Alrighty then! A bunch of you have asked...and I have shown...how to add a favicon to your blog URL. If you look up at mine on this page, it's a gun and magnifying glass. It goes along with my website http://bonniescalhoun.com, where I am going to integrate this page like the rest of my blogs.

(Update: this is still a valid method for your website, but Blogger has now added the ability to your Page Elements page. At the top left corner of the Page Elements layout, click the edit button on the Favicon element, and upload your image...Viola! If you are using a customized template that doesn't have Page Elements, you may still need this method for your blog!)

LOL...the favicon is that little itty bitty image. They are only 16 pixels by 16 pixels. So when you are creating one use a square image so that it reduces correctly.

First you are going to decide on what image you want, and using your favorite imaging software I's say reduce it to at least 50px X 50px then you will get an idea of how it is going to look small. Take that image and go over here to Dynamic Drive-Favicon Generator and input the image. It will create a favicon for you.

Now if you are uploading it to your website (not blog) just follow the directions on the lower portion of the Dynamic Rive page. (no sense rewriting what they have). If you want to use the favicon on your blog in place of Bloggers Orange B, follow these directions.

Upload the favicon to a blog post, label the post as "Favicon" and save it as a draft. You are doing that to get the image onto the Blogger (Picasa) servers. Now you are going to create the code that you need. Copy this code:

<link href='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eO5-qj5k9V0/TfJs66ovG3I/AAAAAAAAD64/OlazI7MKM/s1600/favicon.bmp' rel='icon' type='image/x-icon'/>
<link href='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eO5-qj5k9V0/TfJs66ovG3I/AAAAAAAAD64/OlazI7MKM/s1600/favicon.bmp' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/x-icon'/>

The red links are the part that you are going to replace with your own image link from Blogger. It may be an .ico or a .bmp, that's all right. The one thing that you have to watch for when creating this code is that if you create it in Word.com it will add a bunch of funky coding to it, and even "smart quotes" Blogger...nor the rest of the world like smart quotes, so be sure to create the code in NotePad, and check all the quote marks or apostrophes to be sure that they look like the ones I have in the picture :-) Click on the picture and it will open larger so you can see it clearly.

Now we are going to add them to your template code. Click the Design Tab, then the Edit HTML link. It will open up the box of code for your template.

Now right here I must stop you and say, before messing with your template... "BACKUP A COPY" of your template to your computer. Right click on the code box and "select all", then open a NotePad doc (NOT Word.doc) and paste the template into NotePad and save it on your computer where you can find it in case you have a catastrophic failure of your brain connecting with your fingers on the keyboard :-).

Okay...now that we have that out of the way...use Ctrl-F to open a Find box at the bottom of your screen like in the picture to the right. You are going to type </head> into the find box and click "next". It will light up the word just like it does in the image, Then you are going paste in the code you just created.

Now...another important point...Click the PREVIEW button to see the change. If the preview shows the Share buttons at the bottom of the post, then close the preview and click Save Template. As long as it gives you a preview of your blog the favicon will show up in a while if it doesn't immediately. So close the Preview and click Save Template!

If the preview does not open...or the buttons are not there when the preview does open...click DISCARD Edits.

And start again. If you get stuck...email me.

Blogger has created a wealth of standardized templates, and out in the Blogosphere you can find a wealth of Blogger XML templates (Some of my favorites places are in the right sidebar). But I've noticed that a lot of them don't activate the Share Buttons for posts. You can see mine at the bottom of this post.
This code is built into all XML templates, so all you have to do is activate it. First off let's go check to see if you have the function turned on. Go to your Design Tab. The Page Elements page opens by default. See the edit button on the Blog Post box (#1) in the image to the left here?
When you click there it will open up a "Configure Post" box. That has a plethora of things that you can turn off and on for your posts, and at the bottom of the page it allows you to organize how they are laid out on the page. (Now sometimes that part doesn't work at planned, so that's the reason for the res of this post.)

Once you have the Share Buttons checked as in the image to the right, go check your blog page. If you see the little list of boxes that I have at the top of this post...or below my signature...then you're good to go! If not *sigh* then we have some more work to do. We're going into the template HTML.

