Google Webmaster Tools: How to use for Blog?

I guess your website is ready and awaits Google indexing! Yet, you failed to fetch link from top notch sites where your competitors get links to their websites. If you wish to start independent SEO for your site, it is a must to have Google Webmaster Tools account. Simple as that, you need Google Account to avail the service. Adding website to search console is optional. If your site is famous blog then you don't need to worry much about indexing or getting traffic through SERP. But in most of our case, the blog start with zero i.e, zero visitors! So as a blogger, it is our duty to make the world know about our new blog. You find yourself most of time marketing your blog than creating blog post. As always you is awful to perform in an empty opera! Get audience, perform your drama. All we do is advertise about your perform on that particular day! So do we do it in Search Console! It is letting Google Search Know there exist a blog.

What you got in Search console!

Well, using Google Webmaster tool must have its own purpose! Know well how to enable right options and analyze search data available from the search console.

• At dashboard, you will be greeted with important stats indicating health of your blog.

  

  Stats Indicate Health of the Website

  As the image shows, the important statistics for any website in the webmaster tool is Crawl Errors, Search Analytics, Sitemaps. Crawl error make sure your blog is healthy and free from any defects! Any error reported during crawl must be rectified in no time. Though, it may stat that particular error will not affect your search engine result ranking, it is not good to have so many errors unattended for longer time. Search Analytics, though it claims to be in beta phase, it is an important measure for website optimization. It shows for which keyword phrase your blog came up in SERP. And the Sitemap, we will come later!
• Messages: Google will send you messages regarding improving your presence on Google search engine results. It would recommend few settings and options that are handy to make it target users from country and analyse audience data. Though, recommendations made are not mandatory, yet it is good to heed advice from Google webmaster for such matters. For every update, Google Webmaster Tool will come up with new message confirming the change or update made to your blog.
• Search Appearance:
  Structured Data: Important section if you miss structured data from schema.org. Schema.org is collaboration project from major search engine indented to create standards for rich snippets in search result.

  

  Structured Data

  Data Highlighter: Well, if you are lazy enough to add microdata from schema.org, then Data Highlighter will be your friend in Google Webmaster Tools. 

  

  Data Highlighter

  You can just highlight text as you do in PDF documents to tell Google that it belongs to a property so that it can product rich snippet in SERP.
  HTML improvements: It would list the improvements needed in your blog template. If Google Webmaster Tools find any possible improvement, it will be reported in this section.
  Sitelinks: 'Sitelinks are automatically generated links that may appear under your site's search results. Learn more. If you don't want a page to appear as a sitelink, you can demote it. Only site owners and users with full permissions can demote sitelinks.' -Google Webmaster Tools

  

  Example of Sitelink

  If Google automatically creates sitelinks then, you select which sitelinks to be demoted i.e, removing them from SERP. But remember, Google must generate sitelinks so if you don't find sitelinks in SERP, don't try pushing hard!
• Search Traffic:
  Search Analytics: Here comes the stats which are most useful for optimizing your website for search engines. It provide data regarding clicks, impressions, Click through rates, position of your web page in search result

  

  Search query

  The very important metric which one must take into account is 'search queries'. It shows up for which keyword phrases web page from your blog showed up in SERP. So it is good check them often to know the keyphrase for which your web blog comes ups. Not only that! You must try optimizing your web blog for the keyword phrases and improve your SERP position.
  
  Links to your site: It will display all inbound links to your web blog! If you are planning link building as your SEO strategy, then Google Search console will produce statistics of web sites that are pointing to the web blog! It is very useful if you are planning for link quality assessment.
  Internal Links: It collects statistics regarding interlinking of web pages in web blog. Give it some time to collect stats, it will provide ample data to meddle with!
  Manual Actions: If Google Webmaster Tools reports any spammy activities in your web blog, it would mention 'action to be taken' by the corresponding web masters.
  International Targeting: It is must option if you are in marketing and looking for sale in specific country or region! Say to which part of the Globe, your blog must be listed in SERP. Not only marketers, but also who are all in PPC ad networks could target their web blog to a country which has high conversion rate!
  Mobile Usability: Whatever your blogging platform maybe, it is good to use responsive web blog template which adapts with viewport of the device. If Google Webmaster Tools finds any errors, it will be listed for rectification by the corresponding web masters.It is good to keep these metrics happy to get high ranking in Google SERP.
• Google Index: When you enter Google Webmaster Tools, your first day worry would be when will Google index my blog! Of course, most of them feel the same. At time, it would take even weeks to index web blogs. But sure, Google will crawl your blog once you have submitted your site with Webmaster Tools.
  
