lundi 30 avril 2012

Save, Back Up And Restore A Blogger Template Using The New Blogger Dashboard

Gold Folder Blogger Logo Icon
Last week i was busy making some video screen casts with tutorials for the new Blogger design.In the next few posts i will be sharing the videos with you here on Spice Up Your Blog.Whether you like the new Interface or not we do need to familiarize ourselves with it.I'm sure as with all new Google products or updates the Blogger team will continue to make improvements.I'm certainly not over impressed with the new design and did leave feedback with 8 changes or additions I would like to see.

The first video covers Making a back up of your Template, as we know when you edit your template it's vital to make a back up in case of mistakes.

How To Make A Back Up Of Your Blogger Template Video Tutorial

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samedi 28 avril 2012

Google Translate Widget with Flags For Blogger

The Google Translate Widget for Blogger allows the visitors to translate your site or blog in their own language.
This widget also auto-detect your blog language and then translate it to the readers chosen language.

It supports 12 different languages:
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic And Chinese.
google translate for blogger, blogger gadgets, blogger tricks

How To Add The Google Translate Widget To Blogger

Step 1. Go to your Blogger Dashboard >> Layout and click on "Add A Gadget" link



Step 2. From the pop-up window, scroll down and choose HTML/JavaScript


 Step 3. Paste the code below in the empty box:





 

Step 4. Now click on Save

google translate, blogger widgets, gadgets for blogspot
And you're done! Enjoy (:

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Simple Recent Posts Widget for Blogger/Blogspot

The main advantage on this Recent Posts widget is that it will show not only post titles, but also post excerpts or snippets, and it's easy to customize or apply different style on it. To make it fit your own design, you will need to modify the CSS style - you can change the link or background color, the size and color of text/links.

What you can do with this widget:
- display post titles only
- change the number of posts
- change the number of characters of the post snippet/excerpt
- show the post dates

See the screenshot below:

How to add Recent Posts Widget to Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger Dashboard > go to "Layout" and click the "Add a Gadget" link


Step 2. From the pop-up window, scroll down and choose HTML/JavaScript


Step 3. Select & Copy the code from one of the options below and paste it into the new HTML/JavaScript:

Option 1: Recent Posts Widget with Snippets




Recent Posts Widget


Option 2: Recent Posts Widget Showing Post Titles Only




Recent Posts Widget

Step 4. Customize it:
- Change 5 (option 1) and 10 (option 2) with the number of posts that you want to display.
- Change false to true if you want the posts dates to appear
- Change 100 (option 1) if you want more characters to be displayed.
- To change the color and font size of the links, modify the values in blue (links) and violet (font-size)
- To change the style of posts summary, modify the values in green (color) and orange (font size)
- Replace the http://blog-address.com text with your URL

Step 5. Save your widget. And that's it! Enjoy!

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jeudi 26 avril 2012

How to Choose Your Blog Niche

Question Mark Man
Guest Post By Sally Shaws.Want to get involved ? See how you can become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

You’re dying to blog. You’re an avid reader of other blogs and you’re aware of just how much money bloggers can make working from home, in their pyjamas; or even in the buff, if the weather is warm enough.

Or so they say. The truth of professional blogging is that it’s just like any other job; hard work. It requires dedication, some guts – you’re going it alone – and savvy about how to make a success of blogging.

The first task facing any would-be professional blogger is to choose the niche he or she is going to pursue. This comes long before you commission a web designer, or start thinking about themes for your blog. Themes are just wallpaper, after all. What you’re choosing will be the guts of your operation and you want to be sure they are healthy and long lasting, not keeling over within six months.

There are two parts to choosing your niche: the What and the How .
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A Beautiful jQuery Drop-Down Menu For Blogger Blogspot

Alright, this time, we are going to make a stylish and simple jQuery drop down menu. The main objective is to make it as simple as possible, with some little jQuery effect and easy to customize/ apply different style on it. To style it into your own design, you just have to modify the a tag CSS style. You can change colors or put background images, or the size and color of text.
jquery menu, menu blogger

How to Add jQuery Drop-Down menu in Blogger

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and go to Template - Edit HTML


Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box


Step 3. Type or paste this tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:
]]>
Step 4. Add the following CSS just above ]]>
#jsddm {
height: 40px;
margin: 0;
overflow: visible;
z-index: 2;
padding: 15px;
position:relative;
}
#jsddm li {
float: left;
list-style: none;
font: 12px Tahoma, Arial;
}
#jsddm li a {
display: block;
white-space: nowrap;
margin:1px 3px;
border: 1px solid #AAAAAA;
background: #cccccc;
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, from(#ebebeb), to(#cccccc));
background: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #ebebeb, #cccccc);
padding: 5px 10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 5px;
-moz-border-radius: 5px;
border-radius: 5px;
text-shadow: #ffffff 0 1px 0;
color: #363636;
font-size: 15px;
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Sans-Serif;
text-decoration: none;
vertical-align: middle;
}
#jsddm li a:hover {
background: #C8C8C8;
}
#jsddm li ul {
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
position: absolute;
visibility: hidden;
border-top: 1px solid white;
}
#jsddm li ul li {
float: none;
display: inline;
}
#jsddm li ul li a {
width: auto;
background: #CAE8FA;
}
#jsddm li ul li a:hover {
background: #A3CEE5;
}

Step 5. Find this tag:
Step 6. Add this script right above/before it:
Step 7. Hit the "Save Template" button to save the changes.

