By creating an RSS feed to your blog you can essentially syndicate
your blog, much like comics and television shows syndicate their
content.
What is an RSS feed? RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary” or “Really
Simple Syndication” or “RDF Site Summary” depending on the version
that is being used. RSS is essentially a way to stream up to the
minute news and updates on your blog around the world via the
internet.
Readers of RSS streams use a content reader program called a feed
reader or aggregator. These can be downloaded free of charge online
with the most popular ones being News Gator or Bloglines.
The feed reader, or aggregator, checks websites where the user has
subscribed to see if there is any new and updated information and if
the site has been updated then the feed reader will copy that new
information so that the reader can read it. The purpose of the
aggregators is so that the reader does not have to keep checking a
site to see if it has been updated, the reader, via the RSS feed, does it
for them.
Adding RSS feeds to a Blogger blog is a very simple thing to do.
Simply go to the Blogger Dashboard, then to Settings -> Site Feed and
enter in whether you want full post syndication or only a short bit of
your post to syndicate. You can then add a syndication button to the
front page of your blog and that is all you have to do. By doing these
simple steps your visitors can subscribe to your RSS feed and will
know when your page has been updated!
For a monetized blog it is best to leave the syndication to the short
syndication option. This shows your readers that your site is updated,
but they will still have to visit your site to read your entire messages.
This insures that they will be seeing your Google AdSense ads and
possibly clicking on them. You want to tease them with the RSS feed
information to ensure they come to your blog and read the rest of the
message.
Showing posts with label blogging secrets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging secrets. Show all posts
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Your Blog Design
Once your blog is up and running for a while you will invariably find
that you want to make some changes to it. Maybe you want to make
a simple change like turning the blue type to green type or maybe you
want an entirely different template and look to your blog. Most all
changes you can think of to make to your blog can easily be done with
a little Blogger experience under your belt.
As you learn and grow your blogging and HTML skills, you will
undoubtedly discover new and innovative things you can add to your
blog to make it more appealing to your reader, and ultimately make
you more money as well. Always be on the lookout for new and
innovative things you can do with your blog and ways that you can use
it to generate income for you.
To simply update the look of your blog you can use different
templates. There are a million and one options out there for free or
cheap templates you can use with Blogger. Because Google’s Blogger
is an industry leader for blogging many people develop skins (cool
background images) and templates for use with it. Playing with new
templates and skins can be fun and you can end up with a really great
unique looking blog as well. Your blog is simply an extension of you
and your business so you will want to take some time and change it
around from time to time.
If you want to play around with other templates for your blog you
might consider playing around with a temporary blog. This way any
changes you might make will not have any effect on your main blog.
This allows you to decide if you like the changes or not, before you
implement them. This can save you a lot of time and frustration when
you are just starting out and learning to work with Blogger templates
and settings.
You will also want to always back-up your current template before you
make any changes. This is very important. You need to always be
able to easily go back to your old template if you do not like the new
one. You do not want the hassle of trying to figure out what went
wrong in the change. It is much easier to just revert back to your old
template and then try again with the changes.
If you change templates you will also need to copy and paste some of
your code from the old template into the new one. Things like
AdSense and your personal links will need to be manually put on your
new template from the old one.
Backing-up your template is not just an option; you really must
do it each and every time before you make changes to your
blog. This will save you a lot of valuable time and frustration.
It is also very important to decide if you want your blog to look
“professional” or have a more homemade feel to it. You want your
blog visitors to feel they get value from reading your blog. Will the
value of your blog be in providing your readers with an education or
more in providing your readers with entertainment? Are you writing
as an “expert” in a field? Do you want to be known for your
professionalism and experience? Or, do you simply want to share your
human experience and provide a bit of entertainment to your readers?
Assume for a moment that I have a blog with the topic of business
ethics. As my primary business I am a consultant on business ethics.
I want to be known as an authority on business ethics. I use my
business ethics blog to promote my primary business, while also
enjoying some revenue from AdSense. On my blog I post professional
articles and opinions. With this blog I would likely want a very
professional appearance. I want to appear to my readers very
professional and as if I am doing well in my chosen profession. I
would use a very corporate and professional looking template for my
blog to convey this to my readers. I would also choose not to post
pictures of my children and pets on this particular blog.
Now, assume for a moment that I have another blog on the topic of
self-reliance and living off the land. I live in this way in my personal
life and I want to help others to be able to as well. I want to be a
friendly resource for people who are interested in living as I do. I
want other people to be able to relate to me and share their
experiences with living off the land. On this particular blog I post
stories about my home life and thoughts on how to get the most from
simplified living. While this blog can also be a monetized blog with
AdSense on it, I would probably want it to have a more “homemade”
feel to it. My visitors aren’t thrilled with “corporate and stuffy” so I
don’t want my blog to appear that way to them. I would use a
colorful earthy template and probably post photos of my children and
homestead on this blog.
