How DO I Make My New, Self-hosted Blog Functional?

My blog, so you know, is here: http://www.noitartst.com/

What plugins do I need? What's an AISEO plugin, anywho? I've heard that it would be good for my site, and was wondering.

I understand my site thrives best off word of mouth, but I just need views, at this point, and am seeking how to do that. I've already tried social media, and am ready to try again, there, but I've just switched to self-hosting from one hosted by Wordpress, and am trying to take advantage of that.

So you know, I've already asked on threads here:
http://www.bloggeries.com/forum/threads/trying-to-learn-how-to-generate-blog-traffic.30355/
https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/trying-to-learn-how-to-generate-blog-traffic.2697485/

Thoughts? Just how do I take advantage of my self-hosting, now I have it? More pointedly, how do I get a stat-plugin for my new site, anywho, so I can tell just who's coming to my site, how many, and so on?

 

Oh, and I tried installing Google Analytics, but it seemed to already included, but turned off; we turned it on, but I still couldn't find it.

 

For one, your blog has to start with this: http://www.noitartst.com/category/uncategorized/

Right now when someone stops by your main page (http://www.noitartst.com/) they may think it's just a blank template.

"Just another WordPress site" is NOT a good slogan to have.

It almost looks like you don't want people to enjoy browsing your blog or stick around for a little longer.

Add images. Add more to the About Me page. Your posts are deep and unique, but, again, your blog, as a whole, doesn't look all that accommodating.

Hell, I don't say this often, but adding a couple AdSense banner ads would make it look a bit livelier.

As far as the stats plugin, does WordPress not provide you with all those stats in your dashboard? I have never used them, but most hosting providers do this automatically.

 

Well maybe you should add more images to make it more appealing. Work on the design of your site to improve the retention rate.

Your main page (as mentioned by qwikad.com) should reflect maybe a snippet of your blogpost.

Work on your design while creating traffic. It is important to leave an impression.

 

You can check your stats by going to the C Panel for your site. You will need the username and password that would have been sent to you by email when you set up the hosting. I don't know where you are getting your hosting but if it was Hostgator, for example, they have 'help' if you have forgotten how to log in to CPanel.
To check your Google Analytics stats you need to go to the website to see the stats. When you log in you will see your website, click on your website and all the stats are there - not on your actual site.

 

Generating traffic is something that will happen naturally once you have an appealing site and you popularize it properly. Using social networking for your personal blog will definitely help in that matter. You can expand that by shoutouts in relevant forums, other blogs, related news sites. And, of course, its not as much that you need to get the numbers to view your site, its sticking to it and exploring more is what you need. So, as @qwikad.com suggested, start by working on your website and make it in a way that will personally impress you if you were the average visitor.

As for your stats, really depends on what kind of stats you need. The Google Webmaster tools, WP Dashboard statistics and in-built Awstats in most hosting's cPanels do give valuable insight. Should you need more you can try one of the many plugins WP offers for that matter. An example will be a combination of Jetpack + WP Stats Dashboard plugins for enhanced information about your visitors, backlinks, site rankings etc.

 

Everything you asked can be answered with a simple google search. Are you serious about blogging or you just wasting time? Do your own research before asking people how to do basic stuff. You shouldn't even be focused on traffic when your site isn't completely set up yet.

 

I agree with @kush86 on this. You should first focus on making your home page more attractive and complete. Right now, you are losing readers who will bounce off from the page (some of them forever).

 

Changing my slogan is something I by all means wish to change, as I do the layout, if I but knew how. Trouble is, I don't.

Oh, and I also don't know how to add AdSense, either.

If I knew where, as site administrator, the stats were located, I'd go to them. How'd I Google that, anywho? I much prefer asking live people, and call me strange or weird, I have Aspergers, and paralysis by possibilities is one predilection.

Hm. Mine is a Wordpress blog, hosted by GoDaddy. Beneath the "Meta" category, I have the "Site Admin." Click that, I go to a whole lotta options, including the Dashboard. Am I describing a "C panel"?

Hm. So my Analytics is on the site itself, not the C panel, or dashboard? That's helpful. Double hm...don't see it on the regular site.

Ah...so, Google Analytics is a site separate from my hompage! It keeps track of my site, and I log into it via my Google+ account!

So, after a bout o' rejiggering, how does: http://www.noitartst.com/
look to the layman, now...?

 

Well, I've now hooked up to Google Analytics, but it doesn't seem as good as the Wordpress Stats function on the Wordpress-hosted site.

What ought I to do about it?

 

By the way, you need to start promoting your articles on FB, Twitter and G+.

Do you have all those accounts? If you do, log into each one of them then go back to your articles and promote each one of them using the social media buttons under the articles.

I'd also recommend uploading pictures with each article, something as simple as this:

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What it will do it will make your posts on social media sites (like facebook) more meaningful and your visitors will more likely share your articles if there are pics within your articles.

 

Well, hm. I don't yet have a link to my Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/noitartst)
site up on my blog, do I? I need that...also, I need to put up links to my twitter account, yes...?

Hm. After much help at a college computer lab today, I got my sit to automatically promote to my Facebook timeline my latest blog article. As to adding social media buttons to my blog, I don't yet know how to do this, though I wish I did.

I've got Google Analytics, but it's frankly unsatisfying.

Clearly, my blog needs a lot of work, yet, and in ways I'm not completely aware of, methinks.

Thoughts?

 

Google Analytics is very good and you can get a lot of useful information. I would suggest going to You Tube and checking out some of the tutorials there to learn some of the different ways the information can be helpful to you. Google Webmaster tools might be better or you. Check them out also.

 

There are quite a lot for social sharing available for WordPress, you can check Shareaholic or ShareThis for example. They are quite easy to setup and provide all the functionality you need.

The important thing is not to get frustrated. For a novice user that is a common trap but just remember that things happen step by step. Read tutorials, articles, there are plenty available, ask around in forums, and slowly you will get the hang of it. The good thing for you is that WP is quite an easy application to learn, you could've been stuck with something much more complex

 

Alright, based on what you see, what does my site need now, based upon your observations?

 

Congratulations for getting your own real website on your on host. Just take one thing at a time and you will figure it out.

 

Ugh...just spent over two hours creating a fresh post, instead of figuring out just how to do everything.

 

Great! Good content will always help you. In fact the key to online success is distribution of informative and valuable content. If people like the content that you publish over the net, they will feel like connecting with you on the social networks as well. Make sure that you add every new post in the social networking websites for getting the best results.

 

Well, since the site's been tracked by Google (and ofter I put it on Google), and before linking updates from it to Facebook, let alone any other promotion, it garnered eleven hits, as I recall, remarkable, given my Wordpress-hosted blog had only some 400+ hits total, after a lot of effort to raise its profile in the last couple months, or so.

As for social media, I haven't done that, aside of Facebook I've just replied within this forum here:
http://www.worldaffairsboard.com/international-politics/65143-new-cold-war-18.html

Thoughts? Bounce rate's 54.8%, so you know; that bad, good, or decent? Average stay time per visitor's nigh five minutes; I find that genuinely encouraging-just ling enough to read an article of mine, more or less.

 

All right, how do change my site, so it features social media share buttons on my posts? What links, or tutorials, are available to aid me?