Editing Your Blogger Design & Layout

NOTE: For information on editing and creating your blog using the Blogger in Draft, and the new Template Designer, please see this OTHER (newer) post!

Carrying on with the instructions for personalizing your blogger design, this post will explain the functions in the Layout tab.

Under the main layout tab you'll find a series of other pages: Page Elements, Fonts and Colours, Edit HTML and Pick New Template.

Page Elements

The page elements tab is where you'll find things like gadgets (other blogging platforms like wordpress call these add-ons "widgets", blogger calls them gadgets). Depending on the Blogger template you are using you will either have a "sidebar" on the left hand or right hand side, or in some cases you may have one both sides, with the post template in the middle. These instructions are for use with templates available directly through the "pick template" function in Blogger. If you've uploaded a custom template, these instructions may work the same.

In the following image you'll notice a couple of errors on the page - it doesn't say "error" but I know it is one. In the right hand column there is no "ad gadget" link at the top of the column, and there should be. If you follow the sidebar column to the bottom, you'll notice that it is cut off, with no access to any of the gadgets beneath the last HTML/Javascript gadget.


I have no idea why this occurs, but it has ocurred in my blogger account for a long time now. The way I get it to correct is to click the "view blog" link in the menu at the top of the page.


This loads the blog into the browser. In the navbar there is an option to customize your blog. If you click that, it takes you back to the layout page, but shows the correct editing functions now. This may not be necessary for everyone - many blogs seem to work properly, but if you find yours giving the same errors, try the fix I've posted.


To add different things to your sidebars, or above or below the main posting template you click the "add gadget" link for the area where you want to add that item. There are numerous gadgets available - a text box for just adding text, a link gadget for adding lists of links (in the sidebar of this blog you are reading, the menu was created using a links gadget), a picture gadget for adding pictures, an HTML/Javascript for adding things like codes (and javascripts, like adsense or others), there's even an adsense gadget.


When you click the add gadget link, a box opens with a bunch of gadgets in a list that you can scroll through and select the gadget you want to add. When you select a gadget to add, if it has parameters for you to set (like links to add, or a picture to add, colors, etc.) the gadget opens to allow you to make these entries, and when you click save, the new gadget appears in your sidebar.

Adding gadgets to your footer, below your header or at the end of the posts template works in the same way.

To make changes to your header, like replacing it with a picture or changing the title that displays, select the edit button on the header (right below the navbar). If your template allows images to display instead of (or behind) the text for your header the option will be here to upload an image, and to decide if you want it to be instead of the title, or behind the title. If you have a header image that you've already added text to, then you would want choose "instead of", but if you just have a picture and still want to see the title of your blog, then you would select "behind".

You can make changes to the colour of your navbar so that it more closely matches the colours selected for your blog, or so that it contrasts. Click the edit button on the navbar and select the choice you want for your navbar color.


Fonts and Colors

To go beyond just adding gadgets, you can set the fonts and colours in your blog by choosing the fonts and colours tab. The opens an editing box above your blog. On the left you'll see a list of the items you can change the colours for in your blog. Different template choices allow different options - some allow changing the background colours, while some don't. As you make the colour changes the results will display in your blog below. Once you are satisfied, click save.


Edit HTML

This one I'll leave til the next post.

Pick New Template

This option allows you to browse and select the standard blogger templates to preview how your blog would look before opting to change it. When you click the Pick New Template link, the templates page opens. To preview a different template, click the radio button in the one you want to see and then select the preview link below it. It will show you how your blog will look using that template.

The Wrong Way to Get Adsense

There are a lot of wrong ways to get an AdSense account - any time you are asked to pay for anything related to an AdSense account approval, think twice before you do.

Why? Because AdSense is free to those whose websites fall within the appropriate guidelines. If you try to buy your way into AdSense, then in the end, you will find your account disabled because your website wasn't compliant with AdSense policies. Buying yourself an adsense account will do nothing except part you from your money, and you probably won't have the account long enough to collect any earnings from it.

Sites like this one will do you no good at all, and simply cost you money. ADSENSE DOES NOT HAVE ANY AUTHORIZED "resellers or redistributors" for AdSense. So if it looks too good to be true, it probably is. I'll say it again 'ADSENSE IS FREE TO THOSE WHO QUALIFY' and useless if you can't maintain a website that qualifies, so buying an account is not going to help at all.

