How To: Install Google Analytics on a Blogger Blog*

This won’t help you track how many dogs like Futureman are on the web, but it’s close enough! Google Analytics software help businesses improve their online marketing strategies by tracking:

• what keywords users are using to take them to your website
• your audience (demographic, geographic, behavior)
• what content is most valuable to your audience / what is overlooked
• what parts of your website is turning your audience away
• how many visitors are clicking where you want them to

There’s really no downside to installing it, so why not give it a try? Who wouldn’t want direct insight and feedback from visitors to your website (without them even knowing it’s happening). Follow my screenshots and Futureman’s helpful tips to get Google Analytics running for your site in under 30 minutes!

1. Create a Google Analytics account 

First things first, you need to have a Google account so if you don’t have one, go ahead and sign up!

Next, click here to go to the Google Analytics website.

You’ll want to find the green button in the top right corner of the page: sign in to google analytics. Once you click this you’ll be taken to a page where there will be brief instructions on how to implement it in your website.

To start using Google Analytics click the “sign up” button to the far right.

2. Create an account name

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The account name can be the name of your Blogger weblog, your Google username, or any descriptive word or words you’d like to use!

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3. Now add the name of your Blogger blog in the website name field, and copy the Blogger blog URL into the website URL field. 

4. Adding the Google Analytics Tracking ID to the Blogger Blog

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Get Tracking ID”

5. Read the Google Analytics Terms of Services agreement and click “I accept”

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If you don’t click “accept” you won’t be able to use Google Analytics! 

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6. Tracking ID: find the alphanumeric code under Tracking ID, select, and copy it. This is the magic code that will make it all work so don’t forget it! 

7. Adding the Tracking ID to your Blogger account

In the left sidebar, find Settings and scroll down to Other, then find Google Analytics at the bottom of the screen, there should be a ID field where you can paste the code in.

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Don’t forget to save your settings! 

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8. Locating your blog on Google Analytics

You should be able to find your blog under “property” on the Admin tab (my sample blog is called KitkatPegasus and my account name is klheureux for reference).

CONGRATULATIONS! 

You have successfully installed Google Analytics on your Blogger blog! Futureman couldn’t be more proud.

Up Next…

We are jumping ahead in time and landing in the 1950’s New York City with Sylvia Plath! Join me for this interesting read about a famed writer. 

Flappers, New York City, the Charleston, and oh yeah, EVIL

Set in the popular Gatsby-era setting, Libba Bray takes this story to a whole new level with a fair share of ghosts, magic and secret powers. I have read all of Libba’s books and had great expectations for this new series, and they were fulfilled. I AM going to admit right now that if scary books are not your thing, don’t read this! Call me what you will, but I am a baby when it comes to anything even remotely scary; which forced me to only read it during the daytime, and definitely not alone. Despite my fears, I muscled through it and was rewarded by a great story with a unique plot and one charismatic main character. The story has one main character along with a bunch of on-the-side narratives that weave together just swimmingly! I guess I should tell you a little of what its about other than comparing it to Gatsby (minus the envy-inducing parties and swoon worthy Jay) and telling you how scared I was while reading it. 

The story follows a girl who is too big for her small town in Ohio (typical I know, just hold on) and causes a scandal in the town, forcing her straight-laced parents to send her to stay with her uncle in New York City (if you’re thinking that’s a weird place to exile a teenager, then we are in the same boat). Evie has been “gifted” with a power to read peoples secrets through their belongings, carrying it as a secret from everyone. Outgoing, brazen and stubborn Evie is easy to like and gives a humorous and exciting narrative as she stays and helps work at her Uncle’s museum of “creepy crawlies”. Soon mysterious and grotesque murders begin to occur in the city and Evie’s uncle is called to help, leaving Evie with a strong compulsion to help him figure out what’s going on by using her gift. Other narratives will soon reveal Evie may not be the only one with a special gift.  She will soon discover there is dark, evil magic afoot, something that has been asleep for a long time but has finally woken up…. (dun dun dunnnnn)

Stepping away from the serious tone, this book does have some romance for all of you hopeless romantics like myself (only a glimmer of it but I guarantee it can only get better in the next book in the series).

BUT if you are way scared and just looking to read a good time from the roaring twenties, I heartily suggest you look into reading the Bright Young Things series by Anna Godbersen. Lots of glamor, dresses, drama and parties, I promise (WITHOUT murder and evil magic)! The reason I love Anna Godbersen’s books is that they cater to the Gossip Girl fans, while also giving readers a look into history and its glamorous side (check out her series The Luxe if you want to see some jaw-dropping gowns). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy your reading and don’t forget to leave a comment to tell me what you think of the book!

 

Sneak peak!

Stay tuned for my upcoming review on Libba Bray’s newest book series set in 1920’s New York! I’m hoping this will be a good read for everyone who enjoys “Gatsby era” lit! 😉

Not Your Traditional Idea of a Mother

If anything, reading this will make you thankful for your own mom; who most likely isn’t “Holly Golightly turned Mummy Dearest”/robot/compulsive liar/playgirl/gold-digger/evil alien created from old Chanel handbags and Jimmy Choos (can you say multiple personality disorder?). But don’t get mad at me for spoiling, because amazingly enough, almost all of these become apparent in Wendy Lawless’s story right from the start. On the back cover you’ll find some reviews spouting nonsense like, “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry”. But listen to me when I tell you, it will mostly be crying, or cringing at the most. Abused and lied to, Wendy and her sister travel with her mother across the globe, amazingly adapting to her mother’s numerous money-stuffed boyfriends, along with late nights fueled by cocktails. Managing to connect her thoughts and memories to her varying ages throughout the book, Wendy does a fantastic job of making her voice heard. This in-depth narration helps us understand how mental illness can be damaging not only to the individual, but also those around them.  I really enjoyed this book and found it one of the few memoirs I really liked reading (and hope is not lost, laughers, there is some dark humor available). This book tells the tale of a life seen through the eyes of someone who has grown up watching the glamorous life become not so glamorous after all.

Ah, Timeless Love

    If you enjoy teen novels about reincarnation and finding love throughout history, then I would recommend this book to you. Personally, I was attracted to this book when I saw that David Levithan was writing it, as Nick and Norah’s along with his other pieces were REALLY addicting. This book is no different, well it is different, but I promise if you like his other works you will probably find this one intriguing. Although its not exactly about reincarnation, that was what came to mind as I was reading it and couldn’t help comparing it to. Every Day follows A, a teenager neither a male or female as they switch into a new body every day. Not on purpose, A has been switching bodies every day since birth and has come up with a strict  set of rules on how to adapt to this bizarre change. But, when they meet someone special (yes I know what you’re thinking-it sounds very predictable) their rules change and they do whatever they can to figure out how to stay in one place to be with her. Although this plot-line sounds a bit cheesy, I found it intriguing. I think what makes me continue to come back to these types of stories is the idea of finding someone you match up with so perfectly, you are compelled to walk with them forever; no matter what it takes. Ok, you have probably figured out that I am a hopeless romantic, so get used to it! (Yes, my sim self DOES have that trait).

I hope you liked this review and if you have ANY helpful suggestions or comments for my next reviews please speak up! (Ex. books to read next, questions about the story, your own take on it, if you found it helpful, ANYTHING )

Stories give us…

Stories give us, “The impossible but true chance-and isn’t it something like the grace of God?-That our word’s can lead us to better places than we now inhabit.”
-Frank McConnell

I first heard this by my English professor in the fall and haven’t forgotten it since. This quote represents the whole reason I read; how it can take you somewhere else for awhile and let you see a whole new world.