Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Backing up post

1:27 AM Posted by Unknown , , No comments

How to backing up post | Solution to backing up post

Here is how you back up your blogger posts.

1- Click on Settings
2- Click Export blog
3- DO NOT DELETE YOUR BLOG!!!!!!

This will back up all posts you have, not just today's posts. Obviously you'd want to back them up from time to time to make sure you get current posts.

OK...how easy was that? You can also import blog posts (which you might want to do if you start a new blog and want to move posts over.) The Blogger Buzz has a more in depth post about exporting/importing posts. Check it out here.

How To Quick Edit Your Posts

1:25 AM Posted by Unknown , , No comments

Quick Edit Your Posts | Mean quick edit your post

Have you ever seen a little pencil at the end of a post on some blogs? Wondered what it is for? It's the post quick editing tool. Just click on it and the post comes up to edit. You must be logged into your own account for to use it. Don't worry...others can't click it and edit your posts.

If you don't have the pencil showing but want it...here is what you do. Click on layout.

1- Click edit on the Blog Posts box

2- Configure blog posts window comes up and make sure Show Quick Editing is checked, and then click SAVE.

OK...WHY would you want the quick editing to show? Are you a person that has to go back and fix a mistake or change a post? This is much quicker than going to the posting tab at dashboard, and then clicking edit posts, then looking through the list to find the post you want. Save yourself some time!!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Change the color of the Blogger Navigation Bar.

12:21 AM Posted by Unknown , , No comments

Did you know you can change the color of the Blogger navigation bar that automatically appears at the top of your blog? I am actually annoyed when I see a nice blog design and the nav bar at the top is the default Blogger blue.At this point there are 6 different color choices which are easy to change. You can either click on Design up on the right side of the Blogger navbar OR at your dashboard click on Design to be taken to the layout of your blog. When you click on the edit button for the Navbar that I have pointed out below. This brings up the Configuration window. Just select the color you want and click save.I chose the Transparent Light and now my dog's blog looks like this~Some people add coding to hide this navbar, but a lot of people use it to sign in and out of blogger so it's nice to have it match the design.

Font Choices for Your Blogger

12:17 AM Posted by Unknown , , No comments

One of the recent upgrades with Blogger is the expansion of available fonts to customize your blog with. There used to be a choice of 7 and how there are a bunch with the addition of Web Fonts. Here are some easy instructions for updating your blog!

First~ Go to your Blogger Dashboard and click on the Template link. Then the orange customize tab. 
Go down and click Advanced. Do not mess with any of the other settings!
 
Click on the part you want to change (here I have clicked on Sidebar Title Font) and then scroll down in the font box to the right to find the font you want. Click Apply to Blog over to the right and then go take a look to see if you like the font. You can adjust the size of the font below that scroll box.
 So your sidebar can go from one of the basic fonts to something different like this~ 
Please note! Not all web fonts options will look good. It could have to do with the font itself or your template. So use some trial and error to find what you like. If you have a custom template or use a freebie professional template or similar, you might not have the option to change your fonts! Make sure you don't change your template, widths, or any other settings of your blog or you might lose your design!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Help! Something is missing or not working!

8:37 PM Posted by Unknown , No comments

Help! Troubleshoot blogger something is missing or not working!

Sometimes get contacted by a client because their Followers aren't showing or they can't upload an image. They usually say something like, "Everything was OK after you installed my design but all of a sudden my Followers are missing. HELP!"

I tell them that it is probably a temporary issue with Blogger. I find that as sudden as a problem like this starts, it will get fixed just as quickly. These issues aren't necessarily an issue with everyone's blog, but if you are having issues then most likely thousands of others are too. Just be patient and it will get fixed.

There are a few places you can check to see if Blogger is having issues. First is their Known Issues blog. This blog covers bugs and missing features in the new version of Blogger that affect a significant number of users. If you need more info on a particular issue, or would like to report a new one, please take a look at the Blogger Help Group. Please search before you post, as your issue may have already been reported.

For information about the state of the service and upcoming outages, see the Status blog.

What is a Blogger Page

8:35 PM Posted by Unknown , , No comments

Mean is a blogger page

Many clients have asked me about Blogger pages and how they can use them on their blog. I will explain what they are and how to create them in this post.