I know...I know ...this is not for the faint at heart, but I have confidence that you can do it, if you follow the instructions to the letter. First thing, click the Design Tab, Then click on the Edit HTML tab. (You will see that marked as #2 in the image above.

When the box of code opens you are going to check the little link above the box that says "Expand Widget Template.  Now right here I must stop you and say, before messing with your template... "BACKUP A COPY" of your template to your computer. Right click on the code box and "select all", then open a NotePad doc (NOT Word.doc) and paste the template into NotePad and save it on your computer where you can find it in case you have a catastrophic failure of your brain connecting with your fingers on the keyboard :-).

Okay...now that we have that out of the way...use Ctrl-F to open a Find box at the bottom of your screen like in the picture to the right. What we are going to look for is the post-footer lines (designated lines at the bottom of a post). There are usually 3 of them. Write  post-footer-line post-footer-line-3 in the Find box (like I have circled in green.) It will actually find and highlight those words. Those words are ABOVE the words that are highlighted in blue because I skipped that picture to save space. When you find the footer-line 3...or 2...or 1 (You can experiment where you stick it in those three lines), you are going to insert this section of code:


Then insert the code right where I stuck it in the picture. (The piece of code is in blue.)

Now...another important point...Click the PREVIEW button to see the change. If the preview shows the Share buttons at the bottom of the post, then close the preview and click Save Template.

If the preview does not open...or the buttons are not there when the preview does open...click DISCARD Edits.

And start again. If you get stuck...email me.

Hi folks! Yes...I've been remiss at posting here but I've not had enough interesting things to share. That is going to change. I've got a whole new group of people that want to learn to blog, so here we go again.

This post is going to give you a technique for finding things easily on a page or in HTML code (which is what we mainly work with here). I did know how to use this but someone just pointed out that it would help newbies find the places that I want them to go to in code...much easier than scrolling. (Sheesh...sometimes the simplest things elude me.) ROFLOL...but I can write code like nobody's business :-)

Anyhow...just click Ctrl-F (ROFLOL...F is for Find, so that makes it easy to remember). A little light blue bar will appear at the bottom of your screen like in the image to the left.

I have circled the phrase I inserted in the search box, and you will see where it found the line in the Template HTML. You can make the image larger by just clicking on it! So that way you can see it clearly.

This neat little trick also works on just regular webpages when you are looking for a particular term or word in a long page of text.

Oh...and as a shameless plug for myself I have inserted my new signature that I use as a fiction author. ;-) Blessings to you all.

A nice young lady asked me to help her make a Blog Button, so I thought this would be a good learning lesson!

What we are going to do is use the image that I have created here to the left and turn it into a clickable button in a text box do that people can grab your button to put on their blog

First create the image, and upload it to a Blogger post, click the box for "No Layout" before you upload it. Save the post as a draft.

That will be the image that sits on your blog (Your personal image doesn't need to be clickable because it resides on the place that they are going to click to) so we won't add the blog link to yours.

To make a clickable image in the text box that you put below your personal image so that people can grab the code. Follow these steps:

We will be using the code for this blog's button for our example!

Take the image code, remove the blogger address (code highlighted in grey) that is in the first set of brackets You will keep the code that starts with <img...


<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdYkaG4oIvSN5oeqPw7TVAHdgYOyhqArfokYDsP8kctZNEHffzbr2mUexmFj9sQFeSViIl0SuTQ3-kluMJAELdT4_6-MZ6JtdLtpPg8gakNlSB0krUqV34EQLkWYs_VT_OTcJ/s1600-h/Blogbutton.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 126px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdYkaG4oIvSN5oeqPw7TVAHdgYOyhqArfokYDsP8kctZNEHffzbr2mUexmFj9sQFeSViIl0SuTQ3-kluMJAELdT4_6-MZ6JtdLtpPg8gakNlSB0krUqV34EQLkWYs_VT_OTcJ/s320/Blogbutton.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415908285347859266" /></a>


In front of that code you will add the link for the place that you want it to click to...written in this format: <a href="URL of Blog"> (Added in the grey highlighted code).