  Index status: Know how many resources are indexed by Google! Once you submit sitemap, Google will crawl your blog periodically. Google may add new contents to the index and remove inappropriate contents from index. So it is continuing process.
  
  Content Keywords: It will list keywords according to the number of appearance in your web blog. And also it would provide LSI form of each keywords and occurrence such LSI.
  Blocked Resources: It will list blocked resources. To know more about blocked resources.
  
  Remove URL: You can manually remove URL from SERP.
• CRAWL: The objective of submitting web blog to Google Webmaster Tools is make Google crawl your web blog and index contents. So this option lists crawl information.

  

  Crawl Errors

  Crawl Errors: It is good to maintain an error free blog. Crawl error will state about robot.txt errors and broken links (404). It is good to fix the problem as soon as possible.
  
  Crawl Stats: It will provide data based on past 90 days. It includes how many times Google crawled your blog and web page loading speed.
  
  Fetch as Google: It is time to test your site! You could choose any of the options to test link from your web blog. You could fetch either as Desktop or mobile! You will know how Google understands your web blog.
  
  Robot.txt tester: If you have not come across robot.txt file in your life, then it is good and safe not to touch this options. Any mistake will make Google ignore your blog for good! For those who are good at creating own robot.txt file then it is the place to test your robot.txt files. Once the test is done successfully, you can update the robot.txt in your web blog! Not only texts, but also videos, images, news everything could be manipulated with your own robot.txt file.
  
  Sitemap: Do you remember? When I started this blog post, I mentioned about sitemap. It is important parameter to measure health of your web blog. So submitting sitemap make Google understand your web blog with ease. It would be like providing a map for a navigator. The Google Bot will crawl your website without missing any content that you wish to be indexed.
  
  URL Parameters: Here you can add parameters to URL of your web blog. But be sure before making any change as Google will miss many pages if found with mistakes. Learn more about URL Parameters
• Security Issues: Well, if your web blog is found with security flaws or got hacked by hackers, it will be reported here.Not just hacking issues, but also you will warned if malware activity is found in the web site.
• Other Resources: Time to explore! Not only webmaster tools, Google will provide you with other infant and beta tools to play with. If you got time, explore them.

  

  Other Resources from Google Webmaster Tools

So far made my best effort to make this simple guide on Google Webmaster Tools for Blogger blog. If you have queries, just leave them in comments. You feedback is always welcomed. Do not forget to share this.

Google Account creation

Through out your Google experience, you have encountered so many places that need Google account. Previously, google account is nothing but your gmail id. If you have gmail then you can get access to ask Google services. But with loyalties around email providers, official email accounts has kept large number of users from Google account's benefits.
As Google has made Google account mandatory for almost all Services, it is now must to have id. No more gmail.com. You can create Google account with your existing email id.

All you have to do is select the check box before clicking sign up button on Google account creation page. You are good to go with Google. You can access gmail, Google+, blogger, drive, Google Search console, play store, maps and all with single id. That too with your existing mail id.

Though you won't receive gmail messages or any messages relating to Google to you existing email id except for Google account information and confirmation.

Google Account Creation

But still you have to use gmail id if you are wish to use gmail service. That's different story! You get all major Google service with your existing email ID if you wish to keep it so.

For user who mind privacy, your one stop privacy settings in one place. Visit myaccounts.google.com to manage your privacy settings.

One Stop place to Manage Google Account Settings

With myaccounts, you can manage every aspect of your Google Account. It would provide easy way to manage your privacy for each service through myaccounts!

Google Webmaster Tools + Blogger

Time to improve Search Engine presence of your Blogger blog. Now, we will do it for Google Search Engine! What's special with Google? Well, it is most popular search engine around the world makes it special! So your presence in Google index is far more important for the business. That too making top 10 of the search result will be priority sooner. But you need not worry about it yet. Google Webmaster Tools is a vital tool each webmaster must know to handle. It was renamed as Search console, yet, still Google Webmaster Tools terms bring up search console in the SERP. No matter what it is name! Functionality remains same. 

Now login to the Search console using any of the Google Account. It is recommended to use Google account used in the Blogger.com. Still, it is your preference use any Google Account as you wish. Once logged in, you will be presented with Search console Dashboard where you could manage websites you add to Google Webmaster Tools.

Adding Website to Google Search Console:

Add a property

1. Login to your Google Webmaster Account. Now from the dashboard, click on 'Add a property' button.
2. A dialogue will open stating to enter the web address of the blog which you wish to add in Webmaster tools.
   
