tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52367092431964204112024-03-05T21:33:17.747-08:00My Blogger ExperienceMy blogger experience will show you a step-by-step visual evolution on how to go from a beginner at signup with a Minima template to more advanced blogger by adding various beginner to advanced blogger features and implementing various tips and tricks.Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-85908986552519672702009-03-03T19:41:00.000-08:002009-03-03T20:03:00.305-08:00Adding Adsense To BloggerThis post will cover how to add Google Adsense to your blog. Why Adsense? It lets visitors who don't find what they were looking for on your blog find what they are looking for and you get awarded monetarily as a result! Not a bad setup.<br /><br />To get it set up go to Layout --> Monetize<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgezHfGrQ4Wd0sv_0ul8EoiD_qgCEsjbLFx-ZOLOZAO1BoL1zIsOOVcaU1sCHsrVTlCOK54Iw4ZM0jvtt5zUNGoU4jjZbhohh8u6BwLFxfaP3Yq2PU2PB4yBbzAED1NW0WOvfjDn59VPZw/s1600-h/MonetizeClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgezHfGrQ4Wd0sv_0ul8EoiD_qgCEsjbLFx-ZOLOZAO1BoL1zIsOOVcaU1sCHsrVTlCOK54Iw4ZM0jvtt5zUNGoU4jjZbhohh8u6BwLFxfaP3Yq2PU2PB4yBbzAED1NW0WOvfjDn59VPZw/s400/MonetizeClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309173019211054674" border="0" /></a>I recommend leaving the 1st option for side panels and under posts to show Adsense. Click Next.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8S_D_fXASCRRGtTZb4bUQs4TzP97cfvu7-noTeBKfZod80lY84w6IMusU_K6_hj0kG8IxRKS2y1LRUuaY9lmY7qzzBssbSHUP1RaNsfuPSIThh5G1YPoAy0t5FHftCnVgZEt6xhxrYig/s1600-h/adsenseuseexisting.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 170px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8S_D_fXASCRRGtTZb4bUQs4TzP97cfvu7-noTeBKfZod80lY84w6IMusU_K6_hj0kG8IxRKS2y1LRUuaY9lmY7qzzBssbSHUP1RaNsfuPSIThh5G1YPoAy0t5FHftCnVgZEt6xhxrYig/s400/adsenseuseexisting.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309173483785344978" border="0" /></a>If you have an existing account already select the option like in the picture. Insert your e-mail address you use for your Adsense account, your zip code and last 5 digits of your phone number you have on file. Click Next. Your done. View your blog.<br /><br />If you don't have an Adsense account keep the 1st option click Next fill out the information needed -- pretty straight forward, but if you need help you can get <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=8422" target="_blank">Adsense help with signing up here</a>.<br /><br />Alternatively you can click Add Gadget within Layout and select the Adsense Gadget. Here you will have more control on what type of Adsense layout you want.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZmcM0hPrGECisQCvkQbQoYVHhyd3LvJZAnYNln5u-IIpieMU4PPx_-PtLNw458VjTXLADTutqdwWn2e-xeErOIlETHJu3y3rzecUFj9FBwjd1Z0gubPTqLlkQxBUNlyc21gUqVxJtVk/s1600-h/AdsenseGadget.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 89px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZmcM0hPrGECisQCvkQbQoYVHhyd3LvJZAnYNln5u-IIpieMU4PPx_-PtLNw458VjTXLADTutqdwWn2e-xeErOIlETHJu3y3rzecUFj9FBwjd1Z0gubPTqLlkQxBUNlyc21gUqVxJtVk/s400/AdsenseGadget.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309175417575458306" border="0" /></a>Click the plus sign this will come up:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9L_8CGpeawZXHE0XiwQB65V2NnJW2A4pNCxCS4mm4bd2aFsEBSFQqq63IXiHg1HyXY6PVJEMyUAcpVA1ZZqFVuxudQMFYSfY3SO7iWjVs44B8IQWz-qKnnRF22lQ5nmvddac9CAzRT5I/s1600-h/AdsenseConfigure.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9L_8CGpeawZXHE0XiwQB65V2NnJW2A4pNCxCS4mm4bd2aFsEBSFQqq63IXiHg1HyXY6PVJEMyUAcpVA1ZZqFVuxudQMFYSfY3SO7iWjVs44B8IQWz-qKnnRF22lQ5nmvddac9CAzRT5I/s400/AdsenseConfigure.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309175681681671026" border="0" /></a>The easiest method here is just to try different types of Adsense sizes and colors and see what you like and what looks good on you blog.<br /><br />You can also edit the post and select ads to be shown between posts and after how many posts as well (1 post, 2 posts, etc).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMQ9NCpHc9s3gsoUY6_4Yas2ZJNRdKTh-K1EouyNpzve0TBmzxA1ZyBeUgjbIwk7PR_V5MWCCielCGhyphenhyphenRytYM2ds6exq_jSc4M95zCHvDi_EU2hSI2fLxGFmE1gricwdRmgc0_Idkjg0/s1600-h/PostingAdsense.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMQ9NCpHc9s3gsoUY6_4Yas2ZJNRdKTh-K1EouyNpzve0TBmzxA1ZyBeUgjbIwk7PR_V5MWCCielCGhyphenhyphenRytYM2ds6exq_jSc4M95zCHvDi_EU2hSI2fLxGFmE1gricwdRmgc0_Idkjg0/s400/PostingAdsense.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309175749602371810" border="0" /></a>I find the blend template typically works best for all situations. I think vertical wide banners look good on the side panels or standard or large rectangles. I think towards the top of the blog 5 link horizontal rows looks good, and banners look good under posts.<br /><br />On this blog thus far I've used the 5 link horizontal row on top and banners between posts for Adsense. <br /><br />Hint: To get the 5 link horizontal row up top I 1st selected Adsense Gadget for the side panel and then moved it above the posts. I then went back in and changed it to 5 link horizontal row and blend template.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Make+Money" rel="tag">Make Money</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/My+Blogger+Experience" rel="tag">My Blogger Experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-60712252369629475702009-03-03T19:20:00.001-08:002009-03-03T19:25:16.859-08:00Add Blogger Subscrption LinksSubscription links are a relatively new gadget added by google to blogger. To get there go to layout and add a gadget. On this blog I've added it to the bottom of the layout/page.<br /><br />Once the various gadgets are pulled up, scroll until you find this one and click to open like shown in the picture.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Bhmch7Bm07eUFmN2ui8z_UJiUKZtyiFMARITCBaNn8tAbVLHeBvgBzOdI7XuL313YrFP_6HfALjfB-4_TPHNvYmVzezpI3y8M72hLP49ohHCpjd_ij3Mx-0wIqTIYyrKkEPLnyawQVM/s1600-h/SubscriptionGadgetClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 79px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Bhmch7Bm07eUFmN2ui8z_UJiUKZtyiFMARITCBaNn8tAbVLHeBvgBzOdI7XuL313YrFP_6HfALjfB-4_TPHNvYmVzezpI3y8M72hLP49ohHCpjd_ij3Mx-0wIqTIYyrKkEPLnyawQVM/s400/SubscriptionGadgetClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309167709153933298" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Once you click the plus sign this screen will show and you can whatever text you want to display to get visitors to subscribe.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVTFxS_snr0JkRs_KEFYFfipIxjm_tckz5guM-ml2HoMwg7A9W-lEvbtad5rg3uUc5C_Gy-qRuj0AzCRyQuzFa7eowm0OSIVgC9WRpEdxUHtsynh3IGpIULIlML0Fdn_DFaXlK_k2R0_k/s1600-h/SubscriptionBox.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVTFxS_snr0JkRs_KEFYFfipIxjm_tckz5guM-ml2HoMwg7A9W-lEvbtad5rg3uUc5C_Gy-qRuj0AzCRyQuzFa7eowm0OSIVgC9WRpEdxUHtsynh3IGpIULIlML0Fdn_DFaXlK_k2R0_k/s400/SubscriptionBox.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309168024390053826" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Click Save and check you blog. That's it!<br /><br />Here's what it looks like on this blog:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_ijyttugOuzsQKi1qaTqPQ5K2k1U3um-ZfaLkOwDD3V4Cf8kOrybaB16zNDiP3mRNwazBH_wvmnOM6hZJVOUGJ2I6QCBuvRzHhn6vIzOwnRRvvkfy9Jy7VnqIEcRkCVSV-izdEIA8II/s1600-h/SubscriptionLinksBloggerOnBlog.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 111px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ_ijyttugOuzsQKi1qaTqPQ5K2k1U3um-ZfaLkOwDD3V4Cf8kOrybaB16zNDiP3mRNwazBH_wvmnOM6hZJVOUGJ2I6QCBuvRzHhn6vIzOwnRRvvkfy9Jy7VnqIEcRkCVSV-izdEIA8II/s400/SubscriptionLinksBloggerOnBlog.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309168214178399154" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Increase+Blog+Traffic" rel="tag">Increase Blog Traffic</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/My+Blogger+Experience" rel="tag">My Blogger Experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-89096115714698287572009-03-03T16:49:00.001-08:002009-03-03T19:15:06.209-08:00Remove Blog Title From Post TitleWhen you create a post, it creates a separate page based on the date and title you gave your post. However, by default blogger will shot the title of your blog 1st before it shows the title of your post. So it's in the form of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Blog Title : Post Title</span>.<br /><br />When search engines are trying to index your site they give you extra brownie points by what is written in the title. So if someone was searching for "brown puppies" and your title or your post was "brown puppies", then this would make your post seem more relevant than a post titled "big cars". Now the problem is if your blog title was "Favorite Stuff" then your post on brown puppies would read "Favorite Stuff: Brown Puppies" to the search engines. Obviously this is degrading the value of the title by keeping the blog title in place. So, we want to get rid of it. How do we do it?<br /><br /><ol><br /><li>Log into the Dashboard and select the appropriate blog.</li><br /><br /><li>Goto Layout</li><br /><br /><li>Edit HTML</li><br /><br /><li>You should backup your template although there should not be a problem.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-jR3PtzPwNViXa1RjoDAyMODr-KIgYXHxQVZzKxbBF2MEWMMLSRFjXbS6aPJE1GfBVsseuNQBupL2rdDLPnlycWqbbUYB7XPtQYdz1CAK1XMZGWor6sOVXPaj7fLNR-M4NZ1nJ4q_x5Q/s1600-h/DownloadTemplateClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 73px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-jR3PtzPwNViXa1RjoDAyMODr-KIgYXHxQVZzKxbBF2MEWMMLSRFjXbS6aPJE1GfBVsseuNQBupL2rdDLPnlycWqbbUYB7XPtQYdz1CAK1XMZGWor6sOVXPaj7fLNR-M4NZ1nJ4q_x5Q/s400/DownloadTemplateClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309162503152350242" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcWstVjKp3z-JqCXXubhAyvKu5jdzV6NqmN5hh4XKu5rtLs5SfxqGQaYPudsWi2uLkQ8mY-AGy1jCXS4JUHorJgm3KZElp3wGMV1Q4Zr5B3SXNFwprupTvPsgnaVFEB3lJ7stLc21hd8E/s1600-h/DownloadTemplateScreen.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 381px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcWstVjKp3z-JqCXXubhAyvKu5jdzV6NqmN5hh4XKu5rtLs5SfxqGQaYPudsWi2uLkQ8mY-AGy1jCXS4JUHorJgm3KZElp3wGMV1Q4Zr5B3SXNFwprupTvPsgnaVFEB3lJ7stLc21hd8E/s400/DownloadTemplateScreen.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309162560758211602" border="0" /></a> Save to your computer. It's an XML file you can always upload it again if you need to.<br /><br /><br /></li><br /><br /><li>Find the following code:<br /><br /><blockquote> <title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title></blockquote></li><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1qvgC_tktxtOZaya2tjuJiUq0Be44D0x258eev1X32ZwaRnYka50nm9-XGX8bS-QH-rGIjyM3l9CxOS0g9JbpXygWL9_O-6x5jv05XlqEMz57r7hDldCCZLff3s8BEsKezEkWhg9qHiw/s1600-h/Titlehtmlselect.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 353px; height: 37px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1qvgC_tktxtOZaya2tjuJiUq0Be44D0x258eev1X32ZwaRnYka50nm9-XGX8bS-QH-rGIjyM3l9CxOS0g9JbpXygWL9_O-6x5jv05XlqEMz57r7hDldCCZLff3s8BEsKezEkWhg9qHiw/s400/Titlehtmlselect.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309163271978528514" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">(tip Go to Edit on your browser and Select --> Find</span> and Paste code at the bottom of browser find input box)<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS5q_1wmXeT0Cu3B9gIc_X2d9hP6bSgxQ-XLaRFtxN2yfQquxLQczre3_1jGHW6IPcOdXLpBfKtMrf8eGg9DIWoYL5kho_GP_0Fi3JgBrB9MalHWehNB2vateXgdlBvpYEOxMsBrBQJBE/s1600-h/SelectFind.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 298px; height: 217px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS5q_1wmXeT0Cu3B9gIc_X2d9hP6bSgxQ-XLaRFtxN2yfQquxLQczre3_1jGHW6IPcOdXLpBfKtMrf8eGg9DIWoYL5kho_GP_0Fi3JgBrB9MalHWehNB2vateXgdlBvpYEOxMsBrBQJBE/s400/SelectFind.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309145125734304290" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgocq2WZDpwd-37YkMale8xjwyw5dvi3MZhAYypjVDiqGkAN_dOIgNJEsyLG1G2ZajACyY6foQo5-dLW6tcJyXRFViG9R_ziAnaNxyZ2-t8fyzaFLAXWeiLHbBtnx4vhuXPqh4BdANhLq4/s1600-h/CopyFind.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 20px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgocq2WZDpwd-37YkMale8xjwyw5dvi3MZhAYypjVDiqGkAN_dOIgNJEsyLG1G2ZajACyY6foQo5-dLW6tcJyXRFViG9R_ziAnaNxyZ2-t8fyzaFLAXWeiLHbBtnx4vhuXPqh4BdANhLq4/s400/CopyFind.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309145415264152690" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><li>Replace this tag with the following:<br /><br /><blockquote><b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;index&quot;'><br /><br /><title><data:blog.title/></title><br /><br /><b:else/><br /><br /><title><data:blog.pageName/></title><br /><br /></b:if></blockquote></li><br /><br />So just highlight the previous code and copy this code in it's place.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJZwhNfkdpjs-Up8DBD43E4zibcFRrS8oOvTh5axAHiLw_-2eajdskaBWaEz9M0WjyhlugLgcZDJZ_1kBrZpaJLHrXjW2Sn3nrjGdvqSvI4BedsR1D-Josd7crFSucR7RraVMkUHmAcw/s1600-h/ReplaceTitleHtml.