stumble Upon they are given the option to submit your blog to their online bookmarks. Once a visitor submits your blog to a social bookmarking service Add This can provide you with useful analytics about bookmarks, feeds and emails depending on which buttons you enable on your site. This kind of statistical information from Add This will help you gain greater understanding of your site traffic and your most popular posts.


Steps for Adding a Social Bookmarking Button from Add This to Your Blogger Blog

1. Register for a free account with Add This


2. Once you supply a username, email address, password and your website address sign up is pretty much instanteous.

3. After sign up is confirmed click on Get Your Button. This will take you to the Create Your Button Page

4. On the Create Your Button page you will be asked to make some selections about your button.

What kind of Button? Select Sharing/bookmarking button

What Look? Choose any of the six button choices. For this example I am going to select the share button


Where? Select on a blog

Blogger Platform? Select Blogger

At this point the information your have entered should look like the picture below:




Once you have confirmed that you have entered the correct information click on the Get Your Code button and you will be taken to the Get Your Code page.

5. From the Get Your Code page you will be given the option to Preview your button. Do so if you wish or move on to Step 6.


Having generated the code for your Add This Social Bookmarking button you now need to decide where to position it on your blog. You may either place your new Social Bookmarking Button beneath each post (see below) or in a sidebar.


Instructions for Placing a Social Bookmarking Button Beneath Each Post of Your Blogger Blog

Click on Blog Post Button option.

Highlight the Javascript code supplied by Add This

Copy the code to the Clipboard of your computer using Ctrl + C command

In a new window open your Blogger Blog and sign in

Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

As a precaution Backup your template in case you inadvertently overwrite some code.

Once you have backed up place a tick in the Expand Widget Template checkbox

Use the Ctrl + F command to open the toolbar which will appear at the bottom of your page while using Blogger. You can close this at any time using the Ctrl + F command or by clicking on the blue cross in the lefthand corner.

Now highlight the following line of code and using the Ctrl + C command copy and paste the code into the Search Box on the toolbar at the bottom of Blogger. This action will quickly locate the code for you in your Blogger template. You will be placing the code immediately before this tag.

<div class='post-footer'>

Return to Add This and highlight the Javascript button code supplied. Copy the code to your clipboard using the Ctrl + C command.

Reopen the Blogger window and place the cursor right before the tag that you located earlier.

Paste the Javascript code from Add This into the template using the Ctrl + V command.

Your code placement should look like that pictured below


Click on Save Template

Now click on View Blog from the top menu and navigate to the end of your first post. If all instructions have been followed you will now have a social networking button at the bottom of each post.


Instructions for Placing a Social Bookmarking Button in a Sidebar of Your Blogger Blog

Follow the Add This automated process by clicking on Add the Menu to My Blog button. This will place a button in a widget in your sidebar as you see on this site.

This Blogger tutorial has covered the steps involved in adding a free Add This Social Bookmarking Button to your Blogger (Blogspot) blog. Grow your Blogger (Blogspot) site today by adding a free Add This button which will enable visitors to bookmark your site and share your posts with others. Add This will provide statistical tracking of bookmarking activity on your site and help you determine your most popular posts.

Read more...

Make Money from Banner Ads on Your 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.

Read more...

Bloggers Guide to Google Adsense Myths

Bloggers Guide to 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 SchemeGoogle Adsense is Not 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 AdBrite 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.

Read more...

Common Blogger Mistakes

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.


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.

Read more...