For what it's worth: Blog tips

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Blog tips

My collection of blog tips... 
so I can easily find them is getting longer and longer!  


Setting up the blog
Once you sign up to blog, give yourself a name and write your first few posts there are some things you will wonder about.

  • Make a Blog Header
    • Find blog width in Blogger
      • Template, customize, adjust widths link
    • Design photo in photoshop or PicMonkey
      • Click on the artist palet (bottom), choose transparent
      • Save image as PNG so it's not dark or greyish in color
    • Multiple page post http://www.thekimsixfix.com/2014/08/how-to-break-posts-into-multiple-pages.html
  • set to your time zone 
    1. Dashboard> Settings. 
    2.  Select "Language and Formatting" from the next set of tabs. 
    3. Select your time zone.
    4. Save settings
  • Back up your blog before making new changes. Just in case. How to @Funky JunkCode it Pretty
  • How to Back up your blog!!!!
    • First, download your template by going to "Template" and clicking the "Backup/Restore" button in the upper right. Save the resulting file in a location you can locate. (Name a file)
  •  


    • Next, go to "Settings" > "Other", and select "Export Blog" under the "Blog Tools" menu. Save the export file. It includes all of your blog posts and comments.
    • Finally, back up the Picasa album containing your blog's photos. Links to them are included in the .xml export file you downloaded in step 2, but this guarantees that you'll have your photos no matter what. Here is a link to great instructions: http://www.mybloggerlab.com/2013/03/how-to-backup-images-of-your-blogger-blog.html
    • Blogger Custom Domain:  
    •  "First, you need to recover your account password. You can do so by copying on this linkhttps://admin.google.com/yourblogn.../ForgotAdminAccountInfo and adding your blog url after google.com/. For instance, if your blog url isabc.com then you would need to type:https://admin.google.com/abc.com/ForgotAdminAccountInfo
      4 mins · Edited · Like
    • Kathe Then you will be asked to enter a captcha and then the system will send you a password recovery email to your secondary email address, which is the same one to which I'm sending this email to.Once you recover the password, it will ask you to change it and enter a new one. With the new password, you can then login to your Admin console atadmin.google.comusing your Super Admin account. If you bought the domain through Blogger, the user name will be bloggeradmin@yourblogname.com and you will be using the corresponding password you just changed. If this does not work, you will need to remember your user name for the Super Admin account.
      7 mins · Like
    • Kathe  Once you gain access, you will be asked to update your billing. Please do so to ensure your domain gets renewed. You may need to access your Billing profile and set the Domain Registration subscription to Auto Renew. You can do this by going to the Billing page from the Admin console, and checking the Domain Registration. You will see a blue 'Change'link that will allow you to do this (one of the options should be to Auto Renew the domain.)"

  • Blog header size? 

    • Find out how wide your blog is and set the header size to that.
    • From your dashboard >Template>customize>adjust widths.  Note your widths.
  • Box around text or home made tweet box
    • Enter this html:  You can just put a box around it in html by using this code (change grey to whatever color you want): 

      Add your content here.

  • Center your banner  (blog header)   
    1. Create a banner photo in the free version of PicMonkey.  
    2. Save it.
    3. Open Blogger
    4. Design
    5. Advanced
    6. Add CSS
    7. Type in .header-outer {margin-left;20px;}
    8. Go back to Blogger Template, layout, header
    9. Remove any old photo, then upload the new one. Preview.
    10. Go back to Design, Advanced, Add CSS to adjust the 20 to a larger or smaller number until the photo sits where you want it.
  • To  schedule posts to come out later on a specific date: 
      1. Go to blogger dashboard (that B in the upper left hand corner)
      2. Click the down arrow to get a drop box.
      3. Click Posts.
      4. Click the pencil icon to start a new post.  Complete your post article.
      5. In the side bar on the right, click Schedule
      6. Choose Set the date and time. (automatic will publish your post immediately)
      7. Click Save, Publish  (it won't publish until the date & time you set)  You can go back to edit any of the article and you can even edit the publish date and time.
  • Edit a published post is to make sure you are signed in, then click on the little pencil icon at the bottom of your post, which will take you to edit mode. Or go to the dashboard, posts, edit posts
  • Comments 
  • Have your comments set so that you get email notification. That way you can keep track of when you get a new comment. 
    • go to B dashboard
    • Settings 
    • press 'Comments' and then scroll down to the bottom. 
    • the last item is 'Comment Notification Email'. 
    • put your email address there 

  • NoReply Blogger -

    I show up as a NO REPLY blogger!  Check here for a great tutorial how to fix that.
    for multi link photo  go here.
Promoting the blog & Monotonizing