<a href="http://howcanidothat.blogspot.com/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 126px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdYkaG4oIvSN5oeqPw7TVAHdgYOyhqArfokYDsP8kctZNEHffzbr2mUexmFj9sQFeSViIl0SuTQ3-kluMJAELdT4_6-MZ6JtdLtpPg8gakNlSB0krUqV34EQLkWYs_VT_OTcJ/s320/Blogbutton.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415908285347859266" /></a>



Then wrap that whole piece of code in a textarea box, using <textarea name="HTML for Picture" rows="4" cols="20"> at the beginning....and </textarea> at the end.


<textarea name="HTML for Picture" rows="4" cols="20"><a href="http://howcanidothat.blogspot.com/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 186px; height: 126px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKdYkaG4oIvSN5oeqPw7TVAHdgYOyhqArfokYDsP8kctZNEHffzbr2mUexmFj9sQFeSViIl0SuTQ3-kluMJAELdT4_6-MZ6JtdLtpPg8gakNlSB0krUqV34EQLkWYs_VT_OTcJ/s320/Blogbutton.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415908285347859266" /></a></textarea>


The rows...and columns (cols) can be changed to change the height and width of the box.

Then take the original code that you got when you uploaded the image, and add the textarea box underneath it, and viola! It comes out looking like this on your blog:



<a href="http://howcanidothat.blogspot.com/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 122px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBckeA1fiVtIBHG612Jt2mSQid7LGkoD1rSsNHeBxQ9HPbstW7-KsX5IriUS2mXGHa5jtracsNVMcaDD8ibIrKK-Y28nG9HrI6B9yXzZNE4m1aHRDMtII5Spr_u0dJKW9n6Cm/s320/Blogbutton.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415917550402078946" /></a>

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi guys and gals! It's been a while since I had something new to teach you! But I just helped a gentleman with this last night so I thought I'd pass on the info.

What we're going to learn today is how to customize a table to work in Blogger, and all the cool things you can do with it.

This particular table that I'm going to show you how to make has three columns (that go across) and five rows (that go down) on the page.

That is what it will look like, and this is the code that you copy to create it!


<style type="text/css">.nobrtable br { display: none }</style>
<div class="nobrtable">
<table style="text-align: left; width: 460px;" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Day</td>
<td>Food</td>
<td>Child</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Monday</td>
<td>Hot Dogs</td>
<td>Mike</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Tuesday</td>
<td>Chicken</td>
<td>Mary</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Wednesday</td>
<td>Hamburger</td>
<td>Paul</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>


Now! What you can do to add customization:

If you want more columns(across) across the table, add more table data units, like this. Note: You must add the same amount to each row!

<tr>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td> .....notice extra td unit!
</tr>


If you want more rows (going down the page. Add more table rows (tr).

<tr>....this is the beginning of a tr unit
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
<td></td>
</tr>.....this is the end of a tr unit


If you want the table to be wider or narrower, change the pixel number in the width unit:
width: 460px

If you don't want a border, turn the border number to zero:
border="0"
Note: the higher the border number, the thicker the border.

And the cellspacing numbers tell you how many pixels between the cells of the table, while the cellpadding tells you how many pixels between the sides of the cell and the writing that you put in it!
cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2">

Have at it, and have fun!!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi folks! Another tip has been pulled to the forefront of my memory by an inquiring blogger...the necessity of using target="_blank".

LOL...don't look at me like that...I'm not talking dirty :-) Using target="_blank" in an outgoing link on your blog or website causes a new browser window to open when the link is clicked. It is desirable for two reasons.

First, the visitor is still on your website when they close that window after perusing, and they don't have to navigate back to your page.

And second, it helps to decrease your "bounce" rate.

LOL...I knew I'd get your eyes to roll up in your head at least once in this post :-)

Bounce Rate is defined as how many times a visitor "bounces" away from your site and comes back. If you are involved in increasing your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), the bounce rate on an entry page can help to determine how effective it is at grabbing people's attention.