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 88px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIJZwhNfkdpjs-Up8DBD43E4zibcFRrS8oOvTh5axAHiLw_-2eajdskaBWaEz9M0WjyhlugLgcZDJZ_1kBrZpaJLHrXjW2Sn3nrjGdvqSvI4BedsR1D-Josd7crFSucR7RraVMkUHmAcw/s400/ReplaceTitleHtml.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309163361336167506" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><li>Save The Template</li><br /></ol><br /><br />That's it. Now try clicking on a post and notice how it now only shows the post title in the top part of the browser.<br /><br />Here's an example.<br /><br />Before:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSh7DnirNkDoqMA0x9X51tMCM8PbOXMDQv_4SeMNwVsFGDzFjm_zDFy6dzmPwQf1vmP5pT0ex5hqdCjfQ7LGd0qVbxLJ-1SqS76cysTkt93s3AORK57K6lOPYrPbiS1Y0GNQS01yx9EfE/s1600-h/TitlePostExample.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 28px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSh7DnirNkDoqMA0x9X51tMCM8PbOXMDQv_4SeMNwVsFGDzFjm_zDFy6dzmPwQf1vmP5pT0ex5hqdCjfQ7LGd0qVbxLJ-1SqS76cysTkt93s3AORK57K6lOPYrPbiS1Y0GNQS01yx9EfE/s400/TitlePostExample.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309164552539466018" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />After:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkEoSjTJ6JYOpw8ZY0gAkSZFpqDhNhnt0-6O8HxkVMquDwr3EkHeHNCLkvurX5yc0huAh8eYuNyBRirY_ryYiOorX4txy9qkJhvx-UI532B9IfTNDSMwkgNmYeh6-_KvABHdihsxF0T4/s1600-h/PostTitleOnly.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 363px; height: 28px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbkEoSjTJ6JYOpw8ZY0gAkSZFpqDhNhnt0-6O8HxkVMquDwr3EkHeHNCLkvurX5yc0huAh8eYuNyBRirY_ryYiOorX4txy9qkJhvx-UI532B9IfTNDSMwkgNmYeh6-_KvABHdihsxF0T4/s400/PostTitleOnly.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309164996850587634" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Intermediate" rel="tag">Blogger Intermediate</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Increase+Blog+Traffic" rel="tag">Increase Blog Traffic</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SEO" rel="tag">SEO</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/My+Blogger+Experience" rel="tag">My Blogger Experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-56055254306322085682009-03-02T15:45:00.000-08:002009-03-02T19:56:55.261-08:00Add Blog To Blog DirectoriesBlog directories are an excellent place to submit your blog to. Most of the time they are free, and on this post we will just mention the free ones, and they will not only give you a lot of extra free traffic and exposure, but will also give you a inbound link, which is good for search engines when they decide how much value your blog is worth. This in turn will make the likelihood of your submitted content to be indexed by a search engine, which in turn will give you even more traffic! So, in short blog directories are great for more traffic and SEO purposes.<br /><br />I will show you how to sign up for 1 blog directory. All the others are similar. They may even ask that you sign up for an account. Signing up for account with them is no different than on my previous posts where you sign up for an account with anyone else. The benefit of those that have you sign up for an account is that once you have an account with them you can log in and see at once all the blogs that you have submitted, submit more blogs, and make adjustments.<br /><br />Before you do anything, I recommend you create a notepad entry with all the information that any blog directory will ask for. Name it the name of your blog plus info. So I named mine "mybloggerexperienceinfo". I added the following information to mine:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />blog, blogger, blogging, blogger help, blogger tips, blogger resources, blogger tutorial, blogger tutorials, blogger instructions, blogger by example, blogger step by step</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">http://mybloggerexperience.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">http://mybloggerexperience.blogspot.com</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">My Blogger Experience</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">My blogger experience will show you a step-by-step visual evolution on how to go from a beginner at signup with a Minima template to more advanced blogger by adding various beginner to advanced blogger features and tricks.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">mybloggerexperience@yahoo.com</span><br /><br />Notice I have the keywords related to the blog site, then I have my rss feed URL -- Your's is the same just replace my .com address with yours and keep the /feeds/posts/default portion. Next I have the blog URL by itself, and then the name of the blog and blog description- notice I just used the description I have on my blog(copy and paste), and e-mail address. Save it. I recommend doing this for all your blogs.<br /><br /><br /><br />OK, now I will show you a quick blog directory you can submit to. 1st <a href="http://www.bloglisting.net/submit.php">go to Blogsubmit</a>. Appropriate enough name for a blog submission directory don't you think? The link I gave you takes your right to the blog submission page. The top portion where you start adding information looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGVnUep6_AdiYT3_cR4rf85vM7NorVIEYL-WT3cUyiW5pBgZOt88DjVi2vpP2GzcjgrOVB4e6U4yhPF5boDtgTeFFo8_HkylGsRjIAYrDXhVfsdR6IgWpItSegUDqz3V7jxf9XuHcxLw/s1600-h/BlogListingSubmit1.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVGVnUep6_AdiYT3_cR4rf85vM7NorVIEYL-WT3cUyiW5pBgZOt88DjVi2vpP2GzcjgrOVB4e6U4yhPF5boDtgTeFFo8_HkylGsRjIAYrDXhVfsdR6IgWpItSegUDqz3V7jxf9XuHcxLw/s400/BlogListingSubmit1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308742402735790738" border="0" /></a>1st off like shown in the picture click the "Regular link with reciprocal". The reason why this is better than just the regular link is because it's natural for your site to have outgoing links anyway, especially as far as the search engines are concerned, and it will increase the likelihood that your blog will be added and much quicker if it was going to be in the 1st place.<br /><br />Ok now as far as entries the blog title, URL, Description will now just be copy and paste. Copy your keywords into the "Meta Keywords" field and you most likely can just copy the same description again into the "Meta Description". Mine was a little long so I just took off the 1st part before the "step-by-step" and it worked. Scroll down some more and you will see:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-MKVEtOmgskKWt-f9iY5_gH8UoefBmpRN7Xm_cLHoTYfGC6tiPz3BF3-jnOta7EZD8s1h183fojySc0_M-gkFXUmETxwl-JVDul-vPIqXVztfXuC8_B9U8fsZLhbfltCxr2vEodmArQ/s1600-h/BlogListingSubmit2.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV-MKVEtOmgskKWt-f9iY5_gH8UoefBmpRN7Xm_cLHoTYfGC6tiPz3BF3-jnOta7EZD8s1h183fojySc0_M-gkFXUmETxwl-JVDul-vPIqXVztfXuC8_B9U8fsZLhbfltCxr2vEodmArQ/s400/BlogListingSubmit2.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308745053485429618" border="0" /></a>On "Your name" you can just enter a nickname like you used on blogger, enter your e-mail-- again copy and paste off your text file. Scroll to find the appropriate blog category, copy your URL again for the reciprocal link URL. Enter the word verification at the bottom. Now before you click continue, copy the the 2nd text box of information and open up the layout. Add a widget and select HTML/Javascript and paste the information you copied into the content section like the following picture shows:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfroCiZUUqBzFX3Vkp5wn0xUpScbpYdfyt3z9bnyWoHiREiij7LSLvQUbn3bLyMGhcQ-OfT7KOiHc_vnpOfonKEYULKfexLGiuavqrXt0H0Jrv5cxzHubQwrJpOf8JLKHo4ftfoOTq1c/s1600-h/BloglistingContendHTML.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHfroCiZUUqBzFX3Vkp5wn0xUpScbpYdfyt3z9bnyWoHiREiij7LSLvQUbn3bLyMGhcQ-OfT7KOiHc_vnpOfonKEYULKfexLGiuavqrXt0H0Jrv5cxzHubQwrJpOf8JLKHo4ftfoOTq1c/s400/BloglistingContendHTML.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308799226002398994" border="0" /></a>Now alternatively if you have done what was shown in the post for signing up for technorati already, you can just add this below the technorati embed code. This is what I have done on this blog. Any future directories can just be copied and pasted in the same manner.<br /><br />Ok now back to bloglistings.com you can hit continue. They will send you an email. The e-mail states that if you reply that your chances of getting indexed faster increase. That combined with choosing the reciprocal link option makes you ahead of the game. To take things a step further I've added this in my reply to the e-mail which you might want to do as well:<br /><br />Brad,<br /><br />As requested I am replying to this e-mail to increase the chances of my blog being listed faster. I have also already added a reciprocal link to the blog site found on the main page right side panel. Looks like a great blog directory you have there, and I hope to be added to the site soon! Thanks,<br /><br /><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://mybloggerexperience.blogspot.com/">http://mybloggerexperience.blogspot.com/</a><br /><br />That's all you need to do for this directory.<br /><br />Here are some other directories that I like that you can sign up to.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.bloghub.com/">http://www.bloghub.com/</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.bloggapedia.com/">http://www.bloggapedia.com/</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.blogarama.com/">http://www.blogarama.com/</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.blogrankings.com/">http://www.blogrankings.com/</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.blogcatalog.com/">http://www.blogcatalog.com/</a> -- This is my favorite and google seems to love it.<br /><br />I will add more in the future to the blog. Just check the side panel and click and you can sign up from there.<br /><br />Here's what this blog currently looks like with the newest additions:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivnkDi_HoEYnOu6_5LWJIpKICeJLERRqc5r8GS6qx5lX4A_QCAPY-0NF3vRQv7YWzgJKzOQvjyUPjuswALMAbiSY70Cw_TFzIHjywkHBnyQ4ohscBVoCUHUeUwj876TTrh2JvLooCaJXU/s1600-h/Mybloggerexperience0302.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivnkDi_HoEYnOu6_5LWJIpKICeJLERRqc5r8GS6qx5lX4A_QCAPY-0NF3vRQv7YWzgJKzOQvjyUPjuswALMAbiSY70Cw_TFzIHjywkHBnyQ4ohscBVoCUHUeUwj876TTrh2JvLooCaJXU/s400/Mybloggerexperience0302.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308802876127701058" border="0" /></a><br /><br />As you can see quite the difference already.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SEO" rel="tag">SEO</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Increase+Blog+Traffic" rel="tag">Increase Blog Traffic</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/My+Blogger+Experience" rel="tag">My Blogger Experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-64523877137886232292009-03-02T11:52:00.000-08:002009-03-03T05:58:11.086-08:00Advanced Star Rating For BloggerIn this post I will show you a more advanced star rating that I'm using on this blog. Unlike the previous post where you use blogger's star rating, this is a little harder to implement. You may not need to worry about it if all you want is something a user can rate a post by and that's it. But, this 3rd party star rating system by outbrain not only looks better in my opinion than blogger's own, but it allows you to choose options such as showing your top popular posts by rating, and seeing where people are coming from that are voting on your page. I think it's worth the small amount of extra effort.<br /><br />To get started look at below my posts and you will see:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9CiLwI0t5EhFp-8OA9RBpRn1wyK0MNtQOojpuFWX5oUfwjEhKmVKjNeZ4A2N6DFSw4l2MlcBk9-L79FqewsuUJ0gXVjixkMtfJfjShAKccCVeS2tLZZ41v6tySJtNLtZDMCW0D_I91k/s1600-h/StarRatingBelowPost.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 109px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG9CiLwI0t5EhFp-8OA9RBpRn1wyK0MNtQOojpuFWX5oUfwjEhKmVKjNeZ4A2N6DFSw4l2MlcBk9-L79FqewsuUJ0gXVjixkMtfJfjShAKccCVeS2tLZZ41v6tySJtNLtZDMCW0D_I91k/s400/StarRatingBelowPost.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308681515977418722" border="0" /></a>Click on the question mark as shown in the picture and this will pop up:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9GRNMsm3oyn-qjJzfXNyCHIqKaUIS9aFvpL0zXGIfkVe1cWlLOZ2KUWk0NcMA8Hh-J2wagsDaq-XY2Ta1dK5fNbvajbjpLufyaD4zqjO2mActIwxCe91UyyGVpYK8YXzNT1Gri_cv-s/s1600-h/OutbrainPopup.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9GRNMsm3oyn-qjJzfXNyCHIqKaUIS9aFvpL0zXGIfkVe1cWlLOZ2KUWk0NcMA8Hh-J2wagsDaq-XY2Ta1dK5fNbvajbjpLufyaD4zqjO2mActIwxCe91UyyGVpYK8YXzNT1Gri_cv-s/s400/OutbrainPopup.