BeginnersBlogGuide

Add Wibiya Toolbar To Your Blog.

2009-08-16T04:48:00.000-07:00

Add Wibiya Toolbar To Your Blog.

This post is all about adding the Wibiya toolbar to your blog. This toolbar floats at the bottom of the page and has a lot features like language translation, facebook fan page, recent posts, blog search etc. Adding this to your blog can significantly improve user experience of your blog. Wibiya toolbar is very light-weight and can be added to any blog or site just by embedding a small piece of code. In this post, I will show how to add it to your Blogger blog. Although this can be added to any blog or site using the same procedure. So, go ahead and have a look.

To add the Wibiya toolbar, you have to first submit a request at Wibiya website. Its still in its beta stages. Go to Wibiya site and click on "Get it Now".

A page opens up where you need to give your name, email-address and your site url where you want the toolbar to appear.

After you fill this form, it takes around 3-4 days for approval. Once approved you will get an e-mail notification along with the beta code. You have to login with e-mail as your username and the beta code as your password. Once you login for first time, you can change your password. When you login for the first time, you have to create your account, select a theme for the toolbar, add applications to your toolbar and finally get the code and add it to your blog or site. All these steps are quite self explanatory. Below are few screen shots. Just in case you are confused, have a look at it.

Create your account.

Select the toolbar color.

You can directly add the toolbar code to your blog. Just select the blogging platform and click "Done". Thats it, the toolbar will appear at the bottom of your blog.

Don't worry if you screw up things during configuring your account, you can always change it later. Just click on "Edit Toolbar" and you can add and remove applications.

Optimizing Your Blogger Title For Search Engine.

2009-08-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Optimizing Your Blogger Title For Search Engine.

Search Engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo, MSN etc help drive traffic to your blogs or sites. Higher the search engine ranking, the more traffic you get and the more you earn. So, its very important for you to optimize your blog as much as possible for the search engine crawlers. Even if you do everything right, it won't guarantee you no. 1 spot in search engine rankings. But it will surely make your blog appear in the first couple of pages of search engine results. This post is just one of the many optimization techniques that will help you improve your search engine ranking.

All search engines first looks for the title and page link and then it looks for the content. To improve search engine ranking we need to optimize the title. This optimization is applicable to Blogger blogs. But ideally, this should work with other blogging platforms as well. By default the title is "Blog Name: Blog Post Title". It looks something like the the following:

For optimization, the "Blog Post Title" should come first and then the "Blog Name". It will look something like the following:

Take a backup of your template before making any changes to it. Go to Layout >> Edit HTML. Click on "Expand HTML Widget". Then search for the following line of code:

Replace the above line of code with the following line of code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "index"'>
<title><data:blog.title/></title>
<b:else/>
<title><data:blog.pageName/> | <data:blog.title/></title>
</b:if>

Click on "Save Template" and you are done.

HTML Parser.

2009-08-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

HTML Parser.

As the name suggests, this post is about HTML parser tool. You paste a code in the post and it gets executed and not displayed. How many times did it happen to you? In such situations you need to parse the HTML code. When you parse a HTML code, the > sign has to be replaced by > and < sign has to be replaced by <. This job becomes very tedious if the number of lines of code is very large. For this, I have found a new tool provided by BlogCrowds. Using this tool is very simple. Just copy and paste the HTML code here. Click "Parse" and BINGO!!! The parsed code appears before you. So guys, whenever you are required to parse a HTML piece of code don't struggle, just click here.

Add A 5-Star Rating Widget to Your Blog.

2009-07-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Add A 5-Star Rating Widget to Your Blog.

Hey guys, i have found a great widget to talk about. Do you really want your readers think about your post? Do want to enhance user experience? So that your writing skills get better and better. If you do, then this one is for you guys. Its a 5-star rating widget by outbrain. By adding this widget to your blog or site, you will not only get immediate feedback from your readers but also provide them similar useful contents. You can add this widget to Blogger, Drupal, WordPress, TypePad and to sites as well. Go ahead and have a look at the full post.

In this post I will show how to add it to Blogger. A similar procedure should be followed to add it to other blogging platforms and sites.

Go to outbrain homepage. Click on Blogger.

Choose the language and on "Get Widget Now".

This will open Blogger in a separate window. Login to your account and add the widget to your blog. It will by default add the widget to a particular spot in your blog. You can later copy paste the code anywhere you like on your blog. If you want the ability to track your audience then you have to register with outbrain. To register click on "Register Here".

