Blogging Tip of the Day: Vol. 47

Today's Tip: What kind of tools are you using to get the most out of your blogging? I know I have told you about tips and tricks to get your audience, brand yourself, and take care of your followers, but do you get the most out of their visits to your blogs? There are two free tools that Google gives anyone who owns a website (or a blog) that are indispensable if you are a numbers geek. Now I don't putz around with them as much as I should, but I am sure there is someone reading this who just loves to putz around with things, and could be writing a better blog about them than me. This is why I am letting you in on them just in case you are that person.

Google Analytics: If you haven't heard of this, then you really need to get out more. It's rare when I don't see something on Google Analytics, why you need it, what it does and all of the other things about it. What it basically does is gives you the data about who is visiting your blog. What part of the world they are from, what they were looking for when they showed up on your page, and what referred them to your page. This of course is how I know that Google + brings me the most traffic, Twitter brings me the second most and Facebook has consistently brought me nothing. It has helped me to focus my energy where it is best used, and it's really all I need, but to some of you there are probably other great geek treats you can get out of it.

Google Webmaster Tools: Now this one people rarely talk about but they should. Analytics will tell you the who, how and where, and Webmaster Tools will make it so you can really dig into that data and make more out of it. It treats all of your blogs as "internet property" and will do a lot of that SEO crap that others charge you for, for you. It will tell you what is wrong with your blogs and how you can improve their "property value" easily and efficiently. It's also pretty easy to understand regardless of what level of an internet user you are. I'm not going to go too crazy telling you how to use it, but I am going to tell you to go try it. You'll thank me for it