How To Become a Certified Google AdSense Partner?

11.11 0

AdSense Certified Partner Program!


How many of you use Google AdSense as one of the, if not the only, monetization solutions for your site? I think I'm getting an overwhelming nod of affirmation. The fact is, Google AdSense has been the choice of almost every blogger and website owner at least once during the course of their online venture. And countless consultants and service providers have sprung up who have built their businesses with AdSense, and now help publishers succeed with AdSense. To help such successful service providers and publishers and to recognize their AdSense expertise, Google has launched the Google AdSense Certified Partner Program!

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10 Tips and Tricks For Using Google Calendar Effectively

11.11 0



Google Calendar Tips and Tricks


Of all the various time management tools out there, the Calendar seems the most proper and useful. Whether it be a business meeting, your friend’s birthday, or just a simple daily reminder, a good Calendar can make life easier. Talking of which, the Google Calendar is one of the most efficient and handy tool for event and time management of all types. With its integration with several other Google services, it is the most useful of its kind. Now let’s take a look at 10 really useful tips and tricks for using Google Calendar.

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How To Create a Responsive HTML 5 and CSS Contact Form?

11.11 0



Contact forms can be seen everywhere nowadays. Almost every blog or website has one.But you'd be surprised to know how few people actually know how to make one. Most simply use a third-party service, or install a plugin to create a working contact form. Although a fairly basic topic, it is nevertheless an important one, and the information about creating your own custom contact form can come in pretty handy, especially since you no longer need to rely on third-party services. So today, we'll learn how to create an attractive envelope-style contact form. This form will be fluid and fully responsive, so that it will look good on just about any screen size.

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How to Add a Tiny jQuery Circleslider to Blogger

09.05 0
Tiny Circleslider is a small jQuery plugin generating a circular carousel of images that we can slide infinitely (circular). When clicking on the red dot, the main picture moves to the left and another set of images will slide out. There is nothing complicated about using this type of carousel, however when it's about customizing it, we need to use a bit of arithmetic. All these details can be found in the author's homepage, so I'll just limit myself to show you the basics.

To see it in action, please visit the below demo blog and just drag the red dot:


tiny jquery circleslider, image slider

Adding the Tiny CircleSlider to a Blogger Blog

In order to make it work, first task is to add the javascript jQuery library in the template:

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account > select your blog

Step 2. Go to "Template" and hit the Edit HTML button:

blogger template, edit html

Step 3. Click anywhere on the code area and search by using the CTRL + F keys for this tag:
</head>
blogger template html

Step 4. Just above the </head> tag, add the following scripts:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src="http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/jquery.tinycircleslider.min.js"/>
Please note that if you already have another version of jQuery, you will need to remove the line in red.

Step 5. Now, let's add the CSS styles above the same </head> tag:
<style>
  #rotatescroll { /* is the rectangle container */
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    width: 300px;
  }
  #rotatescroll .viewport { /* is the rectangle containing the images */
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    margin: 0 auto;
    overflow: hidden;
    width: 300px
  }
  #rotatescroll .overview { /* is the list with the images */
    left: 0;
    list-style: none;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
  }
  #rotatescroll .overview li { /* each item of the list */
    float: left;
    height: 300px;
    position: relative;
    width: 300px;
  }
  #rotatescroll .overlay { /* the image with the circle overlapping the list */
    background: transparent url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjISLfwmzVQEXO_JxZLElQytk_4bJRdR9jl_TlhyphenhyphenAtGMVqitUyF_js3xhJHJakdvzjwRT4kIZOKGcRmJLU8TjiA-107RF-Yx9eSBue30TY2YoQL60SOoDZq8ul4KsZhR1YJwqSugB1r4a-Y/s1600/bg-rotatescroll.png) no-repeat 0 0;
    height: 300px;
    left: 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 0;
    width:300px;
  }
  #rotatescroll .thumb { /* the red circle that allows us to navigate */
    background:transparent url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDu8x2zub6U0D54bL7d_Pp4xA8JcUzSL1vcB2sQGfLLdaDcG_8tNJ9R7APva3VlKtmE8i0jBB63inBNPQQVeMerxFATckfvaeyQyZQntqOY1DaieSH301lNP5UD-Ism_UFbNLtjngUmOc6/s1600/bg-thumb.png) no-repeat 0 0;
    cursor: pointer;
    height: 26px;
    left: 137px;
    position: absolute;
    top: -3px;
    width: 26px;
    z-index: 200;
  }
  #rotatescroll .dot { /* the points indicating the position of each image */
    background: transparent url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3dMF4ctEYsRBCPGt_sDM2SNkSXYdY_dxURkUJPaviM9P9e6E6ro1Scg469LUEanP0kSysgowYk28exZYeVPZpfC9puTpJbk6Z78hrdCdPqnVjivPqayWtvrGUs18coQQ_P-IeHr3a2a8_/s1600/bg-dot.png) no-repeat 0 0;
    display: none;
    height: 12px;
    left: 155px;
    position: absolute;
    top: 3px;
    width: 12px;
    z-index: 100;
  }
  #rotatescroll .dot span { /* are hidden by default */
    display: none;
  }
 #rotatescroll .viewport ul.overview li img {
   width: 100%;
   min-height: 260px;
   margin-top: 20px;
   padding:0;
   border:0;
 }
</style>
Screenshot
Step 6. Save the changes by clicking the Save Template button

