blogger

to what you see after you perform a
basic Google search. These ads are
relevant to your blog’s content, so
you won’t see ads for coffee machines
if you blog about exotic travel
destinations. Inquisitive, entrepreneurial
bloggers can turn to “The Ins
& Outs Of AdSense” on page 132 for
more information.
Blogger Help. Using
Blogger is a lot like playing
chess. It doesn’t take long
to learn the basics, but becoming
a master takes a lot
of practice. Fortunately,
Blogger’s Help section is
fairly robust and should
help you tackle a number of fairly
specific questions. You’ll find
Blogger’s help section located just
below the Ad-Sense Invite.
The two links, Blogger Knowledge
(which at press time redirected us to
Blogger Buzz, or buzz.blogger.com)
and Blogger Help (help.blogger.com)
each contain different useful information.
The two are aptly named: Blogger
Knowledge (or Blogger Buzz, depending
on how you get to it) contains
regular updates of blog-related happenings
inside and outside of the
Blogger world, and Blogger Help
covers all of the basics and has advanced
tips for seasoned vets.
Lesson 2: Composition
In truth, you can start blogging immediately
after you create your blog.
You’ll have to edit your profile and
With Blogger Mobile, you don’t need a computer to keep blogging. If your
mobile device, such as a cellular phone, PDA (personal digital assistant),
or BlackBerry is capable of sending an email, you can update your blog with both
text and photographs from pretty much anywhere within your wireless service
provider’s coverage area. (At press time, Verizon, AT&T, Cingular, Sprint, and
T-Mobile were the only providers compatible with Blogger Mobile, but Blogger
claims it will be expanding the list in the future.)
True to the Blogger spirit, making mobile blog entries might initially seem like a
daunting task, but it’s not too difficult with a little practice. When you send an MMS
(Multimedia Messaging Service; a service that lets you send images, sound, and video
in addition to text) message or email to go@blogger.com, Blogger creates a mobile
blog for you and sends you its URL and a code you can use to claim your mobile
post. Be aware that even though Mobile Blogger is free, you’re still bound to any fees
your wireless service provider charges you for sending MMS or email messages.
Your mobile blog can exist independently, or you can incorporate it into an existing
blog. If you want a separate mobile blog, continue sending emails MMS messages
to go@blogger.com, and Blogger will continue to do all of the legwork and
update your mobile blog. Just refer your readers to the URL Blogger sent you.
To add mobile posts to a blog you already have, open a Web browser with an active
Internet connection and go to go.blogger.com. Enter the code Blogger emailed
you in the Claim Token field. In the Verify Your Registration field, type the randomly
generated string of characters you see just above the field and click Continue. On
the next screen, click Continue As This User. When Blogger asks you to claim your
mobile blog, click the Switch To “XXXX” radio button, where “XXXX” is your blog’s
title, and click Continue. Blogger will send the post to your existing blog. Repeat
these steps to add future mobile posts to your original blog. ❙
Blogger Mobile: Blogs To Go
When you sign up for an
Audioblogger account, you
have to list a primary phone
number and a PIN number
to claim your audio posts.
Reference Series / Guide To Using Google 99
GOOGLE TOOLS
probably read a number of Help
topics before you can construct a polished
blog, but there’s no reason you
can’t start putting your thoughts
down right away.
After you have signed in, look at the
Blogs area of your Dashboard page.
To create a new post, click the plus
sign (+) that appears to the immediate
right of your blog’s name. You can
start typing in the field provided.
Making a blog post is very similar to
composing an email to someone with
a Web-based email service, such as
Yahoo!, Hotmail, or Gmail.
Start with a basic blog entry. Compose
an entry as long as you like by
typing in the empty field. When
you’ve finished, click Save As Draft
or Publish Post. If you click Save As
Draft, Blogger will save the entry and
let you access it later for any revisions
you feel it might need. When
you sign on at a later time and click
the name of your blog on your
Dashboard page, you will see any
posts you have saved as drafts. Click
the Edit button, make the necessary
changes, and click Publish Post. (You
can also click Delete instead of Edit if
you don’t want to keep a particular
saved post.)
