Tips for New Bloggers

Difference - HTML and XHTML

2007-10-09T11:15:00.000-04:00

When inserting codes into the Blogger template, page element, or blog post, you may have seen error messages that the code could not be parsed, was not well-formed, was broken, or that the elements were not closed properly. These errors can be corrected if you understand the rules that must be adhered to in XHTML documents. Blogger templates use the XHTML 1.0 Strict Document Type. In this

Three Columns Thisaway Template (I)

2007-10-07T09:30:00.000-04:00

We have polled readers to find out what Blogger templates they are using so that we can roll out articles pertaining to their templates, such as our 3 column template guides to add another sidebar and convert their existing Blogger templates from two columns to three columns. We have posted the conversion tutorials for the popular templates – Minima, Rounders, Denim, Dots, Scribe and Sand Dollar

Three Columns Thisaway Template (II)

2007-10-07T09:27:00.000-04:00

In the earlier Three Columns Thisaway Template (I) article, we have given a how-to guide on changing the Thisaway and Thisaway Blue templates from two-column to three-column templates. In this second part, we shall show you how to add a new sidebar into the Thisaway Green and Thisaway Rose templates. As we had mentioned, before modifying the template, be sure to back up the existing template.

SEO Tools - Search Engine Optimization

2007-10-01T13:25:00.000-04:00

What are search engine optimization tools, webmaster tools, Google page rank checker, SEO tools, and how can these internet tools help to bring more quality traffic to your Blog? There are many free online web tools that webmasters can use to find out more information about their sites. The tools can also alert the webmasters to possible problems search engines may have with the site's template

Author Comments - Different Styles

2007-09-29T11:54:00.000-04:00

Bloggers generally welcome constructive comments and feedback on their posts. Among the ways to encourage comments are to remove the “nofollow” tag and to add a Recent Comments widget into the template. Comments highlight issues that readers might have faced, and the author's reply to these comments may be useful to other readers as well. If you have many comments posted in your blog, it would

Flash Music Player and Music Playlists

2007-09-27T11:44:00.000-04:00

In our earlier article, Add Music to Blogspot Blog, we talked about how music can be played in the background of the blog or through a hyperlink or music console player. Readers had requested for an option to play more than one song via a playlist. We have been looking at cross-browser music players that allow us to display a music playlist of selected musical pieces for Blog readers to listen

Submit Blogger Sitemap to MSN and Ask.com

2007-09-25T12:48:00.000-04:00

We had explained how to submit Blogger sitemaps to Google and Yahoo!. When the sitemap industry standard was first announced in 2006, Microsoft's MSN was one of the three major search providers which supported the protocol. Submitting your Blog's sitemap to these search engines will enable them to index the pages and contents of the site. Needless to say, having all the pages indexed will

Technorati Tags in Blogger Posts

2007-09-18T13:08:00.000-04:00

Technorati, which indexes some 94 million weblogs, allows blog owners to assign tags to their posts. These tags are essentially words which describe the category that the posts, photos and videos fall under. Visitors can then search these tags to find the relevant blog posts. How can the Technorati tags be inserted into Blogger posts so that they can be indexed by Technorati? Is there a need to

Blogger FAQ and Help Guide

2007-09-10T10:38:00.000-04:00

In case you are not already aware, we have been addressing some of our readers' queries through our Tricks for New Bloggers blog. It all started with readers asking questions which are unique to their situations. While we tried to modify our articles to include those situations as well, it was a tall order trying to cover every possible permutation. So as not to disappoint our readers, we set

Submit Blog to Search Engines

2007-09-06T11:36:00.000-04:00

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims at increasing the volume and improving the quality of traffic to a website from search engine results. Search engines work on different algorithms to analyze the contents and keywords, and present the search results. Google, for instance, assigns page ranks to the sites and sites that rank highly will appear early in the results. Of course, many other

Add or Remove Borders in CSS Templates

2007-09-05T11:26:00.000-04:00

We have received a number of queries from people wanting to remove the image borders or add sidebar borders in the CSS layouts. In this article, we cover briefly what the border styles in CSS templates are and where you can find them. With this guide, you will be able to remove the borders around the images, sidebar or main posts, or change the style and color of the borders to match the Blog

Internet Security and Blogger Virus

2007-09-01T11:53:00.000-04:00

The internet was abuzz with talk that Blogger.com site got hacked and was compromised. Blog owners suddenly found fake spam Posts in their Blogs which contained links to virus downloads and data mining sites. Some were faced with inexplicable web page load times and yet others noticed odd codes appearing in their templates. The natural reaction is to blame all these on the people responsible