And here's the HTML that has to be added to where we want to display the carousel. To add it inside a post, click the "New post" button on the left side of your dashboard and paste the below code in the "HTML" box of your post:
<div id="rotatescroll">
  <div class="viewport">
    <ul class="overview">
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
      <li><img src="imageURL" /></li>
    </ul>
  </div>
  <div class="dot"></div>
  <div class="overlay"></div>
  <div class="thumb"></div>
</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
$('#rotatescroll').tinycircleslider({
interval: true,
snaptodots: true
});
});
</script>
blogger template
Adding HTML inside a Blogger post

Replace the imageURL text with the URL of your images.

Some other options that could be added, separated by commas:
1) snaptodots: false if you want no dots to be shown when dragging them
2) hidedots: false if you want to display the internal points (by default is true)
3) intervaltime - is the time between slides (by default 3500)
4) radius - defines the size of the circle (by default is 140)

To add it to your sidebar, simply go to "Layout" > click the "Add a Gadget link" > from the popup window, choose "HTML/Javascript" and paste the code inside the empty box.

Stay Updated With News Using Google Media Tools

10.10 0

Use Google Media Tools to Stay Updated


Journalists, news agencies, and other media people have been using the internet and tools from Google for a long time to assist them go about their duties. For example, weather channels occasionally make use of Google Maps and Google Earth to demonstrate the effects of certain changing weather patterns. The New York Times recently used Google+ Hangouts to conduct an interview with US Secretary of State, John Kerry, about Syria's chemical weapons. And it doesn't end there. To assist journalists and media organizations further, Google has launched Google Media Tools, a centralized hub aimed at empowering journalists of all skill levels with more ways to connect with their audiences and communities.

Read more »

Turn off the lights with jQuery

06.39 0
For those who enjoy watching videos on the internet, this is a very useful script made with jQuery by Janko. And what this script does? It will turn off the lights for you, so that everything on the page will be fading to dark, except the video, and everything around the video will be less visible, in a way that nothing will distract you while watching it.

You can test it on the following demo blog - click the link that says "Turn off the lights" and the page will be darkened. To make the page elements active again, just click the "Turn on the lights" link:


How to add the "Turn off the Lights" Feature to Blogger/Blogspot 

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and click on your blog > go to "Template" and hit the "Edit HTML" button


Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and search for the following tag by pressing the CTRL + F keys (hit Enter to find it)
</head>

Step 3. After you found it, paste the below scripts just above it:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
$(document).ready(function(){
$("#lightsoff").css("height", $(document).height()).hide();
$(".lightSwitcher").click(function(){
$("#lightsoff").toggle();
if ($("#lightsoff").is(":hidden"))
$(this).html("Turn off the lights").removeClass("turnedOff");
else
$(this).html("Turn on the lights").addClass("turnedOff");
});
});
//]]>
</script>
Note: if you already have one version of jquery in the template, please remove the line in red.

Step 4. Now search for the following tag:
]]></b:skin>
Step 5. Just above ]]></b:skin> add the following CSS:
/* Turn off the lights
----------------------------------------------- */
#lightsVideo {
position:relative;
z-index:102;
}
#switch {
max-width:640px;
text-align:left;
position:relative;
height:25px;
display:block;
margin: 25px 0 0 60px;
}
.lightSwitcher {
position:absolute;
z-index:101;
background-image:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0qdBIPnVYzi0Rh_Z2jVFoH9Y4yjZd8PIzFNResNcx8ZqrQCT0tOAo6R2JTK9NNQYpAXhdlOfT7Y3kdiK0HgXmuiIb73ETZv2jM493IW7dJGPA1zRg7YVPJEPBKRXoKOMRCWWHkW6V2b_a/s1600/lights-on.png);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position:left;
padding: 0 0 0 20px;
outline:none;
text-decoration:none;
}
.lightSwitcher:hover {text-decoration:underline;}
.turnedOff {
color:#ffff00 !important;
background-image:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sV5MBupgoGGM-PE2SXDg3bcnpEhM47Yul9rOMRlO1suEQnl9DvJk5C0XsgkiIvU-A6QLSZRlWiVZRK3K3kebWrPh8JKKKin9TAFbIoGBhDYtW8qlqS4-e-nwcgFmaFiRzIW-4934qrNv/s1600/lights-off.png);
}
#lightsoff {
background:#000;
opacity:0.9;
filter:alpha(opacity=90);
position:absolute;
left:0;
top:0;
width:100%;
z-index:100;
}
Step 6. Try to find this tag:
</body>
Just above the </body> tag, add this HTML code:
<div id='lightsoff'/>
Step 7. Click the "Save Template" button and that's it!

Now, wherever you put your video, either a post or a HTML/Javascript gadget, use this code:
<center>
<div id="switch"><a class="lightSwitcher" href="javascript:void(0);">Turn off the lights</a></div>
<div id="lightsVideo">
...Here goes the code of the video...
</div>
</center>
Add the code of your video instead of the blue text and "Save" or "Publish" your gadget / post. Now you can enjoy your videos with the lights off!