Now before you running screaming from the room yelling, "SEO, SEO!" I must add caviar...LOL...I mean...a caveat. Bounce rate is only an SEO factor is you have a site for commerce. If your site is about ordinary stuff like blogging, news or just plain information you really don't have to worry.

The neat and conclusive reason for adding target="_blank" is to keep people on your page!

Write your links like this:

<a href="URL of SITE" target="_blank">

by Bonnie Calhoun

Man, oh man! I'm just full of posts lately! *snort-giggle* I've been helping a lot of friends get their blogs redesigned.

Well here is a problem I've noticed on several of my friends blogs. When they re-install their templates, they can no longer get their header images to show. Well I've come up with a work-around....LOL...and yes...you have to go play with your HTML!

I'll turn ya'll into template gurus yet!

This problem is especially prevalent on the Scribe template. When you switch templates the Header gadget should stay, but in the Scribe it doesn't...so go figure!

Here's how we're gonna fix it. We're going to delete the present Header element from the template and add a new one. LOL...I think the old one has a bad case of the ick! But first we have to allow the Header section to allow another gadget (You will notice that there is no "Add a Gadget" section on the Scribe Header.

Here's where we go play with HTML. Start at your Dashboard....go to the Layout tab...then click the Edit HTML link. We are going to scroll down to the highlighted section of code in the below image. If you can't read what it says, click on the image and it will open in a larger window.



What you are going to do is change the line where it says...showaddelement "no"...to "yes" This will allow the "add a Gadget to show up in the header section of your template. And you are going to remove the <b section that has your bad Header, so that that section looks like this when you are done.



Now you will click "Save Template". It will tell you that you are deleting a Widget, like in the below image. That's okay...click yes!



Now go to your Page Elements page...see the "Add a Gadget" in the Header section. Click it! Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and pick Page Header.

When it opens, click for the image to show "instead of the title and description" Then either find your image on the internet at your storage site, or use the top link and upload it from your computer. Then click save! Viola! You have your header back!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi guys and gals! Yes it's me again...twice in one week! Well I'm helping some friends spiff up their blogs, and I've had to re-remember stuff I've done in the past. Okay...today we're going to add color to that pesky browser scroll bar.

Now before you use this code, I must make you aware that it will not work in Firefox...LOL...they don't like people messing with their colors, so you can only get this to work in Internet Explorer.

The last caveat that I add to it is that, if you're anal retentive like I am about making my web pages validate this one is going to throw you for a loop because according to W3C...it ain't valid! So you will get an error code for it, but it won't break your page or anything...LOL...unless you have like 5000 other errors!

Okay...here's what you use:


<!--[if IE]>
<style type="text/css">
html {
scrollbar-arrow-color:#6E0502;
scrollbar-track-color:#940400;
scrollbar-face-color:#6BE02;
scrollbar-highlight-color:#909400;
scrollbar-3dlight-color:#333333;
scrollbar-darkshadow-color:#473624;
scrollbar-shadow-color:#BFB186;
}
</style>
<![endif]-->



And you scroll down til you get to the end of the <head> section, and you put it right BEFORE the </head>

Viola! You've got a color coordinated browser scrollbar!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hi all! It's been a while since I had something new to tell you, mainly because I've been busy with other projects.

One of my friends ask me to help her create a scroll bar for her rather long link list. So I thought I'd share the result with you.

It's rather easy to accomplish. As with everything I tell you, make sure you have saved a copy of your template in NotePad before you go farting around with it. And when you add code to your HTML, please....use the "Preview" button to see if that is what you want. If it is not, hit the "Discard Edits" button and you will be back where you started from.

Only hit SAVE...when you are sure you have the proper results!

Okay...now for the easy part...go to your LAYOUT tab. Click Edit HTML. Scroll down in the code until you see:


/* Sidebar Content
----------------------------------------------- */
/* Sidebar Content */


Right below that add:


#LinkList1 {
height:150px;
overflow:auto;
}















The number '150' in the height tells you how tall the box will be before it show the scrollbar, (illustrated to the left) you can change that number at will!