Blogger pages let you to publish/post static/fixed information on stand-alone pages linked from your blog. For example, you can use pages to create an About page that discusses the evolution of your blog and information about you, or a Contact Me page that provides your personal contact information such as your email and phone number as well as your social media contacts such as Facebook and Twitter. Blogger pages is not recommended for information that changes frequently such as current giveaways or dates of events.

You create a Blogger page similar to how you write a blog post. From your Blogger Dashboard click the Posting tab, then Edit Pages tab, then click New Page. You will publish it just as you publish a post. Blogger allows 10 stand alone pages per blog.


Here is what it looks like on the new Blogger interface.


Once your page is published, you can link to it from the new Pages widget. The Pages widget lets you add links to your pages as tabs at the top of your blog, or as links in your blog's sidebar. (Note: existing third party templates and special template designs I create may not support pages as tabs, but pages can still be added as links in your blog's sidebar) I prefer to not show the pages widget and instead link the pages manually in most of my designs. You have to click NO GADGET when you go to publish/edit your pages if you want to manually link them.


The rest of this information is for people who want the Pages Widget/Gadget to show.
In the Pages widget, you can decide which pages will have links, and in what order they will appear. You can also choose whether or not you want links automatically created for pages when you create them by checking or unchecking the box to the left of Add New Pages by Default.

You can get the direct URL to your Blogger page by clicking View on that particular page at the Edit Pages screen.

Upload your own Favicon at Blogger

8:33 PM Posted by Unknown , No comments

Blogger just released a new feature at Dashboard that allows you to upload your own Favicon. The image must be square and under 100kb. By square they mean the outside edge of the file must be square. It's OK to have an image with a light or invisible background.

To add your own favicon click the edit link at the favicon gadget/widget at your blogger dashboard.

 
The favicon window will open up and you click browse to select the image you want and then click save. You will get an error message if it's too big or the wrong shape.

 
The favicon will now show in the favicon widget.

And will now be visible on your browser. (Please note: Favicons have issues with showing up when you use IE for your browser!)

Custom Domain Name for your Blogger Blog

8:30 PM Posted by Unknown , No comments
I've had a few people ask if it's easy to get a domain name for their blog. If you go through Blogger it's VERY easy. Domain names through Blogger are $10/year. Yes, you can save a few bucks by going through Go Daddy or another registrar, but then you have to link the domain name to the blog yourself. I charge $20 to link the domain name, so what are you saving if you go with a registrar that is a few buck cheaper? Yes, there are tutorials out there to show you how to link it yourself, but if that seems complicated then consider going through Blogger.

To purchase a domain name through Blogger go Basic Settings at your Blogger Dashboard and click on the Add a Custom Domain link I have pointed out below. click images to enlarge



The following grey box will come up and you type in the domain name you want in the box, pick the extension, and then check availability



Then you just follow the rest of the directions. People will be able to use the domain name or the blogspot address to access the blog.

I would advise that while this domain name is being redirected that you do NOT change your password or any kind of ownership of the blog. It only take a few days and people can still access your blog!

How to Post a Button Code on your Sidebar

8:21 PM Posted by Unknown , No comments

An online friend just asked me how to post a button code I sent her. Here is a quick tutorial!

1. Get the button code you want to post.



You do this by clicking within the text box, select all (either control A or click left on your mouse while you drag across the entire code), copy (either control C or pull down to copy under edit up on the browser bar)

2. Go to your Blogger Dashboard and click Add a Gadget (gadget is the same as a widget!), then scroll down on the window that appears and click the + next to the HTML/JavaScript.



This window appears and put in your title and paste the code (control V pull down to paste under edit up on the browser bar) in the areas shown below.



Click Save and the button will appear.

You can put more than one button code into the same html/java gadget. It will probably look better if you combine them all in one widget.

Adjusting Comment Settings with Blogger

8:19 PM Posted by Unknown , No comments


Here is how you change your comment settings with Blogger. Click the images below to enlarge. To set controls over your comments click Posts and Comments under Settings on your Blogger Dashboard.


Comment Settings Adjustment
I recommend that you select Anyone or Registered User for Who can comment?
For Comment Moderation select Always. You can add your email address into the box I have highlighted and you will be alerted when there are new comments to approve.
PLEASE select No for Show word verification. ,
You can even add in a message for your Comment Form Message.


Customize the Name of your Comments

You can change the word comments to something else if you want. Go to the layout on your blog and then click edit on the Blog Posts box. The window above will pop up and I have pointed out where you can change the name of comments.