Add Scrollbars to Blog Widgets

2007-08-30T12:12:00.000-04:00

This tutorial shows you how to create widgets or boxes with scrollbars. When the contents in the widget exceed a certain specified height or width, there will be a vertical or horizontal scrollbar to enable users to read the contents that overflow or exceed the box area. This scrolling element is especially useful for our Link List or Labels widget which may be very lengthy. It reduces the total

Three Columns Dots Template

2007-08-28T08:43:00.000-04:00

If your Blog is using a Dots or Dots Dark Template, you can consider adding another sidebar, making it a 3 column Dots Template. Because the dots in the background image are well-spaced, we thought it won't look nice having another column. However, after inserting the third column and making adjustments to several settings, we were pleased to see that a three column Dots or Dots Dark Template

Feedburner - FeedCount Chicklet Text

2007-08-27T11:31:00.000-04:00

Feedburner is a very popular feed aggregator and provides a host of services which you can tap on to publicize and promote your Blog. One widely used service is their FeedCount Chicklet which displays your Blog Feed's circulation statistics. The chicklet can be static (displaying the number of “readers”) or animated (showing the number of “readers” via feed). Although you can change the

Three Columns Sand Dollar Template

2007-08-27T10:27:00.000-04:00

The Blogger Sand Dollar template takes up the full browser width and has a nice color scheme. Some people may find that the empty space in the sidebar can be put to better use. We can add another sidebar to the right and this tutorial will show you how to convert your Sand Dollar layout into a three column template. Here, we are specifically dealing with 3 column Sand Dollar templates. If you

Customize Video Upload in Blogger

2007-08-25T08:54:00.000-04:00

We wrote an article some time back suggesting how you can Add Video to Blogs. We highlighted two popular video hosts – Google Video and YouTube. Just yesterday (Aug 24, 2007) Blogger released its new Video Upload feature from its Blogger in Draft. There is now an icon in your Post Editor allowing you to upload a video into your post, in the same manner as you would for photos. At the moment,

Images not shown in Internet Explorer

2007-08-23T08:03:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, the photos, images, pictures or graphics do not show or display in a website in Internet Explorer (“IE”) browser or an email in MS Outlook Express. Instead, where the pictures ought to be, there is a Red X or a placeholder. Several factors could have caused this problem of images not being displayed in IE. In this Help guide, we'll look at these reasons and the solutions to show

Customize and Modify Poll Widget

2007-08-21T09:51:00.000-04:00

In this article, we shall suggest some modifications to the CSS template to change the appearance of the Poll widget to something eye-catching and attention-grabbing. For example, we can add background colors or images to the Polls widget and change the font and border colors. These should draw the attention of your readers to the Poll and put some buzz into the Blog. In case you are not aware

Sticky Posts in Blogger

2007-08-20T09:45:00.000-04:00

In this article, we learn how to create sticky posts or have an article permanently displayed on your Home page and above the Blog Posts. This is useful if you want readers to see a particular post, message, announcement or text whenever they visit the site. It could be an earlier popular post. In all Blog platforms, new posts are always shown first and older posts are archived. With a simple

Make Blog Private and Unsearchable

2007-08-19T07:26:00.000-04:00

Many people write blogs to share their thoughts with everybody and anybody. However, you may also use your Blog as an online diary, penning very personal and private thoughts. Like all diaries, you can either allow a select few persons to view the Blog or allow no one but yourself the right to view it. Also, you may not want it to be indexed by search engines, so that people searching for it

Manage Blogger Image Storage Space

2007-08-17T13:53:00.000-04:00

We have uploaded a fair number of pictures and graphics onto our Blogs. However, this is nothing compared to some blogs which have hundreds and thousands of photos in their archives. As we know by now, any service, be it web host or email provider, that comes free will not allow you unlimited bandwidth or storage space. Google has a cap on its storage space too. In this article, we shall

Tables – HTML Basics and Tutorial

2007-08-13T08:13:00.000-04:00

In this article, we shall learn how to create tables in our Blog posts or as a part of our web design layout. This guide covers the usual HTML attributes and styles that can be applied to tables. Tables add a different dimension to displaying your contents and whether you have a football match fixture, menu, and song, price or grocery lists, putting them in a table format is certainly neater.