The Tips I Picked Up at Blogher

In the last week or so, I've blogged about my feelings and impressions about Blogher, but not about the concrete things I learned there. Amidst all the chaos, the parties, and the crowds, I gathered some great tips.

Blog Analytics & Knowing Your Readers

• Google Analytics was heralded by all speakers I heard as the gold standard to get traffic stats and dig a little deeper to understand where your readers are coming from and which posts are most popular. I've been using Google Analytics for close to six months now and can lose myself in all the data whenever I log on.
  
• Heat map software also can track where users are going on your blog. I haven't had the time to try any software out yet, but I plan on playing around with Clicktale.com soon which lets you replay the actions of your readers on your site, and has a free membership for bloggers.
  
• There are two easy ways to gather some reader demographic information. The first is to embed some code into your blog template to let Quantcast gather some demographic info for you. The second is to run some simple polls on your blog. Many panelists actually suggested using polls frequently to guide you on your content as well as learning more about your readers.

Photography:

• Many panelists suggested using Picnik to edit photos and add a watermark. They have a free membership as well as a premium level with more features. The concensus was theat there is no need to break the bank and pay for Photoshop.
• Steph from a Year of Slow Cooking suggested getting the Photo Studio in a box from Amazon to improve foodblogging pictures. It is a cheap (less than $50) kit with lighting and a backdrop that works great for food.

I also got some great cooking ideas at the Foodblogging session I attended, but I'll be talking about those in my Tasty Tuesday post tomorrow.

But the greatest lesson I took away from BlogHer was from Ree, the Pioneer Woman. Her advice was, "Don't worry too much about statistics. Turst your gut. It's worked well for me."