As you can see in the two examples above, the way your blog looks
should have a lot to do with its function and purpose. Getting the
right feel and look to a blog is very important in having your readers
feel at home and visiting it often. You want your readers to see your
blog and understand its purpose and direction easily.
that you want to make some changes to it. Maybe you want to make
a simple change like turning the blue type to green type or maybe you
want an entirely different template and look to your blog. Most all
changes you can think of to make to your blog can easily be done with
a little Blogger experience under your belt.
As you learn and grow your blogging and HTML skills, you will
undoubtedly discover new and innovative things you can add to your
blog to make it more appealing to your reader, and ultimately make
you more money as well. Always be on the lookout for new and
innovative things you can do with your blog and ways that you can use
it to generate income for you.
To simply update the look of your blog you can use different
templates. There are a million and one options out there for free or
cheap templates you can use with Blogger. Because Google’s Blogger
is an industry leader for blogging many people develop skins (cool
background images) and templates for use with it. Playing with new
templates and skins can be fun and you can end up with a really great
unique looking blog as well. Your blog is simply an extension of you
and your business so you will want to take some time and change it
around from time to time.
If you want to play around with other templates for your blog you
might consider playing around with a temporary blog. This way any
changes you might make will not have any effect on your main blog.
This allows you to decide if you like the changes or not, before you
implement them. This can save you a lot of time and frustration when
you are just starting out and learning to work with Blogger templates
and settings.
You will also want to always back-up your current template before you
make any changes. This is very important. You need to always be
able to easily go back to your old template if you do not like the new
one. You do not want the hassle of trying to figure out what went
wrong in the change. It is much easier to just revert back to your old
template and then try again with the changes.
If you change templates you will also need to copy and paste some of
your code from the old template into the new one. Things like
AdSense and your personal links will need to be manually put on your
new template from the old one.
Backing-up your template is not just an option; you really must
do it each and every time before you make changes to your
blog. This will save you a lot of valuable time and frustration.
It is also very important to decide if you want your blog to look
“professional” or have a more homemade feel to it. You want your
blog visitors to feel they get value from reading your blog. Will the
value of your blog be in providing your readers with an education or
more in providing your readers with entertainment? Are you writing
as an “expert” in a field? Do you want to be known for your
professionalism and experience? Or, do you simply want to share your
human experience and provide a bit of entertainment to your readers?
Assume for a moment that I have a blog with the topic of business
ethics. As my primary business I am a consultant on business ethics.
I want to be known as an authority on business ethics. I use my
business ethics blog to promote my primary business, while also
enjoying some revenue from AdSense. On my blog I post professional
articles and opinions. With this blog I would likely want a very
professional appearance. I want to appear to my readers very
professional and as if I am doing well in my chosen profession. I
would use a very corporate and professional looking template for my
blog to convey this to my readers. I would also choose not to post
pictures of my children and pets on this particular blog.
Now, assume for a moment that I have another blog on the topic of
self-reliance and living off the land. I live in this way in my personal
life and I want to help others to be able to as well. I want to be a
friendly resource for people who are interested in living as I do. I
want other people to be able to relate to me and share their
experiences with living off the land. On this particular blog I post
stories about my home life and thoughts on how to get the most from
simplified living. While this blog can also be a monetized blog with
AdSense on it, I would probably want it to have a more “homemade”
feel to it. My visitors aren’t thrilled with “corporate and stuffy” so I
don’t want my blog to appear that way to them. I would use a
colorful earthy template and probably post photos of my children and
homestead on this blog.
As you can see in the two examples above, the way your blog looks
should have a lot to do with its function and purpose. Getting the
right feel and look to a blog is very important in having your readers
feel at home and visiting it often. You want your readers to see your
blog and understand its purpose and direction easily.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Blogger Settings
The “Settings” tab in Blogger allows you to control the Basic Settings,
Publishing, Formatting, Comments, Archiving, Site Feed, E-mail and
Permissions on your blog. It is here where you can change the title of your blog, make a description of your blog and make most other changes which surround the way
your blog acts for both you and your visitors.
You will want to make sure to enter a description here for your blog
that is very heavy in keywords. If your blog is about goats, then you
need to make sure your description talks about goats, hooves, milking,
farming, etc… Use anything and everything you can think of to load
your description with keywords. This will help your ranking with the
search engines and your AdSense ads to optimize their best. Take full
advantage of your blog’s description field.
Publishing, Formatting, Comments, Archiving, Site Feed, E-mail and
Permissions on your blog. It is here where you can change the title of your blog, make a description of your blog and make most other changes which surround the way
your blog acts for both you and your visitors.
You will want to make sure to enter a description here for your blog
that is very heavy in keywords. If your blog is about goats, then you
need to make sure your description talks about goats, hooves, milking,
farming, etc… Use anything and everything you can think of to load
your description with keywords. This will help your ranking with the
search engines and your AdSense ads to optimize their best. Take full
advantage of your blog’s description field.
Using the Dashboard in Blogger
Blogger refers to their administrative screen for blogs as the
Dashboard. Like a dashboard in a car, this is where all of the
important functions are controlled. It is from the Dashboard that you
will post messages to your blog and make any changes to your blog’s
look and settings.