Good to know

  • Above the fold line = above 768 pixels.  Good to know
  • Image map, clickable images 

  • copyright symbol keyboard strokes to make © Alt + 0169
  • Creative Commons photograph laws
  • Creative Commons license chooser
  • Recipe copy rights- ingredient list is not, instructions are copyrighted
  •  Now that I'm getting comfortable with blogging, I have found a wonderful "Nitty Gritty" information for Blogger Bloggers!  @Shaping Up to be a Mom
  • Email followers, who are they?  http://feedburner.google.com
  • Popular Post? Where in GA do I find it?
    Make sure your dates in the top right are set for January 1-today + year. Then on the left sidebar go to behavior>site content>all pages. This will bring up your top posts overall for the year, but if you want to limit it to only posts written in 2016, put "2016" in the little search bar and it will bring up only URLs written this year. Because it's blogger and you have a mobile URL and a desktop URL you might have to add some together.
  • Printable page sizes - inch comparison to pixels  https://www.picmonkey.com/help/articles/633730-standard-photo-print-sizes
  • Analytics>>Aquisition>>All Traffic>>Referrals


  • Where is all that traffic coming from?
    ok, so it's coming from Pinterest, but none of my pins for that post have high repins...how do I find out exactly what pin is bringing this awesome traffic?
     if you click on the source.. it will break it down by url. Click on the url and see which one is getting the clicks
  • Make links to another blog or URL:
  • When to check "Open in another window"  Only open in a new window if you are linking to something out of your blog. If it's another post or a page in your blog, link in the same window. If you link out of the window, it increases your bounce rate.
  • What are custom links and redirect URLS? 
  • Windows Live Writer is a word processor app where you can create a blog post offline and upload to your blog later.  It saves a copy of posts too!  On your computer type Live Writer in the search then pin it to your desktop for easy access.  


1. go to the blog you want to link to and copy the URL (the http 'address' part along the top) 
2. write in the words you want to say in your blog post, e.g. forwhat it's worth,

3. highlight the words (inside the blog article) that are going to be linked, e.g. for what it's worth 

4. then go to the command ribbon -top frame of your post and click on the blue words that say 'Link"

5. you will see the words from your post in the word to display box (top section) and then you paste in the URL that you are linking to in the web address box (bottom section) and press OK

6. you have just created a link to another blog or website


 To make page links 
(the pages that you see along the top just under the header):

1. Go to the dashboard.

2. Select Edit Posts

3. Look at the tabs along the top. You will be looking at "Edit Posts" which is under "Posts". If you look to the right of "Edit Posts" you will see "Edit Pages". Click on that.

4. Then select "New Page" and write up your page and press 'publish' when you are done. To add another page, select 'New Page' again etc.

5. You can change the order of your pages, once you have several finished, by going to the 'design' page and clicking on the 'edit' icon for "Pages".

 Customize Jump Breaks @Mums Make Lists (showing short clips on the main page with "click for more"... 


center your pages follow the directions here.

POPUPS (free) 

  • Get Site Control: all kinds of widgets for contact, mail, subscribe, follow, share, chat... https://getsitecontrol.com/
Print Friendly Button in Blogger 
  1. Log in to Blogger and select the blog you want to add the printer friendly button to.
  2. From the Blogger dashboard go to Layout > Edit HTML
  3. Click the Expand Widget Templates checkbox.
  4. Using CTRL + F find the following code: <div class='post-footer'>
  5. Open a new browser window go to the PrintFriendly website
  6. At Step 1 go ahead and select the radio button for Blogger to choose your site type
  7. At Step 2 select the radio button for the print friendly button that you wish to use on your Blogger blog
  8. Copy the code snippet for your chosen button
  9. Then go back to your open Blogger window and find the code you identified in Step 4 of these instructions.
  10. Paste the code directly after the <div class='post-footer'> tag
  11. Save your template
  12. Click View Blog to see your PrintFriendly button beneath each post.
or... 

How to add a printable recipe using Google Sites

  1. Go to goggle sites and register.  
  2. Type the recipe in your blog post.
  3. Highlight the recipe in your blog and copy.
  4. Go to your google site page and select the Create Page button in the top right hand corner.
  5. Paste the recipe 
  6. Click the save button in the top right hand corner.











  7. Scroll down to the VERY bottom of the page and you will see "Print Page" written along the bottom of the screen.
  8. Click "print page".  Another window will open up.  
  9. Copy that link.  
  10. Go back to your blog post and type PRINTABLE RECIPE where ever you would like for it to appear and add paste the link to it.   
You can even add images to your recipes this way too.  
Summary
 PrintFriendly button - a button that print optimizes your Blogger posts.