Remember that this trick uses jQuery and if you use another version of jQuery, you must check to have only one, otherwise it might now work.

Before/After Photo Effect with jQuery

04.48 0
If you have a design or makeup blog, or if you are using before and after image comparison, this script will surely be very useful for you. In this tutorial, you will see how to add the Before/After plugin, a script that works with jQuery to display two pictures dynamically for comparing them at the same time.

To see it in action, please click on the demo link from below - by dragging sideways the small bar, you'll see both images that are being compared:



Implementing this script is really easy. We just need jQuery, the Before/After script, and the two images to compare.

How to add Before/After Effect on Blogger Images

Step 1. Go to Template > Edit HTML and click anywhere inside the code area. Now press the CTRL + F keys and search for the following tag - hit Enter to find it:
</head>

Step 2. Right before </head> paste the following scripts:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/jquery.beforeafter.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(function(){
$(&#39;#beforeafter1&#39;).beforeAfter({showFullLinks : true});
});
</script>
Step 3. Click the Save template button to save your changes.

Note: if the above script doesn't work for you, add it above the </body> tag. Also, please see if you have added jQuery in your template (if you did so, then remove the line in green)

Step 3. To add it as a gadget - go to "Layout" > click on the "Add a gadget" link > choose "HTML/Javascript" option in the pop-up window and paste this code inside the empty box:
<div id='beforeafter1'>
<div><img alt='before' src='URL of the first image' width='500' height='291'/></div>
<div><img alt='after' src='URL of the second image' width='500' height='291'/></div>
</div>
Add the URL of the first image that is the "Before" image, and the URL of the second image that should be the "After" image. Also, don't forget to specify the width and height of each picture, so that they work on all browsers (see the part in orange and just add the height and width of your images).

If you want to add more images, you will need to change the ID of the container. In my example, the container is called beforeafter1, so you will need to change it to beforeafter2 and so on, although, you can choose any name as long as all are different.

Then, add another line, like the blue one from below, in the first code that you added in step 2:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/jquery.beforeafter.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(function(){
$(&#39;#beforeafter1&#39;).beforeAfter({showFullLinks : true});
$(&#39;#beforeafter2&#39;).beforeAfter({showFullLinks : true});
});
</script>
You can add as many before/after images as you want, as long ass all containers have a different ID and the corresponding lines are added in the script.

Below each image /photo container are the "Show only Before" and "Show only after" links that, once you click on them, will display the "before" or "after" picture. If you want to hide these links, then just change "true" to "false" in the first code (step 2) and they will not be displayed anymore.

Note: if you see white space around the drag icons, then search for this code in your template:
   <Group description="Images" selector=".main-inner">
     <Variable name="image.background.color" description="Background Color" type="color" default="#ffffff" value="#ffffff"/>
And change the #ffffff value to transparent. That's it!

Autor: Catch my fame

Spacegallery: image gallery/slideshow made with jQuery

03.03 0
There are many types of galleries for images that can be found on the internet, but we rarely find one displaying images so differently like this one. Those using Mac OS X will surely notice a lot of similarity with Time Machine and those who don't, I'm sure will enjoy this type of effect for viewing images.

image gallery with jQuery for blogger
SpaceGallery is a JQuery based slideshow / image gallery that performs overlaying in a visually appealing manner and provides a smooth fade out effect to images. This 3D image gallery lets you float through your pictures easily by enlarging them with an Apple-like animation.

To see the SpaceGallery slideshow in action, please visit this demo blog and click on the first image:


How to Add Spacegallery Image Slideshow to Blogger

To implement this gallery is very easy. Just follow the steps below:

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account and select your blog. Next, go to Template and click the Edit HTML button:

Step 2. Click anywhere on the code area and search by using the CTRL + F keys for this tag
</head>

Step 3. Just before/above the </head> tag, paste the following scripts:
<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/SpaceGallery/eye.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/SpaceGallery/utils.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script src='http://helplogger.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/SpaceGallery/spacegallery.js' type='text/javascript'/>

<script type='text/javascript'>
//<![CDATA[
(function($){
var initLayout = function() {
var hash = window.location.hash.replace('#', '');
var currentTab = $('ul.navigationTabs a')
.bind('click', showTab)
.filter('a[rel=' + hash + ']');
if (currentTab.size() == 0) {
currentTab = $('ul.navigationTabs a:first');
}
showTab.apply(currentTab.get(0));
$('#myGallery').spacegallery({loadingClass: 'loading'});
};

var showTab = function(e) {
var tabIndex = $('ul.navigationTabs a')
.removeClass('active')
.index(this);
$(this)
.addClass('active')
.blur();
$('div.tab')
.hide()
.eq(tabIndex)
.show();
};

EYE.register(initLayout, 'init');
})(jQuery)
//]]>
</script>
Note: if you have already jQuery in your template, please delete the line in red.