3. After you enter the Blog web address, Webmaster tool dashboard gets updated and list your blog in the dashboard. Now, give some time to Google to find your blog. It would take at least a day or two. And you must be good when you search your sub domain! If not found in top 10 results, it must be found in top 30. (The idea of this post not about improving SERP ranking, those who are interested in SERP must read about SEO). 

   

   Webmaster Tools Dashboard
4. That's it you are good to go with your Google SERP presence. For Google Webmaster Guide, check how to use Google Webmaster Tools

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Submit Blog to Search Engine

Did you know? Most of your blog traffic would be from search engines. If you can get your blog within first 10 results, then your blog will receive decent amount of visitors. But getting to top 10 in Search Engine Result Page (SERP) is not an easy task. You will find yourselves racing with other bloggers who blog on same passion and niche. So here comes Search Engine Optimization (SEO). But I am not going explain very complicated methods employed by webmasters. Still, you need to do some basic things to make Search Engines crawl your websites. Remember, first you have to say someone that I am on internet, so that one who hears would visit you. So, first thing is to make Search Engine visit your website .i.e, to make them crawl your blog post.

Know your Navigation Route in Search Engines

Though, submitting your blog to Search Engine is not the end, it is just a beginning of a new work. Just submitting web blog address will not make a search engine crawl your blog. It depends upon the frequency of updates and new articles you post in your blog. 

Moreover, whatever the blog post may deal with must get indexed in the search engine. But different search engine employ dissimilar methods when it comes to indexing. Google has unique highlighter feature which helps to markup each page so that you could save coding time with Schema.org. For those who are not tech savvy would able to benefit from Data highlighter feature in Google Webmaster Tools. While, the Data highlighter feature would not be available in Bing webmaster tools. So their exist no similarity and each search engine has its own unique way of indexing and ranking web pages in the internet.

No matter how good your blog is, without letting search engines know about your blog, it will not rank well in SERP. If you run a single author blog, then it is good to submit your website to Google and Bing manually than to wait for auto-index for which chances are remote.

Most other search engines do not need such submissions as they depend on data either from Google, Bing, or directory services or combination of all, to produce SERP. Example, DuckDuckGo has no separate Webmaster tool, yet you will find your blog in SERP if you submit them to Bing or Yahoo directory. To be simple, you need entry point for your blog as internet is web of pages. If you fail to get a link, you blog will stand separated.

It is not mandatory to submit your web blog through Webmaster Tools. But still, you need links to your site so that search engines may know that their exist a web blog i.e, your blog! For those who could not find a breakthrough with links, it is good to submit web blog address in various webmaster accounts manually. Moreover, you will find various options and tools at your disposal once you sign up for webmaster accounts.

Blogger + Google Adsense Integration

Spent time writing post for long time without thinking about ads. Then it is time to realize that your blog going to pay you. Google was so nice with Blogger users that it integrated Google Adsense with its popular Blogging platform. Monetizing your blog is just a click away! You will check out about earning & campaigns post which provided with clear introduction for beginners. But most of us know more about Google Adsense. History of ad network will not begin or end without Google Adsense. It is most popular ad network among any other Pay Per Click advertising. In short, it is considered as king of ad network.

Sign Up for Adsense

For anyone who has dilemma when to monetize your Blogger blog, then just follow the instructions in the earning menu of the Blogger dashboard. The 'sign up for Adsense' will be enable when six months elapse after creating your blog. You may own any number of Blogger blog, yet each blog has its own incubation period and need approval to display ads.

Signing up for Google Adsense:

1. Once the button gets enabled in your Blogger account, then just follow the on screen instructions to sign up for Google Adsense.
2. To sign up, you will be provided with two options, to use existing Google Account or create new account. It would be wise to use your Google Account which you use for the signing in into Blogger as you will find it convenient at later stages.
3.  Once you sign up, it takes some time for Google Adsense Team to approve your blog. During the waiting period, empty ad box will be displayed.
4. Once you sign up you are free to select the Ads that are to be displayed in your blog. Google Adsense will provide recommended Ad unit that adapts to responsive design.
5. Once you select your ad unit, you will be provided with the code of that ad box which you could place in your Blogger layout. 
6. To place your ad, login to your Blogger account, select the blog which was recently approved by Google Adsense-> select 'layout'-> select 'Add a Gadget' -> select 'HTML/Javascript' gadget. Now paste the code provided by Google Adsense. Your ad will start displaying.