Recently on the AdSense forums we've seen a number of complaints from publisher's about low earnings from clicks. In many cases earnings are based on so many factors that's it is difficult for us to know why - sometimes the advertisers are paying less, sometimes the person's site is in a niche that just doesn't pay high click rates, sometimes the quality of the site is lacking or has a lot of copied content, and sometimes the visitor rates are so low that a low CTR and ePCM might have a hand it in. There's a lot of factors for low click rates. NOBODY likes getting paid 1 cent for a click, but there isn't always an easy way to change that.

Beware of people asking for money in order to help you. If you decide to contact a reputable online company for help with SEO to get your websites in better shape, that's up to you. If someone approaches you first with an email that reads something like the one below - think twice, and maybe three times before you part with your very hard earned money. Promising a specific number of clicks per day just smacks of fraud - such as those found in "click-rings" (adsense bans accounts involved in click-rings or paid for clicks), and nobody can guarantee you a specific amount of earnings in a day. Not with adsense.

Nobody can guarantee you approval at adsense either - only AdSense has the right to issue AdSense accounts, so here's a big warning - DO NOT PAY FOR ANY.

Tell your friends to avoid suspect behaviour like the ones seen in the email below. You'll be doing yourself and your friends a favour by keeping your account in good standing and avoiding any sign of suspicious or fraudulent activity.

Hi friend,

I am (XXXX) from (XXXX), an online marketing and revenue generation professional
working on development and marketing to a lot of websites and blogs.

as you see today in the adsense forum there are too many questions like
"why my earnings are getting reduced suddenly"
"the number of visits and the clicks are same but revenue is very less, why?"
"the e CPM of my page was around 0.80, but now it has gone below 0.20, why?"
"i am literally seeing clicks and pagevisits, but no revenue generated? why?"
etc.etc.

people are finding it very difficult to understand the reasons and a few blame
google for their loss in revenue generation. But if you are able to concentrate
a bit and do certain things that are very well acceptable by google's policies,
and follow certain important instructions, you can ofcourse increase your
traffic and ofcourse i can guarantee you of clicks and revenue not less than
a eCPM of 0.90 per click and atleast a revenue of $40 to50 per day.

I assure you of the following
1. 75 to 100 clicks per day

2. Increasing the eCPM to 0.90 (i shall give you a small training on what to do
to increase the click though rates, that is the revenue you generate per click
will be 0.80 to 0.90 cents instead of just 0.02 or 0.03 per click)

3. Assured earnings of $45 to $50 per day.

Apart from the above package, you can also write to me for any customised
needs and requests and i am ready to help you out.

I do take a minimum charge for the above service. You can also contact me
to get a new adsense account approval also. This can be done within a week
and all the services are 100% safe as per google adsense policies and rules.

thanks

Editing Your Blogger Settings

NOTE: For information on editing and creating your blog using the Blogger in Draft, and the new Template Designer, please see this OTHER (newer) post!

Well, as it turns out this is rather late, and most of you will already have figured out where to go and how to change your templates after you got set up.

For those that haven't - following is some simple changes to help you personalize your blog.


SETTINGS TAB

When you select the settings tab, you are first presented with the Basic changes page. Along the top of the menu bar, just below the settings tab you will see a series of other links, like Basic (the page you will be on first), Publishing, Formatting, Comments, Archiving, Site Feed, Email & Mobile, Open ID, and Permissions.


Basic

When you login to your dashboard, select the settings tab to make changes to your blog's title and description, and whether or not your blog is displayed in blog listings, or if your blog can be found by search engines, whether or not your blog is family rated or contains adult materials, and you can also select which blog editor you wish to use - the "old" one or the updated one.

You can also enable trasliterations for your blog as well - the languages covered are Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.

And finally, if you decide you want to delete your blog, you can do it here on this page as well. Another helpful option here is the ability to import another blogger blog into the one you are working in. In order to do that, you would first need to export the other blog using the export function, and then selecting the exported file to import into this blog.

Publishing

The publishing page allows you to select some options for the publishing of your blog by giving you an option to point your own custom domain name (which you would need to purchase) at your blog, changing it's URL from a blogspot address to a .com, .net, .org address instead, depending on what type of domain address you purchase.