If you only have one link list in your sidebar, this will work as written. But if you add more than one scroll bar you will have to scroll down in your HTML is see what the list is called to create a scrollbar for it. Typically the default names will be LinkList1, LinkList2...and so on. Change the name in the piece of code that you add according to that name that the widget gives it.

And add the piece of code for each list that you want to have a scrollbar!

One other NOTE...your sidebar section in your HTML might not be names exactly the same as mine...it might just say:


*/Sidebar/*
or

/* Typography :: Sidebar
----------------------------------------------- */


Whatever it says, it's just a section name, and I want you to put it in the right section...LOL...only because I'm a neat-freak, and anal-retentive about how the code is organized! *snort-giggle* You could actually put it in any section...but you might forget where you put it...So keep it neat!

Happy blogging! Till next time!

by Bonnie Calhoun

This is the third in the series of Adsense posts. The other two are HERE, and HERE.

Today I'm going to teach you how to wrap Adsense code into a blog post. The first example isn't exactly rocket science so even the most novice of bloggers will be able to accomplish this with ease.

First the glaring question: Why would I want to give myself the heart palpitations that come with messing with the stupid HTML in my template to put in an equally stupid ad?

LOL...the answer to that: Ads placed within blog posts have been tested and proved to give the maximum in CTR (click thru rate). LOL...this means that you make a lot more money than with other locations on your page.

Let's first look at the use of the Adsense Widget.

From your Dashboard, click Layout. It will open on the Page Elements page. Click the Edit link in the Post Box. There is a clickable link in that open Configure box that you can click to put Ads between any number of posts. Read this Blogger Article about Placing Ads between posts.

From here on, it's going to get a little tougher, so the first thing I would recommend is Backing Up Your Template if you already don't have a copy of it saved in a NotePad file on your own computer. When you open the Layout tab, and click Edit HTML it will give you the Backup link...Please USE IT!!!


Okay...you're all backed up...now on to putting Adsense in your posts. Check the Expand Widget Templates box above the Edit window. Search for the following lines:

<data:post.body/>
or
<p><data:post.body/></p>

You will need to Parse Your Adsense Code like I taught you to do in THIS POST. This is how the post section code will look after you add the Parsed Adsense Code and the line to direct the ad to sit left, or right. In this code I have it set for left. To move it to the other side of the post, change the float position to right.

<div class="post-body entry-content">
<div style="float: left;">
<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = "468x60_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>
</div>
<p><data:post.body/></p>

Click the SAVE TEMPLATE button, and you're done!

by Bonnie Calhoun

Hello blogging friends! I haven't been ignoring you *snort-giggle* I just didn't have anything worthy of a post to report. I'm happy to say that I've found something new that could be of service to to, especially to those with team blogs!

Recently it has been asked frequently how the members of a team blog could get their image and/or signature on their posts! Well until Blogger comes up with a post editor solution, each team member can accomplish it with just a minor adjustment.

Each team member will need to open a "New Post" box. Into that box you are going to enter your name...as a signature. You can see how I accomplished that in the image below. And you are also going to upload an image of yourself. I made the size on this one, 50px X 60px, but that size is up to the individual.

Click on the image to open it larger, and in it's own window so you can read what it says!



Now...to get the text to wrap around the image start typing the post right after the closing image mark. The example in the picture is of this specific post, so you can see how it comes out.

After each team member has done this in his/her own post, they could save a copy of the signature and image in a file on their own computer to reuse on subsequent posts, or they could save a draft copy of their tagline and label the post with their own name so that they know which one to open...or they could just open up their last post, and copy and paste that part into their next post!

Happy blogging!

Hi all! I haven't been ignoring you, I'm just really busy writing...That's right *snort*, I'm a writer (among other things). But that's not why I'm posting today. I usually don't post about how to do something unless I've actually tried it myself, and understand how it works.