Step 4. Next, search (CTRL + F) for this tag:
]]></b:skin>
Step 5. Above the ]]></b:skin> tag, paste the following CSS style:
#myGallery {
width: 100%;
height: 400px;
}
#myGallery img {
border: 2px solid #52697E;
}
a.loading {
background: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOSEVvbSg3ljO29PLhYwT15V7ApyiAQTLW1vINPEJUHe1bi_nc01dkiSzaMVpkub0FLQulddZUMyhG9Uxf6Bs7_EfRFs-F4oq-78kB-6c3Cnmb6ooby2ilkflWbT47-w3uYs_Yh3wYNDm/s1600/ajax_small.gif) no-repeat center;
}
.spacegallery {
position: relative;
overflow: hidden;
}
.spacegallery img {
position: absolute;
left: 50%;
}
.spacegallery a {
position: absolute;
z-index: 1000;
display: block;
top: 0;
left: 0;
width: 100%;
height: 100%;
}
Step 6. Hit the Save template button to save the changes.

Step 7. Finally, go to Layout > Add a Gadget > HTML/Javascript and copy-paste the code below:
<div class="spacegallery" id="myGallery">
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
<img src="Image URL"/>
</div>
Replace the Image URL text with the image addresses that you want to appear on the gallery, considering that the last image is the first to be displayed.

If you want to add this slideshow inside a post, go to your dashboard and create a New Post, then paste the code in the HTML section.

That's it! Now, you can enjoy this simple image gallery on your blog and although, it has no display options or settings, it is without a doubt a gallery that will draw the attention of your readers.

Source: eyecon.ro

Now Auto Track On-Page Events With Google Tag Manager

11.11 0


Auto Event Tracking in Google Tag Manager

The Google Tag Manager is a marketing tool that lets business owners keep track and take control of their remarketing and other data-driven campaigns by letting them assign tags to campaigns and events in Google Analytics. Hence, Google Tag Manager makes it easy to track events. Ordinarily, tracking events requires adding custom Javascript and HTML code to your individual webpages to tell Google Analytics when the event occurred. But thanks to Google, this is no more the case. As announced on the Google Analytics blog, Google Tag Manager now hosts a latest feature - auto event tracking which lets you measure events happening on the page without writing HTML or Javascript!

Read more »

Top three qualities of a successful blogger

02.42 0
The qualities of a blogger should be attended at all times in order to become someone popular on the internet. A blogger should have plenty of ideas for creative writing, along with a truckload of motivation. The results sought will not come overnight and there's no guarantee that this will be easy.

These are the two things that you need in order to fulfill your dream of running a successful blog: a lot of exclusive content and readers' loyalty. In each case, time is required to develop the success. This is a process and not a short-term event.
qualities of a blogger

Related: How to Write SEO Optimized Blog Posts

Top Qualities To Become a Successful Blogger

Here are three qualities of a blogger who as a site administrator will need to have, if your goal is to manage a successful blog.

Patience

A successful blog is a product of time and effort and for this, you will need patience. As I said before, the results will not appear quickly overnight, so it is important to realize this from the start. If you are constantly trying to develop new and creative ideas for writing on your blog and, at the same time, you are worried whether you will see any results, this will only make things more difficult.

The building of a successful business online is a "long term" effort and you must decide if you accept this challenge or not. This is one the most important qualities of a blogger.

Credibility

Much of the traffic of any successful blog results from its unique content, as well as its credibility. In fact, the quality of what's in the site, will have a direct impact on what will become viral visitors that are coming to your platform. If you will provide quality content, people will talk about your blog, and once they do it, others may come to see what you have. It depends on you to publish useful and accurate information and your readers will do the rest.

Consistency

Maintaining a steady stream of creative writing ideas is vital to be able to constantly update the blog. The frequency of publication to a proper schedule is related to the amount of time you have available and your level of motivation. However, it is recommended to establish a sort of consistency, so that people can schedule their own visits accordingly. Just remember that the more often you write, the more people will visit, so their loyalty will grow faster and their referrals will be extended.

To become a popular blogger, it is important to have a healthy source of creative writing ideas, along with a lot of patience and motivation. Ultimately, it will be up to you, as a site administrator, to provide the three qualities of a blogger that we discussed above, who is searching tirelessly his goal of having a successful blog. In the end, your own motivation and patience will be the glue with which all the elements will be put together so that your dream will come true.

How To Easily Upgrade To Universal Analytics?

11.11 0



Universal Analytics




Google Analytics is a widely used analytics program used to monitor user interactions and behaviours. The Google Analytics team is always trying to bring out the latest and improved features, which is what makes it the best Analytics program for webmasters. In fact, a lot of new changes were introduced in this year's Google Analytics Summit, and they include the all new integration with Universal Analytics. Universal Analytics was launched last year, and is a technology that allows you to measure customer interactions across platforms and devices. It is the new operating standard for Google Analytics. And Google has just announced the Universal Analytics Upgrade Center, an easy, two-step process to upgrade your existing properties from classic Google Analytics to Universal Analytics.

Read more »

Now You Can Easily Import and Share Analytics Insights With a Click!

11.11 0

Import and Share Analytics Insights With a Click!


Google Analytics can be hard to follow, especially for beginners. They simply feel lost in a plethora of so many options and features, and are drowned out by so much information. And it isn't a challenge just for newbies either. Even experienced webmasters can have difficulty navigating through Google Analytics and finding the feature they're looking for. To help users with this problem, the Google Analytics team introduced the Analytics Solution Gallery back in February this year which was a portal of sorts where the Analytics team would upload basic collections of dashboards, reports and segments for users to import and use. Now though, Google Analytics has just made this Gallery public, allowing anyone to contribute their solutions, free for everyone to download them!