Update your No-Reply Status

You should also have your email address linked to your profile so that people can contact you and respond to your comments via email. You do this by clicking on your profile. You will see an Edit Profile (orange) box up on the right. Click that and then click Show my email address, and scroll down to the bottom to save.

Check out the following for suggestions on getting more comments.

How to Invite Contributors to your Blogger Blog

8:17 PM Posted by Unknown , No comments

Blogger has added security measures to keep people from hacking into your account by detecting remote log ins. These extra steps don't occur all the time, but they do make it tougher to me to log-into your account to install your blog design. Therefore, I am asking that you invite me to be a contributor on your blog. This is a 2-step process.

1. Under your settings you will see a place to add authors. Click that and put in the email address of the person you want to invite to be a contributor on your blog. Once they accept they can post, but not edit anything on the blog. For a blog design installation, I need access to everything so please see step 2.



2. Once the person has accepted the invitation you can make them an admin by pulling down and clicking admin to the right of their email address. This gives them full access to your blog & template.



Happy Blogger, Good Luck

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Add Fixed Floating Share Buttons to Blogger

2:06 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

jQuery floating share box
Previously I had written about animated floating widget for Blogger which was or still is popular. But many didn’t liked it for the animated effect and wanted it to be fixed while scrolling. Many requested for this and after giving a thought I am writing this for you. So let’s get started with it and add a fixed sharing buttons widget that will float to the left (or to right) of the Blogger post section.

You will find that whenever you scroll the page, the floating share box scrolls to the top along with the page but as soon as it reaches the top of the browser window, it gets fixed to that position.
Step 1: Login to Blogger, go to Template tab > “Edit HTML” and check “Expand Widget Templates”.
Step 2: Find ]]></b:skin> and before it add the below codes.

#flt-box {
 margin-left: -120px;
 background: #eeeeee;
 position: absolute;
 -webkit-border-radius: 3px;
 border-radius: 3px;
}
#flt-box .wdt {
 padding: 5px;
 text-align: center;
}
#flt-box.fixed {
 position: fixed;
 top: 20px;
}
 
Step 3: Again find ]]></b:skin> and below it add the jQuery library.
<script src='//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
If you had already added it (find it if necessary) then you need not to add another one, instead check whether it is the latest or not and replace it if needed.

Step 4: Previously I was using a different plugin about which I was reluctant to share as it required some editing but later I managed some time to build one which will do the job. Find </head> within Blogger template and before it add the following script which will actually make the sharing buttons to remain fixed when scrolled.

<script>
$(function(){
 var $aside = $("#flt-box"),
 $window = $(window),
 $offset = $aside.offset().top-20;
 
 $window.scroll(function() {
  if ($window.scrollTop() >= $offset) {
   $aside.addClass("fixed");
  } else {
   $aside.removeClass("fixed");
  }
 });
});
</script>
 
Step 5: Here comes the important part, find <data:post.body/> and before it add the below codes to include the share buttons:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div id='flt-box'>
<!-- Tweet Button -->
<div class='wdt'><a class='twitter-share-button' data-count='vertical' data-via='User-Name' expr:data-text='data:post.title' expr:data-url='data:post.canonicalUrl' href='http://twitter.com/share'>Tweet</a><script src='//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js' type="text/javascript"></script></div>
<!-- Facebook Like (XFBML) -->
<div class='wdt'><div id="fb-root"></div><script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script><fb:like font="lucida grande" expr:href="data:post.canonicalUrl" send="true" layout="box_count" show_faces="false" width="55"></fb:like></div>
<!-- Plus One -->
<div class='wdt'><g:plusone size='tall' expr:href='data:post.canonicalUrl'></g:plusone><script src='https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js' type="text/javascript"></script></div>
<!-- Pinterest -->
<div class='wdt'><b:if cond='data:post.thumbnailUrl'><a class='pin-it-button' count-layout='horizontal' expr:href='"http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;media=" + data:post.thumbnailUrl + "&amp;description=" + data:post.title'>Pin It</a><b:else/><a class='pin-it-button' count-layout='horizontal' expr:href='"http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=" + data:post.url + "&amp;media=http://your-image.jpg&amp;description=" + data:post.title'>Pin It</a></b:if><script type="text/javascript" src="//assets.pinterest.com/js/pinit.js"></script></div>
</div>
</b:if>
 
Step 6: Preview your template if it is giving any XML error or not (I hope not) and then Save it.
Things to note and Customization
  • If you are not so familiar with JavaScript then add a simple floating share widget.
  • To make the floating widget closer or farther away from post body, increase or decrease the pixels value marked in red in step 2.
  • Replace User-Name with your Twitter account and http://your-image.jpg with a image to let Pinterest button work properly.
  • In step 5, I have used only the famous sharing buttons. You can always make changes to it.
  • Again in the fifth step, the codes are written for newbies (not for developers) so that the buttons can be added with ease. But it requires serious attention and needs to be edited for optimum performance.

