Just Some Random Tips

I thought I would just share a couple of tips or ideas with this blogging thing. Not that I'm any kind of expert but because I've had so many people ask these kind of questions.

#1 How to subscribe to a blog (or set up for other people to subscribe to your blog)

I used to use Blogarithim but I noticed that it was taking a really long time to get the email updates when someone had updated their blog so I changed to Feed Burner. You'll see the small box down on the right hand side of my blog where you can just plug in your email address and it will automatically email you when I update. If you want one for your blog just go to their website and fill out your info. They will you give you the code that you need to copy and paste into a Page Element (use the HTML element) on your layout. Another great reason to use this - I plugged in my own email address to MY feed burner and it emails me when I have updated my own blog. I like this because it sends me the post in a very nifty print friendly format. I can print the posts and have a hard copy of my work! Blogger also has a way of doing this also but I don't like the email format as well.

If you just don't want to mess with plugging your address into the little box you can scroll to the bottom of the page and you'll see this: Subscribe to: Posts (Atom). Clicking on this will add any blog to your 'reader'. I use Google reader as well as many of you. Google reader is a program that you can put on your Google homepage and it will bring up the posts that have just been posted and you can read them from there. You don't even have to go to the blog.

#2 Search my blog If you're trying to find something on a Blogspot blog there is a search box at the very top left hand corner of the blog (on the navbar). This search box only searches the blog that you're looking at. Type in your search words and you will find what you're looking for.

#3 Mess with layouts If there is anything you want to know about layouts for Blogger then Blogger Buster is the place for you. This lady has helped do EVERYTHING that I couldn't figure out on my own! She also has a ton of templates if you are wanting to change yours up a bit.

#4 Email updates on comments When you leave a comment on somebody's blog the box should look something like this:

You can publish your comment using your google account or it gives you a few other options but I would like to draw your attention to the little box with this phrase next to it: Email follow-up comments to .... This is a VERY handy tool. When someone posts a comment on my blog and maybe they have asked me a question in that post (or they've said something that I want to respond to) I can just leave another comment there on that post and IF they have checked this box they will get the comment that I just left in their email! This is very handy, people!! It means that I don't have to create a whole new email and try to respond or if it is something that many people are asking then I only have to answer it once! Whenever I leave a comment on other people's blogs I ALWAYS check this box because I want to see what other people have commented also! You can do this too - come out of your comfortable little box and live a little!!

#5 Word verification This next one is actually just kind of a pet-peeve of mine that I'm hoping I can convince many of you to take it off of your blogs! Do you see under the comment box those squiggly blue letters? This is an option on your settings to have word verification set. Definition by blogger: "This option (off by default) gives bloggers a tool to prevent the automatic creation of comments by nefarious ne'er-do-wells (e.g. spammers)". My philosophy: Don't use it till you need it! If you happen to have spam comments bugging you then by all means use it but I've been blogging for almost a year and have never had a problem. Sometimes I will chose not to leave a comment because I hate filling out the word verification thingy! If you're not sure whether yours is set-up to do this, for the love of everything chocolate could you please just check your settings and remove it if you're so inclined. Thank you! :)

#6 Picasa for blogging If you don't know about Picasa you are really missing out! Picasa is free photo organizing software from Google and you can use it to do some basic photo editing. It's REALLY nice! You can use it to create the really cool picture collages that you have seen on my blog, too. When you download it it will automatically organize all your photos by date. If you're interested you can click here: Picasa.

#7 Email notifications Under your blog settings there is a tab for 'EMAIL' if you go to this section there is something called "BlogSend Address". Blogger just recently set this up so that you could insert up to 10 email addresses of people you would like to get your blog posts as soon as you post them. It used to be that you could only insert one address. So... If you have a Great-Aunt Myrtle who really wants to read your posts but can't figure out the stinkin' subscribe box, you can add her address and she'll get them automatically! Fun, huh? (This is also a good way to get your own posts emailed to you for printing as mentioned in Tip #1)

So, there you have it some of my great tips for blogger! Stop snoring!