TIP - Follow me Follow

I was trawling the 'blogosphere' wondering what I could stumble across that would interest the visitors to this site when I came across this little beauty!

There is a simple instuction in HTML that advises search engines NOT to follow certain links from your site, for example the Admin page, or other pages that are critical to the security of your site, and it is simply the 'nofollow' attribute. By default Blogger sets the 'nofollow' attribute for ALL links, and that includes user generated content like 'comments', 'linkbacks' and 'trackbacks'. Removing this tag will provide 'link juice' for your visitors although there is a small danger that you might find an increase in SPAM. This last should not trouble you too much if you take the precaution of setting up your 'Comments' section to use the built-in CAPTCHA capability.

As always, when you are fiddling with the HTML of your template, please take the precaution of backing up the existing template in case things go awry.

BACKUP! BACKUP! BACKUP!

• Go to >> Layout >> Edit HTML
• Check the Expand Widget Templates
• Search and find 'nofollow' in the edit window.
• Delete rel='nofollow' in to-to!
• Repeat the last two steps. There are at least two of these entries, sometimes 3.
• Save your template. You won't see any obvious changes; the advantage gained is in your search engine ranking and the ability you've just given your visitors and commenters to link to your Blog and to a specific post!
• You're done!

 

Instructions for removing the 'nofollow' tag..

 

Enjoy your increased exposure ...

 

TIP - Polls (apart) ...

From: David McMahon
To: Terry Fletcher
Subject: Polls in a Post ...

El Tel

Off the top of your head, can you remember the icon that produces a poll in New Blogger? Having done so many all those months ago, I'm scratching my head because I want to embed one in a post!!

Cheers.

David

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Another hot potato!

Why? Because, although I know about the 'Poll' feature introduced by Blogger, I'd only ever tried it out in the side panel where it is automatically lodged if you elect to run a Poll on your page.

How does one add a Poll to a Post? "Piece of cake," was my first thought on the matter. I figured I'd add an <iframe> and insert the code for the Poll into the <iframe>, and that would be that! Yeah, sure! You can try that approach and see how far it gets you.

So, it was off to "Google-Blogger-Land" to see what solutions were on offer. I stumbled across one or two articles about Polls, hundreds commenting they couldn't even find the feature on their site and others, who were able to find it, asking for the feature to be rolled out to include the ability to insert a Poll in a Post. Of course, you've probably guessed by now, most of these discussions were based on NEW-Blogger Beta, at the time that Polls were added as a 'Nice-to-have' feature. Sometimes I despair.

The current state of affairs is that the Poll feature has been rolled out as a 'widget' that can be accessed via the 'Page Elements' of your customization menu. It is a simple "click and accept" feature and, as far as it goes, it works fairly well. There are a few limitations, but it appears that nothing is going to be done to enhance the feature further.

What about a "Poll in a Post"? Tough! This feature is not available, and there isn't any clue as to whether it ever will be. Does that mean it can't be done?

Absolutely NOT!

But it currently calls for a bit of HTML and Template fiddling, and most casual Bloggers will probably not be interested in implementing something that isn't a 'click-and-go' feature.

For those that think it is a 'cool' idea to occasionally add a Poll to a Post, I shall roll out a 'tute' with screencaps in my next offering.

Watch this space ...

 

TIP - Backlinks

Warning! This could seriously damage your health! Following these instructions could send you loopy trying to jump from one 'screencap' to the next. I'll try and make things easier by opening each of them in a new window, but your 'method' of working may vary, so I shall leave it up to you how you approach the task. CTRL+N will open a new window (or tab) and that might be a better solution for you!

First, a brief explanation. The 'Backlinks' feature enables you to keep track of other posts on the web that link back to your article. It is also an excellent "link-love" attribute that, in its simplest form, raises your page ranking with Google!

You must first turn ON backlinks by going to your Settings | Comments tab and choosing to turn it on. You can turn OFF backlinks for individual posts by expanding the "Post and Comment Options" when you are composing your post and choosing the option.

Finally, in this intro, to answer one of the questions posed by Lee, you choose to activate a backlink on the post you wish to link to, not on your blog. The backlink feature will build a new post on your blog, but more about that later.

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1. Backup your old template!

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2. Edit the "nofollow" instruction that appears as the default in all Blogger templates. If you don't, Google won't bother to follow the link, which slightly defeats the object, huh?

When you've edited the template, SAVE it.

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3. When you find the post or article that holds your interest, and you decide that it is worth linking to it, click on the "Links to this post" in the comments section of the post.

