8 Reasons Bloggers Need to Make Friends With Google Analytics

As a blogger, I thrive on the creative aspect of things – creating awesome content and coming up with new ideas.

While I make use of more technical things like Google Analytics sometimes, it has definitely not been a top priority of mine.

I figured if I kept creating awesome content and faithfully shared to social media, I would be fine and my site would keep growing.  I figured I was doing all I reasonably could and that the biggest results of my traffic were kind of up to fate.

I never realized the amazing power I held to control my results to a much greater extent!

That power was found inside of Google Analytics.  For so long I've thought I was doing pretty well by checking which posts did well at this time last year and re-sharing them.  Or checking which Pinterest pins were bringing me the most traffic and re-pinning them regularly.

But there was so much more than that.

I just got this new book called “Skyrocket Your Blog's Pageviews with Google Analytics” and I have been voraciously reading and implementing all of the advice.  My mind has been blown with how many treasures I was overlooking within Google Analytics.

For instance, just in a few short days of putting into practice the things I've learned, I came up with 8 ways I've benefited from making better friends with Google Analytics:

1. Increase new visitors

I'm finding clever yet authentic ways to target new audiences that I have not been able to harness.

I'm also finding out how to increase the audience demographic that I already have.

2. Keep visitors on site longer

I am no longer guessing which content I should be featuring to entice visitors to read more.  I know exactly which content they want to see.

3. Know where to spend advertising dollars

Again, I don't have to guess here.  I already know which sources are sending me quality traffic and I can invest into what is already working.

4. Increase affiliate earnings

Instead of simply including affiliate links in my posts (which is a good idea, by the way), I can tell exactly which topics will perform well and that I need to get busy creating an affiliate post for.

5. Increase SEO

I never realized that a big part of my SEO strategy was hiding in plain sight in Google Analytics.  I'm on it now.

6. Improve Social Media Strategy

I can tell what to post on social media and when to post it.  No more struggling to guess which of my posts I should share at a given time.

7. Provide new content ideas

I can see what content people are already liking a lot or what they're hoping to find that's not there.  This provides me with an endless supply of content ideas that are guaranteed to work.

8. Find potential blogging buddies and tribemates

I can see which other bloggers' content meshes with mine and take notice of which sites traffic flows smoothly to and from.  These blogs are the perfect candidates for recruiting as tribemates.

I wish I could just tell you everything I've learned, but that wouldn't be fair to the ladies who wrote the book.  They've done the dirty work to really dig hard and mine for the hard-to-find treasures within Google Analytics.

And what I love most is that the book is broken down into small bite-sized challenges so that you can just focus on learning one small thing at a time.  There are 33 challenges total that will walk you through all the nitty-gritty details of Google Analytics and then offer brilliant strategies on what to do with the information you've found.

At $14.99, it's a steal in my opinion.  I have already had fantastic results and I have not even had a chance to work at it much.

My pageviews, unique visitors, and time on site are all increasing, and my bounce rate is decreasing.  And based on which posts are improving and where the traffic is coming from, I can tell this is a direct result of strategies that were shared in the book.

If you want someone to walk you step-by-step through the process of becoming best buds with Google Analytics, you can grab the eBook below.

Click here for lots more information on how to make money blogging!

Dear Mom of the Prodigal Child

Dear Mom of the Prodigal Child,

Before I got married and had kids of my own, I was the perfect parent.

It was going to be so easy. I would simply teach my kids to do right – and they would!

Parents who had wayward children had obviously messed up somewhere down the line. After all, the Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” If yours departed from the ways of Scripture, it was your fault.

When I had my own children, everything changed. It wasn’t a sudden change; just a gradual one.

Over time I began to find that the things I taught my kids didn’t always seem to stick. So I’d teach them again. And they still didn’t stick.

Then I realized that sometimes…sometimes it wasn’t that they weren’t understanding or remembering what I’d taught them. They were choosing to do what they wanted to do, even though they knew better.

Although the issues I deal with from a seven-year-old and a five-year-old are small in comparison to a grown child who is committing crimes, living an immoral lifestyle, or just living it up with no thoughts of God, it is still painful to me as a mother when I see a child who has been taught over and over to do right ignore instruction and willfully make the choice to serve self rather than God.

When I see a child who thinks only of himself with no consideration for how his actions affect others and with no regard for what God says about his actions, I shudder to think what that could mean when he is grown. Blatant self-indulgence now in the form of sneaking forbidden candy or soda could easily turn into all kinds of immorality and wickedness in later years. Shirked schoolwork and chores could turn my child into a good-for-nothing adult. Disregard for the property of others now could turn my child into a thief in later years.

And none of it would be because my child hasn’t been taught what is right. My children all have and will continue to be taught what is right – over and over and over.

But I can’t make them do right. They must still choose right on their own.

When one of my children makes a wrong choice, I often second-guess myself. “Did I not make it clear what was right in this situation? Did I not spend enough one-on-one time with this child? Did I focus too much on outward actions and not reach this child’s heart?”

