Blog adviser

How to make ShareThis button

2009-08-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

Yo everyone! Today I will try to teach you how to add Share This button under each of your posts. The button allows other people to share your posts on social websites like Facebook, Digg, Technoratti, MySpace, Twitter.... So it can get you some more traffic.

Step 1
Open this page in your browser. Customize your button how ever you want, but make sure that on 'Step 2: Chose your service' you chose 'Any website', even if you will use it for other 3 services.

Step 2
When you're done, click 'Get Share this code'. The page should reload and code should appear. Copy the code or save it somewhere.

Step 3
Go to Dashboard - Layout - Edit HTML. Check 'Expand Widgets'. Find the following line of code:

<data:post.body/></div>

under the tag, paste the code you got before on Share This website.

Step 4
Now visit your blog. Under each post there should be a Share This icon. If something's wrong please leave a comment.

Note: If you want some more space between your post and Share This icon, between '<data:post.body/></div>' tag and button code type following line:

<br/>

If it's still not enough, keep adding '<br/>' line, until you think it's good.

How to add a favicon to your blog

2009-08-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Today you will learn how to add a favicon to your blog. But what is favicon? I think that the picture below explains it best.

So, it's that little icon that you can see when you open a new tab, bookmark a link, search browsing history.... If you don't make your own, a standard blogger icon will appear instead. So, do you want to have a favicon? Well, here's how to make one.

Step 1
First, we have to create it. You can do it in programs like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Picasa.... But there are also free favicon generators on the internet. Just google "favicon generator" and you will find them. Use 16*16 or 32*32 pixsels size.

Step 2
Save your icon as .gif. Go to "Picasa Web albums" (just google it), and upload you image there. View the image and copy it's URL.

Step 3
Edit your template's HTML. Find the following code:

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Type this just after it:

<link href='*' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/x-icon'/>

Replace * with image's URL. Save the tamplate.

Step 4
Visit your blog. You should notice that your favicon has changed. If you have any problems or question, please leave a comment.

Add a new page to your blog

2009-08-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

Unlike worpress, blogger doesn't have ability to add new pages. So it can be a problem to add pages as 'About', 'Contact' or something similar. But there is a way to go around that problem which I use, and it works. So here's how to do it.

Step 1
For example, let's say you want to add 'About' page. After you log in to your blogger account, write a post containing the text you want in the about page. Now click 'Post Options', and choose a date that has already passed. Let's say you choose 01/07/09. We have to choose a date before today so the post won't appear on your blog's homepage. Publish the post

Step 2
Now we have to copy the new post's URL. I think that the easiest way is to check your blog archive, find the 'About' post, click and copy the URL in the address-bar.

Step 3
It depends on where you want your 'About' link to be, but I guess you have a Navigation-bar, so it probably look something like this:

<li><a href='Your-link-here'>About us</a></li>

Just put your post link where it says 'Your-link-here' and that's it. If you have any questions please feel free to comment.

How to make categories

2009-08-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

Maybe you already know that blogger, unlike tyepad, doesn't have categories widget. But you can make it, and I will tell you how: here's a step-by-step tutorial.

Step 1
Before doing anything else, we need to know what categories do we want. So open a notepad and start writing.

Step 2
Log in to your blogger account. Go to Posting - Edit posts. Now start editing every post you have, and in 'Labels for this post' text box type the categories name that you want that post to be in. Publish the post.

Step 3
Now go to Layout - Page elements. Click 'Add gadget' and add a labels gadget. It somewhere down. Position the gadget where you want it to be.

Step 4
Go to your blog. There should be the labels gadget that we now use as categories.

SEO optimization tutorial

2009-07-31T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers!

Today I'm gonna teach you how to optimize SEO, and become the first in google results. If you wonder what SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is, there are plenty of different definitions, but I'd say its a process of getting your website ranked higher in the search engines for certain keywords pertaining to your business. Now why is SEO important? Well, millions and millions of people use Google, Yahoo, MSN and different search engines every day. So if your blog or web-site is the first result for certain keyword, imagine the traffic you get each day. It pretty much, don't you think? So here's how to make your site ranked higher in the search engines:

Web adress
It's important that your URL contains most important keyword. So, if your blog is about dogs, you won't call your site www.cats.com, but www.dogs.com. It's maybe a stupid example but you get the point....

