Here are some blogger tips for beginners. Are you on WordPress? Click on the link to see the sister article.
1. How many posts do you want to display on the homepage? Go to settings, posts and comments, and adjust how many posts display.
2. Do you know the captcha word verification it requires for commenters? Turn it off. There is nothing more annoying to make your readers have to prove they are a human. You’ll get a lot more blog comments if you turn it off.
3. Do you want the navbar at the top to disappear? This makes your blog look less like a blogger blog. Go to layout, click on Navbar, and then click the option for it to be off.
4. Do you want more gadgets than the standard ones? Click on add gadget and choose the option for more gadgets. There are over 1000 to choose from.
5. Your menu bar can be shown as horizontal or vertical tabs, or they can not be shown at all. Go to pages, click on show pages as…
6. Menu tabs can be either pages or external links. When you click on New page, you have the option of choosing external link or new page.
7. Do you have a page you don’t want to appear in the menu? Drag them to the hidden section so they don’t appear on the main menu.
8. Is your website layout width not working with your header? You can change it. Go to template and click on customize. Then click onadjust widths. Then hit Apply to Blog (it’s in the top right corner)
9. Blogger is better than WP when it comes to adjusting colors and fonts on the FREE blogs. Go to template and click on customize. Then choose advanced. Make sure after you make changes, you click on Apply to Blog.
10. Make sure your blog is optimized for mobile viewing. Go to template and next to your blog theme should be the mobile option. Click on the wheel below it to showcase your blogger blog as a mobile version on iPhones and other tablets.
11. You can create labels in bulk. In your post screen, click on the labels tab after you’ve selected the blog posts you want to categorize.
POST SETTINGS…these options are in the post screen when you are typing a new blog.
12. Create a search description for your blog post so it shows up in search results more quickly.
13. You can choose the location of your post as well.
14. You can preschedule your posts as well. Just choose the date and time (but make sure your time settings are accurate first. That is under settings).
15. Did you copy and paste text from Microsoft Word? Hit the T with the small x to undo the formatting. This way you can see where there are odd breaks and jumps.
16. Add a jumpbreak to your post so that people only see a summary of your posts on the mainpage, rather than the whole article.
17. Make sure your blogger profile is filled out. This way, when people click on your gravatar, they’ll be directed to your blog as a result. To adjust your blogger profile, click on your name in the top right hand corner of the screen.
18. Do you want to be indexed in Google? Make sure you have a compelling summary about your blog and put it in the meta description. Go to settings and search preferences.
19. Do you have an old blog you want to be redirected to your existing blogger blog? In the same area, you can edit the custom redirect.
20. You can connect your blog to Google + allowing for more visibility and sharing options.
21. You can download the blogger app to your phone or ipad so it is easy to create posts while you are on the go.
22. If you are organizing posts, on the top right hand side of the post screen, you can adjust how many posts show at once (25, 50, 100,etc)
23. To change your background, go to Settings, Template, and then click on customize. You will see the option for background. You can choose one of theirs or grab your own.
24. To export your blog (if you want to save a backup or move to another platform, go to settings and then other.
25. To add a custom favicon (that little icon that shows on the top tab of a browser, go to layout and then click on Favicon. Upload an image to use.
Happy Fabulous Blogging!