Note: No images have been provided in this blog considering privacy of Google Adsense account. If you find any difficulty setting up Adsense to your Blogger blog then leave comment about the problem. Possible solutions will be provided at the earliest!

Most of the Bloggers will find difficulty getting approval of Google Adsense Team. It is true, that Adsense Team is serious about Blogger blogs that display ads from Google Adsense network. If you find difficulty getting Adsense team approval for your blog, mention them in comments, most of the problem which prohibit your blog from getting qualified for Adsense program would be silly. So you will find easy way to get approval for Adsense team in no time once you fix them up.

WordPress Blogging Platform

WordPress.org

For beginner, it is good to start with Blogger platform. At some point, if you realize that having a self hosted blog is important, then it is time to move on. Most popular blogging platform is WordPress. It is an open source blogging platform which you could customize to your needs and necessities. But you need a hosting account or dedicate a computer machine. Either of the choice, you are going to use WordPress Content Management  System (CMS) for your blog. Well, if you have to start with WordPress, then visit wordpress.org not wordpress.com. Both of them are different!

Difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com:

Making it Black and White

It would be obvious to observe similarity between the two web address. Yet, both of them are different. Wordpress.org is Open Source project website where you could download the source code of the CMS, while wordpress.com is a website which implemented wordpress open source project act like Blogger service. In wordpress.com, you can create your own blog as we do in Blogger.com. So, if you wish to create your self hosted web blog, then start from wordpress.org.

To make it simple, wordpress.org has provided preferred hosting service who will provide one click install for WordPress. Bluehost, Dreamhost, Laughing Squids are the recommended WordPress hosting service.

WordPress.com is no less, it provide premium service for a cost. You can own your own domain name for your blog in wordpress.com. So, it is your choice when it comes to selecting the right platform. But it is highly recommended to own a self hosted web blog than wordpress.com. Practically, wordpress.com premium account will charge you little bit more than hosting service. Yet, you will find no hassle of blog management with wordpress.com. All you have to worry about is just writing good quality content for your web blog. The truth is each way has its own merits and demerits.

My personal opinion is it would cost less to own a self hosted blog than purchasing premium package from wordpress.com.

What if you don't find one click install?

It is fine to have other hosting services, but WordPress.org will not guarantee you with one click install. Unlike bluehost service, in which you could setup web blog in 20 minutes, other hosting services need you to upload the WordPress source code to the root of the web host.

Plugins:

The thing which made WordPress a buzz is plugins. For WordPress, you will find wide array of plugins that you might find it difficult select from the choices. Large number of web developers develop WordPress plugins. WordPress developer is most sought after job for any freelancer. 

For almost anything you will find plugin to get your job done in WordPress.

Moreover, you will have find more by yourself with your WordPress blog. To try blogging experience in WordPress it is good to start with wordpress.com.

Self Hosted Web Blog

Do you have a minute? If yes, it is good enough to confess that you need at least 5 minutes to know about hosted web blog. When it comes to hosted web blog, anyone might think that I am doing WordPress marketing. Since, it is been top Content Management System (CMS) in internet web blog history, anyone who wish to start a blog will be tempted to own a WordPress hosting! Now, the question is what is hosted web blog? Time to find out.

What is Self Hosted Web Blog?

Self Hosted web blogs are either self-hosted from home or hosted through a service provider. Unlike, Blogger where you depend on Google for the service, hosted web blogs are self-dependent. It means you own your blog completely and have control over all the aspects of your web blog. You are at the liberty to decide your own policy and terms. Especially, plugins! Most blogging platform fall short when it comes to plugins. In a hosted blog, you can control the level of plugins and could install & manage your own hand coded extensions. In simple words, it is like you own your house for good unlike renting it.

Owning a Blog is not having WordPress

So now, owning a self hosted web blog is not all about WordPress. WordPress is one among the CMS in Internet history. You will be provided with lot of other CMS to manage your blog. But WordPress gained popularity as it was open source and let developers to create and install own plugins. The repository of plugins made WordPress popular to stand of the crowd. Yet, if you wish to use some other CMS, then you are good to go. The point is WordPress blogging platform is not a must have if plan for a hosted web blog!

If you are planning to setup own blog, then it is good to check with other CMS such as joomla, Drupal and so on. A simple web search going to bring a lot of information than any book could do. Most of the CMS installations are just a click away. So it worth to give it a shot.

