Blogger's Got New Features!

If you're a Blogger user you'll be pleased to know they're steadily improving the service to make it easy and quicker to use.

There are already several free gadgets on offer. I've personally hand-picked the top gadgets,  fun gadgets  and free gadgets to increase page views  in these articles.



Now Blogger has added stats, and an interesting Twitter feature. Firstly, lets deal with the stats.  Formally Blogger users were worse off than Wordpress bloggers when it came to statistics. Many of us made use of the magnificent service Alexa or Google Analytics provide. At last we can access very detailed blog statistics straight from our Blogger dashboard.

• Click on 'dashboard.


• Under each of your blogs' names you'll see: New Post, – Edit Posts – Comments – Settings – Design – Monetize – Stats


• Click on Stats and be amazed.

Your stats are grouped into three main headings; Overview, Posts, Traffic Source, Audience.

Post

Clicking on Post gives you a listing of all your popular posts from the most to the least viewed. You can choose to group these by day, week, month, or all-time by clicking on the boxes at the top of the page. Knowing what posts are popular helps you to plan future articles based around the same topic. This will help your blog to climb higher in Google searches because it will count heavily for one (or two) related subjects, which give potential visitors a more comprehensive answer to their search queries.

Traffic source

Clicking on Traffic source will show you three different lists. The first one tells you which urls brings the most traffic to your site (for the day, month, week or all-time). 

The second shows you which sites refer most traffic to your blog (again, you can choose whether you want to see it by day, week, month or all-time).

The last list tells you which key words brought most search engine traffic. These are all incredibly useful to a regular blogger. If you know which social networking sites send the most traffic to your blog, you'll be able to make an informed decision when determining how much time you spend where, and what to focus on.

Audience

This is self explanatory. Your audience (pageviews by countries) is listed here.

Twitter Feature

Do you often get a bit frustrated by having too many characters when trying to share on Twitter? Not many people know how to use the Twitter url shortener. Sharing from Blogger has always been a bit annoying because apart from the url, almost nothing else could fit in the new-update boxes. 

Well, not anymore! To make use of this new Blogger url shortener when sharing your new posts on twitter, here is what you do.

• Click on the name of the individual post you want to share. This is important. If you're on your blog's home page this is the url which will be captured and not the new post's.


• On the very top of your page is your Blogger nav bar. On the left you should see this:

                                    Follow, Share, Report Abuse, Next Blog

Click on Share and choose Twitter from the tool box which appears. Blogger shortens your url automatically and there's even space left to write a short message too! 

Here's some more about your Blogger navbar and information about what else it does.

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Top Selling Amazon Books You Must Read This Autumn

The autumn brings with it cold, dark evenings; perfect for snuggling up in bed (or on the couch) with a good book. Many people read books in the summer holidays, but I find reading a bit of a drag when the sun is up and I frankly, have much better things to do. I keep most of my reading time for the colder months, and they're now approaching fast.  Here is a short list of books you can get stuck into, whether you prefer hard copy or the kindle (or iPod) download variety. These all have splendid reviews on Amazon from satisfied readers. Have a look and see which one best suits your mood. I've included part of Amazon's review for each. Click on the links if you need more information.





Hide In Plain Sight







Andrea Hampton is used to the safety and security of her big city job. However, nothing will keep her from running back to her sister's side after Rachel is involved in a horrific accident. But helping Rachel and her grandmother open up a bed and breakfast? Ridiculous...and yet that is the position she finds herself in. Carpenter Cal Burke seems willing to help. Just what is going on with this rash of accidents plaguing the inn and its owners?



110 reviews 

31 gave it a 5-stars rating

Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games)











Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.

493 customer reviews

218 gave it a 5-stars rating













Somewhere To Belong (Daughters of Amana, Book 1)











Johanna Ilg has lived her entire life in Main Amana, one of the seven villages inhabited by devout Christians who believe in cooperative living, a simple lifestyle, and faithful service to God. Although she's always longed to see the outside world, Johanna believes her future is rooted in the community. But when she learns a troubling secret, the world she thought she knew is shattered and she is forced to make difficult choices about a new life and the man she left behind.