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4. The next window that opens is the 'page' that the post occupies on your Blog. You probably already knew that each post has its own page and that the Blog 'front' page is a composite of all the posts, but I thought I'd mention it, just in case! At the bottom of the display you will see the "Create a link" invitation:

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5. When you click on that you are shown a new window. This is a 'Post' window that will create a brand new post and lodge it on YOUR Blog. It is actually a very clever bit of coding by the developers. You don't have to leave the Blog you are visiting to be able to post something new on your own Blog. Now, how cool is that?

The things you need to change have been highlighted in the image below, so I won't repeat myself here. Follow the cryptic clues I've added to the image:

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6. The following image shows where I made my own alterations and it is something you should consider before getting to the end of the process:

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7. This is the confirmation that YOUR blog post has been published. If you have your own Blog open in a new window, hit refresh and you'll see that this confirmation message is not a lie:

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8. The next image shows that, indeed, the 'Post' has appeared as if by magic on the blog of origin. Remember, you did this on somebody else's site. Way to go!

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9. My preference is to now call up this post on my own site and add, delete or edit the post so that it has a relevance to the post that it has been linked to on the other site. I've added this screen shot to remind visitors that editing in HTML is a cinch with Blogger, because it won't let you post anything that doesn't meet strict validation standards. Shame the templates don't meet the criteria, but that's another story!

For those that are unfamiliar with HTML, or just curious, the instruction to justify the paragraph alignment is missing a double quotation mark ( " ) after the word 'justify'.

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10. The next image is the same post that appears in #8. above with a little bit of eye-candy and text added. Something you would automatically do to any post that appears on your site:

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11. The next image is a shot of the original post that you elected to link to. Darn, doesn't seem to have worked!

Patience, people. The Google search engine that finds, itemises, logs it somewhere and then publishes it, is fast, but not as fast as you!

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12. Voilã, 2 minutes and 37 seconds later the link has appeared. That was the time it took for this link to appear; yours might take longer - or less time! The job's done.

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I know the explanation seemed to go on FOREVER, but I wanted it to be simple enough for a novice to follow without getting him or herself into a bit of bother. I hope I succeeded.

Standby for a variation on this theme ...

 

TIP - Alternative Displays

This is an alternative display, using "Thickbox", for a series of small thumbnails that, when clicked, will take the viewer to a 'Gallery' display without actually leaving the page.

If the "Thickbox" script works as it should, you will be served up a larger image, superimposed on this page, and you will see 'navigation' links from one picture to another. What more can you ask for?

The following series of pictures are of some very attractive young ladies that 'T3 Magazine' uses to advertise their electronic goods. You have to look closely to actually see the electronic items in question (for instance, the fashionable pelmet that girl #8 is wearing detracts somewhat!), but that's OK, because I'm not really advertising for them.

So, here goes!

  

  

  

I have to strongly emphasise that the series of pics above are not 'sexist' in any way; they were used because they were a convenient 'series' available on my hard drive. Oh, okay, and for a bit of entertainment for the lecherous old men that might visit this page. (see the comment by Anonymous)

That's the end of the demo. You should now have a clearer idea about what you can accomplish on your Blog. Whether it is an 'iBlogger', 'Wordpress' (Wordpress has it built in as a plugin!), or any other.

In line with David McMahon's philosophy of trying to help as many interested bloggers as possible, I am more than willing to help, either here or one-on-one, anybody that asks. If I find that several 'peeps' ask the same question I may resort to using this medium to provide a full explanation so that bloggers can drop by and pick the ideas they wish to use.

Happy Blogging!

TIP - Post Formatting

You compose your 'post'. That's the hard part. You post your 'post'. That's the easy part. You sit back and wait for somebody to visit, read and comment. That's the satisfactory part.

In between you get on with your life. As we all do. But isn't it amazing that when the Blogging-bug has struck that we all appear to schedule our everyday tasks around our (sacrosanct) blogging time?

So, why not make it easy on yourself? Why not pre-plan how you compose and publish your blog posts so that when you hit the "PUBLISH POST" button you can be assured that they will appear exactly how you envisaged they would?

1. Select 'Dashboard' or 'Customise' (depending where you are on your Blog) and you will be taken to your 'Template' page. Select 'Settings', then 'Formatting' and you will be faced with the page you can see in the pic below. Take note of the two areas I mention. These are the main changes you may need to make, but check the rest of the boxes in case you've overlooked something. Don't forget to "Save Settings" after you've made your changes. These changes aren't critical, unlike changes you make to the template; they can always get changed back if you aren't satisfied with what you've done!

 

 

2. In the pic below you will see that I have already inserted a few 'justified' paragraph 'starts' and 'ends', because that is how I compose my posts. Your mileage will vary. I also have the whole code for the 'Up Arrow' that I use at the end of each post. This makes life easy for me as I don't have to remember the exact code, and since it appears in exactly the same place in each post (repetitive coding) I decided to insert it into the formatting template for all future posts.