Step 8. Now let's add the HTML structure of the menu: Go to Layout > click on "Add a gadget" link


Step 9. Choose HTML/JavaScript from the pop-up window


Step 10. Paste the following code in the empty box:
Note : Change the titles and replace the # symbol with the URL address of each of your links

Step 11. Click the "Save" button.


Important:
- if your menu is on the sidebar, or footer, just drag it to your page header and click Save again.
- if drop down links are not showing, do the following:

Go back to Template > Edit HTML and search (CTRL + F) this code:
Change 1 with 3 and no with yes like this:
Save the Template.

And again, go to Layout and drag the menu immediately below the header


Click the "Save Arrangement" on the upper right side and that's it!


Here you can see the DEMO.

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mercredi 25 avril 2012

How to draw a fine line between plagiarism and inspiration

Line Between Plagiarism And Inspiration
Guest Post By Michael Evans.Want to get involved ? See how you can become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

"Good Artists Borrow, Great Artists Steal” – definitely an inspirational quote for all those artists out there who are struggling to give their creativity wings. So, to be a great artist, you need to master the art of stealing right? Well, in the blogosphere, stealing is a dirty little word abhorred or seems to be abhorred by artists from all walks of life. So, everyone around hates “Stealing’ right? An emphatic Yes is likely to follow but what about the latest trends of blatantly copying the concepts of others and then passing it off as another great case of drawing sustenance in the form of ‘Inspiration’. Be it movie, music or our very own blogosphere, stealing in the name of inspiration has become a common practice and of late, it has become a disturbing trend. Now, the million dollar question is how we are supposed to differentiate between simple inspiration and plagiarism.

A tough nut to crack but let’s give it a try.
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mardi 24 avril 2012

Blogger SEO - Add A Meta Description To Your Full Blog And Each Post (Video Tutorial)

Blogger SEO
Last month Blogger added some great new search options to help your blog be indexed and rank higher in search results on Google and other search engines.Two of the main options added are Meta descriptions, a full blog description and individual posts descriptions.In the video below we show you how to set up and add meta descriptions to your blog and posts.

Blog Meta Description - This is a description of your entire blog.You use this to describe your entire blog to search engines.

Posts Meta Description - This is a description added to every individual post on your blog.You use this to tell search engines what each post is about.

Blog Meta Description An Post Meta Description Video Tutorial

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dimanche 22 avril 2012

7 Ways To Get More People To Share Your Blog Posts

Share Social Bookmarking
Guest Post By Diana Maria.Want to get involved ? See how you can become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

As an active member of various social media platforms, you would be searching effective ways to get consistent and referral traffic for your posts. Viral marketing is the way to go if you want to measure the success of your posts. But getting people to share your posts can often become a cumbersome task. One needs to get rocking on the engagement strategies amongst the followers and fan group. To gain more insight and to learn tricks of the trade, continue to read below.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

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jeudi 19 avril 2012

Make Money On Blogger With Google Affiliate Ads

Google Affiliate Network Logo Square
Blogger have introduced a new way to make money with your blog.Google Affiliate Ads can be easily added to your posts to display links and image ads connected to your content.The ads run through your AdSense account, payments will be added to your AdSense account so of course you will need an AdSense account to run the Affiliate ads.The ads can be easily added via the post settings in your Blogger Post Editor.Importantly Google Affiliate ads are only available to Bloggers in the USA.The Blogger team put together the video below to explain how it works.
Click Here To View Full Post >>

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mercredi 18 avril 2012

How to Add Emoticons/Smileys in Blogger Comments

Emoticons/Smileys are a great way of making discussions more interesting and fun, so it's a pity that Blogger don't support them. In this tutorial, I will show you some simple steps on how to add some very cool emoticons called Kolobok to your Blogger/Blogspot comments, so that you and your blog visitors will be able to have an enjoyable time together.

UPDATE: Now available for threaded commenting system too!
emoticons in blogger, kolobok smileys, threaded comments



How To Add Kolobok Smileys to Blogger Comments

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and go to Template - Edit HTML


Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the search box


Step 3. Search (CTRL + F) for this tag:

Step 4. Copy and paste just above it, this code:

a) For previous commenting system with comments that have no reply function:




Show Emoticons

Note: Ignore steps 11-12 if you are using threaded comments!

Step 11. Finally, find this code
]]>
Step 12. Add this one below, just above ]]>
.emoticons {-moz-background-clip: -moz-initial;-moz-background-origin: -moz-initial;-moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;text-align: left;width:400px;}
.emoticons a, .emoticons a:hover {margin-left: 20px;text-decoration:none;}
Note: if you want to change the size of the emoticon container, edit the red code.

Step 13. Save the Template and you're done. Enjoy!

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