Give the necessary information like username, password, email-id and select "yes- I want to install the outbrain widget and/or access my blog reports".

Select the blog url and blog platform and click "continue". It will open a new window and add the code to your blog. Thats it, done.

Place A Signature In Your Blog Post.

2009-07-18T03:34:00.000-07:00

Place A Signature In Your Blog Post.

Introducing a signature generator tool. Do you have a signature of yours at the end of each of your blog post. If not, take a look at this. It can generate signature of different colors and sizes. It also takes care of the inclination of signature. You can also animate your signature but that service comes with a price tag. Take a look on how to place a signature in your blog post.

Go to MyLiveSignature website. Register and login.

Select "My Sigs" tab and create your first signature.

Enter your name.

Select the font.

Select the font size.

Choose the color.

Select the signature slope.

Name your signature and click on "Finish".

If you want to animate your, signature click on the animate button. But that does not free of cost.

Click on "Use Sigs" tab and then select "Generate HTML code".

Click on "Generate a code for yout 'handwritten' signature".

Select the signature and click on "Generate Code".

Now copy the code.

Now you can place the code at the end of each post. In the post go to "Edit HTML" tab and place this code at the end of each post. If you are tired of doing this, can place the "Post Template" part. This code will then appear on every post. For this, go to Customize >> Settings >> Formatting. Scroll down and place the code in "Post Template" and save it. Make you write the post at the top and the code lies below. Otherwise, the signature will appear at the beginning of the post.

Regards,

Add A "Recent Posts" Widget To Blogger.

2009-07-16T11:44:00.000-07:00

Add A "Recent Posts" Widget To Blogger.

This post is about adding a "Recent Posts" widget to your Blogger blog. Its pretty simple. You need not paste any code for this. The only thing is to burn your feed in FeedBurner. Note down your original feed url. You will need this to create the widget. Go, check it out.

Your feed url will look something like this.

http://YOUR_BLOG.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

Now login to your Blogger account. Go to Customize >> Add a Gadget and select "Feed" from the list.

Now type your original feed url under "Configure Feed" and press "Continue".

Here you can make changes to your widget. Give a title to your widget, "Recent Posts" or anyhting you would like to call it. You can also decide to add date and author name. You can decide the number of posts to be shown in the widget. It can show a maximum of 5 recent posts on the widget. Configure your widget and click save. Thats it. Job done.

Turn Your Readers Into Listeners.

2009-07-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Turn Your Readers Into Listeners.

Do you have a favorite blog which you listen to daily? Download it to your ipod, laptop, moblephones etc and listen to it. Not many i guess. Do you want to give the readers of your blog the same privilege I am talking about. If yes, then this one is for you. Odiogo is service which converts the text in your post to podcast. This turns you from a blogger to a podcaster and gives you an edge over other bloggers. It expands the reach of your content. Odiogo provides automatic podcast generation with near-human quality text to speech. The listen button can be deployed in Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, TeraPad etc in a minute. Want to hear a demo!!! Click on the listen button at the top of every post on my blog or suscribe to my podcast. The next few paragraphs will teach you how to add this to your blog. In this example, I am adding it to a Blogger blog. Well, i forget I gives a detailed download statics of your listeners. You can also earn money from embedded ads after your listenership reaches a significant level. All these and more at absolutely no cost. Check it out.

How It Works.

There are 3 types of servers that make it possible. The Odiogo Podcast Producer Server, the Odiogo Advertising and Billing Server and the Odiogo Storage Server. The Odiogo Podcast Producer Server produces high quality audio files from the textual post in a RSS feed. They monitor the feeds on a regularly and keeps track of new posts so that it can generate MP3s as we post new content. The Odiogo Podcast Producer Server are basically used for normalization, phonetization and speech sythesis. The Odiogo Advertising Server insert audio spots into the content while the Odiogo Billing Server calculates the revenue share among the parties. All the Odiogo-enabled RSS files are stored on the Odiogo Stirage Server.

How To Add It To Your Blog.

Its very simple indeed. Just go to Odiogo site. You will see two fields called "Your Blog or Feed URL" and "Your Email". Fill them and click "Go". Now a page opens up which has a "Add Odiogo Listen Button Widget" button. Click on it. Now you have to login to your Blogger account and add the Odiogo suscribe button to your blog. It will by default add it to the top of your blog. If you want to change, you can copy the code and place it in any other location in your blog. Now refresh your blog and you can see a listen button at the top of every post.