So today I'm going to show you how to reset the Blog post element. Okay, I know you're asking why in the world would you want to do that? Well there could be a couple of reasons. Like if you comment link at the bottom of the post disappears, or the posts won't show...or anything major malfunction of any other part of that particular widget.

Now...going back to the comment thing for a minute. If your comment link is not showing on your blog posts, check out these three things first to make sure that all of your settings are correct:

Post Options in post editor...the box at the bottom of the rectangle post box that you write in....click on 'Post Options' and make sure comments are allowed.

Settings - Comment tab...on the Settings tab, go to comments and make sure they are set to "Show".

Template - Page Elements - Blog post...and lastly go to your Layout(Template), go to Page Elements, then click on the edit box in the Blog Post element...hint:(it will be the biggest on the page). When the Configure box opens up, make sure comments are checked.

Okay, after all that your @#%$# comment link is still not showing...LOL...chill! We can fix it.

LOL...we're going to play in your template HTML...wheeee!

Go to Template...Edit HTML...scroll down in the code until you find this piece of code (the black highlighted section):
Okay, select it like I did and cut that puppy out of there. Save the piece in your mouse because you're gonna put it back in a few minutes. And remember where it was, so that you can put it back in the exact same place...LOL! If you're anal retentive like me...copy a whole section of the template...like say five lines before and after the section you're going to cut out and save it on a Notepad page ore WORD page...just so you can see the exact spot to put it back!

Okay...I digress...cut that highlighted section out of the template and click save...it will be fine...go ahead...click!

Now...this page pops up:" Warning Will Robinson, Warning...LOL...just kidding, I'm a Lost In Space addict! Anyhow...the page says...Egads, you're about to delete a widget!...LOL...never fear...click that Confirm and Save...with pride!

Okay now that you've deleted the bad bugger, you're going to reset the widget by scrolling down the template to the spot where you deleted the piece of code that is still in your mouse...Remember up above I told you to remember where you took it out of...another thing that you could do to remember the spot, before you take the piece out hit your Enter key a few times before and after the section, LOL...it will leave a big hole in the template, that will be easy to find!

Okay...mouse pointer in the empty spot...right click...paste....put that baby back and hit Save.

TaDa!!!! You're all better now, the Blog widget has been reset!

Okay guys and gals...Blogger has finally made it possible for you to really screw up your Googly life...LOL...just kidding!

They have finally made it possible to move blogs...at will..between accounts. Now I'm not going to create more accounts to give you a show and tell but my Blog*Star buddy Chuck has a post with a lot of pictures!!

The steps are relatively easy!

First...with Google, set up the second account where you want to transfer the blog.

1.) From your Dashboard, go to Settings, then to the far right tab called Permissions.

2.) As the original administrator of the blog, invite the second account to be a blog member using the email address of the new account.

3.) Log into the second mail account and accept the invitation.

4.) As the original Administrator, make sure both accounts are "Administrators"...just click on the button that says guest and it will change to Administrator.

5.) Click "Remove" for the account that you want to delete. The account that is left is now the administrator. (Just for ha,ha's I'd leave the first account as a backdoor to get into the blog in case you ever need it, just ignore it 'til then.)

6.) Log in with the new account and the blog will be on your Dashboard with full administrative access. Voila!

Hi folks! It's been a while since I posted, but I'm trying to only post relevant things here, that people need instruction with.

This is a new trick I recently learned. Imagine me...learning a new trick...I guess you really can teach old dogs...uh, er...never mind. Anyhow...I used to use a complicated program to do screenshots, and someone taught me an awesome easy way to do it. Now I'm sure you could use any photo manipulation program but the easiest way for people using Windows is to use Microsoft Paint.

Here's what you do. On the top right-hand corner of your keyboard is a key that says PrtSc...that means Print Screen. Hit that, then open up Paint, click the edit button, when the menu opens click Paste. The picture below is me copying this blog as a screenshot:

Then hit Save As...when the box open, give it a name, and below that box use the dropdown menu to save it as a jpg (picture). Now that you've got this shot, you may want to crop the picture. On Paint, see that tools menu running down the left side of the page...see at the top of the menu, the white box with the dotted rectangle in it...that's the crop box.