57 customer reviews

22 gave it a 5-stars rating









Beneath the Clouds and Coconut Leaves







Extremism, now more widely termed, terrorism, is on the lips of every human being and on the front pages of the world s newspapers every day. But we still long for love and love still thrives. This poetic novel by Moncy Pothen plunges us directly into the forests and paddy fields of Kerala, India from the 1960s to the 1980s, describes the delicate and heartfelt awakening of love in two lives, and has roots in ancient Indian tradition. Can you forgive a terrorist, if he has participated in the murder of your own father? Like the heroine, Ahalya, we live in complicated times, where black and white give way to shades of gray, and in Beneath the Clouds and Coconut Leaves, we hold our breath to witness which will win the battle, love or hate?



5 customer reviews

5 gave it a 5-stars rating





The Shopkeeper











In 1879, Steve Dancy sells his New York shop and ventures west to explore and write a journal about his adventures. Though he's not looking for trouble, Dancy's infatuation with another man's wife soon embroils him in a deadly feud with Sean Washburn, a Nevada silver baron.

Infuriated by the outrages of two hired thugs, the shopkeeper kills both men in an impulsive street fight. Dancy believes this barbarian act has closed the episode. He is wrong. He has interfered with Washburn's ambitions, and this is something the mining tycoon will not allow.

39 customer reviews

27 gave it a 5 star rating





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Free Gadgets To Monetize Your Blog

photo credit

All bloggers know of the complicated ways in which we're taught to monetize our sites. The extent is such that some writers and Internet-celebrity bloggers make a living selling costly e-books and tutorials showing us just how to make it big. Not all of those recommendations will work for everyone. After all, even if you're doing everything right, you first of all have to build up an Internet reputation before anyone starts to take notice of anything you say, let alone salivate on your every word. Reputation building takes time, but in the interim, here are some free gadgets you can make use of to bring money to your site. All you have to do is click.



Note: all of these gadgets can be found on your gadgets page. To access, go to your Dashboard. Design. Add a gadget. There are four separate groups of gadgets: basic, featured, most popular, more gadgets. 



Pages

Pages is the first gadget you come across on your basic gadget page (page 1). It allows you to create free standing pages on your blog. This is a great way of doing paid posts you don't want your regular readers to have to wade through. Creating your post on a page gives you an url and a real post. However, it doesn't clog your new and regular updates. You can always add links of these posts on your disclosure page. Someone who's actually chosen to click on that will see a short cut to all the paid posts you've done. Remember that there are limits to how many pages you can create, so you'll want to pace yourself.



Search box

Briefly, a search box allows your visitors to search the Internet to find exactly what they want. This is providing they couldn't find it on your site. You'll be doing your readers a favour and enhancing their visitor experience on your site. At the same time, adding a search box on your blog means that your visitors stay for much longer than they intended, giving your site more search engine weight. Here is an in-depth article which will teach you all you need to know about adding and monetizing adsense for search on your blog. This gadget is also found on the basic gadgets' page.



Adsense

It goes without saying that Adsense is one of the main, free gadgets with which to monetize your blog. After setting up your Adsense account you'll need to do a few basic tasks to make your ads really work for you. Many bloggers simply add this gadget and never look at it again. If this is you, you're limiting what you can actually make. Pennies are not enough for all the hard work you put in. You can make a lot more with a few tweaks. Find out in this step-by-step article how your Google adsense can earn you even more. Many bloggers started taking notice only after they received their first Google cheque. This one is also found on your basic gadgets page.



Amazon deals

This one is found on the featured gadgets page (page 2). Amazon deals, and indeed any amazon links can potentially make you money. This feature can be easily added to any site by also going to your blog's dashboard, design, then click on 'Monetize'. You sign up as an Amazon associate and will be given a publisher account. After this it's child's play in getting the links on your page. Simply underline any word you've written in your text and your dialogue box (which will appear on the right of every post you're preparing) will give you all the possible products or books associated with this word. Choose the link, the image or both and you'll get a ready made link on your page. Nothing could be easier!



If you've had experience with any free gadgets that really helped you earn some cash, please share with us in the comments box below. If you think this post can help someone you know please share it with them or on any of the social networking sites below. Thank you.

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Harry The Happy Caterpillar Grows

Harry The Happy Caterpillar Grows is a new book written by Cindy Jett to help children adapt to change.

How do you talk to a young child about their resistance to a change in routine, the fear of starting school, or moving to a new area? As adults, we know that change is a part of life, but very often young children want to keep things as they are. It makes them feel safe. A new picture book, “Harry the Happy Caterpillar Grows” by Cindy Jett  addresses how to help children when they fear change.