Add A Feedback Button To Your Blog.

2009-07-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

Add A Feedback Button To Your Blog.

This is about adding a feedback button to your Blogger blog. This can added to other blogging platforms like WordPress, TypePad etc as well. It will float at the right-hand side of the blog, little above the "Go To Top" button. But you can always customize the position of the button according to your taste and requirement. Anytime the visitor wants to give a feedback about your blog, he/she can just click on it and give you a feedback about your blog. Feedback is very important. It a is tool to improve your blog and your blogging skills. In almost all blogs you see something called "Contact Me". It looks pretty harmless but if it is used in the right way it can be very useful. Sometimes your readers may be too lazy to go to the "Contact Me" button. Most of the time it is at the top of the blog. It goes out of sight as the reader scrolls down. But this feedback button will always remain in sight. It leaves you with a better probability that the reader will give you a feedback. Your blog runs because of your readers and if they are not happy, they wont visit again. You may or may not listen to all of them (sometimes the feedbacks may not be constructive enough to be followed), but whenever a constructive comment or feedback is given, its for your own good to follow them. And whenever you do follow some of the feedbacks do leave a comment on the blog. This will make your reader comfortable when they know that their voice is heard. So, go ahead and add it.

To embed the Feedback button, do the following:

First place the Feedback button in photobucket, picasa or any other image file sharing service. Note down the direct link of the image. You will need it later. I have used photobucket for my blog. At the end of the post there are some button images. You may choose to use them or have button images of your own.

The content in blue should be replaced by your respective links. In href give the url of your "Contact Me" page. For title give any relevant for your Feedback button. For img src give the direct link of your button image that you had saved before. Now go to Blogger --> Layout --> Add A Gadget --> HTML/Java Script and the paste the above piece of code after the modification. Now can you see the Feedback button. Click that and verify whether it works or not. If it takes you to your "Contact Me" page and then its perfectly done. Treat yourself for a job well done.

Here are a few Feedback button images that you can put to use.

Get "Go To Top" Arrow Button For Blogger.

2009-07-03T12:51:00.000-07:00

Get "Go To Top" Arrow Button For Blogger.

This is about creating your very own "Go To Top" arrow button. Sometimes the posts gets a little longer and sometimes the number of comments are so huge that it takes a hell lot of time to scroll upto the top. This is for your loyal blog visitors who would like to go to top of the post with a single click. This button floats at the bottom right hand corner and slides along with the post. When clicked, takes you to the top of the page. Convenient, isn't it? Go take a look at how to create this simple but very useful button.

First get a up-arrow clip art. At the end of the post there are a few of them. Select any one of them, create your own clip art or look for up-arrow clip art in google images. Then load this clip art to image sharing services like photobucket, picasa etc. Note down the link to the image. You will need that in your code.

In the code above change the content in blue with your own link. This is the link to your clip art image. Click "Add A Gadget" in your Blogger and paste the modified code there. View your blog. Can your see your arrow at the bottom right corner of your blog. If yes, well done or else you can write back to me.

Below are few clip arts. Try them out.

Create A "Grab My Button" Gadget.

2009-07-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

Create A "Grab My Button" Gadget.

In my previous post, I had explained how to create a 125x125 ad or logo (in whatever way you like to call it). I had also mentioned about Entrecard, a link exchange service. I guess you guys already know about Entrecard now. If not, go have a look. People exchange link in many ways both as text link as well as logos or banners. They also mutually exchange text links and logos between one another. "Grab My Button" gadget will help you do just that. A "Grab My Button" will look like the one at the beginning of the post. The picture has been taken from my other blog TechNebula. Now the moment somebody sees this in your blog and if they really find your blog useful and interesting, they will paste it on their blog/site. Another way to do it is to mutually exchange 125x125 ads. But you should be careful in choosing your exchange partners because you have to provide value to your readers and not unnecessarily fill your blog with logos. You should look for people in the same niche to display your logo as it will draw people with similar interest to your blog. And the chances are that they will find your blog useful and place your ad on their blog. Thus, you get free traffic to your blog. Here is a brief post on how to create your own "Grab My Button" gadget.