Read more »

Add Keyboard Keys Effect To Your Text in Blogger with CSS

13.56 0
For many of us the design and the template are the most important, making our readers be more interested and coming back to our blog. There's an HTML element meant for marking up keyboard keys named <kbd> which can be styled with CSS, so why not use it to make those elements look the keyboard keys?

Thus, in this tutorial, I am going to show you how to create a keyboard keys effect with CSS. It doesn't require images so your blog will load faster.

how to add keyboard keys with css in blogger

How to Add Keyboard Keys to Blogger


Step 1. From Blogger Dashboard, select your blog and go to Template > Edit HTML

edit the html of blogger template

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area, press the Ctrl + F keys and search for this piece of code:
]]></b:skin>
Screenshot
Click on the arrow to expand the code

Step 3: Just above ]]></b:skin> paste this CSS style:
kbd{
border:1px solid gray;
font-size:1.2em;
box-shadow:1px 0 1px 0 #eee, 0 2px 0 2px #ccc, 0 2px 0 3px #444;
-webkit-border-radius:3px;
-moz-border-radius:3px;
border-radius:3px;
margin:2px 3px;
padding:1px 5px;
}
Step 4. To save the changes, press the Save change button.

Finally, we need to add the html <kbd> tags to the text on which we want to apply the keyboard keys style.
From your blogger's dashboard, go to create a New Post, write the text on which you want to apply the style and go to the HTML tab. Before and after the text, add the following HTML tags:
<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd>

Screenshot
text with keyboard key effect

This will make it to look like this:

Ctrl + F

How To Show Author Image Next To Post Title In Genesis?

11.11 0


How To Show Author Image Next To Post Title in Genesis

The Genesis Framework, as many of you might know, is the most popular framework for WordPress, and indeed one of the most powerful ones. It allows you to build a customized websites, and make use of the many action and filter hooks inherently present, on top of the default WordPress ones. We ourselves are using the framework on two of our sister blogs. So we thought our readers might like a few genesis tutorials. In this post, we'll talk about how to add an author avatar next to post titles on home page, category pages, and post pages on a WordPress Blog.

Read more »

How to do natural SEO on Blogger

08.27 0
Although many insist that blogs hosted on free servers, such as Blogger, are not ideal for getting your blog well-ranked, the truth is that a blog hosted by Blogger can be really fast and well positioned on the Internet if you are using the right SEO tools.

Now, given the latest updates from Google, the best would be hiring a specialized person. However, if you don't have the resources or you want to learn doing this job alone, you can choose to begin with the natural SEO.

Here are some tips to do natural SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

blogger seo

Natural SEO Techniques for Blogger

Pick a Good Domain

We must try having our keyword included in the domain name, and even if this may sacrifice our branding, we can use the redirection.

Create Value Added Content

Not only rewrite articles, or write like they would be intended for us. When writing our posts, we should consider our target audience, i.e., giving advices, tips, suggestions or guidance on specific topics and aside, use links, anchor text and key phrases.

The topic of the links is important

They should be of quality and while, it's no longer required to place five or ten links within the text of your website, now what truly matters, is to make the link relevant to the context.

Finally, the domain, in value-added content and a right use of the internal and external links, will prove to be useless if we don't try to update our blog constantly.

How often should you update your blog?

You don't have to do this on daily basis, even if this may be ideal as, this way, we could achieve a greater relevance in search engines. But don't forget about your blog either. Let's say, two or three times a week would be enough. What should not happen is updating only three times a week and doing nothing next week.

Keep in mind that search engines happen to pass daily on our blog in order to index our content.

I hope that you find these SEO tips useful and if you would like to receive more tutorials by email, subscribe for free to this blog, check out the facebook page or add the RSS feed.

How to Add a Recent Forum Topics Widget to Blogger

12.43 0
If you are using the Nabble forum in your blog is very likely that this gadget will interest you because, as the title suggests, it will display the lastest topics that have been published in your forum in a very similar manner to the recent comments gadget that works with the blog's feed.

nabble forum
If you want to add a list with the Recent Forum Topics then follow the steps below:

Go to your forum and look at the bottom where it says Feeds, click on that link and then two links of the Feed will appear (the first being the Topics only Feed and the other one is Topics and replies) - choose the one you want.
using nabble feeds to see latest forum topics

After this, log in to your Blogger Dashboard, go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget link, choose Feed from the gadgets list and paste the Feed URL you have selected inside the text box.

configure gadget feed in blogger

Click on Continue, and you only have to configure the parameters, then Save changes to see the results.

That's it! Enjoy :)

Add a forum on your Blogger blog with Nabble

11.38 0
Forum is a platform where visitors can interact with each other and discuss different hot topics. There you can add desired topics for getting comments and diverse suggestions on them. If you have a good traffic, then you can place questions on daily basis for the potential visitors to answer, thus your forum simultaneously converts itself into a huge frequently asked quesions section "FAQ". Forums will provide your visitors an open social atmosphere to express their useful ideas and share other's ideas.