Recipe pages 

1. Goto http://www.recipage.com/code.php
fill in a url and copy the code from the box below it
2. Goto your blogger dashboard > Pages > New Page
3. Name the page as you would like your recipage named in the TITLE BOX
4. In the lower box , click HTML and paste the code you copied from recipage and click publish.
5. LINK THE PAGE IN YOUR LINK LIST AND YOU HAVE SETTED UP THE RECIPAGE
6.Now you can goto 
http://www.recipage.com/settings.php
to customize the page you just added to blogger
Here is what I did in my blog for a test
http://blogpakis.blogspot.com/p/recipage.html

RSS feed URL? open up your blog page. right click on it and click "view source". Then do a CTRL + F and type in "rss". 

Signature on every post 
Settings>>Posts and Comments>>In the Post Template box just insert your signature image URL. 

 Blogger dashboard>>Setttings>>Posts & Comments>>Post Template 
There is a box there. whatever you put in it will show up in your post template composition window automatically. (not on old post, but any new posts going forward)

Site Maps

  •  http://www.kimsixbloggersupport.com/2016/04/how-to-generate-submit-RSS-XML-Atom-sitemap-blogger.html

Gadgets on the side bar NO TITLE simply type  <!>; in the tile box and click save.  or try <h2></h2>

 Have a Wordpress plugin code you'd like to use in Blogger gadget?  Try this-sometimes it works- Take the code.. make a fake 'post' with it in HTML mode and then click over to view the preview and then click back to HTML. It will add in some div tags and other stuff that may help. Then take that code and put it in your HTML gadget and see if that works better.

Link up to parties:
Open your blog post. 
  1. Click on the blog heading.  That will make the http address for this specific blog appear up top.
  2. Right click the http: address so that it is highlighted
  3. Copy
  4. Open the site where the blog party you want to join is located in a new tab.
  5. Scroll to the bottom of the party blog buttons
  6. Click on the "your next" button or "add your link"
  7. Right click in the URL box
  8. Paste the http address you copied from your post.
  9. Type a title that briefly describes your post in the title box unless you're on a link party that auto fills for you, email address, name as it asks for.
  10. Click next.  Tweet, FB Share or skip it.
  11. Tada.  Done. 



SOCIAL MEDIA INFO:

 Social media follow buttons for sidebar http://www.carrieloves.com/2012/12/free-social-media-icons-updated/
This site another site with HTML codes for several media buttons including Pinterest and Instagram. Digital Deflexion
Picasa for photo's


 Facebook  
6/2014 http://www.twelveskip.com/tutorials/facebook/1291/facebook-new-cover-size-template
How to see who likes your fan page: Type "People who like [Your Facebook Page Name]" into the Facebook search box and it will give you the entire list of people who like your page. On the right hand side you will see options to filter the search by name and you can narrow it down very easily there. If they are on that list, they like your page.

INSTAGRAM:  I want the default share from Instagram to go to my Facebook Fan Page instead of my personal page.  
  1. On your phone (I have Android) open Instagram
  2. Go to your profile page.
  3. Tap the menu icon that looks like three paralell dots, upper right corner.
  4. Under Preferences, tap Sharing Settings
  5. Tap Facebook
  6. Under Choose a Page, tap Share to:
  7. Tap the box next to the page you want to share to.  Done. Exit.

Pinterest 

to see most pinned item from your blog: http://pinterest.com/source/YOURBLOG.com
Pin button beneath image: Add this whole block of code to a text widget, and then fill in the proper spots (noted in CAPS) with your own information.  Make sure you leave the quotation marks in the code! 
  • To add multiple instances of these images in your sidebar, you can just paste the code again into the same text widget…although obviously, you’ll be plugging different information into the HTML for the different images.

<div align="center"> 



<a href="URL-OF-BLOG-POST" title="TITLE-OF-YOUR-IMAGE-OR-POST" target="_blank"><img src="LOCATION-URL-OF-YOUR-IMAGE-FILE" alt="DESCRIPTIVE-TEXT-OF-YOUR-LINK" /></a> </div> <div align="center"> 





DROP CODE FOR PINTEREST PIN-IT BUTTON HERE </div>



ADD Pinterest button:



Widget builder for a Pin It button you can place near a specific photo.  Why?  Because you can direct the reader to the photo you'd like most to see on Pinterest, and when someone clicks on the photo, it will take them directly to your blog post.