Advantages of Owning a Web Blog:

Well, it most advantageous to own a web blog for yourself rather than using using third party service if wish to exercise full control over your blog. The following are the few advantages of self-hosted web blogs:

• Full control over the blog functions
• Personalized blog experience
• Getting trust from visitors about your seriousness in blogging
• unrestricted plugins. If you could, you can create your own
• No more black outs for policy violations

Though the above list is short, self hosted web blogs are way better than depending on third party services. Some blogging platform provide services as like to make it appear as self-hosted blog, still those services would not let you the above activities.

I am not advocating here to own a self hosted blog. But none can deny reality! Self-hosted blogs are far better than free or hosted blogging services.

Drawback of self hosted web blog:

Everything comes with a price! None could deny the fact that every best thing will have its own pitfalls. Similarly, you might encounter few problems when own a self hosted web blog!

• Hacking attempts! You have to take Guardianship of your blog. You must protect it from attacker trying to gain access to your blog machine. Pulling it down might wipe out entire blog forever.
• You need to be good webmaster. Though, every blogging platform promises one click installation, yet you will need some technical knowledge to understand the working and customization of your blog. 
• Spams! Well internet history wouldn't be complete if we miss out spams from the index. As self hosted blogger you have to take care of spammer who will otherwise push links forever in your comment area. A blog with spam comment links is not good for business.

Though, the list mentioned here is short, most of the pitfalls could be sorted out with less effort but with a premium price. Most hosting service providers offer package for safety and security of your blog. Either you can purchase the package as a whole or take care for yourself. As always, it is a self hosted web blog, you have the control to what to be done.

Blogger Settings - Managing the Blog

Is anyone interested in a car without engine? Almost everyone of us wish to have best possible engine for the car. Similarly, every blog needs settings to manage the blog's overall functions and abilities. So do the Blogger dashboard provide settings for each blog hosted on Blogger service.

Blogger Settings

As usual, settings manage all the basic functions of the blog. Lets us see one by one to what Blogger has provided with us. 

Basic Settings

Basic: These are the very basic settings! Most of them are editable. Title is the Blog title which you have provided at the time of creating the blog. If you wish to add description, you could add few lines of text which will be appended after the blog title. 

Privacy, the very setting decide how you intent to use the blog. The default is 'listed on Blogger. Visible to search engine'. You blog will be indexed by Google and will be provided in the organic search results. 

Blog address! Yes, it is the address through which people identify your blog in internet. As a user of Blogger platform, you will be entitled to create unique sub-domain which would act as blog address. Further, you can setup custom domain name for blogger blog!

Permissions deal with adding, removing blog admins and authors. Click on the '+ Add authors' link and enter email address of the person whom you wish to add as an author in the blog.

Next, of course, your blog readership! Whom do you wish to read your blog post? Public is the best choice if you wish to include more readers. 

Post and comments: Do you mind if I say it has been already discussed in this blog! Managing Blogger comments has all the information about managing comments.

Managing Posts

You can made choice about how many blog post could be display in your home page? How images showcased in your blog! 

Post using Mobile and Email

Mobile and email: Interested in posting on the go! Then Mobile and email is the best method to post blog from various devices. For those who wish to post using SMS/MMS, you could add mobile devices from which you could post.

Next most useful option for any blogger is posting using email. Just fill up the 'secretwords' text box and you will start posting your blog post from your email. The format would be ksguruprasadh.<secretwords>@blogger.com. Send email to this address, you blog will be posted. The subject of your email will be placed as Blog Post title. To effective blog using email, check out How to post Blogger post from email?

Note: Be sure about 'secretwords' usage! Never share your secretwords with others. Anyone with 'secretwords' could post into your blog. It is your obligation to keep it secret! Blogger will not take any responsibility if someone post a blog with your secretwords. Better follow above link on how to post Blogger post from email.

Comment Notification Email: It is optional! If you wish to receive any comment notification email when someone leaves any comment in your blog post, then enter email to which you wish to receive such comment notification email.

Language and Formatting

Language and Formatting: Setup the language of your blog and transliteration. Transliteration could be of any language specific to any country. Of course, it is personal choice. Setting up a language will not make any change to search results.

Formatting will help to setup Time Zone, Date & Timestamp format along with comment timestamps. Though they are not functionally important, it helps providing customized personal experience.

Search Preferences

Search Preferences: If you are planning for SEO Blogger blog post, then each settings in search preferences play vital role. It helps setting up Meta tags, redirects, error messages. And you could set custom robot.txt file. 

Note: If you are not in SEO business, never touch these options. Any mistake in robot.txt file, your blog will be ignored by Google. So if you wish to add custom robot.txt to Blogger, follow the link.
These are the essential Blogger settings every new blogger must get acquainted with to start blogging! Make sure you have the right settings for your web blog before making it public.

