how to change 'read more'

Hi, I am using a theme that has the posts on a page template, and in order to have the ‘read more’ function, I’ve added this code to the tempplate-journal.php:

global $more; $more = false;

The link is shown as the default ‘Read more…’. How do change it to something else? I have tried googling for various methods but none of them work. I have tried these suggested codes but they don’t work:

function excerpt_read_more_link($output) {
global $post;
return $output . '<a class="more-link" href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">Read more</a>';
}
add_filter('the_excerpt', 'excerpt_read_more_link');

// Changing excerpt more
   function new_excerpt_more($more) {
   global $post;
   return '… <a href="'. get_permalink($post->ID) . '">' . 'Read More &raquo;' . '</a>';
   }
   add_filter('excerpt_more', 'new_excerpt_more');

<?php global $more; $more = FALSE; ?>
<?php the_content('Read more &rarr;'); ?>

Help?