The story centers on Harry, a caterpillar who has a fantastic life full of games, friends, school and leaf eating. He is stunned when, one day at caterpillar school, he learns that he is expected to  build a chrysalis and change into a butterfly. Harry vows to remain a caterpillar forever, as his friends build their chrysalises and move on.  Eventually, Harry  learns to accept change as a necessary part of life, and  joins his friends as a butterfly. There are tips in the back of the book to help parents and educators use the story as a vehicle to help kids talk about their feelings, and teach them coping strategies.

The book is beautifully illustrated by Kathy Voerg. It  is appropriate for children ages 4-10, and is part of New Horizon Press's “Let's Talk” series for young children.

Cindy Jett is a licensed clinical social worker. She has a masters degree from the National Catholic School of Social Service, and has had a psychotherapy practice in Washington, DC for ten years.

This book is available here: Harry the Happy Caterpillar Grows: Helping Children Adjust to Change (Let's Talk)

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Amazon's Book Deals Of The Week

From time to time A Blogger's Books brings you Amazon's book deals of the week. But this is only when the deals are unmissable and totally worth your while. When I noticed their current exciting deal I couldn't resist posting it here. Hurry and get a couple of these for yourself or your loved ones.



James Patterson, Don't Blink - 57% off

£8.16

Amazon's blurb: 

New York's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons--the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer. Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police's fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit. Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy. In the chaos, he accidentally captures a key piece of evidence that lands him in the middle of an all-out war between Italian and Russian mafia forces. NYPD captains, district attorneys, mayoral candidates, media kingpins, and one shockingly beautiful magazine editor are all pushing their own agendas--on both sides of the law. Back off--or die--is the clear message Nick receives as he investigates for a story of his own. Heedless, and perhaps in love with his beautiful editor, Nick endures humiliation, threats, violence, and worse in a thriller that overturns every expectation and finishes with the kind of flourish only James Patterson knows.

Graham Bowley, No Way Down: Life and Death on K2 - 55% off 

£8.54

Amazon's blurb:

The summit of K2, 1 August 2008. An exhausted band of climbers pump their fists into the clear blue sky--joining the elite who have conquered the world's most lethal mountain. But as they celebrate, far below them an ice shelf collapses and sweeps away their ropes. They don't know it yet, but they will be forced to descend into the blackness with no lines. Of the thirty who set out, eleven will never make it back. Following the stories of climbers from around the world, No Way Down weaves a tale of human courage, folly, survival and devastating loss. The stories are heart-wrenching: the young married couple whose rope was torn apart by an avalanche, sending the husband to his death; the 61-year-old Frenchman who called his family from near the summit to say he wouldn't make it home. So what drove them to try to conquer this elusive peak? And what went wrong that fateful day?



Peter Robinson Bad Boy: An Inspector Banks Novel (Inspector Alan Banks) - 55% off

£8.54

Amazon's blurb:

When Juliet Doyle discovers a gun in her daughter's bedroom, she turns to old friend DCI Alan Banks for advice. But Banks is taking a much-needed holiday, and it's left to DI Annie Cabbot to deal with the removal of the firearm. No one can foresee the operation's disastrous consequences, or that the Doyles will not be the only family affected. Banks's daughter Tracy has fallen for the wrong boy. Her flatmate's boyfriend is good-looking, ambitious, and surrounded by an intoxicating air of mystery. He's also very dangerous. When Tracy warns him that the police might be on his tail, he persuades her to go on the run with him, and flattered by his attention, she agrees. Before she knows it, a deadly chase across the country is set in motion. And on his return, completely unsuspecting of Tracy's perilous situation, Banks is plunged into his most terrifying, personal case yet.



In addition to these three amazing offers, here are 4 best sellers boasting a grand 50% off.

Hope you like them!



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Make More From Adsense: Tips For Small-Time Bloggers

This topic has been covered by several big-time bloggers, teaching the world how to make $10,000 in one month from blogging. This article won't and can't claim such success. This is mainly written for the small-time blogger, just starting out and seeking to make a little more money on their adsense accounts while they learn the ropes in the world of blogging.



These tips I'm about to give you have been recommended directly by Google. They're taken from an hour-long Google video tutorial I watched. I've condensed the points down into the following basics.



