Widgets

Widgets are those small programs visible on the right or left side of your blog page, depending on the layout. If you have a blogger profile with a picture, that's a widget. If you have a blog roll or a blog post archives, those are widgets too.

In my opinion, its a good idea to have a few widgets layered vertically on your page, so long as they are necessary or pertinent. Think of your blog page like a online news site or newspaper page. People don't typically view news sites or read newspaper pages to look at the ads and sidebars, they simply want the news.

So how much is too much? Well, to be honest, blank space on a blog is not as detrimental as blank space on a news site page. The goal of your blog shouldn't be to generate revenue at this point, though that's certainly an option farther down the road. Think streamlined, think personalized. Your blog is an extension of you, highly focused into a coherent stream of facts and opinions.

With that in mind, a profile widget is a must. Let your readers see and get to know you, the author. The profile widget should be at least halfway down the page from the top. Blog post archives are also a must, as they encourage readers to digest more of your content and spend more time on your page. Blog post archives should be near or at the top of your page.

A blog roll is essential to building relationships, credibility and ultimately traffic. I suggest you orient your blog roll directly underneath your blog post archives. The blogs on your blog roll are automatically ranked by most recent post. Remember to ask other bloggers to incorporate your blog on their rolls so that as you post, your blog will be displayed at or near the tops of their lists. Remember readers are reluctant to scroll down, so if they see your blog at the top of another blogger's roll, they are more likely to click the link.

Finally, your blog should include a disclaimer widget. Your disclaimer sets the rules of play, how you mediate comments and content. Word your disclaimer as clear and concise as possible and don't be afraid to tweak or change it later on. I suggest you place your disclaimer under your profile widget, near the bottom of the page.

Consider the usefulness and necessity of a widget before placing it on your blog. Calendars, games, search bars and news updates are novel but not necessary. Readers don't visit your blog to check the date, the news or to play Minesweeper. Finally, consider adding a page counter to your blog.

Analytics sites like Statcounter offer you the option of placing a small, innocuous counter at the bottom of your page. Once your numbers go up, consider adding a page counter to your page, if anything it will save you the time and trouble of checking your analytics five times a day to see how well you're doing.

Analytics

One of the most useful tools to a blogger is analytics. Search engine Google offers a free analytical tool on their site. Some users, myself included have had problems with Google's analytics. If you are having issues with Google analytics or you would simply like another analytical tool on your belt you should try Statcounter.

Why use analytics? Simply put, analytics keeps track of all the quantitative data associated with your blog and can help you tailor your blog to your readers, which is key! Analytics software keeps track of the amount of times per day, week, or month that your page is accessed. Analytics can also tell you things like where your page was accessed from, how long a user was on your site, how many individual pages the user visited and what search keywords were used to locate your site.

How do you install analytics? Easy. When you sign up for an analytics account using Google or Statcounter, the sites will give you a string of HTML code. Select the entire code (Control + A) and copy the code (Control + C). Okay, now go to your blogger.com account. Sign in and click on the tab Layout. Underneath the layout tab you will see five smaller tabs. Click on the tab labeled Edit HTML.

This will bring up a text book filled with HTML code. Scroll down to the bottom of the code until you see a small piece of code that has the text /body inserted between < > signs. Press the enter key a few times to give yourself a few extra lines, then paste (Control + V) the HTML code above the tag. Click the save tab and you're done!