Meta tags
Meta tags are HTML tags that help you control how some search engines may index your site, by using the keywords and descriptions you provide. So, it tells search engines what's your site about. I found this generator, and with it it's pretty simple to make meta tags. You can place them just under the 'html' tag.

Backlinks
Backlinks are links on another website that are directed towards your website. They are important for SEO because search engines, especially Google, more like websites that have many backlinks, so the sites are positioned higher in the results.

Backlicks text
It's important that backlink text has you blog's keyword. So, if you have a dogs' website, baclink text would rather be 'Dogs' or 'Dog blog' than just 'Click here' or 'Check this out!'. By following this example your blog will again be positioned higher on the results list.

Keyword density
Try to keep this on optimum - not to high and not to low. If it's to high you will be, as they call it 'keyword spammer', and if it's to low... it's not gonna help you. I found this generator that checks the keyword density. I suggest you not to go over 9-10%.

Be grammatically correct
Google is like a language teacher - he likes when you write grammatically correct. Maybe it's not as important as upper suggestions but it still helps a little.

That's it for now, I hope it helped. Of course, nothing of this is gonna works unless you have submitted your page to search engines. You can do it here.

How to add a new theme to your blog

2009-07-31T01:06:00.000-07:00

Hello dear readers!

As your blog starts to grow it very important not to use one of the standard blog themes. It's gonna look nicer and it will ad some professionalism. So let's do it, I will tell you how step by step.

Step 1
First let's find adequate template for your blog on the internet. Just type 'Free blogger templates' in google and search some, you will soon find a nice theme. I can recommend you this site, it seems OK.

Step 2
Let's download the template. There should be an icon that says 'download' somewhere by the template.

Step 3
I will explain this step for the mozilla users, but I'm sure that other will understand what to do. Go to Tools - Downloads, and a new window should open (Note: Sometimes the new window opens automatically after you make a download), and there should be your new download. Right click - Open Containing Folder. Now new window should appear, containing the template. Right click on the theme folder - Extract here. Now you should get a new file, that is not Ziped.

Step 4
Logg in to blogger.com, then go to Layout - Edit HTML. Click browse, and find the theme folder (Important: Don't open the Zip folder, but the extracted one.) Inside there should be an .xml file. Chose that one, and click upload. Before it uploads it, blogger will probably warn you that it has to delete some widgets. You can't save them, so just continue.

And that's it, your theme should be in use! If you have any questions, probblems or comments, please feel free to comment!

Top 5 quick blogging tips

2009-07-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

There are thousands tips about blogging on the internet. Some are more useful some are less, but here are top 5 blogging tips that I think are the best:

1. Be yourself
I think there's no reason to copy someone else. You should try be the same offline and online. If people like how you write they will come back.

2. Post frequently
I try to post every day, because I think then people will come back every day looking for a new post. If you don't write anything for a week, someone will sure think that you stopped writing and he will not come back.

3. Importance of content
I believe that content is most important to make visitors return. People come to your blog to read, not to see the design or something else.

4. Be nice
If someone comments on your post or sends you an e-mail, it's nice to thank him and answer his questions.

5. Be honest
Just be honest - people will appreciate it.

Make money blogging

2009-07-29T02:18:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Today I'm gonna share with you a few ways to earn money by blogging. I believe that 90% of blogs are making money. And why wouldn't they? Why wouldn't you? You lose almost nothing, but you can get much. So here are some ways to make money blogging:

Google Adsense
I think Adsense is the most simple way of making profit. When you use it, it adds some links on your blog and when someone clicks on the link, you get money.

AdBrite
There is no much difference between Adbrite and Adsense, only Adsense makes you more money, so it's probably better.

