Add Google analytics

I have seen the magic of google analytics multiple times, you will be amazed to see how many people from which part of the world are watching your pages and how much time they spend on them. I would like to rate GA as one on the best tools that google has created. Now let us leverage this tool for you. I will show step by step process to make google analytics work for you. The steps are simple to follow, plese do not get bogged by the code, it is just copy and paste at the right place on your webpages, you need not write even a single line of code.

Note: I will refer Google Analytics as GA in the following, please bear with me.

Get google account first

Sign up for a google analytics account. If you have a google account(Gmail) then you can directly login in to GA. Once you have logged in, you will be shown the main section. In the first login you will see no anlytics accounts in the landing page. In GA analytics account means the tracking website, suppose you want to track 3 websites then you need to create 3 analytics accounts or in simple terms 3 profiles. A single google ID can help you to track multiple websites at one time.

http://www.google.com/analytics/

Step 1: Login to GA landing page, click on create a new analytics account, you will be taken to the analytics registration page.

 

 

Fill the above form and click on Continue.

Step 2: As soon you click Continue, you will be dispalyed with the GA code that you need to paste at the bottom of the page.

The code will look like this

<script type="text/javascript">
var gaJsHost = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://ssl." : "http://www.");
document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + gaJsHost + "google-analytics.com/ga.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker("UA-12226152-1");
pageTracker._initData();
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>

Step 3: Paste the code that is given to you at the end of your page just above </body> as illustrated below

</div>

Your GA code comes here

</body>

</html>

Step 4: Now go and check the GA account and after few minutes you will see that GA starts tracking your web page.

See how simple it is to work with Google Analytics.

Transfer blogspot to wordpress blog

I saw many instances where bloggers are taking their own domain and they want to move their blogs. Most of the time i have seen they prefer wordpress blog as the platform, as Blogspot does not allow to host it on as easy as Wordpress. The common trend is that blogger prefer Wordpress for hosting. I am aware and has highlighted in earlier post that the learning curve of Wordpress is longer than blogspot.

Ok now let us try to move blogspot to your own domain. Please follow the below steps as mentioned below.



Step 1:Login to blogger account. Go to settings section. There you will find Blog tools, under blog tools you will have the below options

• Import blog


• Export blog


• Delete blog

Summary:Login > Dashboard > Settings > Basic > Blog tools

Step 2:Click on Export blog, this will take you to download blog page. Click on download blog button. This will ask you to save the blog as a .XML file. Save the file xml on the desktop.

Step 3:Login to Wordpress account where you want to transfer the blogspot blog. Go to dashboard, under dashboard you will find Tools. You will have to move to the Tools > Import > Blogger – Import posts, section.

Now upload the .xml blogger file that you had downloaded earlier. The import blogger tool will take care of the steps and give you options to choose from. You have to give authorization to do it by entering the password of your account. Once step 3 is done you are good to go.

Step 4: Enjoy :-)

Is that simple or not. This is one of the shortest methods by which you can transfer blogspot to wordpress.

There is another method that is a little time consuming, this you can use if the number of posts on blogspot is few. See how this can be done, but note you can not completely delete the blogspot.

Step 1: Login to blogspot

Step 2: Copy the HTML code of the post one by one and paste in the wordpress post HTML editor. By doing this you need not have to reuplaod the images as wordpress will fetch the images from blogspot.

Limitation: If there are imgaes in your posts it become little difficult as the images that you will see on wordpress are actually from blogspot.

You can choose what ever method that is convenient for you.

Blogger or Wordpress?

Blogging platforms, i am sure you must have heard about them. I am going to take example of 2 most famous blogging platform and do a interface analysis focusing on the task completion. I looked at Blogger and Wordpress and have used both of them for writing blogs, however i think when it comes to writing blogs and understand each section, Word press had done a better job.

Good points about wordpress.

1. Collapsible sections: The global navigation is on the left hand side and each section can be expanded by a click, the user can easily find out the section he is looking for, without refreshing the contents in the work area.

2. Robust editor:Wordpress editor is robust as there are multiple options like paste from word, paste from text, image editing, add video etc.

3. Typing area:Toggle full screen mode expands the type pad and you can get a lot of space to type the content. In blogger this flexibility is not so prominent.

4. Categorize posts:There is option to post the blog in a particular category.

5. Plug-ins: Multiple plug ins are available that can make the blog look better and work better. The features in wordpress gives more room for experimenting and fits the need of the user's who want their blogs to be distinct and unique.



 

Good points about Blogger

1. Simple:Blogger is very simple to use as there is progressive disclosure in the menu display. The user is not bombarded with all the content. It helps in learn-ability.

2. Visual elements:The layout of the blog can be altered based on visual cues and each section is displayed in an intuitive manner.

3. Content organization: The content is well organized in blogger.

I have given these points on a very high level and focused on the major task completion.If i had to see the biggest hurdle in wordpress is ... it is little difficult to learn. The learning curve is bigger in wordpress.

I had a friend who took quite amount of time to master it, and i also took some time to understand it fully.

Which one to choose

If you are looking for long term good results, its great to choose wordpress, although the learning curve is longer. The plug ins and the huge user base on Wordpress can help you in a bigger way. I am giving these suggestions based on my experience. Later if you want to create your own site you can easily host wordpress as compared to blogger.