 

 

I also have a series of 'hyphens' (dashes) included as a standard divider between 'sections' of a post. It was something I started in my earlier posts and something I decided I would continue to do for subsequent ones. I could find a post with a dashed line and copy/paste it into the new post, but this way is so much easier, don't you think?

You may wish to use a horizontal rule instead and you can achieve that by using the 'Compose' feature and selecting it from the menu, or if you are using the HTML feature just type the following ...

<hr width="50%" align="center">

... to give you a horizontal rule that is 50% of the width of the display area, and which is centred in the middle of the page.

More tips to come ... !

 

Own It . . . !!

There are millions of bloggers, using various blogger engines, which means there are millions of templates in use. And your template of choice is going to end up being similar to many thousands of others.

So what's so terrible about that? Absolutely nothing!

The templates have been crafted with love and care and enthusiasm, and have been made available to all blog users - FREE of charge. But you can make it your own - "Own It!" - by changing only a few parameters. The colour combination for one thing; the banner header for another.

Any change you undertake will make your template UNIQUE. The base template will remain the same as the thousands of other, similar templates, but it will have your personal touch stamped all over it. Which will tell your visitors that you care. Not just about the content, but how you wish to serve up the dish!

What you have to say on your Blog, the most important part, is still your own unique footprint on the web. Don't ignore the fact that the container in which you display it is also within your remit for change.

David McMahon posted a series of three pictures of the sunset on his shortest day of the year on his authorblog a few days ago. Apart from the phenomenom that Oz was experiencing their shortest day whilst the rest of us in the northern hemisphere were 'clebrating' the longest day, the pictures were of the usual high quality one expects from the man. I marvelled at the images he had captured and then a blindingly obvious thought struck me. Those pictures, untouched, matched the overall colour scheme of his 'Rounders 3' template. I wondered how one of those might look if it could be used as a banner for his site.

Long story, short. I fiddled around in Photoshop and came up with something I thought might appeal to him. I was still hesitant, but after a bit of encouragement from my 'better-half', Maria, I forwarded the idea to David. In true McMahon fashion (and I won't repeat the Aussie expletives from his email) he was delighted and enthusiastic and said he'd incorporate the idea as soon as he could find the time (Wendy in hospital, Blogger awards, deadlines to meet at work . . . and the rest!).

So I offered to do it, and he accepted. Don't misunderstand. This doesn't happen all the time, and to repeat a quaint Aussie expression that David uses frequently, ". . . neither of us paints the other guy's fence!" It is just something one bloke does for the other without any expectation of a reciprocal act. Mind you, I am ahead of the game, considering the amount of original stuff he pushes my way for publication on my main website Anglo-Indian Portal.

The change to David's banner header seems to have been generally accepted as a good move. And now I have a comment from YesBut encouraging me to "bring it on!"

How can I refuse?

Standby for the next post . . .

 

Leap of Faith . . . Editing your template for Thickbox

This is your 'leap of faith'. This is where you have to make a decision as to whether stepping out into the unknown is worth the end result. I have shown you what you can achieve; you have to decide whether it is worth the effort. I will hazard a guess that most of you decide that it probably is!

So, let us make a start.

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1. Call up your page in a new window and check that you're 'signed in'. You should now have this tutorial and your homepage open, either as two separate windows or two tabs (IE7 or Firefox or whatever), and you will need to switch between windows to complete the various steps I will outline.

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2. Click on 'Customize' (I vill zay zis only vunce - all editing is being done on YOUR page!).

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3. Choose to 'Edit HTML' when you are faced with these choices.

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4. Save your template (but see below) . . .

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5. My preference for saving a template is to copy the template from the editing window by positioning the cursor in the window, pressing 'Ctrl+A', then 'Ctrl+C' (this will select all the text in the window and copy it to the clipboard). Now paste the copied text into your text editor (Notepad or one of the editors I've recommended previously), by opening it and pressing 'Ctrl+V'. Then SAVE that as a text file, with a name you can recognise easily, and in a place that, if you need to, you can find it quickly.

Note: do NOT use a word-processing package like 'Word' as this will corrupt the text you've just saved. For the 'geeky', the difference is between UTF-8 and UTF-16, but that's another story for another time!

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6. Find the last 'close brace' above the '</head>' tag. You could scroll down (see image), but the easiest way is to click the 'Edit ---> Find on this page' link in your browser and type '</head>' (without the quotes) into the box and click 'Next'.