In this brief tutorial, I have explained simple steps to add a forum to your Blogger or blogspot blog. So let's get started!

blogger forum, blogspot nabble forum

How to Create a Forum With Nabble


To implement a forum we will use Nabble, in my opinion, one of the best free options. We go to Nabble page and there, we will create an account (keep in mind that this account will be the moderator of the forum).
And once we have everything set (it also has a wide variety of customizing options), go to Options -> Application -> Change appearance:

nabble change appearance

There, we can also edit the CSS of the forum and other things...

Now we have to give the structure of a real forum, i.e. organizing it by categories. To do this click on the Options menu, select Application, then click Change application type:

nabble option change application type

Then choose the Forum category and save your changes.

To finish, we only have to create categories and for this go back to Options, this time select Structure and then choose Create a new sub-forum:
nabble create new sub-forum

Fill in the details of the category and that's it, you will have your forum running.

The rest are small details, like sort categories (Options > Structure > Manage sub-forums), customize your avatar and your signature (YourNickname > Account Settings), change permissions (Options > Users > Permissions), etc.

Now for integrating the newly created forum to your blog, you must go to Options - Embedding options and copy the javascript code.
nabble forum embedding options

Embed the forum in a Blogger page


Login to your Blogger Dashboard, select your blog, click the Pages link on the left sidebar and create a new Blank Page


Once there, get in the HTML mode.


Paste inside the empty box the code that we copied earlier, and if everything went well, we should see our brand new forum for our blog!

create a forum for blogger with nabble

I hope this tutorial was helpful to you and you will begin using this great service.

Top Commentators Widget with Avatars for Blogger

09.46 0
The commentators are a fundamental part of any blog, since they are the ones that give life to the blog, opening and replying to discussions which leads to more activity in the posts.
how to add top commenters widget to blogger

It is therefore very important to know which are the most active users of your blog, the users who leave more comments, and for this reason, today I present a great method to display a list with the top commentators.

The gadget will look something like this:

add top commentators widget to blogger

This Top Commentators gadget comes with user's avatar and is done with JavaScript.

How to Add the Top Commenters Gadget to Blogger


1. To add this gadget, you have to go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget link.

2. Select the HTML/JavaScript gadget and copy/paste within the empty box the following code:
<style type="text/css">
.top-commentators {
margin: 3px 0;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ccc;
}
.avatar-top-commentators {
vertical-align:middle;
border-radius: 30px;
}
.top-commentators .commenter-link-name {
padding-left:0;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var maxTopCommenters = 8; 
var minComments = 1;     
var numDays = 0;         
var excludeMe = true;    
var excludeUsers = ["Anonymous", "someotherusertoexclude"]; 
var maxUserNameLength = 42;
//
var txtTopLine = '<b>[#].</b> [image] [user] ([count])';
var txtNoTopCommenters = 'No top commentators at this time.';
var txtAnonymous = '';
//
var sizeAvatar = 33;
var cropAvatar = true;
//
var urlNoAvatar = "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sB9FPvArCRaMjBbTo50P9sgzYV_22VCfYYnI9cL51ecaHFBw9it12hB3T4hWHebDczkqLjpIky_Y-vg32wga6LLR27CA6Ml1NJJlsq-fvHdp9lO3rz0mq89ODKyPkAjE9N2_BSrR___N/s1600/avatar_blue_m_96.png" + sizeAvatar;
var urlAnoAvatar = 'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ_gmCV5aVZAP1u9w80XAAvZlx1MIS24ufL54m-ba7KMgEdZBGxEhfVce9PzUXliZeEG0a4JEg1P4tCE6xTu5y-GibT1pon5mT_9IJhK_Iz1JsTIj6T22ieZSTmljLLNjaBni8V73mBAzp/s1600/avatar1.png' + sizeAvatar;
var urlMyProfile = '';
var urlMyAvatar = '';
if(!Array.indexOf) {
 Array.prototype.indexOf=function(obj) {
  for(var i=0;i<this.length;i++) if(this[i]==obj) return i;
  return -1;
}}
function replaceTopCmtVars(text, item, position)
{
  if(!item || !item.author) return text;
  var author = item.author;
  var authorUri = "";
  if(author.uri && author.uri.$t != "")
    authorUri = author.uri.$t;
  var avaimg = urlAnoAvatar;
  var bloggerprofile = "http://www.blogger.com/profile/";
  if(author.gd$image && author.gd$image.src && authorUri.substr(0,bloggerprofile.length) == bloggerprofile)
    avaimg = author.gd$image.src;
  else {
    var parseurl = document.createElement('a');
    if(authorUri != "") {
      parseurl.href = authorUri;
      avaimg = 'http://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=' + parseurl.hostname;
    }
  }
  if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile && urlMyAvatar != "")
    avaimg = urlMyAvatar;
  if(avaimg == "http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" && urlNoAvatar != "")
    avaimg = urlNoAvatar;
  var newsize="s"+sizeAvatar;
  avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+-c\//, "/"+newsize+"-c/");
  if(cropAvatar) newsize+="-c";
  avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+(-c){0,1}\//, "/"+newsize+"/");
  var authorName = author.name.$t;
  if(authorName == 'Anonymous' && txtAnonymous != '' && avaimg == urlAnoAvatar)
    authorName = txtAnonymous;
  var imgcode = '<img class="avatar-top-commentators" height="'+sizeAvatar+'" width="'+sizeAvatar+'" title="'+authorName+'" src="'+avaimg+'" />';
  if(authorUri!="") imgcode = '<a href="'+authorUri+'">'+imgcode+'</a>';
  if(maxUserNameLength > 3 && authorName.length > maxUserNameLength)
    authorName = authorName.substr(0, maxUserNameLength-3) + "...";
  var authorcode = authorName;
  if(authorUri!="") authorcode = '<a class="commenter-link-name" href="'+authorUri+'">'+authorcode+'</a>';
  text = text.replace('[user]', authorcode);
  text = text.replace('[image]', imgcode);
  text = text.replace('[#]', position);
  text = text.replace('[count]', item.count);
  return text;
}
var topcommenters = {};
var ndxbase = 1;
function showTopCommenters(json) {
  var one_day=1000*60*60*24;
  var today = new Date();
  if(urlMyProfile == "") {
    var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
    var expr = /(^| )profile-link( |$)/;
    for(var i=0 ; i<elements.length ; i++)
      if(expr.test(elements[i].className)) {
        urlMyProfile = elements[i].href;
        break;
      }
  }
  if(json && json.feed && json.feed.entry && json.feed.entry.length) for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
    var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
    if(numDays > 0) {
      var datePart = entry.published.$t.match(/\d+/g);
      var cmtDate = new Date(datePart[0],datePart[1]-1,datePart[2],datePart[3],datePart[4],datePart[5]);
   