While constant evaluation of my parenting skills will help me do the best job I possibly can, I must not blame every failure of my child on myself. In most cases, the failure occurred simply because my child chose to please self rather than please God.

Rather than scouring parenting books looking for new and better ideas, the best strategy for me to reach my child’s heart is to spend my time on my knees, begging God to do the work in my child’s heart that I cannot do.

Dear mama of the prodigal child: I’m sorry. Perhaps you spent the best years of your life teaching and training your child to do what is right and to serve God with his life. And now you find the child you love so much has ignored what he has been taught and is seeking to find satisfaction in serving himself.

Instead of joining you in prayer for your child, I’ve wondered what you did wrong in your parenting for your child to turn out this way.

Chances are, you’re already second-guessing yourself. You don’t need others to heap more of a burden onto your already stooped shoulders.

Perhaps you really didn’t do a good job teaching your children to do right. Maybe you didn’t know how. Maybe your spouse didn’t support what you were trying to do. Maybe you simply failed to do what you knew you should have done.

That doesn’t make it any less painful to see your child wasting his life and hurting himself, others, and God.

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Dear mama of the prodigal child,

I know now that the only way to reach the heart of your child is on your knees. Instead of judging you, I’m joining you.

Quick Help for the Terrible Cook

If you've read this blog for any length of time (or even if you just look at the name!) you can tell that homemaking doesn't exactly display my strong points.

Sadly, that includes cooking.

I certainly enjoy eating, but cooking I do not.  When I post a recipe, you can be guaranteed it's going to be easy.  If I can do it, anybody can.

However, there has been one simple thing that has really upped my cooking game of late.  I can actually fry an egg and keep the yolk runny.  I can cook a pan of oatmeal and keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

And I didn't even have to learn any new cooking techniques.

Want to know my secret?

Non-stick pans.

Gasp!  Don't you write about healthy living sometimes?  And aren't those supposed to be toxic? 

Yes, Teflon pans, although extremely convenient, contain toxic chemicals that can be terribly harmful to the human body.

However, there are several companies who are now manufacturing non-stick ceramic pans.   These particular pans do not contain harmful chemicals but are every bit as convenient as other types of non-stick pans.

My dear husband, for some strange reason, decided to buy me a set of them for Christmas.  (Perhaps he was tired of eating half-burnt food?)

I didn't realize just how much I loved them until I cooked something in one of my old stainless steel pans the other day.  Oh my goodness!  It was such a challenge to keep the food from sticking, burning, and just being generally nasty.  (One at which I wasn't terribly successful.)

I don't even have to think about it anymore with these new pans.  They're making cooking so much easier for me.

And they are saving me tons of clean-up time too!  I hardly even have to wash the pans.  The food fragments practically slide right out of them.  A little courtesy swish with a rag is all I need and I'm done!

I can't say anything about other brands that are out there, but this is the brand my husband bought me.

It's one of the cheapest brands available, but I'm extremely happy with it.

I will say that I've been very careful with it so that I don't scratch the non-stick coating.  It has several instructions that must be followed, such as:

• never use metal utensils
• hand-wash only
• do not heat on high
• never heat without fat in the pan

If you're not the greatest cook in the world, I would definitely suggest getting yourself a set of these!  They have made a huge difference for me, and I know they will help you out too!

6 Things All Parents Should Say to Their Kids

We've explored some things children should not be allowed to say to adults, but have you considered the way you speak to your children?

“But I'm the parent!  I can say what I want!”

Yes, you are the parent, but the Biblical commands to “be kind one to another” and to let our “speech be always with grace” do not exclude the way we speak to our children.  The Proverbs 31 woman opened her mouth with the law of kindness, and I don't doubt for a minute that included the way she spoke to her children.

Here are six things I believe all parents should say to their kids:

1. Please. 

“Wait.  Back up.  I'm the parent.  They're the kid.  I tell them what they're going to do; I don't ask them.”

While children should be expected to obey when they're given a command, I don't think that necessarily means parents need to give commands by simply barking orders.  “Son, would you please unload the dishwasher?” sounds so much more pleasant than “Go unload the dishwasher!”

Now, it's important to understand that asking it as a question does not mean that saying “No I won't unload the dishwasher” is an option.  My children know that “Please unload the dishwasher” means “Go unload the dishwasher” and that the correct answer is “‘Yes, ma'am, I sure will,” but it just makes the atmosphere of our home more pleasant than barking orders all the time. Sometimes the situation or the attitudes of my kids call for things to be phrased as a direct command, and there is definitely a place for a more no-nonsense approach, but that doesn't have to be the case every time you need them to do something.

By saying please to your child you are recognizing that they are a person who is deserving of just as much respect as anyone else.  When all you ever do is bark orders it becomes easy to turn your children into your personal servants.  “Pick up that piece of paper I dropped.”  “Go put my glass in the sink.”  They're your children and need to obey, but they're not your slaves.