Blogger Template Introduction

Editing a Blogger Layout is simply different from applying a Template. Template is non functional unlike Layout which carry functional Gadgets/widgets. To the Blogger beginners, template is an .xml file contains HTML, Javascript and xml code in one document. Blogger has some default stock templates which you can either apply them as such or customize them to your liking.

Blogger Template customization

Good news! With new updates to Google mobile friendly algorithm, Blogger supports responsive web design. So no added cost towards to web design. Each Blogger template has its own respective equivalent mobile friendly template which load for mobile users. With Smartphone penetration, mobile friendliness increases your presence in search engine. But customizing mobile layout is a different story. If you are interested in editing mobile layout, check on how to edit Blogger template for mobile view.

Blogger Template Customization

Let's responsive web design be aside, you are free to customize your blogger template. You can edit Background, width, layout in the customization menu. You will be provided with preview of customized template. Like with the layout, Template is your creativity. Play with it to explore new possibilities.

Editing Blogger Blog Layout

Now comes the interesting part in your Blogger blog, customizing blog layout. Layout is arranging Blogger widgets in your blog to make it easy read for visitors. The default layout will have minimum widgets like About me, blog archives, attribution.

New Blogger Layout Design Interface

The advantage of Blogger layout customization is that it takes no skill to create a widget. So managing your content need no programming skill except for using your mouse! Clicking 'Add a Gadget' link will open up Gadget dialog box where you can select a predefined gadgets. This tutorial is good to explain how to add gadgets in blogger. 

You will find no problem when it comes to adding predefined blogger gadgets in your blog. But that is not the end of customization. You could just create your own gadgets in blogger with pure HTML and Javascript. If you got some code from any repository to implement in your blog then it is good to add 'HTML/javascript' gadgets to add your own code.

While it comes to arranging the placement of gadgets, you will find it similar to using visual IDE. In other words, if you are good at mouse, you are good to go with customization of Blogger layout. Just drag and drop your gadgets to your required place. No more editing CSS and HTML. In this sample tutorial, it is explained how to create your own social media share gadget in blogger. It is not just easy to explain Blogger layout customization in single blog post. Without any paid or free blogger theme, you could just create your own theme for yourself.

Editing Blogger Layout is up to you. Your creativity will create the design of your blog. The design does not mean just arrangement. It is something which make your blog personal with your readers. If you are blogger, who is interested in creating theme for yourself out of stock blogger theme, then I is highly recommended to subscribe this blog for more updates.

Blogger Guide on Earning & Campaigns

Whatever may be the objective of your web blog, either it is run on Blogger service or self-hosted blog! At some time, bloggers feel the need to monetize the blog. Most of the premium web blogs which run on a niche will receive subscription either monthly or yearly to gain premium articles access. But for beginners who just starting a new web blog will find difficult to raise money through premium subscription. Most of the visitors would bounce off your web blog once they find pay for view comes up in blog. The truth is most personal blogs will not gain readership if premium subscription comes up before visitors.

So most blog webmaster prefer ads and banner instead of paid subscription to gain access to the blog. Blogger blogs are easy to monetize. Moreover, it has its own inbuilt integration with Google Adsense account. Just a click of a button will take you to Google Adsense dashboard.

Earning using Blogger blog:

Google Adsense

Blogger.com has inbuilt Google Adsense integration. For any beginners, monetizing a Blogger blog is just a click away. But, it is not easy anymore. You have to run into Sandbox mode for 6 months before signing up for adsense. Just kidding! New blog needs some age and exposure to start monetizing. Google will provide with 6 months time to build your Blogger blog. 6 Months is an ample time to generate enough content to draw attention of your audience. When the time arrives, the the Sign up button would be enable for your blog.

Sign Up for Google Adsense

Once you click on the sign up it will take you to the Google Adsense dashboard where you would keep your blog for approval from Google Adsense Team. If you application gets approval, you are good to setup ads in your blog! Visit here to know more and Troubleshoot in setting up Google Adsense for your blog.

Starting your Campaign:

Your blog is been alive for 6 months, yet to achieve your target on audience. Then campaign is one of the best way to try gaining your presence over Internet. 

Start Campaign for your Blog

Campaign? Sounds like some election work for a candidate? For those who are new to Google Adsense pay per click advertising, it is a paid ad that comes along with organic search results of Google Search engine. Paid search results are as long as good if you pay for clicks from the search results. To know more about pay per click advertising, read about pay per click advertising.