AdBrite Inline adds
This one is a little different. If you use it, some words in your text will be double-underlined, and they will have hyperlink. If someone clicks on hyperlinks, your wallet becomes thicker.

Text-link-adds.com
Pretty simple is how this work: They find a sponsor who pays you to put some links on your web page. Of course, sponsor won't come to a starter blog, but to one with much traffic.

PayPerPost and ReviewMe
Simply, after you sign up, clients will purchase reviews from you. You can get much money here, but you also have to be a got reviewer.

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OK, now you know how to get money with your blog. It's logically that you will get more money by having more visitors (or traffic they say), but more about it in one of my next posts.

4 unusual tips to promote your blog

2009-07-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

We've all googled 'How to promote your blog?', 'How to get more traffic to your blog' or something similar to that. And I've mostly found same tips on every page, so I decided to make a list of unusual (but very useful) ways to promote your blog.

1. Promote yourself on forums.
There are several ways to promote on forums. You can put you blog's link into your signature, you can put it below each post you make, and send personal messages to other people on forum (with your blog's link, of course). But be carfeoul and don't get to difficult.

2. Exchange links
This method can really help you in getting more traffic. I suggest you to try exchanging links with some popular blogs, or even web-sites, because more visitors they have - bigger chances they will click on your blog. If you've found a website you want to exchange links with, it's better to contact the owner by e-mail than by commenting one of his posts.

3. Comment other blogs
Again - if you comment more popular blogs, more people will see your blog. And still, don't just post a comment with your blog, but read the post and write something about it. It's very stupid to write just "nice post" or "cool blog". When you writethat, everyone knows you didn't even read the post. And that's not good.

4. E-mail a friend
Make an e-mail with your blog's adress, and type something like "please send this e-mail to another 5 people", and you start sending the e-mail to your contacts. Maybe some of them will continiue sending, and so on and so on. You can do the same with private messages on facebook, myspace and simmilar web-sites.

Add new page elements - Cool blogging trick!

2009-07-28T04:14:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone! I'd like to share this cool trick with you,in which you can put gadgets on the page header.Here we go:

1. Step:
Logg in to you blogger account. Click on Layout – Edit HTML. There you need to find this:

<div id='header-wrapper'>

The easiest way to find it is to copy the text above,go back to the page where you can edit your blog's HTML, then press Crtl+f on your keyboard and paste the text there.

2. Step:

Now you've found the HTML tag that we need. Under it there should be a text like following:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='1'showaddelement='no'>

It has to look like this:

<b:section class='header' id='header' maxwidgets='5'showaddelement='yes'>

So, we've replaced number '1' with '5' and 'no' with 'yes'.Make sure you save the template before you continue.

3.Step:
Go to Layout – Page elements. There you should be able to add gadgets on the blog header!

How to follow all recent comments

2009-07-28T02:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's hard to track all the new posts on your blog, especially if you have many of them. It can take a lot of time to scroll down to each post and check number of comments. But there is a way to view the 25 newest posts on your blog, no matter if they are on the oldest or the newest blog post, and I'm gonna show you how to do it. It can't be more simple, just type the following url in you browser's adress-bar:

YourBlogName.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/full

Of course, instead on 'YourBlogName' you have to type your blog's name, and that's it!

Contact

2009-07-02T01:16:00.000-07:00

Do you maybe want to ask me a question, give me a critic or compliment, write for me? Or just say hello? Please, feel free to contact me on lukablogger@yahoo.com

About us

2009-07-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello!

I'm glad you want to know something more about this blog. So here's the story:

I wanted to make some money, so I decided to make a blog. This was not my first blog, it was this one. But I didn't really make much money. So I decided to try with another blog, this time about blogging tips, tricks, seo, making money.... - and I made one (It's this one :)) It's still a little blog, but I hope it will grow and get more visitors each day.

Ask A Question

2009-07-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

If you maybe have some problems with your blog, or want to do something on it and you don't know how, you can ask me. Do it by posting a comment with your e-mail, or contact me on lukablogger@yahoo.com.

See you!