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308681977730732850" border="0" /></a>Click the outbrain link and it will take you to it's main page:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGyQK0dE4orQyb3LgLd4hd_BvoPXUF2n3NKrTPUE6BMFlTNNvOvvHoZ7sCgEloMFqsp6Y67WnEe2C4PRnmiwPdZThIfJKCrtjHVtCMoj7Ot9WlvlwL1ucGsmMj_WqbYbdWTeUVJl3AJk/s1600-h/OutbrainMainClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGyQK0dE4orQyb3LgLd4hd_BvoPXUF2n3NKrTPUE6BMFlTNNvOvvHoZ7sCgEloMFqsp6Y67WnEe2C4PRnmiwPdZThIfJKCrtjHVtCMoj7Ot9WlvlwL1ucGsmMj_WqbYbdWTeUVJl3AJk/s400/OutbrainMainClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308682441590547746" border="0" /></a>From Here's it's pretty easy. But, just a quick rundown-- on the left hand side click on the blogger icon box as shown in the picture which will take you to the signup page:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ML9c9AzrLCWJI-UXgM2rzt9UtM2BavuyvaFfl6tqJbViKN3CQkAS_7OMpOD45my2NvWWCAdDM8DKBufC3LVm9arLU857zbc8KbCs48SYX09mE78X1qcXfLBIOAPZfgEnwXMfhA1rGdk/s1600-h/OutbrainSignup.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-ML9c9AzrLCWJI-UXgM2rzt9UtM2BavuyvaFfl6tqJbViKN3CQkAS_7OMpOD45my2NvWWCAdDM8DKBufC3LVm9arLU857zbc8KbCs48SYX09mE78X1qcXfLBIOAPZfgEnwXMfhA1rGdk/s400/OutbrainSignup.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308682810606300290" border="0" /></a>I'd recommend registering for an account.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgsgKMpuC0vYzN_j9lmTBl0zEa61rLkqtmxwBoNIwia0fgupX-zheAyTajHiQLhYTC6vw9IusE0XhhT9jZwoMtkl0EeHaTU7DnFSIR6P-J2-wYYzRoT7PnPODOK_rCM5nJatiXednQObY/s1600-h/OutbrainRegisterClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgsgKMpuC0vYzN_j9lmTBl0zEa61rLkqtmxwBoNIwia0fgupX-zheAyTajHiQLhYTC6vw9IusE0XhhT9jZwoMtkl0EeHaTU7DnFSIR6P-J2-wYYzRoT7PnPODOK_rCM5nJatiXednQObY/s400/OutbrainRegisterClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308683251945610050" border="0" /></a>Click the box as shown in the picture and fill out common account information and click register. Before you go onto step 2 in the picture go to your e-mail you provided and find the email they sent you from outbrain and click the confirmation link. Click Get Widet Now in Step 2. This screen will show,<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhaxYLgUiVgVopsc20SqYY00AKyGZMooIgG9E4jlzSlC1vqjnGc0mdtG1esohAH5jHZFWhGa4jR6hyphenhyphen-p1auE_8uqcgLUbeqJRb9LtRHibBkRYQ_D1gQiyCaSysAc2usbIifhlBi1u4X4/s1600-h/ThanksOutbrainManageClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 71px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhaxYLgUiVgVopsc20SqYY00AKyGZMooIgG9E4jlzSlC1vqjnGc0mdtG1esohAH5jHZFWhGa4jR6hyphenhyphen-p1auE_8uqcgLUbeqJRb9LtRHibBkRYQ_D1gQiyCaSysAc2usbIifhlBi1u4X4/s400/ThanksOutbrainManageClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308684476617354354" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />and another screen will show where you accept outbrain to install their widget on your blog. Make sure the right blog is selected and allow. Click Manage Blogs as it shows in the picture.<br /><br />Click Check now to claim the blog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjaICyY3Pu7WqAPlM4NlpePkH93ZLwHSQBbHDKta6Mcww4VXR55Sn_2Jm0UxnSPwN_DIgSaE1cJxnJx7LeBxtEN15d325fDNLDIe2xDpESjDWWXoLDfmFZQ6JKQtFIukBt_fRU-Psk9_s/s1600-h/OutbrainCheckNow.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 107px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjaICyY3Pu7WqAPlM4NlpePkH93ZLwHSQBbHDKta6Mcww4VXR55Sn_2Jm0UxnSPwN_DIgSaE1cJxnJx7LeBxtEN15d325fDNLDIe2xDpESjDWWXoLDfmFZQ6JKQtFIukBt_fRU-Psk9_s/s400/OutbrainCheckNow.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308684835539677394" border="0" /></a>Everything should go smoothe since you already agreen yes on outbrain to install the widget on your blog.<br /><br />Next, click settings.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjctk8RciP9Er2Pu3vrWOU_pkANbIYfWU-csV6u3DVV78WgaQeG1rlxGkXpho7dVwiSei8yP4v4EM74bGC_KmVPWvDpZszsOrqwXwIyKggs1Ek9e_EYj5zbHaB5mD68ApSt6l4CBwz6L3Y/s1600-h/OutbrainSettingClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 272px; height: 118px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjctk8RciP9Er2Pu3vrWOU_pkANbIYfWU-csV6u3DVV78WgaQeG1rlxGkXpho7dVwiSei8yP4v4EM74bGC_KmVPWvDpZszsOrqwXwIyKggs1Ek9e_EYj5zbHaB5mD68ApSt6l4CBwz6L3Y/s400/OutbrainSettingClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308685142410064242" border="0" /></a>This will take you to this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhf9Cisoy9zWSZwObxT4kEC07GMUnZRuGTcOAcvbmrC83p26YZLi7-3stT78lwF7Q3Pc1qeSvnc5SWu1zRalWqqJNMkgyPrG45get-9pVo5jlpgZPz0QjklEtE652IVL7V0pYTgjfVsA/s1600-h/OutbrainSettingsSubmit.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhf9Cisoy9zWSZwObxT4kEC07GMUnZRuGTcOAcvbmrC83p26YZLi7-3stT78lwF7Q3Pc1qeSvnc5SWu1zRalWqqJNMkgyPrG45get-9pVo5jlpgZPz0QjklEtE652IVL7V0pYTgjfVsA/s400/OutbrainSettingsSubmit.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308685319136870882" border="0" /></a>I'd recommend choosing "Limited Recommendations" since it will just show recommended posts on your blog as opposed to anywhere on the web- But if you like that idea leave their option on "Best Recommendations".<br /><br />I'd choose no on the 2nd option, because you may want to provide your own ads in the future and this charity setting will only distract. Leave the option set to bottom of the post. I think that's the best place for the rating since the visitor just finished reading your post. The final option I would definitely set to "Enabled". This is a cool feature that will show the most popular(3 I believe) posts based on top star rating. Here's an example currently on this blog:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxUUVMRTl-NGL1OELSQJ3Ukj5CswGzDpGwho5dTTlDKs_rx9VCosn3pqVbO17Gi7xrk4objxfT_1ewifg2jaesTe-2riWodhHqIzIjCLpgoHl74iaUoOEoLJ_OKVR9iDPcRuweidWLg8/s1600-h/MostPopularOutbrain.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 254px; height: 163px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxUUVMRTl-NGL1OELSQJ3Ukj5CswGzDpGwho5dTTlDKs_rx9VCosn3pqVbO17Gi7xrk4objxfT_1ewifg2jaesTe-2riWodhHqIzIjCLpgoHl74iaUoOEoLJ_OKVR9iDPcRuweidWLg8/s400/MostPopularOutbrain.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308801739717237090" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Click submit and that's it. You can add more blogs to outbrain if you want, but were done for 1.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Intermediate" rel="tag">Blogger Intermediate</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/fun+extras" rel="tag">fun extras</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/my+blogger+experience" rel="tag">my blogger experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-87320347859705018542009-03-02T11:26:00.000-08:002009-03-03T05:57:38.321-08:00Add Star Rating The Blogger WayIn this post I will show you how to create a star rating for visitors to rate your blog post's. This is not the way I have currently on my blog, but this is the easiest way and might be good enough for you needs. With this method you use blogger's own star rating. To get to it, you need to get to blogger in draft-- draft.blogger.com -- or simply replace the "www" portion of the URL, if your currently logged into blogger, and replace it with "draft".<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_oxkxGbpTkiNVjs9r2ObWqS2yShRFVJscshyHehrUlSrAujXlHu2VqhTZOW1Wcp2Xtg-zOgbjfOyQKhBvNt5-LFeQWJ6KyuWXG-w5-Y5jTwtZt55kd7jwpQtmxHs2TJ5_kH2OU-Xwx8/s1600-h/wwwchange.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 352px; height: 58px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr_oxkxGbpTkiNVjs9r2ObWqS2yShRFVJscshyHehrUlSrAujXlHu2VqhTZOW1Wcp2Xtg-zOgbjfOyQKhBvNt5-LFeQWJ6KyuWXG-w5-Y5jTwtZt55kd7jwpQtmxHs2TJ5_kH2OU-Xwx8/s400/wwwchange.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308677679149515746" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqupB6fnBHSRksKJVAtxYuGWBDb1lIYIccodXa3rDGNAr1zAtdHappWm_-Nni-i7upzQNvzhei2mqJGmracQRyw6aCt5GuWY-gejctz6YdtI_17PfrsgVO-7sf8sUe5Dfx4Twl7TuyWP0/s1600-h/draftchangewww.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 339px; height: 65px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqupB6fnBHSRksKJVAtxYuGWBDb1lIYIccodXa3rDGNAr1zAtdHappWm_-Nni-i7upzQNvzhei2mqJGmracQRyw6aCt5GuWY-gejctz6YdtI_17PfrsgVO-7sf8sUe5Dfx4Twl7TuyWP0/s400/draftchangewww.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308677822740958706" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Click Enter or whatever you do to go from site to site after your type the URL ordinarily.<br /><br />While in draft go to layout and click to edit the post section:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpSpb6A_0T0Tx0tv2sDtM_PiA-CZyn5M2Y4KOSlQKSONjLITHVQbxcPv3TiiZEueAQR-DR08ExrVoLStXukmP8pCEwKgdd_v8sD_hTLxYglKhSa6HxmZVFKg1oG2qssxQfg_rliU7yac/s1600-h/LayoutBlogPostsClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 223px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIpSpb6A_0T0Tx0tv2sDtM_PiA-CZyn5M2Y4KOSlQKSONjLITHVQbxcPv3TiiZEueAQR-DR08ExrVoLStXukmP8pCEwKgdd_v8sD_hTLxYglKhSa6HxmZVFKg1oG2qssxQfg_rliU7yac/s400/LayoutBlogPostsClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308678329792377330" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This will pull up this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBBgjfjdvyzaL9c0B1FmWUtKYef15qZsSr_1KicQ7Xqi0iCFoc7CU0PJU9qUgsU1ZFOGG0pzqkVA2dCAacnt9pE3qltFDrTkDDN_gc-JkBNNQHPQpqS-mWPsn_dKuuXnXo7JzfImOK9A/s1600-h/StarRatingClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSBBgjfjdvyzaL9c0B1FmWUtKYef15qZsSr_1KicQ7Xqi0iCFoc7CU0PJU9qUgsU1ZFOGG0pzqkVA2dCAacnt9pE3qltFDrTkDDN_gc-JkBNNQHPQpqS-mWPsn_dKuuXnXo7JzfImOK9A/s400/StarRatingClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308678554494871618" border="0" /></a>Click where I clicked in the picture to choose "Show Star Ratings".<br /><br />Believe it or not, that's it. You now have your own star ratings that will show below posts. Next time I show you star ratings, I will show you a more advanced 3rd part method that in my opinion looks nicer and gives you stats on where someone is clicking from, and other cool extras. But, if you're not worried about the extras, this will be good enough.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/fun+extras" rel="tag">fun extras</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/My+blogger+experience" rel="tag">My blogger experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-68696954769874101332009-03-01T08:08:00.000-08:002009-03-02T11:20:37.679-08:00Understanding Blogger Comment OptionsIn this post we will discuss all the different comment options that blogger provides. To get to the comment options click up top on the Setting tab as shown in this pic.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDOFC27Nz6Nj_T_q-NLG79juAaNGx2_XYUMqDH0H0zvkQ6MKz389i3WyIc75wptUC0VdFcC0pBS2j0R4ZvDZiy0LMgU-52TZ-sqJmrtk0W4VqEC_hCHhwc_0VW5juBIYI5MABOKSCcUQ/s1600-h/SettingsClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 341px; height: 79px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVDOFC27Nz6Nj_T_q-NLG79juAaNGx2_XYUMqDH0H0zvkQ6MKz389i3WyIc75wptUC0VdFcC0pBS2j0R4ZvDZiy0LMgU-52TZ-sqJmrtk0W4VqEC_hCHhwc_0VW5juBIYI5MABOKSCcUQ/s400/SettingsClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308252553852699106" border="0" /></a>Once you click that tab you will come to this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6MZOuDi4IhHr4lEoVCYxJMxn1DqTfo5XowscTtp6qU1CS0fHhpw6IYRIrG8etm9Qx-38b5lDsyTXzL7zrABze4XnVJEUTSAj90eQuWqYvMXiW6fdbTJuafv9yAKd1oE-pjf4jpUZ6i4/s1600-h/CommentsClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6MZOuDi4IhHr4lEoVCYxJMxn1DqTfo5XowscTtp6qU1CS0fHhpw6IYRIrG8etm9Qx-38b5lDsyTXzL7zrABze4XnVJEUTSAj90eQuWqYvMXiW6fdbTJuafv9yAKd1oE-pjf4jpUZ6i4/s400/CommentsClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308254615999751122" border="0" /></a>Click the comment section as shown in the picture and you will get to this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkL21nibz1waXNZP0qIJVnyenmGLYf5xQbH4RVAMunt0UhoYVHVjjWiqxfNxiv-vCYo4fG2PQw_V8qYTeZuCzNmJvup9BNVtmeQ1hhhk70Jetxig4NEyUPMYZdPGmAr7Ife8eDKir5ZHQ/s1600-h/CommentSection1.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkL21nibz1waXNZP0qIJVnyenmGLYf5xQbH4RVAMunt0UhoYVHVjjWiqxfNxiv-vCYo4fG2PQw_V8qYTeZuCzNmJvup9BNVtmeQ1hhhk70Jetxig4NEyUPMYZdPGmAr7Ife8eDKir5ZHQ/s400/CommentSection1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308254839366480434" border="0" /></a>Starting from the top if you want to hide your comments click hide otherwise leave this alone.<br /><br />Below this it has who you willow to comment. By default it should be registered users. But, you can change this to anyone, those with google accounts, or only members of your own blog. I would recommend if you want the most comments to choose "anyone" here.<br /><br />With the next option, if it isn't already selected, I would choose "embed below post". This will make it more apparent for visitors that they can comment. *Note that with this option you will only see the comments below post if your post is opened on it's own page, but not on the main page. The other 2 options will either pop up a window where users can comment or just load a new screen. I'd recommend under the post.<br /><br />Next, we have new post have comments. This is what you want. Leave it alone. Otherwise there will be no comments.<br /><br />On the next option I'd just leave it alone to unless you want to show links back to whoever posted on your blog. For SEO purposes this is not too good, because you will have alot of outgoing links or once you get the reputation alot of spammers trying to get inbound links for their sites.<br /><br />Scroll down a little bit more and you will see:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5Y9vVgCNZOxWjzG4WEi33L8lqEGd1s5IFDi1rm8uxQtBjpw4t71Eb4jEsPq-Ay95nq3DITL5NXYG3OSNWqNNQRyoGb1_o4QGisGrG87CDf5hK-lC_WRQzDXXsV0BUPtOMV-VhssyA3w/s1600-h/CommentSection2.