WARNING: for those of you using adsense on your blogs, this DOES NOT mean that you will need to change your ad set up to AdSense for Domains. AdSense for Domains is ONLY for domains with no website or blog - it is for an empty domain. If you change the domain settings following AdSense for Domains instructions, then your blog will disappear. Simply leave your current AdSense for Content ads on your blog.

Formatting

This page allows you to set the number of posts that will display at one time on a page. I believe the default setting is 7, which is usually too many. Most readers will not want to be confronted with that much at one time. I generally set my own to 1, but an average display runs between 3 and 5.

If you are using adsense between your posts, a good number is 2 or 3 - any more than that can affect whether or not ads will display in your sidebar since AdSense only allows 3 ad units on a page. If you set your blog to display 5 posts on a page, you may get 3 ad units between the posts, and none on the sidebar, unless some of your ads are set to link units.

On this plage you can also set the formatting for your date and time, your time zone, your blog's language, whether or not you want the title fields displayed.

Lastly, at the bottom of this page is a box that will allow you to post a line or paragraph of text or code that you want to have displayed in every single post you make. See the little "add this" bookmarking button at the top of the posts in this blog? Well the code for that is what I entered into the post template. Now, whenever I create a new post, that little bookmarking button is already at the top of each post. (by the way, you can get that great little social bookmarking button from AddThis.com, free)

Comments

This section allows you choose whether or not comments are allowed or displayed, whether you want to moderate comments or not, and whether or not you want the back links to show.

Archiving

This page allows you to set your archiving options - monthly, daily, weekly or no archive. It also allows you to set post pages. Setting post pages allows each post your make to have it's own unique webpage, so it's a good idea to do this. Whether or not you are allowed to set post pages will depend on the way you have chosen to set your comments, so you may have to move back and forth between the post page and the comments page until they are set correctly.

Site Feed

Here you can set your preferences for your site feed, and if you use another method for burning feeds, then you set the redirect url here as well. If you have a message you want to place for each post feed, there is a message box at the bottom of this page that allows you to place codes for advertising or other messages.



Email & Mobile

If you want to post to your blog via your email, or by mobile you can set up those functions on this page.

Permissions

Allows you to set permissions for your blog - who can see it, who can post it, etc. Here you can invite other authors to participate in making posts to your blog.

How to Start a Blog Using Blogger

Since I've had a number of requests for help getting started with blogger, I'm going to do a "step-by-step" with pictures and text for those who have never ever even looked at or know what a blog is.

Before you start a blog, you need to decide what your subject will be - what you are going write about and put in your blog. What it shouldn't be is something you have no clue about: if you aren't doctor or nurse or paramedic, don't write about medical stuff. If you've never earned a penny doing something online, then don't write about earning money online. Select a subject you have some knowledge about, or something you enjoy. If you have a hobby, like diecast toys or antiques, then write about that. If you are simply a mom whose kids have given her tons of hilarious things to write about (like Erma Bombeck), then write about that. Whatever it is you choose, you have to be able to write from knowledge and experience. Don't think you can start a blog and copy stuff from all over the internet. That just won't fly for AdSense.

So, now that you've picked a subject you have to decide on a name for your blog. Think of a couple that match your subject matter, mainly because someone else may already have a blog with the name you pick, so you want to be ready with a second choice. Or, you can simply use your name, like "Gracey's" or "What Gracey Thinks".

To begin you have to sign up so you type www.blogger.com into your search bar and find the home/sign up page. Then, you sign up for a free account, and when your registration is complete you'll be presented with a "blogger dashboard" (click the images to see a larger view).

On the dashboard, you can select your language, and click the "create a blog link".



Next you'll be presented with a page where you name your blog, and select the URL (blog address or web address) that you'll use for your new blog. When you type in the blog name and URL (the url can be the same as your blog name if nobody is using it) click the link to check if it's available. If so, you can continue and fill in the captcha letters. If someone else is using it, you have to pick a new one and try again.

Once you click the "continue" button you'll be presented with a page where you can pick a blog template - this is the design or the way the blog will look.