1. Where To Place Your Ads





~Ads perform better when placed at the top of the page, above the fold. This basically means that anyone who arrives on your page can see the ad before they scroll down to read your article. I must admit that I don't like arriving on a page and not being able to see anything but ads above the fold. You know the ones where it looks like there is nothing else on the site but ads?

There is of course, a happy medium. There is an ad panel at the top of this page but when you arrived here you could read some of the article before scrolling down.



~Place your ads near to your articles. These have proven to work better because they're in plain view. If your blog allows it, you can even have wrap-around ads where they are placed on the top left, and the articles wrap around them on the right, then continue below. Unfortunately, Blogger does not allow this at this present time.



~Place your ads at the bottom of your articles. Only some Blogger templates allow this. However, many other templates are compatible with this placement. When readers finish your article, an ad at the bottom is asking for a response or action. Based on your topic, this is a great area for conversion.



~Place your ads near your scroll down button. Ads are less likely to be missed in this position.



2. How To Make Your Ads Perform Better





~Use a unit that's as big as possible. Of course don't take over your entire page with ads, but don't go for the tiny ones either. You may want to keep the ads out of the way so your blog looks neater, but this defeats the purpose. If this is important to you, you might as well remove them altogether. If you don't want people to notice them, then this is just what will happen. No one will notice them, so no one will click on them. This means no revenue for you.



~Enable text and image ads. Sometimes the ads will be just text and at other times they'll be changed to image ads. When you set up (or edit) your Adsense account, choose this option because it means more advertisers are able to compete for a space on your blog (those who have only text ads and others who mainly use image ones). More competition means more revenue for you.



~ Go lightly on filtering. When you set up your Adsense account you would've been asked if you wanted to filter (block) ads. If you are filtering, do this very sparingly.



~Describe and promote. A lot of us small-time bloggers sign up to Adsense because we hear it's a good thing to do. Then we chuck the ad units on our sites and wait for the advertisers to come to us, forgetting that there are lots we can do to make them work for us. Go back to your Adsense account and make sure you've described your blog. Promote yourself so that advertisers can see your site is actively inviting ads. Showing them what your site is about makes it easy for them to decide to pick yours instead of someone else's. If you've got a sub-section, describe that too. Put your blog out there!



3. Know What Works Well For Your Individual Site





All blogs are different. Not because the picture ad at the bottom of your article works well for you, it means it will work well for me. Track your successes so that you can stay with them or create them elsewhere.



~Check your channels. Go into your Adsense account. Adsense Setup. Channels. Set up and name your channels if you haven't already done so. This will enable you to track how each ad on your page is doing. Armed with this information, you can make it work better for your site, earning you more money.



4. Have You Done These

~Your link units are up and running

~They're in the hot spots where they can be seen by visitors

~You've done everything to enable the performance of your ad units

~You have set up Channels for your Google Adsense ads

~You have enabled Adsense for Search on your blog. (This link goes to my article which shows you step-by-step, how to put a working Adsense For Search on your blog and monetise it).





If you have any questions about this article let me know. If you liked this article and think it's useful, please share it on any of the following social networking sites. Thank you.

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My Follow Friday - Self Sagacity

I haven't done a Follow Friday in a while because as many of you know, I've been ill and moved house recently.  The end of the week seems to flow by without warning, and before I know it, Friday has come and gone yet again. 



My Follow Fridays promote mainly writer/author based sites, but occasionally I feature more general-niche blogs which have caught my eye. Self Sagacity is one such blog. It's themes tend to be across-the-board, usually in the direction of personal development, inspirational and photographic. It also features novel recipes from time to time.



Self Sagacity caught my attention because being a relatively new blog, it's managed to push full-force forward in gaining not only recognition, but also a wide and loyal readership. I think that if all bloggers start off with the same intensity this blogger has, failures would be virtually unheard of.



Self Sagacity's success is admirable and is due to the hard work of it's manager, Amanda. However, praise also is due to to it's part-designer and adviser, Icy from Wandering Thought who's also helped me with design and posting problems on my own blogs.



For my writing readership, although this is not a writing site, Self Sagacity has a little something to satisfy all tastes, so hop over and see if there's anything there for you. The current post is a delicious dessert recipe. One cannot get more appetizing than that!