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo5Y9vVgCNZOxWjzG4WEi33L8lqEGd1s5IFDi1rm8uxQtBjpw4t71Eb4jEsPq-Ay95nq3DITL5NXYG3OSNWqNNQRyoGb1_o4QGisGrG87CDf5hK-lC_WRQzDXXsV0BUPtOMV-VhssyA3w/s400/CommentSection2.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308254894451731266" border="0" /></a>I'd just leave it with "New Posts have backlinks" on the 1st option.<br /><br />Next you can decide how you want your date on your blog post to appear. I'd keep that the same too.<br /><br />Next, if you have a message you want to post on your comment form you can put 1 in the box, but I'd just leave that alone too.<br /><br />On comment moderation, I'd change it to "Always", just to prevent spammers, and if you want to receive e-mail notification when someone leaves a comment so that you can moderate you can place the desired e-mail address in that field. You might want to place a e-mail here that way you can check the comments asap.<br /><br />Scroll down a little more and you will see this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPpj6psXASAJ7Im2478oesXkjnnWsTeQqGhl25epX08PLITn4EMDmlkQeC0H3tUaSGSccWX40JRowUh_iOm4n_iIXt7gDJZyuaTG1NwZ2VmdTER1qBxfD3BeQjSQlCHtIyGX2IDl15J0/s1600-h/CommentSection3.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNPpj6psXASAJ7Im2478oesXkjnnWsTeQqGhl25epX08PLITn4EMDmlkQeC0H3tUaSGSccWX40JRowUh_iOm4n_iIXt7gDJZyuaTG1NwZ2VmdTER1qBxfD3BeQjSQlCHtIyGX2IDl15J0/s400/CommentSection3.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308255300271016082" border="0" /></a>By default it will show word verification when someone tries to post-- to prevent bots, etc. But, I hate those things. So will your readers. If you got comment moderation turned to Always then you can see who's posting what before it goes live anyway. So, I'd just get rid of that. There also seems to be an issue on some blogs where word verification doesn't seem to work and nobody can even comment at all! So I'd change that to "no".<br /><br />Next, I'd leave the profile images on -- they're always nice when someone posts.<br /><br /><br />Finally, on comment notification e-mail I'd leave this blank. Especially if you already put an e-mail for comment moderation since you would already know someone commented if you need to moderate a comment.<br /><br />That's it. Click save. That's all there is with comments on blogger.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Technorati Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Comment+Info" rel="tag">Comment Info</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-35713936437569071832009-02-28T17:58:00.001-08:002009-02-28T18:07:58.820-08:00Add Traffic Feed & Map To Your BlogThis is just a fun extra. This will put a traffic feed and map on your blog. It will show live stats on who's visiting from where at what time and showcase it on a world map.<br /><br />1st <a href="http://feedjit.com/joinjs/" target="_blank">go here for traffic feed and map</a>. There's other stuff you can get but I recommend the 1st 2- the feed and map. All you have to do is put your cursor in tone of the boxes and it will automatically highlight.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ9xFkJvtr7iBraV_-wlXvtcaWnYR4M7mZFXeuEyM7PhRjJX7GRzkTJCw6qajeXQOr17l0jiaznkpkBpdLwYzxd09NTeOsz64Ah2sABIYeytbelVOjTeeU3XNJD_fOh5x7hXX5gBjR0f8/s1600-h/TrafficFeedandMapSelect.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 185px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ9xFkJvtr7iBraV_-wlXvtcaWnYR4M7mZFXeuEyM7PhRjJX7GRzkTJCw6qajeXQOr17l0jiaznkpkBpdLwYzxd09NTeOsz64Ah2sABIYeytbelVOjTeeU3XNJD_fOh5x7hXX5gBjR0f8/s400/TrafficFeedandMapSelect.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308033988759236834" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Just right click your mouse and copy, pull up the HTML&Javascript widget in your blogger layout and copy the 1st code into that box. Go back copy the other code and past it in the same HTML&Javascript widget.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPgYvxYsEaEMX8zyx29KYoV-Gar0gzasf36WF9Y2Hks1rVzxTM017Uhiu6G552fp9hb1Du-W1NSG3C9LkdbjjaABnsFiMc325iwq8mjsqkWSBcFA8vVldqcxUnYRkijAGclpVA6IpJFi8/s1600-h/JSSetupFeedandMap.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPgYvxYsEaEMX8zyx29KYoV-Gar0gzasf36WF9Y2Hks1rVzxTM017Uhiu6G552fp9hb1Du-W1NSG3C9LkdbjjaABnsFiMc325iwq8mjsqkWSBcFA8vVldqcxUnYRkijAGclpVA6IpJFi8/s400/JSSetupFeedandMap.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308034822498753346" border="0" /></a> Click Save. Arrange the new gadget where you want it on your blog layout-- most likely near the bottom or at least the middle. And click Save up near the top of the layout. That's it. Go check you new blog for new visitors-- Guess who the 1st one is that it shows? YOU!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Fun+Extras" rel="tag">Fun Extras</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Intermediate" rel="tag">Blogger Intermediate</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-28190129863288905992009-02-28T17:38:00.000-08:002009-02-28T17:55:22.435-08:00Add Newsreel To BloggerAdding a newsreel to your blog is something simple and easy you can do to make your blog stand out and look a little more lively even if you don't post something all the time. Plus it can give you ideas into whatever subject your blog is about.<br /><br />All you have to do is go to Layout. I recommend adding the gadget on the bottom of the blog so underneath the posts. Click add gadget like in this picture:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpdv8LhIway-_yY8OebaE37wPaH-xGz_WwuGWGDNeVXtVHzEFfU-fvw1x1LKkJ4J48HBed8-BPHDec6-vhi0ceJF0xnkBH9JvlZMnLSbzOuR8Ju0Ok-Z4UnKri3-4diiAvlVFuUL-ft4/s1600-h/AddGadgetUnderPost.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdpdv8LhIway-_yY8OebaE37wPaH-xGz_WwuGWGDNeVXtVHzEFfU-fvw1x1LKkJ4J48HBed8-BPHDec6-vhi0ceJF0xnkBH9JvlZMnLSbzOuR8Ju0Ok-Z4UnKri3-4diiAvlVFuUL-ft4/s400/AddGadgetUnderPost.gif" alt="gadget at bottom of blogger layout" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308029715140035842" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Once you click that widget choice screen will pop up. Scroll down until you see the following:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4McbQYxSxwJ3e8XCTNMquRObLcbyzBc3QjvBXodGMMSKVLljz6VdiA1Db3PvpfFQoTe9i7fHwPc9NyDFkVIdbYje5RC6Cm0M7F4c81tldAGnIApvBoyYVXz0fUNeQVNassDKVBoHJq2I/s1600-h/NewsreelClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 79px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4McbQYxSxwJ3e8XCTNMquRObLcbyzBc3QjvBXodGMMSKVLljz6VdiA1Db3PvpfFQoTe9i7fHwPc9NyDFkVIdbYje5RC6Cm0M7F4c81tldAGnIApvBoyYVXz0fUNeQVNassDKVBoHJq2I/s400/NewsreelClick.gif" alt="choose newsreel" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308029996315469906" border="0" /></a> and click the blue square like in the picture. This will bring up this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnwivThjpi4nwCjpUTU5q_T8Rf3X3NwJi_PxYNyTz1TrwmKEi-rRkWCA402bYao6F_wXR5pmFAsNgX7uHD1NdxtAuYTfnBddr7V8hvy8oJFIxlA_c6irDYX1fLUPU6i-gD4yJHMODnEOg/s1600-h/ConfigureNewsreel.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnwivThjpi4nwCjpUTU5q_T8Rf3X3NwJi_PxYNyTz1TrwmKEi-rRkWCA402bYao6F_wXR5pmFAsNgX7uHD1NdxtAuYTfnBddr7V8hvy8oJFIxlA_c6irDYX1fLUPU6i-gD4yJHMODnEOg/s400/ConfigureNewsreel.gif" alt="blogger newsreel configure" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308030210040473522" border="0" /></a><br />Change the title to something that has to do with your blog and name a keyword or more than one separated by commas that you want the newsreel to refresh news about. Click the box if you want news when clicked to open in a new window. This is what mine looked like when I was done:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNx02gSndpl5x8rHgVjQifyVmmhd_si0w_VJCDTx1yzG7wCmP-zRUyjTcwv3Fza5y9xd_NV7t6GmVzuyjHyprfkrb6bq5fUVL1ndaZRHM3wemGZlJuVGWCsk4lGOu2xLEcgRdHK036vyQ/s1600-h/MyConfigureNewsreel.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNx02gSndpl5x8rHgVjQifyVmmhd_si0w_VJCDTx1yzG7wCmP-zRUyjTcwv3Fza5y9xd_NV7t6GmVzuyjHyprfkrb6bq5fUVL1ndaZRHM3wemGZlJuVGWCsk4lGOu2xLEcgRdHK036vyQ/s400/MyConfigureNewsreel.gif" alt="change blogger newsreel" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308030683716937650" border="0" /></a>and finally click save and on your blogger layout it should now look like this towards the bottom:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQCgqHhE6o9YMtkvV6h2c7LVV6jD_FprD4WQyWzI_rSKffpG-wUAYDCy-WzzBVnfs665bOVrPRKNY1_9vzJDYzLFoQ4tvZqC_QpikNRA-9biKTLEVoNlQ17d2P_6oUKQKHjvrLJAewzM/s1600-h/AddedNewsreel.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 59px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhQCgqHhE6o9YMtkvV6h2c7LVV6jD_FprD4WQyWzI_rSKffpG-wUAYDCy-WzzBVnfs665bOVrPRKNY1_9vzJDYzLFoQ4tvZqC_QpikNRA-9biKTLEVoNlQ17d2P_6oUKQKHjvrLJAewzM/s400/AddedNewsreel.gif" alt="added gadget newsreel bottom of blogger layout" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308030898724949442" border="0" /></a><br /><br />That's it open your blog and you will see the new scrolling information the newsreel provides near the bottom. Here's what mine looks like:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilGaKXTsMcu6d3rVPapZRRwLqxAPH9q1Lcci0unymS4lJ9W91m0MPK1pNi_IvEEE9Bb0kQe1-2KFGBUsZeu5928PyHqMkPrlZRVEkKtDLNJfFQojM4dGXomF4i5qik3vNn43FKbNvgfns/s1600-h/NewsreelOnBlog.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 57px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilGaKXTsMcu6d3rVPapZRRwLqxAPH9q1Lcci0unymS4lJ9W91m0MPK1pNi_IvEEE9Bb0kQe1-2KFGBUsZeu5928PyHqMkPrlZRVEkKtDLNJfFQojM4dGXomF4i5qik3vNn43FKbNvgfns/s400/NewsreelOnBlog.gif" alt="newsreel on blog itself" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308031389484689330" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag">Blogger Basics</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-88558798852356129272009-02-28T17:05:00.000-08:002009-02-28T17:37:21.462-08:00Technorati Tags In PostO.k. If you are wondering about those Technorati tags in my posts, and you've already the post about how to sign up for Technorati, then this is the post to read. The tags in your post allow those keywords to be linked to search within Techorati relative to the post you've made once you have already claimed your blog through Technorati. So by adding them you are going to get more traffic and there potentially could be some SEO effects with the links carrying weight back to your blog through better indexing on Technorati.<br /><br />I am not typing these by hand. I'm doing it the easy way. 1st of all if you don't already have it, you need to <a href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/" target="_blank">download the Firefox browser</a>. Once that's installed you need to <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748" target="_blank">get GreeseMonkey</a> which is 1 of many addons you can get for the firefox browser that make life a lot easier. The GreeseMonkey addon itself tons of scripts itself that makes doing things easier such as placing Technorati tags on your blog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIz7eow7uxBEYvvmyvZ9cmVhVx6iSHrA_-cV5xHheRYBs77kacq1gcbl-aOR5VVnb79A1g-8_k_xtSUl2lgTcP-X6XMSbx6dSRW5_c_HT6-nLY5Tduv-OVMLcnZhyb8dILP6TflDgCOCo/s1600-h/GreeseMonkeyMainPage.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIz7eow7uxBEYvvmyvZ9cmVhVx6iSHrA_-cV5xHheRYBs77kacq1gcbl-aOR5VVnb79A1g-8_k_xtSUl2lgTcP-X6XMSbx6dSRW5_c_HT6-nLY5Tduv-OVMLcnZhyb8dILP6TflDgCOCo/s400/GreeseMonkeyMainPage.gif" alt="Greesmonkey Firefox addon Main Page" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308025650473324322" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Once that's installed it and restarted your browser you need to <a href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/1290" target="_blank">get this plugin for Greesemonkey</a>. It will take you to a page that looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4gdC0Yq25rgxBN6pe70D2m5SeVtxbn9v0gwx07lTFNU2jDuN5wDkaw2tmsIFR0awBrdJjpLc4qDlo0vVscAL2pC7ggKppakBwG5W_1WpsZcq9qkujp5Z66NtbCuRbdc-mSwvZaq0Z2pI/s1600-h/TechnoratiGreeseMonkey.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4gdC0Yq25rgxBN6pe70D2m5SeVtxbn9v0gwx07lTFNU2jDuN5wDkaw2tmsIFR0awBrdJjpLc4qDlo0vVscAL2pC7ggKppakBwG5W_1WpsZcq9qkujp5Z66NtbCuRbdc-mSwvZaq0Z2pI/s400/TechnoratiGreeseMonkey.gif" alt="Greesemonkey Technorati Multiple Word Tags For Blogger User Script Link" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308022205594700658" border="0" /></a>Up near the top click the black rectangular box with white lettering that say "Install". This will bring up a screen that looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUbd6gWCsrJJSgSb_RQk2I7BVIaaUf1gHwIH1rvgFSFMESLdKTftFw1MW03O6B4-QUkzCDl4WADlZ2SZLF3VlMQCEZC8qtj0o5OidkpaI4CD4Dqd259UOu6H7xVvMS4IQnkfJk8BWKUg/s1600-h/InstallTechGreeseMonkey.