Google Penguin update hit me Hard

2:04 AM Posted by Unknown No comments

On April 24, 2013, Google released a new search algorithm, later it was named Penguin. This was mainly meant to stop “webspam”, that is, mainly to bring down the sites which use “black hat” methods to rank well in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), like, violating webmasters guidelines, keyword stuffing, participating in link schemes, etc.

When I read it I was happy that after the Panda update, Google moved a step forward to stop those spam sites who wishes to rank well within SERPs by shortcut methods. But as days passed, I became very sad and depressed as I found out that my blog also got hit by this update. My traffic dropped below 50%, some of my great posts cannot be found within SERPs and some went very down.

I followed every guideline and believes in “white hat” SEO. Nor I ask anyone to link to my blog without any reason neither I paid any firm for link schemes. I didn’t copy anyone’s article. I wrote for my readers and tried to explain it as far as possible, and I think my old subscribers, who love to read my blog, know it very well. I believe in “white hat” which is a long term and genuine process to bring traffic. I have added share buttons so that readers can share the articles and posts that they think is useful, so that their friends too can know about it. You can find many posts which were shared many times. People don’t go “click” because it’s lying under my blog posts, they do it for a reason I believe!

Why me? Google titled their post as “Another step to reward high-quality sites”, let’s see. I have found that many blogs copied my articles and due to this particular update, they are ranking well, some even at #1, whereas my articles cannot be found within the SERPs. Yes it’s true and if you don’t believe me then look at one of the examples below.

When I saw it I didn’t knew what to do, laugh or cry. I posted it to my good subscribes and readers to inform them and as a warning massage to content thieves but this author still copied my article. It’s a ditto copy and the only difference is the title (that is also by a very little margin) but ranked #1. But strangely, Google.com and Bing judged it right.

There are so many sites ranking well though they did copied my article. Here are some more compared with Bing:
Next, I was too depressed to go on. I don’t know whether if the authors of those blogs delete those posts, it will bring back my original articles back to its rightful positions. Whether it’s a copied article or not but almost all of my posts are attacked by Penguin.

To Google, I have been using your search engine since I got my internet connection. Your results were much more relevant. Your idea to stop webspam is great but I believe that my site is penalized wrongly and this blog don’t deserve to get the punishment. The real spam sites are out there still ranking well. It’s a request to make changes to Penguin update to bring up the original contents and bring down those sites that deserves the punishment. Thank you.

I will wait until it gets fixed. In meantime, I will try to find and update some “over-optimized” posts and see if it helps. I will delete some posts within FAQ section (only) which will become obsolete as Blogger’s Dashboard changing to new UI starting 1st May. I will also upload a new layout very soon.

Further reading:
Please don’t fill my comment section wih spam otherwise I will have to close it.

Add Google Web Fonts to Blogger

2:02 AM Posted by Unknown 2 comments

Google web fontsIf you are looking for free open-source fonts to design your blog’s texts then nothing is better than Google web fonts. Blogger has been using Google web fonts for quite a long time, you can find it by clicking the Customize button found under Blogger Template tab of your blog.



Blogger web font settings

But there aren’t many web fonts available to choose from as many as the font directory has, isn’t it? Or you have a custom Blogger template where you want to add web fonts. Let’s start with Merienda as our example font and see how we can add this to Blogger.
Step 1: After finding this font click on “Quick use”.