When you click Publish Post,
Blogger will publish it on the Web and
notify you with the message, “Your
blog published successfully.” At this
juncture you view
your blog with the
new entry (click
View Blog). First,
click either Republish
Index Only or
Republish Entire
Blog. For blogging
newbies just getting
their blogs off
the ground, there
isn’t an appreciable
difference between
these options. But
as a blog grows
larger and more
complex, republishing
it in its entirety
may take
longer than simply republishing
its index.
There’s obviously a lot more to
blogging than dumping a bunch of
text from your brain with furious
typing. By clicking on the Font and
Normal Size (these appear by default)
drop-down menus, you can change
the font style and size of your blog
posts. Likewise, the other buttons
should look familiar and apply various
formatting effects to the text of
an entry. Click the button with a
checkmark below the letters “ABC”
to spell check a post you’re working
on. If you’ve applied several types of
formatting to a block of text (for example,
you have blue,
bolded, italicized text)
and want to remove the
formatting, highlight
the text with your
cursor and click the
eraser button to remove
all of the formatting at
once.
If you click the Preview
link, Blogger will
show you a sneak peek
of what your blog would look like if
you published your post in its current
state. This can be helpful if you want
to see what a post will look like with a
particular font or where a picture will
show up amidst your text.
Lesson 3: Graphic Design
Shutterbugs, Bob Ross wannabes,
and anyone feeling visually inclined,
take note: This is the juicy part for
you. Even though text is a crucial part
to any blog, the old adage “a picture
is worth a thousand words” rings especially
true for blogs that make
strategic use of images.
Posting pictures to your blog used
to require a combination of two
other Google programs, Picasa and
Hello, or a third-party image-hosting
site, but the good people of Blogger
have considerably simplified the
process. To add an image to your
blog, click the Add Image button.
(It’s the button sandwiched between
the Check Spelling and Remove
Formatting From Selection buttons.)
A new window will open that lets
you upload images to your entry. If
you have the image stored on your
PC, click the Browse button, find the
right image, and double-click it. To
add an image that already exists on
the Web, you need to cut and paste
Blogger offers more than 2 dozen predesigned templates in
an effort to please your discriminating palate.
Welcome to the
Dashboard, your point
of origin for all things
blogging.
100 www.smartcomputing.com / Guide To Using Google
its URL into—drum roll, please—
the URL field.
Next, decide on a text wrap option
for your image in the Choose A
Layout area of the Blogger: Upload
Images window. Sample illustrations
will give you an idea of how the
image will appear with your text.
Click Small, Medium, or Large for
Image Size and make sure the Use
This Layout Every Time? checkbox is
empty if you want to use a different
layout for subsequent images. Click
Upload Image to finish adding a picture.
When Blogger displays the message
“Your image has been added.”
click Done.
When the image appears in your
blog entry’s text, Blogger should initially
place it at the beginning of the
text. You can click and drag the image
to where you would like it in your
text. It can take a little practice, but
the process isn’t difficult to master.
Including pictures or other images
with your blog’s text is a fantastic way
to make your blog pop, but you can
make other changes to your blog’s
appearance, as well. On your Dashboard
page, click the Change Settings
icon. The icon looks like a gear and is
located to the immediate right of
the plus icon for creating new posts.
Clicking Change Settings takes you
to your blog’s settings page. (At the
top of the page you should see the
Settings tab selected.) On the first
page, you can change your blog’s title
and give it a description 500 or fewer
characters in length.