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 361px; height: 386px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFUbd6gWCsrJJSgSb_RQk2I7BVIaaUf1gHwIH1rvgFSFMESLdKTftFw1MW03O6B4-QUkzCDl4WADlZ2SZLF3VlMQCEZC8qtj0o5OidkpaI4CD4Dqd259UOu6H7xVvMS4IQnkfJk8BWKUg/s400/InstallTechGreeseMonkey.gif" alt="Install Technorati Multiple word tags for blogger greesemonkey addon" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308022840307523522" border="0" /></a>Click Install and that's it. On the Bottom right portion of your browser you should see something that looks like this: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPcoEfmtz0n1rNN4BBntYT1IvsrX4x-t9RmeLAt8qAB7Ln6nh64fe3yTcDtOml-k9CQQyzfHpUF6m7oG-8mZ6G9No09u9U3EdM2BVzJqLF82NBTVinE5nKQ8rP-2-Z-eIfWh62ZXxpp4/s1600-h/GreeseMonkeyIcon0.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 43px; height: 39px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPcoEfmtz0n1rNN4BBntYT1IvsrX4x-t9RmeLAt8qAB7Ln6nh64fe3yTcDtOml-k9CQQyzfHpUF6m7oG-8mZ6G9No09u9U3EdM2BVzJqLF82NBTVinE5nKQ8rP-2-Z-eIfWh62ZXxpp4/s400/GreeseMonkeyIcon0.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308023296752221202" border="0" /></a><br /><br />If you right click it it will show this: <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAeAvs1xzzTiZhRMLaqJe_V9H6ve46U7ikw3tELvZNIDx4dsgnfJU4gcb-zdrp9Q5YTXswViFnkISdFtEcDcbSwy2EOVDCqVO3DhBrc-qLD_wiZIy_dPSIFhiVMYKjiznTSaRrOAA-g7M/s1600-h/GreeseMonkeyPopUp.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 336px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAeAvs1xzzTiZhRMLaqJe_V9H6ve46U7ikw3tELvZNIDx4dsgnfJU4gcb-zdrp9Q5YTXswViFnkISdFtEcDcbSwy2EOVDCqVO3DhBrc-qLD_wiZIy_dPSIFhiVMYKjiznTSaRrOAA-g7M/s400/GreeseMonkeyPopUp.gif" alt="greesmonkey menu" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308023654924264130" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Now choose "Manage User Scripts" and this screen should come up:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLHAAa6jWCtPiin7z2tH9mfVgCfVmCNu4x6NRBrH8blTn39twjZnAPJizVTlGg0SI9UZ8nsILV2Q__U9FH5WKDqxY6MHVH2jQmuyaYelDjMbCwjqK4fzIe7KsCkXB_vu6lSFal6OVgFXA/s1600-h/TechnoratiUserScript.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 351px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLHAAa6jWCtPiin7z2tH9mfVgCfVmCNu4x6NRBrH8blTn39twjZnAPJizVTlGg0SI9UZ8nsILV2Q__U9FH5WKDqxY6MHVH2jQmuyaYelDjMbCwjqK4fzIe7KsCkXB_vu6lSFal6OVgFXA/s400/TechnoratiUserScript.gif" alt="manage greesemonkey userscripts " id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308024135497160162" border="0" /></a>If the Techonrati Multiple Word Tags for Blogger isn't selected select it and your screen should look like this. Click Close.<br /><br />Now when you get back to blogger and post. You should now see this below the Labels for post:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_YEhUlvWQjOv8Nz89Lg-EJx4QZUaLw_iCSJ34xYj7J0HQJTZNOR6Wz2lZyUIkH0tubDWoYi5HTixHpr_jcKO8RnA22POUcQO2fFAc3ksUMZGSbI708t9O9xQj-vrcUW43sLhLQ_UNAB4/s1600-h/TechnoratiBelowBlogPost.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_YEhUlvWQjOv8Nz89Lg-EJx4QZUaLw_iCSJ34xYj7J0HQJTZNOR6Wz2lZyUIkH0tubDWoYi5HTixHpr_jcKO8RnA22POUcQO2fFAc3ksUMZGSbI708t9O9xQj-vrcUW43sLhLQ_UNAB4/s400/TechnoratiBelowBlogPost.gif" alt="technorati addon from greesemonkey below blogger post" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5308024713514273394" border="0" /></a> Now all you have to do is whenever you have selected your labels for your post you just have to copy them over and past them in the box. Select a place on your post you want the Tags-- I always choose the very bottom and I would recommend that -- Click the Green Append Tags button. That's it! Now you will have the same stuff as what's showing on my blog thus far.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Advanced" rel="tag">Blogger Advanced</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Posting" rel="tag">Posting</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Technorati" rel="tag">Technorati</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SEO+" rel="tag">SEO </a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-36603157894149598592009-02-28T12:48:00.001-08:002009-02-28T17:37:53.768-08:00Signing Up For Technorati1 of the best things you can do to get your word out about your blog and for Seo purposes is to sign up for a Technorati account.<br /><br />1st you need to <a href="http://technorati.com/account/signup/?destination=/account/signup/" target="_blank">sign-up for a account here</a>. You should see a screen like the following:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjKDh8r3b7TAdoMuqBiPIuYSo2PtxoiDsf5c8Ct57ZRZ-QbXTxWmkw8W0as6DDvz2yVGdQK2OaGd16YE5kQLHLcNtIliSzl3wvoNQPo9R5oBvmVBXDp4rIFJzL5h8PC8CCUz0IZBRDCw/s1600-h/TechnoratiSignup.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdjKDh8r3b7TAdoMuqBiPIuYSo2PtxoiDsf5c8Ct57ZRZ-QbXTxWmkw8W0as6DDvz2yVGdQK2OaGd16YE5kQLHLcNtIliSzl3wvoNQPo9R5oBvmVBXDp4rIFJzL5h8PC8CCUz0IZBRDCw/s400/TechnoratiSignup.gif" alt="sign up for a technorati account" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307957684447552482" border="0" /></a>Starting from the top and heading down for what you need to fill out:<br /><br />1st and last name-- you don't necessarily have to use your real name--- then you choose a member name-- this is something like a nickname might use the same 1 you used for blogger. Then then next 2 fields you enter a valid email address-- twice to make sure there were no errors--- and you might want to use the same email as you used for your blogger account. Then enter a password twice and insert the word verification below. Make sure you have to 2 check boxes below word verification checked because we want to submit you blog as shown in the picture below:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKa_jpHHg6ZOAry1gzaoQcJHTk96AVbZH5_fPFLQ3jy4KbGyjqncZ7MDNNXt0md_qKFKsfmZaIbZfRL8e7bTJeiLUAPsxe7kQeODM3W97lPmZUTzJQeBm8qFXxxW8tXisGJx9NTgUiZO8/s1600-h/Tech2Boxes.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 365px; height: 43px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKa_jpHHg6ZOAry1gzaoQcJHTk96AVbZH5_fPFLQ3jy4KbGyjqncZ7MDNNXt0md_qKFKsfmZaIbZfRL8e7bTJeiLUAPsxe7kQeODM3W97lPmZUTzJQeBm8qFXxxW8tXisGJx9NTgUiZO8/s400/Tech2Boxes.gif" alt="2 checkboxes for signup for technorati" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307958697792224658" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Below the 2 check boxes click the join button. After you click join you will be taken to the following screen which shows:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH8Ady8EjcxkdfzRjwOtF9P2EvlcbpsV-K0wUKq7aPgRNVTj_UP78CWxZ1kWMROYbOF1ElBj9uTTSJV0KjfvNcdiV-3Tb5rT2g4tmSThgzyf5ds2vgk-LCpMK7pROAUN7Mx9fl6MTUmjI/s1600-h/TechVerify.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 74px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH8Ady8EjcxkdfzRjwOtF9P2EvlcbpsV-K0wUKq7aPgRNVTj_UP78CWxZ1kWMROYbOF1ElBj9uTTSJV0KjfvNcdiV-3Tb5rT2g4tmSThgzyf5ds2vgk-LCpMK7pROAUN7Mx9fl6MTUmjI/s400/TechVerify.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307959938022341938" border="0" /></a>You need to enter the confirmation code, which was sent to the email address you provided. Go get it you can copy and paste(right click copy highlighted text or CTRL + C and then Paste it --Right Click and paste or CTRL + V) into the text box before the Verify button. Click Verify. Or even easier just don't worry about copying and pasting and just click the link they provide which contains the confirmation code in the e-mail you got from technorati.<br /><br />Whatever method you took you will arrive at the following screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2J1MGMuoqLz9eU_519dmltyZJfJMMeqInPPGp3dS-WZZ6te2Nl_MHytX3AJ88UjISkfGDXI9F31kA1X9Xe8rW0EBZSZAy9yQy3Qumpq3y685XJoPz1AMT2MaUgFfuZ8j_-w3D6QBgxU/s1600-h/TechMyAccount.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 252px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho2J1MGMuoqLz9eU_519dmltyZJfJMMeqInPPGp3dS-WZZ6te2Nl_MHytX3AJ88UjISkfGDXI9F31kA1X9Xe8rW0EBZSZAy9yQy3Qumpq3y685XJoPz1AMT2MaUgFfuZ8j_-w3D6QBgxU/s400/TechMyAccount.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307961467407708034" border="0" /></a>Enter the old password once and enter a new password twice. Your other information such as 1st and last name along with email should have auto populated. Click the Save Changes button towards the bottom. If all goes well it will say "Your Settings have been updated!" Now look to right part of the same screen. You should see something that looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMQpSMXDrIjGuoYzZmDvUu5xNdKx2b8A0jRIxAhX3i1_NsI7L9FSFJWg70PK5RF6nuMQal6LYRDz1UqlBKsyyQEKk2Od7O6lML9lCeyJas2bQhrX9YVmqxuFs0m8xYsvWhWqBDuuV8Is/s1600-h/ClaimBlogClick.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 323px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLMQpSMXDrIjGuoYzZmDvUu5xNdKx2b8A0jRIxAhX3i1_NsI7L9FSFJWg70PK5RF6nuMQal6LYRDz1UqlBKsyyQEKk2Od7O6lML9lCeyJas2bQhrX9YVmqxuFs0m8xYsvWhWqBDuuV8Is/s400/ClaimBlogClick.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307962285585147570" border="0" /></a>Click like it shows in the picture where it says in green, "Claim your blog here!" It will take you to the next screen that looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIgxORiBj0knSZhyphenhyphenJb8i2A4VcNqxnUMuKoYO5pRDLxTj2utfZnVJ6UBXtwTc0d8Twh7X0pgGuVlbSStS7C4Isbq_2X_KM8iqrU_FS7-BiJbP24OMxPdqVOCZbn1KBIbYulavy6_JVRPA/s1600-h/TechBeginClaim.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlIgxORiBj0knSZhyphenhyphenJb8i2A4VcNqxnUMuKoYO5pRDLxTj2utfZnVJ6UBXtwTc0d8Twh7X0pgGuVlbSStS7C4Isbq_2X_KM8iqrU_FS7-BiJbP24OMxPdqVOCZbn1KBIbYulavy6_JVRPA/s400/TechBeginClaim.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307962691080981618" border="0" /></a>Enter the URL or copy the URL of the blog you want to claim you own and then click on the button on the right hand side in the picture that says "Begin Claim".<br /><br />A new screen will load and towards the bottom you will see this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQiVQZdxhKu9o_zXANh0WRD-XeXJXjwtM4goI0LrsPvah9MqRYm8HUKKvcAUm6CNgsCer0o6DjbCYCmSZHfMDMedA863cB7cIwGSckngEjF7VDkWGp0BeR8-65IZ2ahTVGeG-MtI9NLjA/s1600-h/CompleteClaim.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQiVQZdxhKu9o_zXANh0WRD-XeXJXjwtM4goI0LrsPvah9MqRYm8HUKKvcAUm6CNgsCer0o6DjbCYCmSZHfMDMedA863cB7cIwGSckngEjF7VDkWGp0BeR8-65IZ2ahTVGeG-MtI9NLjA/s400/CompleteClaim.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307964773780613234" border="0" /></a>Click where it shows the cursor pointer in the picture on "Complete Claim with OpenID". It will take you to this screen assuming you are already logged into blogger:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiddDLndS3eAcV2bS3stxsFgF15fn3PCBvtMdXcu4jVVK-whwUjKRCLnwTYoAGJ9epUbCsKKEHueQmPbduORmq6iLyRD7y_4FOArSej0vIgHXDkgdesx_CgxcyWQK6ZavwFGtHq9pbT6k8/s1600-h/YesOwnTech.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 100px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiddDLndS3eAcV2bS3stxsFgF15fn3PCBvtMdXcu4jVVK-whwUjKRCLnwTYoAGJ9epUbCsKKEHueQmPbduORmq6iLyRD7y_4FOArSej0vIgHXDkgdesx_CgxcyWQK6ZavwFGtHq9pbT6k8/s400/YesOwnTech.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307966432072505666" border="0" /></a>You can click on Yes, Just Once or Yes, Always. I just choose always to make things potentially easier if you add another blog in the future, and once you have clicked either Yes, it will take you to a screen where you will add a blog description and some tags. You can use the same description as you used for blogger if you like since that would be easy. Tags are how your blog can be found by users if they type something like the tags into search. So choose appropriate tags. If your blog was about beer brewing for example the you might end up with a screen like the following:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2ci13XhTAy7WUKJhn_hFRDDnaVYQ0Oib5dqbPqjmFiSVKZOPfJmJw1cZBxQ8_R7uTrFZq94Slfng4pDMWOVrm9L4-UvhOhS0Cbhft7VIKDnIcn7JSRGl2oONjfBLeyUnRv9G_tSWin8/s1600-h/TechTagDesc.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid2ci13XhTAy7WUKJhn_hFRDDnaVYQ0Oib5dqbPqjmFiSVKZOPfJmJw1cZBxQ8_R7uTrFZq94Slfng4pDMWOVrm9L4-UvhOhS0Cbhft7VIKDnIcn7JSRGl2oONjfBLeyUnRv9G_tSWin8/s400/TechTagDesc.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307967159700845538" border="0" /></a>Now if you scroll down a little further you will see code for a technorati button you can add to your blog via the same method we used to add a search box in a previous post. You don't have to be in blogger in draft though. Just select the HTML/Javascript Widget and copy and paste the code from 1 of the boxes. You can move the widget around and I would recommend having it under the search box. I personally like the middle or second button. Why have the button at all? It allows visitors to save your page on their Technorati account thus increasing the exposure.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTBrE2s3ltm5dIkKPnkqzWDl4YVhjd0LtbotiLNNYptfi5p5ZxiRSEc11f4aC8wHZlsGznUa4RjW3eHAfgdJyoeIz8mPgeJjV3wVbLPSwey1QbKd_O1a6zCqvSlh_nqFUaDIYgHZ2kX0/s1600-h/TechnoratiButtonsandSave.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQTBrE2s3ltm5dIkKPnkqzWDl4YVhjd0LtbotiLNNYptfi5p5ZxiRSEc11f4aC8wHZlsGznUa4RjW3eHAfgdJyoeIz8mPgeJjV3wVbLPSwey1QbKd_O1a6zCqvSlh_nqFUaDIYgHZ2kX0/s400/TechnoratiButtonsandSave.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307967896000953634" border="0" /></a>Click the Save Blog Info Button as shown in the picture. That's it. Once you clicked save you should notice on the right hand side something that says 1 blog claimed and the name of your blog in green. If you click on this you will see that your blog name, URL, tags, and last few posts are now already uploaded onto your Technorati account. Pretty neat and easy! Next time I deal with Technorati I will show you how you can make those Technorati tags that are shown at the bottom of my posts on here.