Blog Tutorials

In blog tutorials 4 – Layouts, Google’s Goose showed you the layout structure. An overview of the Add and Arrange Page Elements page was given explaining what can be done through this page. Now, let's do it.

Note : This tutorial is only for Layout Templates and not Classic Templates.

Click here to go to the Blogger sign-in page.

Sign-in with your username and password.

The Dashboard appears



Click on layout







The Add and Arrange Page Elements’ page appears


This is the actual structure of your blog. Or, as said in the last tutorials, the skeleton of the blog.

First on the structure is the skeleton of the Navbar which when dressed up with skin appears at the top of your blog and looks as shown in the following figure:



To change the color of the Navbar

1. Click on Edit on the right side of the Navbar.

The Navbar Configuration page appears


2. Select a Navbar that you want to display by clicking the radio button.

3. Click Save


Next after the Navbar is the Header. It displays the title of the blog.

Here you can change the title of the blog and write a description that will appear below the title.

You can also add an image as a background to the title or as the title image replacing the default title.

To Change the Title of the Blog

1. Click on Edit.

The Configure Header page appears


2. Type a new title in the Blog Title box.

To Add a Blog Description

Type the blog description in the blog description box.





To Add an Image to the Header

1. Click on Browse if the image is stored on your computer.
Or
Type the website address where the image is located.

2. Click on “behind title and description” if you want the image as a background.
Or
Click on “instead of title and description” if the image is designed to be the title image.

3. Check “Shrink to fit” if the image is bigger than 760 pixels.

4. Click Save.


After the Header is the Blog Posts and next to it are the sidebars stacked vertically. The position of these boxes can be changed – one can be shifted above the other by dragging it. The Add a Page Element box is not displayed on your blog as it is empty. Therefore, the Blog Archive will be the first element to be displayed on your blog. The next will be “About Me”. So, let us start with what is already on display by default.


Blog Archive

1. Click on Edit in the blog archive box.

The Configure Archive page pops up


2. Choose the style of display that you want for your archive list by clicking on the radio button. The default is Hierarchy. The preview of the style that you select is shown below. Make changes to the other options as required.

3. Click Save.





About Me

About Me is for displaying your profile. It is optional. You can remove it if you do not want it. If you want to display your profile, then click on Edit in the About Me box.

The Configure Profile page pops out


You can change the “About Me” title to something funny or fancy e.g. Blog Host or Bloggy Man, or the name you sign your post with.

In the description box, you can type something about yourself.

You can display your location also if you wish.

Click Save to display changes or Remove to delete the whole profile.

Read about adding a new page element in the next post.

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Layout Templates – Page Elements

Blog Tutorials 3 explained using the transliteration tool for publishing in other languages besides English. So, we are done with publishing messages using the post editor – the main section of any blog. But, besides the main post section, there are many other sections of the blog, for example, the title header, the sidebar and the footer.

The sidebar is the column space next to the main section. This is the space that you usually see on websites that contain either link buttons, contents besides the main content, advertisements or anything else that is less important than the main content.

This blog has the sidebar on the right side. You can see the blog archive, a link, “ads by Google”, some content related to this blog, but not the actual content for which purpose this blog has been created, and a visitor’s counter. For getting all these contents, we require something similar to the post editor. But, anything like the post editor will help only in publishing text messages. What about the “ads by Google” and the visitor’s counter? That means there should be something more than a post editor. Yes! There certainly is something to help you achieve all this. You can put anything you wish to display in the sidebar with the help of a user friendly interface that has been provided. So, let us first get to know about this interface.

Note : This tutorial is only for Layout Templates and not Classic Templates.

Click Blogger to go to the Blogger sign-in page.

Sign-in with your username and password.

The Dashboard appears



Click on layout







The Add and Arrange Page Elements’ page appears


This is the actual structure of your blog. You can call it the skeleton of your blog. Here you can see the Navbar, sorry, the skeleton of the Navbar which when dressed up with skin appears at the top of your blog and looks as shown in the figure below:






Next after the Navbar is the Header. It displays the title of the blog.

Now, comes the Blog Posts section through which your messages are displayed. Next to it you will see small, rectangular boxes. This is the sidebar section. The first box is the Add a Page Element box. The next is Blog Archive and the last one is a About Me box.

The Blog Archive will contain a list of the title of all the messages that you post.

From the About Me box you can display your profile.

Now, if you want to add anything new, you will have to click on the first box of Add a Page Element. When you click on Add a Page Element the following window appears :

From this window, you can add all the features that you see in this blog’s sidebar plus many more that you can think up of.

All these sections can be customized according to your design needs by learning about them in detail in the next blog tutorials.

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Blog Tutorials 3

In blog tutorials 2 you learned about posting a properly formatted message. All the tools and their usage were explained in that blog tutorial by Google's Goose. But, a few were left unexplained. You will learn about them in this tutorial.

To Upload a Video Clip

1. Click on

The Add a Video page appears

2. Click on Browse and select the video clip that you wish to upload.
3. Type the title that you wish to give to the video clip.
4. Click in the small box to agree to Upload Terms and Conditions.
5. Click on Upload Video

To Post Messages in Other Languages – Transliteration

Suppose you want to write the word आप in Hindi language.
1. Click on
2. Select Hindi
3. Type the Hindi word in English with the spelling that you would use to pronounce it correctly in English, that is “aap”.
4. Press the spacebar.
5. The English “aap” turns into Hindi आप .

Remember, the English spelling should convey the correct sound of the pronounced word. Although, the dictionary sometimes substitutes with the correct spelling, it is a good habit to spell them correctly in English so that the Hindi spelling is correct. You can also edit the spelling once and the dictionary will remember it the next time you type the word.