      var days = Math.ceil((today.getTime()-cmtDate.getTime())/(one_day));
      if(days > numDays) break;
    }
    var authorUri = "";
    if(entry.author[0].uri && entry.author[0].uri.$t != "")
      authorUri = entry.author[0].uri.$t;
    if(excludeMe && authorUri != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile)
      continue;
    var authorName = entry.author[0].name.$t;
    if(excludeUsers.indexOf(authorName) != -1)
      continue;
    var hash=entry.author[0].name.$t + "-" + authorUri;
    if(topcommenters[hash])
      topcommenters[hash].count++;
    else {
      var commenter = new Object();
      commenter.author = entry.author[0];
      commenter.count = 1;
      topcommenters[hash] = commenter;
    }
  }
  if(json && json.feed && json.feed.entry && json.feed.entry.length && json.feed.entry.length == 200) {
    ndxbase += 200;
    document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false&max-results=200&start-index='+ndxbase+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=showTopCommenters"></'+'script>');
    return;
  }
  // convert object to array of tuples
  var tuplear = [];
  for(var key in topcommenters) tuplear.push([key, topcommenters[key]]);
  tuplear.sort(function(a, b) {
    if(b[1].count-a[1].count)
        return b[1].count-a[1].count;
    return (a[1].author.name.$t.toLowerCase() < b[1].author.name.$t.toLowerCase()) ? -1 : 1;
  });
  var realcount = 0;
  for(var i = 0; i < maxTopCommenters && i < tuplear.length ; i++) {
    var item = tuplear[i][1];
    if(item.count < minComments)
        break;
    document.write('<di'+'v class="top-commentators">');
    document.write(replaceTopCmtVars(txtTopLine, item, realcount+1));
    document.write('</d'+'iv>');
    realcount++;
  }
  if(!realcount)
    document.write(txtNoTopCommenters);
}
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false&max-results=200&alt=json-in-script&callback=showTopCommenters"></'+'script>');
</script>
3. Now you just have to save changes and you're done!

Configuration

- To modify the number of users displayed in the gadget, look for var maxTopCommenters = 8; and change 8 with any number you want.
- To change the avatar size of the commenters, look for var sizeAvatar = 33; and change number 33 with the number of pixels you want. - To hide your name or some other username, replace the someotherusertoexclude text between the quotes (to add more, add another comma after the text in red, then type the username you want to exclude between the quotes)

Redirect Blogger 404 Error (Page Not Found) To Homepage

14.56 0
A 404 error page tells you and search engines that a page is not found by displaying a text similar to it "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist.". This may happen because you have changed your URLs over time, either removed a few pages when you overhauled your design or a visitor may have accidentally misspelled an URL inexistent in your blog, so it automatically redirects to the 404 error page (page not found).
how to redirect blogger 404 error to homepage
And probably this will not make a good impression on the greatest potential users of our blog. Before the user clicks the back button or close the window/browser's tab, thus leaving our site forever, we may want to redirect 404 error in Blogger to a page, where are chances that the visitor will continue reading our blog.
One of the most used methods is the "meta refresh" but the problem with this method is that it breaks navigation (doesn't allow to return back). In this case, the best method is by using Javascript about which I will go in detail below.

Redirect Blogger 404 Error with Javascript


Go to your Blogger dashboard, select your blog and then to Settings > Search preferences > Custom Page Not Found.

redirect 404 error page in blogger to homepage

Copy and paste the following code inside the empty box:
Sorry, the page you're looking for in this blog does not exist.
You will be redirected to homepage shortly.
<script type = "text/javascript">
BSPNF_redirect = setTimeout(function() {
location.pathname= "/"
}, 5000);
</script>
The message which is going to be displayed can be modified as you want. If you are willing to redirect your blog 404 error page to another page other than your home page, just replace pathname to href and / with the url of your page. And finally, the number 5000 which is the delay expressed in milliseconds, can be changed to other value if this is more convenient.