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list">Tags: <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Intermediate" rel="tag">Blogger Intermediate</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SEO" rel="tag">SEO</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Signup" rel="tag">Signup</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Technorati" rel="tag">Technorati</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-43635013810908390942009-02-27T18:57:00.001-08:002009-02-27T19:09:10.496-08:00Add A Blog DescrptionIn this post I will show you how to add a blog description. Blog descriptions are important because they not only can tell a visitor quickly what your blog is about, but the description also helps search engines organize data about your site to show when it gets indexed.<br /><br />There is more than 1 way to add a description but the easiest and most familiar, if you've been following the posts so far, would be to once again click the layout tab. You will see a header section with the name of your blog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy7H8P-1ffk7Iu_Zgq1NT8r5fUf4zuMBXeqziaNVZgnowWapqp5Xq9xoha0V4Bgv9HyoCVnrBGHnDNvS7y0onMTBA62V5_GoD-4K3B2ty6Knu3D_QJ-OFkUIurRgQXCHAWArtFLgHxkt4/s1600-h/HeaderSelect.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 45px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy7H8P-1ffk7Iu_Zgq1NT8r5fUf4zuMBXeqziaNVZgnowWapqp5Xq9xoha0V4Bgv9HyoCVnrBGHnDNvS7y0onMTBA62V5_GoD-4K3B2ty6Knu3D_QJ-OFkUIurRgQXCHAWArtFLgHxkt4/s400/HeaderSelect.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307677678617197458" border="0" /></a>Click the blue Edit link on the right side like shown in the picture and the following screen will show:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6oemogE9iI20nXVWPqJOqNfixVwLaQMKk7dqZt-VXKoKYJyqXXQVf_fNgaOrXhMG1ajAHJUjmF-w_YMp-UzxMo2BzMUdyQIo4raWRCfFCrZ_Rf1XDbhl8kRHuFdMXxSH9TbVjWvlRCs/s1600-h/ConfigureHeader.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp6oemogE9iI20nXVWPqJOqNfixVwLaQMKk7dqZt-VXKoKYJyqXXQVf_fNgaOrXhMG1ajAHJUjmF-w_YMp-UzxMo2BzMUdyQIo4raWRCfFCrZ_Rf1XDbhl8kRHuFdMXxSH9TbVjWvlRCs/s400/ConfigureHeader.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307677587905749474" border="0" /></a>Below the blog title, which is the name you gave your blog when you created it, you will see a section called blog description. This is where you will add a informative overview of what your blog is about. Keep it short and to the point and make sure you use relevant words to describe your blog and not just fluff like "The coolest site on Earth" unless of course your site truly is the coolest site on Earth, then more power to you. You just might not get a fair shake in Search Engine indexing if you don't have the right words to describe it, or an appropriate blog title for that matter.<br /><br />Now there are other options on here, but for now we won't worry about them. After you have written your blog description click the orange Save button. Your description will show right after the blog title on your blog. This is what My Blogger Experience looks like now after adding the description:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRTa4k11URiU9tawSeNqoLG0nWPSkRBzLGzHmGYvlOpPCAaQ8xQ1nJgllpf8vslFi7F0d5rhKzJgg0GYO0iVtUo2s6Hg9BqeoMZbq_l4Ml1ndO_7LRX79cCmJtKLB-yOBNtWjFeo2HVnI/s1600-h/MyBlogExpWDescription.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRTa4k11URiU9tawSeNqoLG0nWPSkRBzLGzHmGYvlOpPCAaQ8xQ1nJgllpf8vslFi7F0d5rhKzJgg0GYO0iVtUo2s6Hg9BqeoMZbq_l4Ml1ndO_7LRX79cCmJtKLB-yOBNtWjFeo2HVnI/s400/MyBlogExpWDescription.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307678991581764018" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/SEO" rel="tag" target="_blank">SEO</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-64010114148966335522009-02-27T18:37:00.001-08:002009-02-27T18:51:04.632-08:00How To Add LabelsIn this post I will discuss how to add labels to your blog and go over how to do basic rearranging of your Gadget buttons.<br /><br />Earlier when we discussed posting I mentioned what labels are for and their importance. Now it's time to include them on the blog.<br /><br />1st, go to Layout and click on "Add A Gadget".<br /><br />A screen like this pops up:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSqshVnpuc2EzOT-Kqi9s2u7yyncVkT05J1j1NFxcvS7DsFWAALeSmX7kVBuHK80m7L5XqNN28b7MLG_l80LPezKFhPG6iCMcjxNb1rU87e_LetHD0FG5klfn_UdvCEDgZBQJt-e1wLM/s1600-h/AddGadget.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNSqshVnpuc2EzOT-Kqi9s2u7yyncVkT05J1j1NFxcvS7DsFWAALeSmX7kVBuHK80m7L5XqNN28b7MLG_l80LPezKFhPG6iCMcjxNb1rU87e_LetHD0FG5klfn_UdvCEDgZBQJt-e1wLM/s400/AddGadget.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307672245653590802" border="0" /></a>Scroll down until you see one for Labels that looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAq-0DSNduugGylMsop-g5Y-KXCKIXI6xAfE-HvP6nQZduamzfnf4ibKjWdC4DCh2BdL4DH3ZiYoN94d3uX0lZyrHLSQCp5ztXhZV_vhIS0nT1hL9rc6lPdYRCNfuErGfG_M6uRKmXUw/s1600-h/LabelsSelected.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 82px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAAq-0DSNduugGylMsop-g5Y-KXCKIXI6xAfE-HvP6nQZduamzfnf4ibKjWdC4DCh2BdL4DH3ZiYoN94d3uX0lZyrHLSQCp5ztXhZV_vhIS0nT1hL9rc6lPdYRCNfuErGfG_M6uRKmXUw/s400/LabelsSelected.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307672494333717554" border="0" /></a>Click on the blue box with white plus sign like shown in the pic and the following screen will show for configuration:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKL1Az06sLELoBjyurWn6-TVtQjyMCnoU75Hp7vkyJTLcjcUVhyp87_mSBY8lF4vkLV3gkmVcMbIQW43-HCTUKoCzhGm_t0lONN9fet4AtdyZewhmYeiZUm3_ydYNc12qnObpDpiWlQ/s1600-h/ConfigureLabels.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvKL1Az06sLELoBjyurWn6-TVtQjyMCnoU75Hp7vkyJTLcjcUVhyp87_mSBY8lF4vkLV3gkmVcMbIQW43-HCTUKoCzhGm_t0lONN9fet4AtdyZewhmYeiZUm3_ydYNc12qnObpDpiWlQ/s400/ConfigureLabels.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307672730817942274" border="0" /></a>By default the title says Labels. You may choose to keep that or have nothing, but I prefer to use the term Categories.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1WzaupdIJvY5oZF-7KQ2fSzS4bn3JGK6r2vByBrXGWAhpM4m8M5AD2BUaAfXiBmhSram1JyfxQESOZnkaCO2eP4icwkBcLIEj04jWDdLmxP6VAYXlW14Nd6qkEx-9uKXF4oKnIs9yh8/s1600-h/Labels2Categories.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 335px; height: 94px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1WzaupdIJvY5oZF-7KQ2fSzS4bn3JGK6r2vByBrXGWAhpM4m8M5AD2BUaAfXiBmhSram1JyfxQESOZnkaCO2eP4icwkBcLIEj04jWDdLmxP6VAYXlW14Nd6qkEx-9uKXF4oKnIs9yh8/s400/Labels2Categories.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307673069219474338" border="0" /></a>I also prefer it to sort in alphabetical order, but if you want the most frequent categories to be shown on top you might choose to select that radio button instead.<br /><br />Click the orange Save button and now on the layout screen you should see the new Gadget. Now I prefer to have the Search above my categories so to move it below the Search box put your mouse cursor over your new Gadget(Labels/Categories whatever you named it). It should look like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU4v-NZYCxaIWaRANPwtHlOKVRoNVusSskxMP830b9yje_UeDnNRNeQuupfnI48J5mP8P3xZTONGpGmmqnowAn5ofDj-6durtPpwJyGrubL0gSIUH3mFAh5gBTMbLCkYW_Pj_UgtFwL5U/s1600-h/Categories2Move.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 256px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU4v-NZYCxaIWaRANPwtHlOKVRoNVusSskxMP830b9yje_UeDnNRNeQuupfnI48J5mP8P3xZTONGpGmmqnowAn5ofDj-6durtPpwJyGrubL0gSIUH3mFAh5gBTMbLCkYW_Pj_UgtFwL5U/s400/Categories2Move.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307673990464992338" border="0" /></a>Now click your left mouse button and drag downward.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYROQzg8XKd31m14k71TcZ7DnjmdPNXT4YJCBGxRRmeYKGZ1-4MzxXXKSTxSBt2NWHiThuiOREIp05CO9dpLH30YVw6uRtPnzEJO9eZZkzSMoJJETgelbxsMmnRatjJl9ZBPO1L55FCg/s1600-h/CategoriesMoving.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 245px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFYROQzg8XKd31m14k71TcZ7DnjmdPNXT4YJCBGxRRmeYKGZ1-4MzxXXKSTxSBt2NWHiThuiOREIp05CO9dpLH30YVw6uRtPnzEJO9eZZkzSMoJJETgelbxsMmnRatjJl9ZBPO1L55FCg/s400/CategoriesMoving.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307674158223378434" border="0" /></a>Now stop when it's right below the Search Gadget.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEi8oUXqbLdf8k9zokQ_dmoJ_VRonFZg_xLPOw3pwv_YTFuzCVDP_1sgXOwIg3EXyfE4L8o4m-XAQqd_bzr3j-PMU-6rSGaexSAanmTV3ucurB633PttcbuvDlDttVkMAcdPZJqQ8IP4/s1600-h/CategoriesMoved.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 269px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMEi8oUXqbLdf8k9zokQ_dmoJ_VRonFZg_xLPOw3pwv_YTFuzCVDP_1sgXOwIg3EXyfE4L8o4m-XAQqd_bzr3j-PMU-6rSGaexSAanmTV3ucurB633PttcbuvDlDttVkMAcdPZJqQ8IP4/s400/CategoriesMoved.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307674304377618690" border="0" /></a>This is how you will move gadgets in the future. You can move them up and down wherever you want by dragging and dropping with your mouse.<br /><br />Ok Click the orange Save button on top portion of the layout screen, and your done! This is what my blog looks like now with the new categories/labels gadget added:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKKXUwST_H8_mcxrS14DtWLvj2bNreedVxrJ0B5Y5A9W6BPn668zBQzNrvF_fkeK921oIBEP-cgonTqxJ4K_cZ14qy_k_WMHDuQeW5Kvsk4BCvTaMqoy1HMpC0LaR-UR3_b5NOPgzuED4/s1600-h/MyBloggerExpWithLabels.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKKXUwST_H8_mcxrS14DtWLvj2bNreedVxrJ0B5Y5A9W6BPn668zBQzNrvF_fkeK921oIBEP-cgonTqxJ4K_cZ14qy_k_WMHDuQeW5Kvsk4BCvTaMqoy1HMpC0LaR-UR3_b5NOPgzuED4/s400/MyBloggerExpWithLabels.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307674765038707858" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Gadgets" rel="tag" target="_blank">Gadgets</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-58372759820038124512009-02-27T18:14:00.001-08:002009-02-27T18:29:46.309-08:00How To Add Search To BloggerIn this post I will show you how to easily to add search function to your blogger.com blog.<br /><br />In the last post I showed you how to get to blogger in draft. Once again if you are already logged in just delete the "www" portion of the URL and replace it with "draft" and you will be in the right place. Or, just go to draft.blogger.com and login.<br /><br />Ok 1st thing you want to do is click on the Layout tab on the top part of the blogger in draft.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdgy45EMiUxn0JTbXgbcg2giri88gZJjzHdMKtGVdkvhlJbSPtDVwI7YckA2ANEMfgV1M0vlh7464qlonx0kVhhSLmGPRj8pjil6bTWrBZXzs2QxX6OEZTcXQUAe9OQ3dpa64VgE96Xs/s1600-h/LayoutSelected.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 367px; height: 40px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdgy45EMiUxn0JTbXgbcg2giri88gZJjzHdMKtGVdkvhlJbSPtDVwI7YckA2ANEMfgV1M0vlh7464qlonx0kVhhSLmGPRj8pjil6bTWrBZXzs2QxX6OEZTcXQUAe9OQ3dpa64VgE96Xs/s400/LayoutSelected.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307666434196694786" border="0" /></a><br /><br />This will take you to this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bhP_oVB9D_AtFKMgZsDn59doqDwnmSOmlWRMN4JBww9FKvACmmKXnEvOq79ahGvEW8yXPUFDY5zV1pWPBOjTClJsZrfsHXF5sfFkk_xQzhdVLQkZ8lXT_BJVR0mzGRotaDylxramdok/s1600-h/Layout1.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-bhP_oVB9D_AtFKMgZsDn59doqDwnmSOmlWRMN4JBww9FKvACmmKXnEvOq79ahGvEW8yXPUFDY5zV1pWPBOjTClJsZrfsHXF5sfFkk_xQzhdVLQkZ8lXT_BJVR0mzGRotaDylxramdok/s400/Layout1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307666583224973074" border="0" /></a>Notice on the right side it has a blue like that says "Add a Gadget" and has immediately below it "Followers", "Blog Archive", and "About Me" which are default gadgets that are already on your blog when you signed up. Click on the "Add a Gadget" link.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrhgqRQo9Yk8FM9ZWqR5MJCKgDetZfpZQBugUEuMpZwjnfrIpR48FQUySKcjLTijHqFgWwxtiSOPCF3WzEyP9KAgxNxGUVGHs5gYRFkPl0s74SSepINYNK55ULX2kNRF15YK47ywPQipQ/s1600-h/AddGadgetSelect.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 221px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrhgqRQo9Yk8FM9ZWqR5MJCKgDetZfpZQBugUEuMpZwjnfrIpR48FQUySKcjLTijHqFgWwxtiSOPCF3WzEyP9KAgxNxGUVGHs5gYRFkPl0s74SSepINYNK55ULX2kNRF15YK47ywPQipQ/s400/AddGadgetSelect.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307667067014987986" border="0" /></a>This will pop up the following screen:<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF4fI3NB2X39bs9YDJkAQ1lmjpcHcsvQsh9PaZVSYb0HQuTDjCE0ch34aXBkPzvnEYIyPlp6NlVUWlMGhlIoyHVSrkkQ2XIG8IEIDEhUD7NnLgCcabBmHK_EiJQjjGETlDsmC7Neid2U8/s1600-h/AddGadget.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF4fI3NB2X39bs9YDJkAQ1lmjpcHcsvQsh9PaZVSYb0HQuTDjCE0ch34aXBkPzvnEYIyPlp6NlVUWlMGhlIoyHVSrkkQ2XIG8IEIDEhUD7NnLgCcabBmHK_EiJQjjGETlDsmC7Neid2U8/s400/AddGadget.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307667489499237378" border="0" /></a>Scroll down until you see the Search box Gadget.