If, after formatting your message text by changing the font style, font size or color etc., you need to remove it and replace it with the original text, then click on

That ends the explanation of all the usages of all the tools on your post text editor. Now, before publishing you can preview your post by clicking on

Finally, if you don’t wish to publish your post right away but want it posted at a future date, then click on

The Post Options panel appears

1. Change the date when you want your post to be published.
2. Change the time at which you want your post to be published.
3. Click
4. Relax! Your post will be published automatically on the date and time specified by you.

Enjoy Blogging!

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Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization was always considered as a waste of money. Search engine optimization experts were considered as cons out to make money and wipe out your site’s existence from the virtual world. But, Wordtracker proved all these misgivings wrongs.

Google’s Goose, i.e. this blog and not Google's Goose, the goose creek data center of Google in South Carolina, ranked 10th on the first search result page of Google for the search “google’s goose” (without the quotes) done on 30-6-08 without the employment of any search engine optimization program.

A day later, this goose vanished. The first 10 search result pages of around 3 million pages didn’t display it. Panic? No. Search engine optimization? Yes! That’s why Wordtracker appears as a post this week instead of the blog tutorials. Wordtracker’s search engine optimization program helped to rank this blog 4th on the first search result page of more than 5 million pages on 3-7-08 for the search done for “google’s goose” (without quotes).



Wordtracker's search engine optimization program is not only an excellent program but is also easy to follow. It is devised for the lay man just as this blog. And, finally, the best part of it is that it is cheap and gives more value than it is worth which cannot be said of other search engine optimization programs. Take a trial today and see the results tomorrow.

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Blog Tutorials 2

In the first blog tutorials you learned about creating a blog. Google's Goose taught you how to open an account with Bloggers and post a message. You must have even posted a message by now. But, if you have not, then you can learn from this tutorial the basics of blog and how to post a properly formatted message.

Type the following address in the address bar of your browser : https://www.blogger.com/start and press Enter on your keyboard.

The Blogger login page appears


1. Sign-in with your username and password.








The Dashboard page appears

2. Click on New Post.







The Post page appears

3. Type your message that you wish to post.

4. Select the message.

5. There are toolbars on the top of the post page as shown in the post page figure. If you do not see the full toolbar, then click on

These are optional instructions and should be performed only if you need to change the look of your messages.

6. To change the font style.

a. Click on

7. To change the size of your fonts.

a. Click on

8. To make any word bold.

a. Click on

9. To make any word italic.

a. Click on

10. To change the colour of the text.

a. Click on

11. To align the text.

a. Click on to Align Left.

b. Click on to Align Center.

c. Click on to align to Right.

d. Click on to Justify.


12. For a number list.

a. Click on

13. For a list with bullets

a. Click on

14. For putting blockquotes.

a. Click on

15. To check spellings.

a. Click on

16. To Insert a Photo along with your message.

a. Click on

A new page pops up


b. Click on Browse to select an image that is stored on your computer.

c. If you wish to link to an image on the net or some other website, then type the website address (URL) in the box given on the right.

d. Select Left, Right or Center to position your photo accordingly.

e. Select the image size – small, medium or large.

f. Click on the small square box if you want to use this image size and position every time.

g. If you are uploading an image for the first time, click on the small square box to accept the Terms of Service.

h. Click on Upload.


i. Click on Done.








17. To Create a Hyperlink

To make a word to be a link to any other page or website

a. Select that word and click on

A Hyperlink dialog box will appear


b. If you want that word to link to a website, then type the address of the website in the URL box and click OK.






c. If you want that word to link to your e-mail, then click on the inverted arrow of the type box – a drop-down menu will appear.

d. Click on mailto:

e. Type your e-mail address in the URL box and click OK.

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Blog Tutorials 1

Finally, Google's Goose is getting ready to lay the golden eggs after a lot of quack, quack. So, switch on your computer and modem, open Internet Explorer and type the following address in the address bar of your browser : https://www.blogger.com/start and press Enter on your keyboard.

The blogger login page appears.


1. Click on the orange arrow at the bottom displaying Create Your Blog Now.

The Create a Google Account page appears.

2. Type your email address in the box provided.

3. Type a password; it can be different from the password you use to access your email.

4. Type the name that you want to use for posting messages. This name will display under the post messages as the author’s name.


5. Type the characters for Word Verification. Word Verification is case sensitive. Therefore, the characters should be typed as they appear, i.e. if the character is a capital letter, then it should be typed in capital.

6. Click on the small square box in front of I accept the Terms of Service.


7. Click on the orange arrow to Continue.


The Name your Blog page appears.

8. Type the title of the blog. This title will appear on your blog page.

9. Type the name that you want to use for your blog address. It can be same as your blog title but, it should be available. So, after typing your blog address, click on Check Availability to see whether it is available or not. If it is available, then proceed to step 11. If it is not available, then type a new name.

10. Click on the orange arrow to Continue.


The Choose a template page appears.


11. Click on the radio button, i.e. the small round button next to the name of the templates, to select a template that will be the design of your blog page. You can scroll down to see more templates.

12. Click on the orange arrow to Continue.

13. Congrats! You have created your blog.

14. Now, open another Internet Explorer window.

15. Log into your email that you used to register your blog.

16. Open the mail that you have received from Google.






17. Click on the given link to verify and activate your blog.


18. Go back to the blog window and click on the orange arrow to Start Blogging.







The Post page appears

19. This is the post page. Type whatever you want to publish.

20. Click on the Publish Post button at the bottom to publish your post message.

21. If you wish to start publishing (posting) later, click on the Sign-out link on the top-right corner of your blog page.

HAPPY BLOGGING !

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