Blogger.com inbuilt analytic features

So far how many blog post did you publish? If you have done publishing 3 blog post a day on average then in a week you would have some 21 to 25 blog post to your record. But the problem is getting visitors to your blog post. Creating content would not be a problem for new bloggers. If you spend some one hour per day, you could have good number of post to your name, sorry, to your Google+ profile, provided you shared all the post you wrote from day one. But how would measure your success as a blogger? 

That's the point! From being a blogger, just writing blog posts often doesn't qualify you to the podium. You know? Some millions of people own web blogs. But the said part only few reach the success and find place in SERP. Most people lose track of the progress and achievements. From my personal experience, I find most people abandon their blog. Mostly in blogger.com, I find often orphan blogs. Most blog writers just abandon once they find green pastures somewhere. The sub-domain owned by those bloggers are just doing nothing but parking in it for nothing. Simply, domain parking is done in Blogger platform. But that's different story we don't have to worry about now! 

I guess if you are reading this blog, then you are determined to make your blog complete. Success blogging is creating your own benchmark and targets. And of course, achieving them on time. Blogging had turned into a commitment. You have set target for yourself and achieve in on time.

Blogger Stats:

Stats Blogger Menu

So, you are setting up your targets, ain't you? If not, start setting monthly and weekly targets for your blog. Creating quality content is your goal. But with out any audience for your blog, it would like you are performing in an opera without visitors. So try targeting visitors who would like your blog. Unlike wordpress.com blog, your blog post will sit in new pressed category. Each blogger blog seems isolated except for the navigation bar, which usually brings up others blog.

Overview of Blogger Stats

Overview: Now, stats menu is easy to acquaint with. Overview shows up Post Entry and page views for your blog. Geographical location of the blog visitors. It is overall stats for your blog to make rough estimate out of the metrics collected by the blogger.

Posts: It will provide metrics on pageviews on blogger blog post and blogger page views. You could know about the top blog post which gets visit often from this option.

Traffic sources: This is important metric to measure your success in Blogger. You could learn about sites that are providing entry in to the blog post. 'Referring URL' keeps tab on the web site that provide backlink to your blog. More over 'search keywords' shows the search query for which your blog shows up in search result. This metric is as good as gold if you plan for SEO in your blog. Any search query for which your blog shows up then it is good to optimize your web page for such terms to rank higher. To know more about keywords research, you could find SEO your blogger blog post useful.

Audience: This tab will make you know more about Geographical location of your blog audience. It will provide insight into the Country on which you get page views from your blog and the browser from which blogger blog is accessed along with the Operating system or devices used by audience. It is good to know the OS which frequently appear in this stat. If you audience prefer mobile views, then it is good to optimize your blog for mobile. Interested in mobile optimization, visit to know more about responsive web design.

With Google rolling out mobile search algorithm, followed by anticipated Bing mobile search algorithm update, mobile optimization play vital role. Know the reason for optimizing web blog for mobile and tablets.

Drawback of Blogger inbuilt analytic:

Every tools comes with its own drawbacks! Blogger analytic provided with your blogger blog dashboard has its own drawbacks and pitfalls. 

Blogger stats are not real-time. In other words, you can see live updates over the stats as you do in other web analytic tools. The stats are updated with some delay. So it is good to use some professional analytic service if you prefer to have real time updates. For those, who are critical about the target audience, real time analytic service is way to go. Most of the web bloggers prefer Google Analytic service, yet even that service is not real time.

Further, Page views will count the bot visits. I run words of guru, a web blog running on blogger service. I receive an aggregate of 150 page visits from bots. Most of them are not quality links. Referring web sites would be some unrated website, not safe for audience of all ages. Most of these web sites, try to gain attention of beginners in Blogger who are new to blogging. Most beginners tend to click on those links i.e, referring URL to know about the website which provide link back to the blog and end up landing in page mostly compromising your security and privacy. So make sure, you or other author of your blog don't click on those links which you are uncertain about.

Sharing Blogger Post using Google+

Sharing Blog post using Google+

I will presume that you run a blogger blog and you are here to how Google+ sharing will help your blog? Any blog needs some active readers. In Blogger.com, Google+ integration will help you get readers to your blog in initial days. Many would feel wary about integrating social profile with blogs. Any one who visits your blog will get know about your social profile and thus might know more about personal information which you wish to protect or save it from unwanted attention. Well, we are in the age of internet, were most people are concerned about user privacy. I would highly recommend such bloggers to keep personal information private such as address, phone numbers, office address and so on. If you feel insecure about publicizing your personal information in social media platform then it is good check your privacy settings to hide few information from general public. Hiding every single information is not good for business such as hobbies, interest, websites, other blogs, promotions. 