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaaDBOwBSJ-9U0MPvPFYIzM7sAIMxxca87pVOhtC7yqmDgpeYRtaEpoSEDiaDooKcbJRScqWD9QMO1sH-Wyfw078UR4hxrmm0zXNISULtBMz-qra1uZV7s990dPcLyQzBphgsWZtsi0k/s1600-h/SearchBoxSelect.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 84px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaaDBOwBSJ-9U0MPvPFYIzM7sAIMxxca87pVOhtC7yqmDgpeYRtaEpoSEDiaDooKcbJRScqWD9QMO1sH-Wyfw078UR4hxrmm0zXNISULtBMz-qra1uZV7s990dPcLyQzBphgsWZtsi0k/s400/SearchBoxSelect.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307667725844992386" border="0" /></a>Click the blue box with a white plus sign like shown in the picture and the following screen will display:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTNPcV1Pql4TciTL8kJXsJrT4Y0lSHCjVluv2xWtsllDhgEKsowrT2tusJi_r6DlS0epyEJRpBEYHblNCOAKHQh_-XLZTyHVeNXklYh44L9Bjkd2B_jsOtRPwoQyoSL0dBH9RzYtEkb_k/s1600-h/ConfigureSearchBox.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 338px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTNPcV1Pql4TciTL8kJXsJrT4Y0lSHCjVluv2xWtsllDhgEKsowrT2tusJi_r6DlS0epyEJRpBEYHblNCOAKHQh_-XLZTyHVeNXklYh44L9Bjkd2B_jsOtRPwoQyoSL0dBH9RzYtEkb_k/s400/ConfigureSearchBox.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307667934621346594" border="0" /></a>By default it says "Search This Blog" as the title you might choose to just have nothing or change it to something like "Search [Insert Your Blog Name Here]" On this blog I chose the title to be "Search My Blogger Experience". I also felt that I only want people to search this blog not the whole web or pages I linked to. So I got rid of the bottom 2 check marks in their boxes and just kept the top one. So it ended up looking like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEugziJAt6N2efhFcjrmdx3-epokQv7sV2FuZ5ma_n7JK-HcgzCTAY1zPB2JkbahVtGq7TuoQLdkNMQ74npt1fGEAZvOuO0wmm0pJeNrSzJd4uwqEeEaTPER84U6WnvV8MsqwR2noHL6c/s1600-h/MyConfigure.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 188px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEugziJAt6N2efhFcjrmdx3-epokQv7sV2FuZ5ma_n7JK-HcgzCTAY1zPB2JkbahVtGq7TuoQLdkNMQ74npt1fGEAZvOuO0wmm0pJeNrSzJd4uwqEeEaTPER84U6WnvV8MsqwR2noHL6c/s400/MyConfigure.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307668676624233266" border="0" /></a>When your done click the orange Save button on the bottom right and now in the Layout my the new Gadget is inserted.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIzAqtp6AIkBUd0oQfrVnSBiCA5dLPhbayM3NKyV3Apb52sXHZmKzU-eVapKHnMst5q3mqnerA5Yvw4YVRdrUvI7jvi-XcbnDOApnZaM0fynyZPgWNcQgkUk09m6SNgH7MdUQz7K7lypM/s1600-h/NewSearchGadget.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 248px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIzAqtp6AIkBUd0oQfrVnSBiCA5dLPhbayM3NKyV3Apb52sXHZmKzU-eVapKHnMst5q3mqnerA5Yvw4YVRdrUvI7jvi-XcbnDOApnZaM0fynyZPgWNcQgkUk09m6SNgH7MdUQz7K7lypM/s400/NewSearchGadget.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307669206878136018" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Since you most likely want the search to be shown near the top I would just leave it's positioning for now. This is how my blog now looks after inserting the new search box:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmc59GHxK14IhocD_r2Fas48Ig9hGJYSda5vtZGT60CMInqGYEC4R4kRyVFcfshBv4FYvEp3nC3v7uL1ZI0lnroyjM6Px6nwI37aSjmvG2dnXVT2Gfp9iIXpkImdBsjgyLIyD2RO0mtCY/s1600-h/MyBloggerExpWSearch.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmc59GHxK14IhocD_r2Fas48Ig9hGJYSda5vtZGT60CMInqGYEC4R4kRyVFcfshBv4FYvEp3nC3v7uL1ZI0lnroyjM6Px6nwI37aSjmvG2dnXVT2Gfp9iIXpkImdBsjgyLIyD2RO0mtCY/s400/MyBloggerExpWSearch.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307669443742467218" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Intermediate" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Intermediate</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Gadgets" rel="tag" target="_blank">Gadgets</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-9276945527829277332009-02-27T17:48:00.000-08:002009-02-27T18:08:26.818-08:00How To Get To Blogger In DraftThis is something that isn't necessarily for beginners but is very easy to use and will make things easier if I just present it now.<br /><br />Ok you're familiar with blogger.com. Well there is also something called blogger in draft --- draft.blogger.com . This is where a lot of new Gadgets and capabilities are introduced that are not functional yet on the standard blogger.com. When you change things here it will take effect on your blog like the standard blogger.com, but it just offers a lot more options.<br /><br />So to use it you just go to draft.blogger.com and login like you usually would. The blogger in draft main page looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pjI9fuowx-Mvc0qKmyTW_Or5dB9DtTG4RBcyYjJVIpXw1hqqzSsMYX7y7mUBHtV6LoDFvXKXGrUssjTwSYnFJ2Kmi4Fgi86RVBiodUN9UFf6PVuAAzZqW6yv5Gphyphenhyphenyns972Arasvo18/s1600-h/BloggerInDraftScreen.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3pjI9fuowx-Mvc0qKmyTW_Or5dB9DtTG4RBcyYjJVIpXw1hqqzSsMYX7y7mUBHtV6LoDFvXKXGrUssjTwSYnFJ2Kmi4Fgi86RVBiodUN9UFf6PVuAAzZqW6yv5Gphyphenhyphenyns972Arasvo18/s400/BloggerInDraftScreen.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307664123128638770" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> Or, if you are already logged into the standard blogger, just delete the "www" part of the address no matter whats after the ".com" -- could be /post-edit-g kljlksdj whatever just leave that part alone. Just delete the "www" part and insert "draft" and you will remain on your current screen that your logged into but you will now be in the draft version.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Intermediate" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Intermediate</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-61248893104830785462009-02-27T17:09:00.000-08:002009-02-27T17:45:50.620-08:00How To Start A Blogger.com BlogOk thought I would backtrack real quick just to make sure I didn't lost anyone. The last post was all about just how to make a post. Pretty beginner stuff. But, it would do you know good to know if you haven't opened an account on Blogger in the 1st place. So this is a real quick rundown of how to start a blogger.com blog.<br /><br />Ok 1st of all you will need to type in the following address in to your address bar: www.blogger.com.<br /><br />Or you can go there by clicking <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br /><br />You should see a screen like the following:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGAAN75RgmCy-7ODFHUARB6eFqv5hQI8JmWMqYnp2CgtuZjg30RtuivEAE-HWpWN0qLkIGSGqtDGRkjDY4yDSZNP6sKXRhWGmdllPcgtXODdSaR2nfvTv3YoLF6IQik2JPlKtTZ3CZyA4/s1600-h/bloggerhomepage.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGAAN75RgmCy-7ODFHUARB6eFqv5hQI8JmWMqYnp2CgtuZjg30RtuivEAE-HWpWN0qLkIGSGqtDGRkjDY4yDSZNP6sKXRhWGmdllPcgtXODdSaR2nfvTv3YoLF6IQik2JPlKtTZ3CZyA4/s400/bloggerhomepage.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307651899498277858" border="0" /></a>Click on the orange button that says "CREATE A BLOG". It will take you to this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMkqpS1AIvuJXDNv7WvP5j7Vxe8yLc_TIj8KnuexxoH93vru2eMxV91YVaBcKRzGkw8qZN41a364UtsHymC2B2ecFhi3crx8dw1VLbTmfU6kZ2jTBoqF-kO_QIfY6Auw2wFRaQki0OmxU/s1600-h/BloggerCreateAccount.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMkqpS1AIvuJXDNv7WvP5j7Vxe8yLc_TIj8KnuexxoH93vru2eMxV91YVaBcKRzGkw8qZN41a364UtsHymC2B2ecFhi3crx8dw1VLbTmfU6kZ2jTBoqF-kO_QIfY6Auw2wFRaQki0OmxU/s400/BloggerCreateAccount.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307652511671266466" border="0" /></a>Starting at the top field and heading down, all you have to do is provide a valid email address and retype it again, enter a password and type it again, choose a name you want to appear on your blog (might not want your real name might want an alias or nickname or something random like Tarzan67), enter the correct letters in the word verification box, and finally click the box for I accept the <a onclick="window.open(this.href,'', 'width=770,height=500,top=80,left=20,toolbar=no, scrollbars=yes,menubar=no,location=no,status=yes, resizable=yes');return false;" href="https://www.blogger.com/terms.g" target="new">Terms of Service</a>. Click the orange arrow that says "CONTINUE".<br /><br />If all goes well you will see the following page:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQbqUx5w_wapaNw6tilMGm5RJSKz1tyaqEnxyR8SN2NBQ-DAwt9qEmObtkI1uLXlTq8s9I2W1tazk5imadeawvi_mTtGDJJEKr2WfXFvf5PXHVzQaMRBQs6mhMjIRoKb4h5rOIfhvLUM/s1600-h/NameBlog.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBQbqUx5w_wapaNw6tilMGm5RJSKz1tyaqEnxyR8SN2NBQ-DAwt9qEmObtkI1uLXlTq8s9I2W1tazk5imadeawvi_mTtGDJJEKr2WfXFvf5PXHVzQaMRBQs6mhMjIRoKb4h5rOIfhvLUM/s400/NameBlog.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307654064236186850" border="0" /></a>Ok here you enter a blog title. This is what your blog is going to be called. If it's going to be about dogs maybe "All About Dogs" or "Dog Mania" might be ideal for you. Whatever you want your blog to be named. Enter a name in the 1st box.<br /><br />In the 2nd box you are choosing a website address. This is the address that will be typed into the browser or searched for in search engines if someone is looking for your blog or type of blog in the form of MYBLOGNAME.blogspot.com. Most likely you will want it to be as close as possible to the Title of your blog. So in the previous example if you chose "Dog Mania" as the Title then you might try entering DogMania in this box and click "Check Availability". If all goes well it will say, "This blog address is available. in green color. But if it says, "Sorry, this blog address is not available", then you can try their suggestions or you can try variations in your original choice such as "Dog-Mania", "DogMania2009", "DogManiac", etc and see if they work. Whatever works proceed to click on the orange "CONTINUE" arrow at the bottom. You will then see this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XffKuxMA0mei_Y_ZHAe9m2NKsR4XulxAkC0iMuE8Ux6Foe8vuMiLqn_ypgrIuauABu2_b8ZKFiZOFNyNTva8mEw1hqNZD4IF9ojJSOzctHq_jK9GAV8FYypzACPCvoy3KO5-VtqC_Vc/s1600-h/ChooseTemplate.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-XffKuxMA0mei_Y_ZHAe9m2NKsR4XulxAkC0iMuE8Ux6Foe8vuMiLqn_ypgrIuauABu2_b8ZKFiZOFNyNTva8mEw1hqNZD4IF9ojJSOzctHq_jK9GAV8FYypzACPCvoy3KO5-VtqC_Vc/s400/ChooseTemplate.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307656684420662370" border="0" /></a>By default the "Minima" template is selected. This is the template were using in this blog. So to learn the same things that the blog, just leave it selected and click on the orange "CONTINUE" arrow at the bottom. The next screen will look like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCs_BAGdY0ZxEd5hlB5RNWP8W4nIwgx4Jlws3rr6G0XUJHFXbx3MagpxcX6foAXBLOeSqRIKOX_C54OXKx4ue4STRrzdlO1vwLU1EPfkq60JKl6PJw5zK2pdq9m_qPuV1_blR96ImXb7Q/s1600-h/BlogCreated.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCs_BAGdY0ZxEd5hlB5RNWP8W4nIwgx4Jlws3rr6G0XUJHFXbx3MagpxcX6foAXBLOeSqRIKOX_C54OXKx4ue4STRrzdlO1vwLU1EPfkq60JKl6PJw5zK2pdq9m_qPuV1_blR96ImXb7Q/s400/BlogCreated.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307657241273883858" border="0" /></a>Click the orange "START BLOGGING" arrow. This will take you directly to your 1st post, which is where we were at on the previous post.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Basics</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Signup" rel="tag" target="_blank">Signup</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-26193878040896909862009-02-26T17:31:00.000-08:002009-02-27T17:47:45.273-08:00How To PostStarting with the basics a very important thing to know is how to post on blogger. 1st of all here's how the blog looks so far:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenNui03erjWjeM8t7LOVvWgkXI2oAya6Lr_77kJQ1Xbs8entyMhzu9WsJlyxeg2DAuALGP2OMGMh0w1FKnccbKq7DX8eCa5WvHnYLPlyKDyrJMogmqUw9q67QMmuIBABwksye7F2wr6M/s1600-h/mybloggerexperience1.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 293px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhyphenhyphenNui03erjWjeM8t7LOVvWgkXI2oAya6Lr_77kJQ1Xbs8entyMhzu9WsJlyxeg2DAuALGP2OMGMh0w1FKnccbKq7DX8eCa5WvHnYLPlyKDyrJMogmqUw9q67QMmuIBABwksye7F2wr6M/s400/mybloggerexperience1.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307284439637722162" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />As you can see pretty basic. The only post I've done so far is just what this blog is going to be about. Now how do you go about adding a post? OK on top you see the following options.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_P-IxsgcyN_Uw8kUeAoYOh4A8CUjbO5ZymhQpY8bne0VoiyxzxBEmLiLlznTejPQju7TH8EVhFf29x_wZjc2stRkv_CWsrtm0-VMox-faPih14_o6Dc3QzqNmNnOX68MkumYtT2n6nM/s1600-h/Options.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 77px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm_P-IxsgcyN_Uw8kUeAoYOh4A8CUjbO5ZymhQpY8bne0VoiyxzxBEmLiLlznTejPQju7TH8EVhFf29x_wZjc2stRkv_CWsrtm0-VMox-faPih14_o6Dc3QzqNmNnOX68MkumYtT2n6nM/s400/Options.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307284942703760802" border="0" /></a><br />Your going to want to click on "Posting" on the left hand side. This will take you to this screen:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvI4M3wlzrnbepuEa4UbmW5neNt6m4uIG8xtXTYdH0jtOwG2vdtjyo0NpAIVvtgNIgodycwHlX9drZNQ__zIm2UKDHdw4H6afM6NFQBbcOyWbn8uhMGTmvW5UhGw2D6qy4Tf3jeDY3xdE/s1600-h/PostingScreen.