Select a design by clicking the button under it. It doesn't really matter much what you choose to get started with - changing the template later is easy, and takes nothing more than clicking a button. Customized template designs are something for those with a litle experience, so we're starting with the basics offered in blogger.

Click continue and you'll get a page like this:


So now the basic layout and setup has been finished and your blog is ready for you to start typing in. Click the start blogging button and it takes you to a page where you can enter your first post.


This is the "blog editor" or "wysiwyg editor". It's what you'll use to enter information and images, even videos into your posts.

Across the top of the editor are options like "font" (in a drop down box) where you pick the type of lettering you want, next is a large and small T with an arrow - when you click that you make your text bigger or smaller.

The "b" lets you make bold text (highlight the text by clicking, holding down your mouse button and dragging across all the text you want to make bold, then click on the "b"); the little i gives you italic text (done the same way as you get bold).

The T with the coloured box changes your text colour; the small globe with the chain link across the top helps you make links.

The next series with all those little lines let you decide whether your text starts at the left (left justified), or is centered, or is right justified, or is justified across the entire page.

The small lines with numbers next to them lets you make a numbered list, the ones with little squares lets you make a bulleted list.

The quotation lets you make a block quote, and the ABC with the check mark is a spell-checker. Next to that is a tiny picture - click that to insert an image from your computer or an address on the internet. The next little picture lets you add a video, and the last icon - is an eraser that removes formatting from a specific selection of text.

Okay, so now you know it all. Well, not exactly, but you should have an idea of how to get started.

To write your first post, you simply start typing in the editor's text box. It works like most text boxes.

When you are finished entering your article, or story or text, you can add labels for your post. This helps search engines and readers find your content - labels work a little bit like keywords do. Then, you click "publish post" and you can click the "view blog" link at the top to see your blog with it's first post.


There are a lot of things not covered here because this post is already very long. The next one will cover the settings in your blog, and how to change the header to use an image, how to change the colour of the the navbar (that bar at the top), how to add gadgets to your sidebar and other fine-tuning details of setting up a blog that not only has good and interesting articles, but that looks good too.

Until then, make some posts and explore your blogger options. Oh - one thing - don't mess with the templates html unless you know what you are doing, and DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT try to monetize your blog at this point. Leave that until you've got some content worthy of having advertising on it.

AdSense Privacy Policy - Adding it to Blogger Blogs

In the last few months or so I’ve had to make use of the google help forums and discovered that there is a never-ending stream of questions coming into the help centers. Some quite simple, but others much more complex. What I also discovered is that help can sometimes be as simple as pointing someone to the right link in the vast network of google help links.
I am no expert on google or it’s help systems, but for the most part I have learned how and where to find help when I need it. What you’ll find though, is that getting a direct answer from any person who actually works for or is approved by google is difficult, at best.
Any email to support generally results in a form-letter reply directing you to a help forum for the area you are asking about. Considering the shear number of emails that must head towards google help centers every minute of every day, that really isn’t all that surprising.
I doubt any one entity that large could respond with personal emails to that volume of mail. But the help centers can be very useful once you learn how to navigate them.
While not related to all the google categories where you can find help, I’ve created a tutorial to help bloggers out a little bit – it walks you through the steps to add a Privacy Policy to your blogger blog, using written instructions as well as pictures in an easy-to-follow step-by-step manner.

Please note that this .pdf tutorial was updated Dec. 6, 2010 to include using your privacy policy on a static page on blogger with the pages gadget.

Adding A Privacy Policy to A Blogger Blog 

(please note:  unfortunately due to people trying to link directly to the server to to allow this to be downloaded from their own sites, I've had to password protect the tutorial. The password to open the file is: getthisfromgracey)
 
Links to Help Forums

Google Help Centres – all one page for all your google services

SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY TEXT

Privacy Policy

We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. (This privacy policy is applicable to websites falling under the primary holder fill in your website(s) and urls here.)

Routine Information Collection

All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.

Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.

Controlling Your Privacy

Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.

Special Note About Google Advertising

Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.

About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher’s website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

Some third-party avertisers used by Google may use a different cookie. You may opt out of most-third party advertising cookies by following this link and visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page, or by visiting this Consumers page to opt out of all advertising cookies.

Contact Information

Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to fill in your contact information here for further clarification.

(originally posted by the writer, me, on one of my other sites)