2. Thank you.

Just as you should show respect to your kids by saying please, you should teach them how to be grateful to others by showing your gratefulness to them.  When your child does something to help around the house, even if it's something you told him to do, thank him for it.  Don't you enjoy doing things for others much more when you're thanked for your efforts?  You teach your children how to appreciate what others do for them when you show appreciation for what they do at home.  Thank your child for a job he's done and see how much more motivated he'll be next time you need him to do something!

3. You're special.

You don't have to use this exact phrase, but every child should know that they are valuable to you.  You can show them this by the time you spend with them, but you should also be verbalizing it.  Some of the things I say to let my kids know they're special to me:

“You're my favorite 5-year-old!”  “I don't know what I'd do without you!”  “You're my little princess/prince.”  I also have various terms of endearment for each child that I use regularly.

I also like to sing songs to them like “You are my sunshine” or goofy little made-up stuff that I'll spare letting you hear. 🙂

4. Good job.

Again, you don't have to use these exact words, but there is hardly a greater motivation for a child to do what he's supposed to do than to hear his parents verbally express that he did a good job at something.  I have one child in particular who thrives on this type of praise, and I simply can't overdo it.  When I tell him how happy I am that he finished his dinner without complaining or that he did his best cleaning his room instead of stuffing things in the closet, he absolutely glows!  I look for as many things as I can, no matter how tiny, to praise him for.  And the more I do it, the more motivated he is to keep on doing what's right.

On the other hand, some children won't see everything they've done as a big deal.  Be sensitive to the personality of each individual child.  As an extreme example, don't embarrass your twelve-year-old by telling him what a great job he did eating his dinner without spilling it on the floor.  Find the things that you know your child worked hard to accomplish and make those into a big deal.

5. I'm sorry.

Try as we might, parents, the reality is we sometimes (more often than we'd like) mess up.  You know what's worse than messing up?  Not admitting that we've messed up.  Your child knows when you've messed up.  He knows you're not perfect.  So it will mean a lot to him for you to say “I'm sorry I got upset and yelled at you.  That wasn't the right way for me to handle the situation.  Will you forgive me?”  Your credibility with your child will be ten times greater than it would be if you tried to ignore what you did wrong.

6. I love you.

Every child in the world should hear this phrase at least once a day.  Unfortunately many don't, and that doesn't only include children living in orphanages or those living in the slums who are passed from caregiver to caregiver.  Don't just show your kids you love them; tell them!  These words are something every child craves!

What would you add to this list?

Homemade Spa Gift: Lavender Bath Salts

Materials:

2 1/2 cups Epsom Salt
8-10 drops Lavender Essential Oil
Purple food coloring
Funnel
(5) 4 oz. Jars

Directions:

Pour the Epsom salt into a mixing bowl, and break up any lumps.  To tint your salts (optional) add a few drops at a time of the food coloring and stir to combine.The more drops you use, the more saturated the color will be.  Add 8-­10 drops of lavender essential oils to the salts and mix.  Use the funnel to pour the salts into the jars, then seal tightly.

Hard-to-find Materials:

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Lavender Essential oil - BUY HERE
4 oz. cosmetic jars - BUY HERE

How I Work from Home as a Mom of Small Children

Working from home with small children can be a challenge! It can be hard to keep the balance between giving them the time and attention they need and accomplishing other things that need to be done.

To make it work for me, I work only early in the morning before the kids are up and during their nap time. The older ones don't always need a real nap, but they have quiet time every day.

Even though I was working while they were in bed, it was still a challenge sometimes because I needed to get up and keep checking on them. There was lots of coloring on the walls, eating of hidden candy stashes, throwing tangerines at the walls (yes, really!), and general commotion that was waking up their baby sister. It's hard to focus on getting anything done when there are interruptions the entire time!

Enter the video monitor! I can get them down for naps or quiet time, then sit down to work while keeping an eye on everybody without getting up from my computer.

The Levana Stella monitor that I am using comes with two cameras, so I was able to put one in both the boys' room and the girls' room.

If something is going on, I don't have to get up; I can simply press the “talk” button on the monitor and remind them that they need to calm down.

I love being able to do more while knowing the baby is safe from tangerine-throwing kids!

More about Levana:

Commitment to baby safety is Levana's number one priority. To allow them to focus on perfecting the products, Levana exclusively manufactures baby monitors. In 2002, Levana launched the first-ever wireless handheld baby video monitor, and ever since they have been producing baby monitors with state-of-the-art features like:

• Invisible LEDs
• ClearVu digital wireless technology (unable to be hacked!)
• Robust battery life that exceeds several days
• Higher frame rate
• PTZ cameras
• Hi-res 4.3″ LCD screens

Check out their Facebook page to find out more.

You can purchase the Stella monitor like I have right here.

What are your best tips for working from home with small children in the house?

Win one!

To help you do more, Levana is giving one reader a Keera Video Monitor that includes 2 cameras. To enter, just follow the instructions on the widget below.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Levana. The opinions and text are all mine.

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