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvI4M3wlzrnbepuEa4UbmW5neNt6m4uIG8xtXTYdH0jtOwG2vdtjyo0NpAIVvtgNIgodycwHlX9drZNQ__zIm2UKDHdw4H6afM6NFQBbcOyWbn8uhMGTmvW5UhGw2D6qy4Tf3jeDY3xdE/s400/PostingScreen.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307285340342846594" border="0" /></a><br /><br />OK. so far so good. Now one of the most important parts of the post is the "Title". It's up top and looks like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3Tuw7NxP8rubi3EHoupLKNZGmysm_YF34luYv3SvlsH2YNI9Sa3G233woGLj_SSlhP0nsfRpeZ1ohR-_PzfLlwnQ0J6AvpeLTNCqspYXgVRYrqsHuj9yFluR4wWEamoqIkM_Eq_urFo/s1600-h/TitlePost.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 394px; height: 41px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3Tuw7NxP8rubi3EHoupLKNZGmysm_YF34luYv3SvlsH2YNI9Sa3G233woGLj_SSlhP0nsfRpeZ1ohR-_PzfLlwnQ0J6AvpeLTNCqspYXgVRYrqsHuj9yFluR4wWEamoqIkM_Eq_urFo/s400/TitlePost.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307285934172077522" border="0" /></a>This is where you add the title of your post. It's important because not only will it give the reader an idea of what's going to follow it, but it also counts as the name of the web page which can be found by search engine spiders. In this post I will name it "How To Post". Appropriate enough.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVNcMrlN6Hney3U9ED2ZZ1ECQXyiMCttpM-Vijf4l0d03Sm8oqhUpZShKhS_75FkmZHfOcoQl4ko15FEH5a09M-mLHmdBoLqTl2jiMIrJrhPf5usvsxS7QusBLkEU7CeRjOBjsZOlfmHM/s1600-h/TitleAdded.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 37px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVNcMrlN6Hney3U9ED2ZZ1ECQXyiMCttpM-Vijf4l0d03Sm8oqhUpZShKhS_75FkmZHfOcoQl4ko15FEH5a09M-mLHmdBoLqTl2jiMIrJrhPf5usvsxS7QusBLkEU7CeRjOBjsZOlfmHM/s400/TitleAdded.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307286725653851394" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The screen below this is the window where all the actual content will be added and modified:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQeoa64appsBEBxEwXA1qalQBT6R4b23YhSYpvu1H6qj4IvDB1a6rjqGWv9FghNzZRKpZifV8hvL6s_EDxRtml4ayaMpy_gW6UDzqFiEuvcAcPVNMaPrc81W5INeYN6hVK6-LOJQLFh_A/s1600-h/BelowTitlePost.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQeoa64appsBEBxEwXA1qalQBT6R4b23YhSYpvu1H6qj4IvDB1a6rjqGWv9FghNzZRKpZifV8hvL6s_EDxRtml4ayaMpy_gW6UDzqFiEuvcAcPVNMaPrc81W5INeYN6hVK6-LOJQLFh_A/s400/BelowTitlePost.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307287465499833938" border="0" /></a>Right now as you can see the compose tab is selected as opposed to the "Edit Html". For right now we'll just worry about "Compose" because it's alot easier to start posting immediately. All you have to do to start typing. Is just click your cursor into the big open window there where it shows text in the picture above and start typing. Very easy. If you want space press enter a few times.<br /><br /><br /><br />And there you go more space. If you want to modify anything it can all be done with the section immediately above the posting area which looks like this.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga_ar7n9riLj01irqum7vXStwhB77M1nf0FbS1tVIidpRzOvUmXXXFMRepxtswlIaPrOfxenRBEFa4LIlWNNT9Qjoh-YNs72OAPUCVWrDM7T8931DQMdrimB3P7Jp7zyqDm4e7so3z3H4/s1600-h/AbovePostOptions.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 42px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga_ar7n9riLj01irqum7vXStwhB77M1nf0FbS1tVIidpRzOvUmXXXFMRepxtswlIaPrOfxenRBEFa4LIlWNNT9Qjoh-YNs72OAPUCVWrDM7T8931DQMdrimB3P7Jp7zyqDm4e7so3z3H4/s400/AbovePostOptions.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307288659086575490" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On the very left you see a drop down menu that say Font. This is where you can change fonts. Most of the time it's not anything you need to worry about but if you want to make things look the way you want them as far as text this is the place to go. <span style="font-family:verdana;">Here's Verdona text font.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:webdings;">Here's Webdings text font. </span>Here's the normal default text. Yeah!<br /><br />Immediately going to the right we have a big T symbol. This is for text size. It's on normal now but goes from <span style="font-size:78%;">smallest</span> to <span style="font-size:180%;">largest.</span><br /><br />Next we have the b symbol-- you click this if you want to <span style="font-weight: bold;">bold text.</span><br /><br />To the right of that we have the i symbol. This is if you want to <span style="font-style: italic;">italicize text. </span>You can even <span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;">bold and italicize at the same time by clicking both.</span></span><br /><br />To the right of the b and i symbols we have another T symbol but this time on top of color palette. You can probably guess what this if for. <span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 255);">Changing colors.<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> Default is black, which is what you will use most often.<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpaC3stVLEykt6kpQAmARj3-7kriHTIvqLNvW8hH9-0xiR8PjelcO7zoBnBxxOBaPEvcFeQt8n-2OIdSPxGXp2Z7xlA4jDg04vamx4e0vZP8YC2gdc2PO0hf60-x7rctBJd5HiCXihrDk/s1600-h/AbovePostOptions.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 42px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpaC3stVLEykt6kpQAmARj3-7kriHTIvqLNvW8hH9-0xiR8PjelcO7zoBnBxxOBaPEvcFeQt8n-2OIdSPxGXp2Z7xlA4jDg04vamx4e0vZP8YC2gdc2PO0hf60-x7rctBJd5HiCXihrDk/s400/AbovePostOptions.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307292684897704194" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Immediately to the right of the T symbol with colors there is a funny looking green button. This is used to make hyperlinks to link to other pages/sites. To use it create the text you want to use as anchor text. That's just means the text people will see that allows you to click on. So let's do it to link the the <a href="http://mybloggerexperience.blogspot.com/2009/02/about-my-blogger-experience.html">About</a> page for example.<br /><br />Select the text:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VSR3Z9Ru78oMycGyLRYPc3d7WQPHqh_I4WOCvDhaS_5eXpVhpFqkS96RvYFZP1MthSvi-ULAmgEg-IBLMv4UfIzAWqhcDsANfKd1Rj6VR6sUnzlWaKsEFaugN2nnF2Dt-z7kONk4mj0/s1600-h/AboutSelect.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 44px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VSR3Z9Ru78oMycGyLRYPc3d7WQPHqh_I4WOCvDhaS_5eXpVhpFqkS96RvYFZP1MthSvi-ULAmgEg-IBLMv4UfIzAWqhcDsANfKd1Rj6VR6sUnzlWaKsEFaugN2nnF2Dt-z7kONk4mj0/s400/AboutSelect.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307294972486575666" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Then click the funny green button:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y3lRALbix6u-oOrL_skyHmP6KUcmcxR4wxAA-5flZB11hKP6vlMDw45jH60_fflv708r0XGVMpsQ9h-XfZfeH_U8BnWmi2PGHNY8ufKdGLgxfFg5wmnI2HUlU7lQkabt_bSXlaUq1Fo/s1600-h/LinkWindow.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 326px; height: 145px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Y3lRALbix6u-oOrL_skyHmP6KUcmcxR4wxAA-5flZB11hKP6vlMDw45jH60_fflv708r0XGVMpsQ9h-XfZfeH_U8BnWmi2PGHNY8ufKdGLgxfFg5wmnI2HUlU7lQkabt_bSXlaUq1Fo/s400/LinkWindow.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307295231012131138" border="0" /></a><br /><br />To get the URL of the about page which was my 1st post, I just clicked on the Title of the previous post and copied the URL.<br /><br />Then I just pasted the URL into the box.<br /><br />OK. So far so good. To the right of the linking option we have 4 buttons in a row that look kind of similar. This if just to indicate how you want to layout the text.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">This is 1st button of the 4 which is align left.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">This is the 2nd button of the 4 which centers.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;">This is the 3rd button of the 4 which is right align.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: right;">Actually if you start messing with too many of the options at one time the WYSIWYG(What you see is what you get) editor starts acting funny. I'm mentioning this because I can't show you the 4th button now,which is justify full. lol<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">To the right we have a symbol for numbers.. This allows you to make a numbered list.<br /><br /><ol><li>Just click on it</li><li>and every time</li><li>you hit enter</li><li>it creates the</li><li>next item in the list</li><li>easy</li><li>just click it again when</li></ol>you are done<br /><br />To the right of this is a similar option but this one just does bullets.<br /><br /><ul><li>1st item</li><li>2nd</li><li>3rd</li></ul>etc<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote>Got text you want to make look different and blocked in from the rest. Just select the text you want to change and click the quotation mark button to the right of the bullet list option. and text will look like this paragraph. Click again to turn off.</blockquote><br /><br /><br />OK to the right of the blockquote button is a symbol with ABC and a check mark. This is spellcheck. You click this and it will highlight which words the editor feels may have been misspelled in yellow. By clicking the yellow highlighted words it will give you options to what spelling you may have intended.<br /><br />OK to the right of spellcheck is a Picture symbol. This is for adding pictures like you see on this post. When you click it this window comes up<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9o-08qcJYW-bqPCIOstVx8AAibULFJ01tu493Oga9USoM8CXf_LtuDjqURfxQ-5AHKHjsDR4OVcF951rWb8odWG_i3_jtRmy2M1oUA_SUC0TlXPOfgHNXwgnEGLlX8s7vcPIrTVrg1U/s1600-h/AddPicture.gif"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 262px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9o-08qcJYW-bqPCIOstVx8AAibULFJ01tu493Oga9USoM8CXf_LtuDjqURfxQ-5AHKHjsDR4OVcF951rWb8odWG_i3_jtRmy2M1oUA_SUC0TlXPOfgHNXwgnEGLlX8s7vcPIrTVrg1U/s400/AddPicture.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307301291054592178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />and most of the time you will just click the browse button and choose a picture off your hard drive that you want to display. For now just choose "none" for the layout option if it isn't already selected and click upload image and click done.<br /><br />The last 2 options I never use so don't worry about them.<br /><br />To the very right you see preview. By clicking this you can test what your page would look like if you actually clicked the Publish Post option.<br /><br />OK so we're almost done. Below the post you see a section that says "Labels for this post: e.g. scooters, vacation fall" This is where you insert a comma separated label for the post your created. It's convenient because not only does it allow you to keep organized, but you can insert later a widget that will show all your labels and the number of post that have those labels. This is good for people looking at your blog who want to find information on a certain topic. For this post I have decided to use the labels "Formatting" and "Posting".<br /><br />That's it click Publish Post, or Save Now if you want to come back and work on your post later.<br /><br />**Note I have also added Technorati tags. I will talk about this another time.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Formatting" rel="tag" target="_blank">Formatting</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Posting" rel="tag" target="_blank">Posting</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Blogger+Basics" rel="tag" target="_blank">Blogger Basics</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236709243196420411.post-29840606761570224282009-02-26T16:27:00.000-08:002009-02-27T18:13:44.985-08:00About My Blogger ExperienceThe purpose of My Blogger Experience is to give readers various solutions to problems, issues, etc, and to share helpful tips that I have learned since coming across the blogger.com platform. In other words, this blog is going to be all about providing the solutions and tweaking blogger. It is the goal to make it a cooperative environment so that any new questions that arise either from myself or others could be tackled and answered here on this blog. I will cover anything from what may seem as some as the most obvious and simple to those topics that only a few have knowledge of. Nothing will be overlooked. Everyone will learn by example, and I will go so far as to start this blog out with just the basic <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Minima</span> template and provide a evolution that you can follow. Hope you enjoy this blog, and it helps perfect your own blogger experience!<br /><br /><br /><div class="tag_list"><b>Technorati Tags:</b> <span class="tags"><a href="http://technorati.com/tag/About+My+Blogger+Experience" rel="tag" target="_blank">About My Blogger Experience</a></span></div>Brandanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02473140486210939688noreply@blogger.com0