    

  1. When you have published a blog post, Right click on the URL for the post.  Copy.
    2. 

  2. Open Widget Builder in a new browser tab.
    3. 

  3. Paste the URL for your blog post in the box provided.
    4. 

  4. Go back to your blog post, Right click on the photo you want to make pin able.
    5. 

  5. Click on "copy picture URL".
    6. 

  6. Go back to Widget Builder.
    7. 

  7. Paste the picture URL in the space provided.
    8. 

  8. Type a description (it will show on the Pinterest pin when you or anyone else clicks the new pin it button)
    9. 

  9. A preview of the photo will appear and when you scroll down, the HTML code.
    10. 

  10. Click on the HTML coding and copy.
    11. 

  11. Go back to your blog post in edit mode.
    12. 

  12. Click to switch from Compose to HTML.
    13. 

  13. Place your cursor at the top, in front of all the existing coding.  (I press enter to give me a blank line for the pin it code.  It doesn't change the spacing on your post.)
    14. 

  14. Right click and paste the HTML code.
    15. 

  15. Click to switch from HTML editing back to Compose.
    16. 

  16. Click and drag the "Pin it" icon to position it where you want it.  I usually drag it to be centered under the photo.
    17. 

  17. Save/update your post.
    18. 













    

  • Making a photo unavailable to PIN: 
    • 











    

  • for individual images: ~ put this code in your html before the images you don't want pinned <div class="nopin"> & then right after the last picture you don't want pinned put </div> I used that in my feature post & link party post so projects & thumbnails don't get pinned.
    • 

  • excellent post from Practically Functional here
    • 

  • encourage the pinner to go back to the original source.....completely prevent the pin to begin with. Jessi from Practically Functional shows you how to use the nopin attribute in the image tag to make a photo un-pinnable! You can also use this code to stop photographs of your family from being pinned.
    • 

    • 








Social Media share buttons at the bottom of your post



Shareaholics   Thanks to Kimberly Six for providing me invaluable help to accomplish this!

Follow the directions to create the codes then 

    

  1. Go to Dashboard>template>edit HTML
    2. 

  2. Place cursor inside the HTML box in front of all the existing codes.
    3. 

  3. Ctrl F to make a search box appear.
    4. 

  4. Search </head> tag
    5. 

  5. Enter a space before the tag
    6. 

  6. Insert Shareaholics #1 code (write down the line #'s for the code... just in case...mine are on lines 998-1015
    7. 

  7. Locate the code block that begins with:
    8. 

  8. <b:if cond='data:post.hasJumpLink'>
    9. 

  9. Place your cursor after the last line of this block, which will contain:  </b:if>
    10. 

  10. Press enter to create a new empty line.
    11. 

  11. Paste #2  HTML code into the empty line. (write down the line #'s in case you want to move it mine is 1916)
    12. 

  12. Press the Save Changes button to apply this code to your site. 
    13.

How to add a Word Document:  Open your blogging program (Wordpress, Movable Type, Blogger) and use the link button to insert a link to the Word document into your blog entry, providing the complete path to where the file is located (typically displayed as http://www.blogaddress.com/directory/filename.html).Another option is converting your Word document to a PDF file to avoid potential problems with page layout. Use Adobe Reader (see Resources) to convert your Word document to a PDF file, then upload the file. Also, before saving your Word document as an HTML file, you can preview the document in Word by clicking the "File" tab and choosing "Web Page Preview."
Sponsored Links
Windows Live Writer @ Projects Around the House


DROP DOWN BOXES IN THE MENU BAR! Tutorial by All She Cooks


Countdown clock (free!)


Add search gadget in side bar (if you don't like the one provided in Blogger gadgets)

  1. add a 3rd party gadget html, copy & paste code in box, save
  2. <div style='clear:both;'/>
    <div class='widget-container'>
    <div id='search' title='Type and hit enter'>
    <form action='/search' id='searchform' method='get'>
    <input id='s' name='q' onblur='if (this.value == &quot;&quot;) {this.value = &quot;Search&quot;;}' onfocus='if (this.value == &quot;Search&quot;) {this.value = &quot;&quot;;}' type='text' value='Search'/>
    </form>
    </div>
    </div>

Image Search To find the address of any image on your own blog or someone else's:

  • Right click on the image
  • Click "Copy Image URL"
  • Put the cursor where you want the URL, right click and click paste 
How to leave a blog link in comments. 

<a href="http://yoururl.com">what you want it to say</a>
so, for me...I change the read words to leave a direct link to my blog. Copy and past.
<a href="http://forwhatitsworth-jeannie.blogspot.com/">for what it's worth</a>

How to Make - Link  Button and Featured Blogger Button for Blogger
1. Find an image that you want to use for your button, open in an editing program such as photobucket or PicMonkey.
2. Crop or resize the image to a square 125 x 125 pixels.  
3. Edit your photo with the text you want on it and save it to your desktop or skybox.
4. Upload your photo in photobucket, make sure your file is public or your button won't be downloadable to other bloggers.
5. Make your html code so your picture and grab box are together. Copy and paste code below. Make the changes explained below it so it is specific to your button and not mine (For what it's worth-jeannie).