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7. Insert two or three returns between the curly bracket and the line that reads "]]></b:skin>". If your template doesn't have this line, insert the following code just above the '</head>' tag and it will still work! Copy & paste the code in the box:

/* ----- thickbox settings ----- */ #TB_window { font: 12px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #333333; } #TB_secondLine { font: 10px Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color:#666666; } #TB_window a:link {color: #666666;} #TB_window a:visited {color: #666666;} #TB_window a:hover {color: #000;} #TB_window a:active {color: #666666;} #TB_window a:focus{color: #666666;} #TB_overlay { position: fixed; z-index:100; top: 0px; left: 0px; background-color:#000; filter:alpha(opacity=75); -moz-opacity: 0.75; opacity: 0.75; height:100%; width:100%; } * html #TB_overlay { /* ie6 hack */ position: absolute; height: expression(document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.offsetHeight ? document.body.scrollHeight : document.body.offsetHeight + 'px'); } #TB_window { position: fixed; background: #ffffff; z-index: 102; color:#000000; display:none; border: 4px solid #525252; text-align:left; top:50%; left:50%; } * html #TB_window { /* ie6 hack */ position: absolute; margin-top: expression(0 - parseInt(this.offsetHeight / 2) + (TBWindowMargin = document.documentElement && document.documentElement.scrollTop || document.body.scrollTop) + 'px'); } #TB_window img#TB_Image { display:block; margin: 15px 0 0 15px; border-right: 1px solid #ccc; border-bottom: 1px solid #ccc; border-top: 1px solid #666; border-left: 1px solid #666; } #TB_caption{ height:25px; padding:7px 30px 10px 25px; float:left; } #TB_closeWindow{ height:25px; padding:11px 25px 10px 0; float:right; } #TB_closeAjaxWindow{ padding:7px 10px 5px 0; margin-bottom:1px; text-align:right; float:right; } #TB_ajaxWindowTitle{ float:left; padding:7px 0 5px 10px; margin-bottom:1px; } #TB_title{ background-color:#e8e8e8; height:27px; } #TB_ajaxContent{ clear:both; padding:2px 15px 15px 15px; overflow:auto; text-align:left; line-height:1.4em; } #TB_ajaxContent.TB_modal{ padding:15px; } #TB_ajaxContent p{ padding:5px 0px 5px 0px; } #TB_load{ position: fixed; display:none; height:13px; width:208px; z-index:103; top: 50%; left: 50%; margin: -6px 0 0 -104px; /* -height/2 0 0 -width/2 */ } * html #TB_load { /* ie6 hack */ position: absolute; margin-top: expression(0 - parseInt(this.offsetHeight / 2) + (TBWindowMargin = document.documentElement && document.documentElement.scrollTop || document.body.scrollTop) + 'px'); } #TB_HideSelect{ z-index:99; position:fixed; top: 0; left: 0; background-color:#fff; border:none; filter:alpha(opacity=0); -moz-opacity: 0; opacity: 0; height:100%; width:100%; } * html #TB_HideSelect { /* ie6 hack */ position: absolute; height: expression(document.body.scrollHeight > document.body.offsetHeight ? document.body.scrollHeight : document.body.offsetHeight + 'px'); } #TB_iframeContent{ clear:both; border:none; margin-bottom:-1px; margin-top:1px; _margin-bottom:1px; } /* ----- end of thickbox settings ----- */ /* ----- start of Terry's settings ----- */ .img_left { /* terrys hack */ float: left; margin-right: 20px; margin-bottom: 6px; } .img_right { /* terrys hack */ float: right; margin-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 6px; } .clear { /* terrys hack */ clear: both; } .dropcap { /* terrys hack */ font-family: times; color: #8CA3BB; font-size: 70px; float: left; padding-right: 2px; padding-top: 2px; line-height: 60px } /* ----- end of Terry's settings ----- */

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8. This is what it should look like after you've pasted in the code. Still with me?

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9. Find the '</head>' tag again, then copy/paste the following code just above it:

<script src='http://www.tapmal.com/thickbox/jquery.js' type='text/javascript'/>     <script src='http://www.tapmal.com/thickbox/thickbox.js' type='text/javascript'/>

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10. This is what your template should look like after you've pasted in the relevant code.

A brief explanation: the code is telling the blogger engine where to find the JavaScript sources for the Thickbox to work. I have currently pointed it to my own server, which will always be available with the most up-to-date "js" scripts for this function. You see, I use this path as well, so you can be certain that as long as I am on the web, you don't have to worry about where to get your JavaScript or your animated 'loading' GIF.

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11. You can click on the 'PREVIEW' link, but you won't notice any change to how your blog displays, and that is because the bits of code we've put in don't actually change how your blog is displayed UNTIL you call the specific function. But more about that in the next post.

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Now 'SAVE' your template (you already have the original so you don't have to be too concerned) and 'View' your blog. No difference? Bravo! That means all the 'tweaking' you've done was completed successfully!

So far, so good! Now you just have to wait for the second part to see how to 'edit' each of your picture posts to achieve the 'Thickbox' effect.

Come back again, soon!