Cobalt oxide nanostructure materials have been prepared by adding several concentrations of spectator Ni ions in solution, and analyzed by electron microscopy, X-day diffraction, calorimetry/thermogravimetric analysis, UV-vis absorption, Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The electron microscopy results show that the morphology of the nanostructures is dramatically altered by changing the concentration of spectator ions. The bulk XRD patterns of $350^{circ}C$-annealed samples indicate that the structure of the cobalt oxide is all of cubic Fd-3m $Co_3O_4$, and show that the major XRD peaks shift slightly with the concentration of Ni ions. In Raman spectroscopy, we can confirm the XRD data through a more obvious change in peak position, broadness, and intensity. For the un-sputtered samples in the XPS measurement process, the XPS peaks of Co 2p and O 1s for the samples prepared without Ni ions exhibit higher binding energies than those for the sample prepared with Ni ions. Upon $Ar^+$ ion sputtering, we found $Co_3O_4$ reduces to CoO, on the basis of XPS data. Our study could be further applied to controlling morphology and surface oxidation state.