First create a 125x125 ad and place it in a common location like picasa or photobucket or any other image file sharing service. I used photobucket for mine. This is to make that your 125x125 ad is available globally for your blog to access. If you don't have 125x125 ad, please visit my post on Get A Logo For Your Blog.

In the above code you have to replace the contents in blue. For src give the location of your 125x125 ad. In href give the address of the blog where you want your gadget to be displayed. img alt is the name of your gadget. Give any name to describe the gadget. You can see the width and height are given as 125 equal to the ad size.

Now go to "Customize" in blogger. Select "Layout" and then "Page Elements". Then click on "Add a Gadget" and paste the modified code there. The same piece of code will work for other blogging platforms like WordPress, Typepad etc as well. Here you go. You now have your own "Grab My Button" gadget.

Get A Logo For Your Blog.

2009-06-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Get A Logo For Your Blog.

Do you have a logo for your blog? If not, get one soon. Logos will help you advertise your blog on the web, thus in turn bringing traffic to your blog. You can take part in logo exchange services like entrecard. Services like these will help promote your blog on the web. If you are still reading this, its for sure, you don't have a logo for your blog. And I know why? You think logo creation is time consuming. You think you need to learn Adobe Photoshop, Gimp etc. Moreover, Adobe Photoshop does not come free. Even if you use GPL licensed softwares like Gimp, it will take considerable time and patience to master it. I too used to think the same way, until I came across this.

Here is way by which you can get your logo done. Its fast, does not need any technical skills and above all its free. There is a site called free125cards which has a small utility that helps you build 125x125 logos really fast and easy. Here is a step by step method to create a logo using free125cards.

Go to free125cards and select a 125x125 card and then click on "Personalize".

Now add a text in the text field and click "Add text".

After you click "Add Text" the text appears on the screen. You can resize the text by using the small square (in red circle) at the bottom left corner of the text. Resize and place it on the logo.

After you are satisfied withe logo click "Save Image".

Now right-click and save it to your disk.

Thats it. Bingo...In few easy steps you have got your logo for your blog.

Add A TweetMe Button For Blogger.

2009-06-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Add A TweetMe Button For Blogger.

This post is going to tell you how to embed a TweetMe button to your Blogger. A TweetMe button helps to popularize your blog. Twitter is the next big thing in social networking and micro-blogging. So, if you are popular on Twitter, your blog can be too. Add this button to let people share the knowledge through Twitter. Go, check it out.

First, log into your Blogger account. Click "Customize".

Click on "Layout" and then "Edit HTML". Expand the widget template checking the check box.

Find the following line in the template code:

<b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>

Place the code given below between the code above and </b:loop>.

If add this code just above </b:loop>, the button will appear at end of each post. If you add the code just after <b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>, the button will appear at the beginning of each post. If you find any problems embedding the TweetMe button, do let me know.

Start Blogging.

2009-06-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Start Blogging.

Hey guys, as the blog name suggests, I will start from the very beginning, right from the point where you open your first blog account. First, open an account in any blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress, TypePad etc. I prefer Blogger because I started blogging with Blogger. It doesn't matter which one you are using as long as you are comfortable with it. If you want to move to any other platform from Blogger, its possible with WordPress. You can do an import of your blog from any platform to WordPress.

Next step is to choose a suitable template depending on your blog. Below are given few sites which provide free as well as paid templates. Buying a template wont ensure your template to be unique but it surely reduce the possibility of similar templates on the web.

OurBloggerTemplates: It has a wide variety of Blogger templates starting from newbie templates to pro blogger templates. Most importantly its free.

CMSTheme: It provides templates for almost all platforms viz. Blogger, Drupal, WordPress, Joomla etc. Most of the templates are either free or has a GPL license.

FreeWebTemplates: The name says it all. Go ahead have a look.

ElegantThemes: Its a paid service. You can download all the themes once you register for $19.95 per year. Sounds affordable.

DreamTemplate: It has hell lot of stuff. Just check it out. You get lifetime access to the templates for $59.95. But if you want your template to be unique, you need to pay a heavy price. $2000 to $3000 per template.

TemplateWire: Full access for just $29.

EBlogTemplates: Its a paid service. $19.95 for unlimited access to the templates.

I guess this is enough food for thought for beginners. The best way to learn is to explore yourself. So go ahead and check out some of the listed websites. If you come across any other website which is related to templates please do comment. This will help all of us.