<div align="center"> <a href="http://forwhatitsworth-jeannie.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="for what it's worth-jeannie" src="http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh540/geneNie2/529a2add.jpg" /></a> </div> <div align="center"> <form><textarea rows="4" cols="14"><center><a href="http://forwhatitsworth-jeannie.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="for what it's worth-jeannie" src="http://i1250.photobucket.com/albums/hh540/geneNie2/529a2add.jpg" /></a></center></textarea></form> </div>
Change the red text to your blog's http:// link

Change the blue text to the Name of You Blog

Change the blue highlighted text to the link for your picture in photobucket

6. Locate the button photo in your photobucket account.
7. click on your picture and you will see a box around the picture with several boxes of code beneath it.
8. Click in the direct link box. It will say copied. Then just paste it over the link for my picture link.
9. Next, click add a gadget in blogger template, it is the HTML/Java Third Party Script. 

 10. Give it a name like My Featured Button. Then paste it into the Widget's text box.
11. Save, and then click Preview, to make sure that it looks right. If something is wrong, check your code and your different links.  I'll admit I had to go through this process 3 times the first button I made to get it right.  Once I had the coding correct and it worked, I saved the coding to a post note on my computer desktop for future use.  
12 . If you still need help, refer to How to Make a Blog Button Grab Box on Paper Heart Camera.
directions w/pictures @ Funky Junk Interiors another helpful site is Shabby Blogs Here is another that was very easy to understand and follow:  @Mouse in the Kitchen

A blogging friend, Christine, gave me these directions to host a source photo on Blogger:

1. Create a post in blogger. In the post name have "DO NOT PUBLISH OR DELETE". 2. Insert the photo into your draft post, click SAVE. 3. Switch over to HTML mode for your blog post so all that you see is code.. in that code you will see some wording that looks like this: src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yE9E9". "SRC" means "source", aka web address. 4. Copy the entire address inside the quotes and past it into a HTML gadget. Ta da your photo or collage is now being hosted on your own blog. I used to use this method to do my own "follow Me" social icons.


for what it's worth-jeannie


To re-size a button in your widgets (one you placed in your sidebar and it's just too big...) Thanks to my blogger buddy Genevieve at FaceBook, Creative Bloggers Collective.

  1. Click the little pencil (edit) icon on the button that is too big:  
  2.  The html code has a section that usually looks like: <a href=" "><img src=" "></a> with links in between the " ", 
  3. you want it to look like this: <a href=" "><img src=" " width="150"></a> 
  4. so you just add width="150" AFTER the end quotes.
  5. Just be sure to add it after the " and not before.
Stop content theft "frame stealing"

Place the following code in the <head> </head> portion of your template:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
if (window!= top) top.location.href = location.href;
</script>

And this code in your .htaccess file
Header append X-FRAME-OPTIONS “SAMEORIGIN”

    @ Carrie loves


TOP POST SEARCH through Google Analytics



RSS Feed - How to find your blogs RSS url

Schema Markup to help SEO  https://blog.kissmetrics.com/get-started-using-schema/

Thumbnail truncated post  http://www.blogxpertise.com/2012/07/tip-better-thumbnail-and-summary-script.html

or...  http://xomisse.com/blog/show-post-excerpts-with-thumbnail-on-blogger/

I'm on "The Twitter" but I don't understand!


Shorten your URL link for Facebook and other social media and get those click throughs counted at  http://goo.gl/ 

Verify your blog

http://www.kimsixbloggersupport.com/2016/05/how-to-verify-your-blog-in-webmaster.html

 How to post a you tube video on blogger from mommy is coocoo.

 Google Analytics how to add:  





This is a list of sites that are known to drive traffic to bloggers.
Submision Sites {crafts and DIY}
http://craftgawker.com/

Submision Sites {food and recipies}

Large Link Parties
Crazy lou tells how to make thisin PicMonkey:
http://creativegeekery.blogspot.com/2013/08/create-your-own-bulletin-board-image.html?showComment=1377225011549#c4252437573344636196
Find more helpful hints on my Blog Hints Pinterest Board

1 comment:

  1. This is awesome and i have it bookmarked, thank you very much

    ReplyDelete

Gosh, I really love it when you leave comments...It feels all warm and fuzzy. :)

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