While the Dashboard can look a bit intimidating, it is really a very
simple tool for you to use. It was designed by the programmers at
Google to be simple enough for anyone to use who wants to have their
own blog.
The Blogger Dashboard contains three tabs; Posting, Settings and
Template.
Dashboard. Like a dashboard in a car, this is where all of the
important functions are controlled. It is from the Dashboard that you
will post messages to your blog and make any changes to your blog’s
look and settings.
While the Dashboard can look a bit intimidating, it is really a very
simple tool for you to use. It was designed by the programmers at
Google to be simple enough for anyone to use who wants to have their
own blog.
The Blogger Dashboard contains three tabs; Posting, Settings and
Template.
Congratulations - You Now Have a Blog on Blogger!
With the completion of those three simple steps, you now have a blog
of your very own!
By clicking on the orange “Start Posting” button you will be taken to
the “Posting” tab in your Blogger Dashboard.
of your very own!
By clicking on the orange “Start Posting” button you will be taken to
the “Posting” tab in your Blogger Dashboard.
Blogger Set-Up, Step 3 – Choose a Template
Blogger uses pre-designed standard templates to make your blog look
professional and exciting. By using Blogger’s standard templates you
can have an amazing looking blog, from the first post you make, even
if you do not know any HTML or have any website design experience at
all!
The final step in creating a blog on Blogger is to choose a template
from those listed. Choose a template that is both aesthetically
pleasing to you and which fits the theme of what you want to blog
about. It is important to note that you are able to change your
template, and most other aspects of Blogger, at any time in the future.
From the “Choose a Template” screen you will need to choose your
template by clicking on the radio button of the template of your
choice. Then click on the orange “Continue” button. This will take you
to the “Your Blog Has Been Created” screen.
professional and exciting. By using Blogger’s standard templates you
can have an amazing looking blog, from the first post you make, even
if you do not know any HTML or have any website design experience at
all!
The final step in creating a blog on Blogger is to choose a template
from those listed. Choose a template that is both aesthetically
pleasing to you and which fits the theme of what you want to blog
about. It is important to note that you are able to change your
template, and most other aspects of Blogger, at any time in the future.
From the “Choose a Template” screen you will need to choose your
template by clicking on the radio button of the template of your
choice. Then click on the orange “Continue” button. This will take you
to the “Your Blog Has Been Created” screen.
Blogger Set-Up, Step 2 – Name Your Blog
On the “Name Your Blog” screen you will enter a blog title, a unique
Blogger URL address for your blog, and once again enter the word
verification.
Naming your blog well can be an important part of having a successful
and income generating blog. It is a good idea to name your blog
something memorable and in tune with the content your blog will
contain. Rather than name your blog “Jane’s Blog,” try to name it
something people surfing the web will remember and look for again in
the future.
If you are name is “Jane,” and you will be blogging primarily about
knitting, then your blog might have the title “Jane the Master Knitter”
or something similar. Feel free to use your imagination and have fun
31
with your blog name, but try and keep it both short and easy to
remember.
Each blog on Blogger has a unique URL which looks like this:
http://www.___.blogspot.com
Blogger allows you to enter the word(s) to fill the blank space before
the word “blogspot” in the URL. Just as important as the name of your
blog, what you choose to enter here for the URL will help others to find
your blog online. It is always best to stick to only a few words and
make the URL similar to your blog title. For the example above
something like this would work well:
http://www.adsense.blogspot.com
while http://www.adsense.blogspot.com gets a bit long to
remember and type so it is probably not ideal to use.
The “Name Your Blog” screen of Blogger looks like this:
Once you are satisfied with your new blog’s title, unique Blogger URL,
and have entered the word verification, click on the orange “Continue”
button. This takes you to the third step in creating your blog; the
“Choose a Template” screen.
Blogger URL address for your blog, and once again enter the word
verification.
Naming your blog well can be an important part of having a successful
and income generating blog. It is a good idea to name your blog
something memorable and in tune with the content your blog will
contain. Rather than name your blog “Jane’s Blog,” try to name it
something people surfing the web will remember and look for again in
the future.
If you are name is “Jane,” and you will be blogging primarily about
knitting, then your blog might have the title “Jane the Master Knitter”
or something similar. Feel free to use your imagination and have fun
31
with your blog name, but try and keep it both short and easy to
remember.
Each blog on Blogger has a unique URL which looks like this:
http://www.___.blogspot.com
Blogger allows you to enter the word(s) to fill the blank space before
the word “blogspot” in the URL. Just as important as the name of your
blog, what you choose to enter here for the URL will help others to find
your blog online. It is always best to stick to only a few words and
make the URL similar to your blog title. For the example above
something like this would work well:
http://www.adsense.blogspot.com
while http://www.adsense.blogspot.com gets a bit long to
remember and type so it is probably not ideal to use.
The “Name Your Blog” screen of Blogger looks like this:
Once you are satisfied with your new blog’s title, unique Blogger URL,
and have entered the word verification, click on the orange “Continue”
button. This takes you to the third step in creating your blog; the
“Choose a Template” screen.
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