There’s a veritable cornucopia of
other settings you can access and adjust
by clicking the following links in
the Settings tab: Publishing, Formatting,
Comments, Archiving, Site
Feed, Email, and Members. For example,
click Formatting, click Yes in
the Show Title Field drop-down menu,
click Save Settings, and you can include
titles with your individual blog
entries. To let all your visitors make
comments about your blog entries
(not just other Blogger members),
click Comments, click Anyone in the
Who Can Comment? drop-down
menu, and click Save Settings.
You can also make structural
changes to your blog, but this requires
some familiarity with HTML (Hypertext
Markup Language, a language
that tells Web browsers how to display
Web pages) code. One easy modification
you can make to your blog is
changing its Links section. Initially,
the three links in the section are
Google News and two Edit Me links.
To change them start at your
Dashboard and click the Change
Settings icon. Click Template and
scroll down through the code until
you see the line <!— Begin #sidebar
—>. Slightly further down you’ll see
the code for the Google News and
Edit Me links. Using the Google News
line of code as a guide, you can
change the Edit Me links, add more
links, and change Google News to a
different site.
For a visual idea of where to look
to make these changes, take a peek at
the illustration at the end of this article.
You can make plenty of other
changes to craft a blog tailored to
your interests and talents, and Blogger
Help will provide you with an
ample amount of guidance.
Lesson 3: Public Speaking
Blogger’s sister site, Audioblogger
(www.audioblogger.com), gives you
the opportunity to post audio to your
blog from any phone. Posts can last
as long as five minutes; if your witticisms
continue to flow, Audioblogger
gives you the option to record
GOOGLE TOOLS
By setting up a Mail-to-Blogger address, you can submit
posts to your blog via email.
Blogger Help (help.blogger.com) has tips for virtually
every skill level of blogger.
Reference Series / Guide To Using Google 101
another post at the end of a current
post. You can submit an unlimited
number of audio posts when you set
up an account with Audioblogger.
And if that doesn’t pique your curiosity,
placing an audio post is simpler
than a text post.
To establish an account with
Audioblogger, open a Web browser
with an active Internet connection
and go to Audioblogger’s Web site.
Click Start Audioblogging Now,
enter your Blogger User Name and
Password in their respective fields on
the next page, and click Continue.
Next, select the blog you want to
post your audio to in the drop-down
menu (if you only have one blog,
Audioblogger selects it by default)
and click Continue. On the Phone
Info screen, enter the primary phone
number you’ll be using to make
audio posts (but you can make audio
posts from other phone numbers)
and choose a 4-digit PIN number.
When you’ve filled these fields in,
click Finish Setup.
When you have a phone and PIN
number associated with your Blogger
account, dial (415) 856-0205
(Audioblogger’s dedicated phone
number at press time) and do your
thing, following the voice prompts
as needed.
Your Final Exam
Like any good teacher, we’ve given
you the basic tools to build a blog as
unique as you are, but the real challenge
is actually doing it. Although
this article will help you with the
ABCs of blogging, the rest of the alphabet
is waiting for you on Blogger’s
Web site. Making text entries
and adding photos are probably the
most crucial pieces of the puzzle, but
we’ve really only scratched the surface
of the many options available to
you at Blogger.
Above everything else, have patience
with your blog. The best
blogs didn’t spring up overnight, so
don’t be discouraged if it takes a
while to perfect your blog’s format
and content. The most popular
blogs have been around for years
and have taken a long time to develop
a sizable fan following. Release
your own creative talents, and
Blogger will do the rest.
BY VINCE COGLEY
RS
102 www.smartcomputing.com / Guide To Using Google
After Blogger places an image in the blog entry you’re working
on, you can click and drag it to where you want it in the text.
Your profile can tell your readers everything they
want to know about you (and maybe some things they
don’t). Starting at the Dashboard, click Edit Profile,
make your desired changes, and click Save Profile.
List your favorite Web sites in the Links section of your blog by changing
your template’s HTML. Use the highlighted text as an example.
From the Dashboard, click Change Settings and Formatting. Choose
Yes for the Show Title Field drop-down box and click Save Settings.