In default, if you use Google+ using Google account, then blogger will automatically link your blogger profile with Google+ profile. With such integration, it made easy to share your blog post with Google+ audience. Not only audience, you can enable Google+ comments in your blogger blog, so your blog will display Google+ user comments on each post.

Google+ options for Bloggers:

Google+ options in Blogger.com

Option #1 Automatically Share after posting: This option is useful, if you wish to tell world about your blog post right after you posted it. Your Google+ profile is automatically updated with the new blog post. Your circles know that you have blogged in your blog. So it is good for those who wish instant update to their circle as soon as a blog post is published.

Option #2 Prompt to share after posting: while selecting this option will show a prompt box confirming your blog share through your Google+ profile. You will be provided with whom you wish to share your blog post. Three options are provided:

• Your circles
• Extended circles
• public

It is always recommended to share with public as it is most likely to get new audience into your blog. Consider if some one +1 your blog post shared through Google+ then his/her circle get know about your blog post. Thus increasing your blog reach than your expectation. 

Option #3 Use Google+ comments on this blog: It is your own choice when it comes to selecting this option. Commenting through Google+ had not been a problem at all. So if you find it useful to enable comments, then you are good to go.

Sharing using Google+ page:

Well, default setup enable you share using your personal Google+ profile, if you wish to create new Google+ page anticipating larger audience, then it is good to create Google+ page for your blog. It must be good enough to emphasize the interest of the blog.

If you use the same Google account for creating Google+ page then the page created will be listed when you select Google+ from the Blog dashboard.

Integrating Google+ page

If you have trouble setting up Google+ page then you can follow this tutorial on setting up Google+ page. Once you finished creating Google+ page, then it would automatically show up in your Blogger blog dashboard. To cross check about Google+ page integration, follow the guide to integrate Google+ page with Blogger blog.

Once start posting all updates using Google+ page then, it would be easy for you to manage the community which you create behind your blog. Thus, help you to separate your personal profile from blogging profile. Those which to follow the blog has liberty either to follow you or just follow the blog alone.

How to Manage comments of your blog?

Well, you must have started publishing blog post from your blogger blog! Most of you must have informed your friends and family about the blog which are writing. So you have few leads to your blog. So naturally, you may expect some comments. Not only from your family & friends but from general public. It is quite natural that your blog visitors may from any part of the world once you make it public. Google is good at taking your blog to any part of the world. So it is good to manage your comments. Moreover, managing comments does not mean just moderating, filter, removing spams. But also to have engaging readers of your blog. Once some one leave a comments, it is good to appreciate for commenting out and answer his/her query regarding your blog. That way you create reader engagement. Once you engage with your readers you will have a good chance of making your blog personal with that reader. So it is wise to manage blogger blog comments. 

Generally, Blogger.com allow any users to comment using Google Account. But still, it is good to enable anonymous commenting. Few readers, who don't wish to reveal identity will prefer anonymous commenting. So it is good to enable them in your comment section. Yet, it has its own reservation which will be dealt in detail now.

Managing Comments on Your blog:

Blog Settings

In your blog dashboard, select 'settings'-> Posts and comments. It will open the settings of blogger comments.

Blog Comment Settings

Comment Location: Comment Location option will provide with options on 'comment appearance'. In Default, it will be embedded at the end of each blog post. It is good to leave as such if you are confused on selecting the right option.

Who can comment? Well, it is recommended to include 'Anyone'. But purpose of your blog may restrict users who leave comments in your blog post. So choose it wisely. Default is 'Registered User'.

Comment Moderation: Does your blog need comment moderation? If yes, it is good to provide with an email to get notified of the comments left in your blog post. Moderation will need your email id to be entered for moderating comments for which you will notified. 

Moderating comments

Show word verification: It is highly recommended to select 'yes' for this option. This option prevent spams and bots leaving comments in your blog. So it is highly recommended to enable word verification for your blog. Each time one post comment, to the one who post will be shown with a word verification. This will prevent bots from posting random, irrelevant comments in your blog post.

Show Backlinks: What if someone discuss about your blog post somewhere else? Enabling backlink will provide a link back to the post where discussion is being done over your blog post. 

If you have enable moderation in your blogger blog post, then it is good to periodically check comments that awaits moderation. It is good to publish comments as soon as your readers leave one. Yet comment moderation will help you prevent spams, ads, irrelevant links being posted on your blog.