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Showing posts from August, 2014

How to Display Most Commented Posts in Blogger

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One of the best gadgets for your Blogger blog is a popular posts widget for your sidebar. This lets visitors see what your trending posts are right now and encourages them to click on them to read them. This basic widget is just a little too basic, however, for the modern day website visitor. Not only do they want to see your trending posts, but they also want to join the discussions that are happening on your blog. To do that, you'll need a most commented posts widget for Blogger. Having a customized widget on your site is a lot easier than you might think. In order to have an effective widget, however, you're going to need a few specific things to help you out. Demo Here's What You're Going To Get There are certain aspects in the design of a most commented posts widget that you should expect. That's why you'll find these specific components with this custom widget: Ordered by popularity. The posts that have the most comments are the most likely to have visito...

How Firebug Helps You Design Your Blogger Blog

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For most bloggers, the idea of adjusting the coding of their blog to improve the user experience is daunting at best and often quite frightening. HTML5, CSS, and other coding elements are their own virtual language and for the average Blogger user looking to update a personal blog, the automatic settings are about as good as it gets. What if there was a better way to code a blog, whether a beginner or a pro, that could be done within the browser itself? If you're using Firefox or Chrome, then you should also be using Firebug. It allows you to code your website in real time, so you can maximize the UX of your blog in no time at all. You No Longer Need To Edit Through Blogger! If you've ever tried to update a Blogger theme through the editing functions of the website, then you know how difficult it can be. You can preview your designs, but you can't save any changes to officially see what is going to happen with your site until you publish the edits. If you've missed just...

Add a Pinterest Pin It Mouseover Button on Blogger Images

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Images have always played a prominent role in attracting new visitors through search engines like Google and Bing. But when Pinterest decided to enter the social media mix, it upped the ante in a big way. Pinterest lets blog owners use their service to add a 'pin' to photos or content images on the site. When visitors of that site see a photo they like, they can choose to click on the red Pinterest button for Blogger, and add it to their Pinterest account. The person who pressed your Pinterest button for Blogger can now see your photo on their dashboard, and share it with friends or followers on the service. They can also come across this photo when users add keywords or category tags to the image. More importantly, that photo links to your site when clicked on and will contain a description title of your blog name or post. Therefore, adding the Pinterest button for Blogger will help you to benefit from tons of new traffic coming from Pinterest and people who had found your ph...

The Basics of Google Analytics for Beginners

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If you're a business owner or a member of a marketing team, you probably know that businesses depend upon data. Tracking trends and patterns is what allows you to get ahead of the dips in the market, and make informed decisions on the direction of your company. Those same rules that apply to business apply to owning a website. In order to deliver the best possible experience and ensure that customers from around the world are able to access your site, you need to understand from where traffic is coming from and how to leverage that information to your benefit. Setting Your Site Up With A Tracking ID Google Analytics won't start collecting data from your website until you've implemented a tracking code into your website's files. The tracking code is basically a block of JavaScript code that will collect data about the html that visitor used to get to your site, any cookies that the visitors has collected during their browsing history, and information about what type of b...

How to Center the Blogger Header Image

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The header of a website is what distinguishes your blog; it's your identity or digital fingerprint. Whenever a visitor accesses your blog for the first time, the header is one major aspect that is used to determine who you are and the type of content that they can expect to read. Therefore, it's important to develop a header that is both prominently placed and telling of your brand name. What would seem to be counterintuitive to that idea is the default Blogger settings for header positioning. Whenever you upload a header to the site, it will automatically be aligned to the left of the page. Some Blogger users may be okay with this setting, especially if they are using a header design that doesn't contain a background. Others may find that their background headers appear cut off, incomplete, or indistinguishable from the rest of their content. If you find yourself in the second category of users, there is a way to adjust the positioning of your header so that it is displaye...

Make Blogger Header, Navigation and Footer Full Width

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Blogger is a user-friendly service that provides a lot of really attractive looking default templates for those just starting out. Default templates come in handy, but the nice things about owning your own blog is that you have the chance to add your own personal touch. As a matter of fact, templates aren't made to restrict your freedom of design, but instead they're there to provide you a foundation to build from. With every default template available on Blogger, you can make changes to fit your style. One of the most common requests out of the Blogger community when making alterations is how to change the look of some of the key sections like header , navigation, and footer. Initially, these items are designed to fit within just 1/3 of the page, surrounded by padding and margins on either side. These margins are used to give the page a slim fitting appearance, but could also cause your content to look compressed. Important: Backup your Template Making the changes to a full sc...

Automatically Resize Blogger Images to Fit Blog Post Area

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Blogger offers most of the tools you would need to add and resize Blogger images quick and easy. You can upload photos directly on the platform and even change the dimensions based on the type of content that you are attempting to produce. In order to do this, create a post and click on the small photo icon on the top toolbar next to the font style settings. A pop-up will show up on your screen asking you where you'd like to upload the image source. You have a choice between adding pictures from: Your local computer Previously uploaded images on the blog Picasa Web Albums An image URL Once you select the image that you want to use, you'll see four image sizes to choose from - small, medium, large, and x-large; it also gives you the option to determine the alignment. If you find that the four preset dimensions aren't providing the outcome you desire, there are easy ways to resize Blogger images to custom dimensions in order to fit your blog post area. Step #1: Retain the Ima...