Blogger: Beyond the Basics: Customize and promote your blog with original templates, analytics, advertising, and SEO (From Technologies to Solutions)

355 Pages·2008·26.1 MB·English

by  Lee Jordan

Blogger
Beyond the Basics
Customize and promote your blog with original
templates, analytics, advertising, and SEO
Lee Jordan

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Blogger
Beyond the Basics
Copyright © 2008 Packt Publishing
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of
the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold
without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, Packt Publishing,
nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the
companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals.
However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.
First published: April 2008
Production Reference: 1230408
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
32 Lincoln Road
Olton
Birmingham, B27 6PA, UK.
ISBN 978-1-847193-17-9
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Vinayak Chittar ([email protected])
Credits
Author Editorial Team Leader
Lee Jordan Mithil Kulkarni
Reviewer Project Manager
Narayan Bhat Abhijeet Deobhakta
Senior Acquisition Editor Indexer
David Barnes Monica Ajmera
Development Editor Proofreader
Ved Prakash Jha Angie Butcher
Technical Editor Production Coordinator
Dhiraj Chandiramani Aparna Bhagat
Copy Editor Cover Work
Sumathi Sridhar Aparna Bhagat
About the Author
Lee Jordan is an avid user of Blogger, Twitter, and other useful web
applications. She designs interactive customer service portals, enterprise-level
websites and other web-based applications and writes web content and user
guides. She applies over ten years of experience designing and writing for the web
to developing interactive, user friendly web sites and writing technical guides
to popular web technologies. This is her second book with Packt Publishing. Get
Blogger tips and download source code on her companion web site to this book at
http://bloggerbeefedup.blogspot.com.
A big thanks to my daughter Celeste who practiced her reading skills by looking
over my shoulder, and editing my writing. Her cheerful suggestions kept
me motivated.
An Innocent Drinks smoothie or ten is owned to David Barnes. His vision for
the book, and constructive feedback kept me focused and helped me through the
rough spots.
About the Reviewer
Narayan Bhat is passionate about wandering the Internet and Blogging.

Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: All Blogs Are Not Equal 7
Meet Georgia Peach, Fanatical Fruitier 7
The Way She Blogs Now 8
What's Out There 10
Cooking with Amy 11
Meeblog 12
BoingBoing 14
Innocent Drinks 15
What They Share 16
Time to Plan 16
Defining Goals 16
Attract More Readers 17
Reinforce her Brand, Build a Community 22
Sell More Fruits, Explore New Revenue Opportunities 22
Measure and Improve 23
Summary 24
Chapter 2: Customize and Create Templates 25
Choosing a Theme 25
Presentation—It's About the Visual Things 26
Changing Blogger Templates without Code 27
Use the Test Blog 27
Customizing Page Elements 27
Managing Page Elements 29
Editing the Header Page Element, Title, and Description 30
Replacing the Header Image 33
Changing Blog Templates 37
Changing the Fonts and Colors 41
Choosing High Contrast Text Colors 43
Matching the Font to the Blog 45
Table of Contents
Choosing an Effective Layout 49
The Usual Suspects 49
Pruning the Template Code 51
Designing the Visual Look 52
Preparing to Style the Post Content Block 53
Adding a Custom Variable Tag to the Template 53
Displaying an Image Next to the Title of Each Post 55
Adding Background Images to Post Text Blocks 57
Spicing up the Sidebar 59
Styling the Footer Section 61
Styling the Header Section of the Template 63
Adding Polish to the Template with Style(s) 65
Creating Visual Interest with Backgrounds and Borders 65
Creating a Three-column Template 67
Preparing to Modify Your Current Template 68
Tweaking Template Images 71
Summary 75
Chapter 3: Social Bookmarking 77
How Social Bookmarking Works 78
Submitting Posts without Bookmarks 78
Sharing Posts by Email 81
Adding Bookmarks to Blogs 83
Choosing the Right Bookmarks for Your Blog 83
Deciding Which Bookmark Services to Use 85
Using Simple Text Link Bookmarks 86
Adding Social Bookmark Buttons 89
Offering Multiple Bookmarks with One Button 92
Adding Dynamic Counters to Bookmark Links 94
Adding Multiple Counter Scripts Simultaneously 96
Attracting Readers with Links 102
What People are Tagging 102
Planning an Article 103
Building an Audience with Regular Posts 105
Summary 106
Chapter 4: Joining the Blogosphere 107
Backlinks, Trackbacks, & Pingbacks 107
Configuring Backlinks 107
Why You Need Backlinks 108
Trackbacks Added Automatically 110
Viewing Multiple Backlinks 110
Being a Backlinker 111
Maintaining Backlinks 111
[ ii ]
Table of Contents
Using a Trackback Service 113
Trackbacking Non-Blogger Blogs 116
Blogrolls 119
Setting up Blogrolls 120
Caring for Blogrolls 124
Linkbaiting Bloggers 124
Attract Attention 124
Find a Unique Story Angle 124
Create Controversy 125
Technorati and Other Blog Networks 125
How Blog Networks Work 126
Summary 128
Chapter 5: Using Widgets 129
Adding a Blogger Page Element Widget 129
Widgets Your Readers Want 132
Adding a Custom Third-party Widget 132
Adding Interactive Third-Party Widgets 136
Interacting with Visitors Using Chat 136
Social Network Badges 139
E-commerce with Blogger 143
Using Product Sales Widgets 143
Offering Products as an Amazon Affiliate 143
Providing PayPal Service on Your Blog 146
Blogger and Third-Party Widgets 151
Crafting Custom Blogger Widgets 152
Anatomy of a Widget 157
Choose Your Widgets Wisely 158
Picking the Right Widgets 158
Widget Matching Matrix 158
Ways to Pick Widgets 159
Planning for Future Widgets 159
Using Experimental Widgets 160
Summary 165
Chapter 6: RSS and Atom Syndication 167
How Site Feeds Work in Blogger 167
Choosing a Feed Protocol for Your Blog 168
Multiple Feed Protocol Icons Confuse Visitors 168
Discovering the Post URL of Your Blogger Blog 168
Grabbing Feeds with Safari 171
Managing Blogger Feeds 171
Basic Feed Settings 172
Advanced Feed Settings 173
[ iii ]