Next thing to do is to Save all changes made in this section and do a little test to check if the code works well. You can verify the 404 error page functionality by adding a custom text at the end of your blog address and after hitting Enter, you should see the error page followed by a redirection after 5 seconds. That's it!

Embedding Google Maps in Blogger - [Full Guide]

11.11 0

Embed Google Maps to Blogger


Integrating maps with your web projects can offer your visitors a more interactive experience of your website and assist with the understanding of events and places. As a Blogger, you might write for many different reasons, but no matter the genre of the subject matter, there will come times when area maps relevant to your posts may enhance the experience for your readers. In an earlier post, we learned how to embed Bing Maps to a website, and to add interactive features with it such as real-time Tweets on Bing Maps. Let's now take a look at embedding the most popular map application to a webpage - Google Maps.

Read more »

4 Alternatives to Google AdWords

07.04 0
Many think that Google AdWords is the only tool dedicated and available to perform a study such as a keyword search, but it isn't so, today I refute this idea by collecting some alternatives that, although are not equal to Google AdWords, at least encourage us to make good keyword analysis for the SEO of our website.

alternatives to google adwords

Going back a bit, for those unfamiliar with the main features and tools of Google AdWords, we can find a very simple interface yet complete in every sense.

- AdWords appearance has changed, however there is a chance of returning to the old design;
- allows you to place a phrase or keyword, a web site and use the categories;
- for a better keywords search, you can apply filters such as location, language and add custom fields (competition, local or global monthly searches, CPC, Ad share, etc.);
- displays keyword ideas in columns with the amount of local and global monthly searches and approximate CPC;
- you can download keyword ideas, search results in a format to open with Excel.

Having recalled and refreshed the memory a little with the characteristics of AdWords, now it is time to learn about other options both free and paid.

Google AdWords Alternatives


Bing Webmaster Tools: Bing may not be the tool that we had first thought of, however it wants to provide the best conditions for studying keywords.


After we register, to access the tool, go to Diagnostics & Tools and click on the second option on the list: Keyword Research.

SEMRush: Other freemium alternative that displays a very complete report of a particular keyword or website. However, it has limitations and if you opt for a PRO recurring plan you need to pay a monthly membership from $69.95 per month.

Ubersuggest: This nice and simple online tool searches keywords suggestion as well as potential titles for an article. Personally, I recommend it 100%.

Keyword Eye: If you are looking to perform a keyword research on a particular region, Keyword Eye will be your help. It also has the option of requesting the display of search volume or AdWords competition and a full report of anchor text, keywords and domain.

At first it offers a free plan with limitations and to enjoy all other benefits, we have to pay $9.99 per month.

How to Add Google Analytics to Blogger

04.58 0
Google Analytics is a platform created with the purpose of helping us to track the number of visits and page views on our blog, which also uses several filters to check exactly from where the visitors are coming via standard or custom reports.

Google Analytics is the leading free tool that has a good relationship with the internet marketing and offers suggestions and improvements or benefits for our website.

As Analytics is part of the variety of Google tools like Blogger, many bloggers still don't know if it is possible to add the tracking code in Blogger. Implementing analytics in Blogger is very quick and easy, so you don't need to be experts or web developers. Here's a small guide for placing the Google Analytics tracking ID on our blog.

google analytics

Implementing Google Analytics on Blogger


1. Do you have a Google Analytics account? Then it's perfect. If you don't have one, please Register.
2. Within the account, we'll go to Admin and in the Property column, click the menu, then click Create new property, where we enter the information from the website.

create new property in google analytics

3. Click on "Get Tracking ID" and it will provide a box with a code, select and copy the code (CTRL + C).

get google analytics tracking id

4. Now let's go to our Blogger account.
5. Look for your blog and click on it, then go to Template > click the Edit HTML button and paste the code previously generated in Analytics before the </head> tag (CTRL + F in order to find it).

And this would be the entire procedure. Within about 24 hours, we shall see the first statistics of our blog in Google Analytics, otherwise check the following:

- Double check that the code has no spaces or characters.
- Doesn't have errors in the configuration
- There are no poor implementation of the filters.
- The Flash plugin is working or javascript is enabled.
- You will have minor issues if you are receiving visits from China (this conflict is not yet solved, according to Google).

How To Display Tweets on Bing Maps?

11.11 0

Embed Bing Twitter Maps to website


Maps are a cool way to find places. But you know what's cooler? Finding people on a map, and looking at what they're doing! Yep, that's right! With the power of Twitter and Microsoft's Bing Maps combined, you can view and embed maps with Tweets that are relevant to your business! For example, hotels can highlight tweets from people enjoying recreational places nearby, or event planners can help attendees connect with each other and highlight nearby gatherings and meetups. With maps on your website showing Twitter activity in real time, you can engage with your audience on a whole new level. Let's take a look at how to embed Bing™ Twitter map to your blog, website or social media network!

Read more »

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