Qickly getting Web font code

Step 2: You will be redirected to the next page where you have to choose the options for the font.
  1. Choose the styles you want - Most of the time “Normal” works best and you need not to choose any other font styles (if not required) as to reduce the page load time and as also it can be done through CSS.
  2. Choose the character sets you want - Don’t select anything here as I will come to this later.
  3. Add this code to your website - Copy the code that you need to add to your template.
    Google web font code
Step 3: Login to Blogger, go to Template tab and click “Edit HTML”.
Step 4: Find <head> and below it add the copied code as told in step 2.3 but here you have to also add a trailing slash (/) as shown below.
<link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Merienda' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />
If the slash is not added at the end then you will get XML error while saving your template.
Step 5: Now you have to integrate the font through CSS by adding it just before ]]></b:skin>. For example, if you want the web font for the whole page then add:

body {
  font-family: 'Merienda', sans-serif;
}
Now suppose you want to integrate the web font for your post headings only then the code will be:
h3.post-title {
  font-family: 'Merienda', sans-serif;
}
Or suppose you want this for the blockquotes only then it will be:
.post blockquote {
  font-family: 'Merienda', sans-serif;
}
And if you want the web font to be italic then add the CSS property font-style: italic; to the definition.
Step 6: If it’s done then save your template.

Important notes:

  • You can add multiple web fonts to Blogger by selecting the fonts you want and again follow the steps from 1 to 6.
  • In step 2.2, for most of the time, “Latin” does the job and you don’t need to select any other character sets as it will increase the page load time. But if you need it no matter what then you can choose to have multiple character sets. In that case you also need to encode “&” sign (or ampersand) so that Blogger doesn’t give any XML errors while saving the template. It would be like:
    <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Merienda&amp;subset=latin,latin-ext' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' />

Loading Google Web Fonts Asynchronously

If you are an advance user and developer then you can use the Google JavaScript library instead of stylesheet link, also known as “WebFont Loader”, to load web fonts asynchronously. Find <head> within your Blogger template and simply add the below script.

<script type="text/javascript">
  WebFontConfig = {
    google: { families: [ 'Merienda::latin' ] }
  };
  (function() {
    var wf = document.createElement('script');
    wf.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https' : 'http') +
      '://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/webfont/1/webfont.js';
    wf.type = 'text/javascript';
    wf.async = 'true';
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    s.parentNode.insertBefore(wf, s);
  })(); </script>
It is also possible to call and add multiple web fonts. See the example below:
WebFontConfig = {
  google: { families: [ 'Merienda', 'Droid+Sans' ] }
};
 
After this add the CSS as told in step 5 to style your texts.

How Add Google Website Translator to Blogger

1:56 AM Posted by Unknown , No comments

Why use any other translate widgets with or without images of country flags when Google translator widget can translate texts of any webpage and is capable of translating to 64 different languages (and increasing) automatically and instantly to readers speaking language.
Google translator for websites can be added to any website or CMS, like WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, etc. with ease. While the steps of adding this widget is all same but here I will mainly write about how it can be added to Blogger blogs.
Blogger has this widget, you just need to go to your blog’s Layout tab and click “Add a Gadget” link. A popup page will open, scroll down below and you will find the Google Translate gadget.

Blogger Translate Gadget

But there aren’t much options to select from to customize it, that’s why let’s add it in a different way.
Step 1: First of all you need to have a Google account. If you blog on Blogger then you already have it, all you need to do is sign in and go to Translator sign up page.


Step 2: After clicking “Add to your website now” you will be redirected to Website Info where you have to add your blog’s URL and then select that language that you primarily use to write your articles.
Translate widget settings - Website Info

Step 3: On clicking “Next” you will be redirected to Plugin Settings page where you can change the options for your translate widget.

Translate widget settings
  • Translation languages – Here you can choose to translate your page to specific languages but it’s best to select “All languages”.
  • Display mode – You can choose how you want your widget to be and look like.
  • Advanced – You can find there what are each options for and select it accordingly. “Automatically display translation banner” option is selected by default. It’s very interesting to know that Google translation API can detect the readers speaking language and according to this it will translate the texts of the webpage automatically!
Step 4: After clicking “Get code” button you will be redirected to the page where you will be provided the codes that you have to add to your blog.
Translate widget settings - Get code
So if you are with Blogger then go to Template tab of your blog, click “Edit HTML” button and find </head> snippet. Above this add the Meta tag (see the image above, it’s marked with red tick) and Save your template.
Now to display the Google translator widget you can add the snippets (marked with green tick) anywhere you want within your Blogger template. The best way is by adding a “HTML/JavaScript” Gadget on your sidebar which can be found under the Layout tab > “Add a Gadget” link.

Other Translation Widgets

Google is not the only one to provide this but there is Bing Translator for websites too. Adding it to Blogger is almost the same and easy. But you have to choose which widget you want to have for your blog.