Click there...your pointer will turn into a cross-hair. Put the cross-hair where you want to start the cut, hold the left mouse button and drag the cross-hair till you get all that you want of the picture, then let go. (Notice in the picture below, the dotted line.)

Put the pointer in the box and right click on copy. Open a new Paint workspace (Go to File, click..on the dropdown menu choose New) and hit edit, and then paste...and the rest of the save procedure from above, and you wind up with the small piece below...Viola!

Okay so I've been really busy...I haven't been neglecting posting...just posting here. If you notice my cool icon at the top of the left column, I've been designated as a Blog*Star by the Google/Blogger help boards.

LOL...This means I officially have no life. That I spend most of my time on the Blogger Help boards dispensing advice to wayward Bloggers that are lost in the maze of Google and Blogger.

But it's fun! It's a lot of fun to teach someone to do something that they didn't know how to do before. I remember being on that end of the stick. Knowledge is power, and the more you understand Blogger, the greater the fun...so ask away!!

The purpose of this post is to give you a way to backup your entire blog onto your computer. The singular easiest way is when you make a post make a copy on your computer...Okay, okay, so I'm no fun at all. That's a plain old text post that doesn't look the least bit cute or laid out like your blog page does!

Sooooo....then you will need another browser...The Mozilla Firefox one! It's always a good idea to have more than one browser installed on your computer anyhow. Internet Explorer get persnickety sometimes and a backup is a good thing.

Anyhow, on Firefox one of the cool downloads is ScrapBook. You can get it HERE

With Scrapbook you can screen capture your whole blog. There are numerous ways of capturing...in fact....a whole page load of capture features HERE. My favorite way is to choose a month from my Archives. That way it puts a whole month on one page. Then you can save a Web page by right-click > [Capture Page].
Also you can save a Web page by drag-and-drop favicon in the location bar or browser tab into ScrapBook Sidebar.

The great thing is that ScrapBook is able to save a Web page more exactly than the Firefox standard [Save Page As] (Ctrl+S) feature. The page saved is an exact copy of what you see on the page!

You can organize collected Web pages in ScrapBook Sidebar as a tree similar to Bookmarks Tree, sorting items by drag-and-drop, creating folder and putting items into it, and so on.

ScrapBook Notes is a text/HTML edit feature resembling Opera's Notes, which enables you to add plain text items to ScrapBook and edit them in sidebar or browser tab. Major particular specifications are:

* The first line becomes the title of the note
* You can insert tab with tab key.
* You can insert timestamp with F5 key.
* Saving automatically when you close a note or open another note
* When opening a note in a browser tab, you can preview it as HTML.
* You can customize the template for the preview (note_template.html).
* You can search for notes by the Full Text Search.

So go and grab Firefox if you don't already have it...and then grab this very functional and cool add-on!

I've taught you to Parse the HTML of the AdSense code. Now I'm going to give example of placement.

This first tutorial of placement is to put the code in the post below the Post Title and above the post body. This will show the Adsense code in the first post on your blog page, but when when a specific post is opened up on its own page, the code will always show up in that post.

You will notice the placement in the image to the left. I took a picture just in case I had chosen to change my Adsense placement by the time you were reading this post.

You will notice that for this application I chose the small banner, 468 X 60 so that it would take up most of the width of the posting area.

To accomplish this place go Dashboard>>>Layout>>>Edit HTML...click on "Expand widget templates". It is in the right corner at the top of the Edit box.

Scroll down in the template code until you find this line:

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

Below that line insert your parsed HTML for the Adsense code that I taught you how to make in the last post, and hit SAVE!

Always remember to keep a copy of your template safely stored on your own computer in a NotePad file....just in case!

In the next tutorial I will teach you how to wrap the AdSense code in a post!

I am going to teach you to add AdSense code to your posts. Since it can be an overwhelming process, I'm going to break it down into several posts.

This post will teach you how to make the code compatible. To use AdSense code inside a post it is necessary to "escape" the AdSense code. The reason: If you put the code into your template just as it is written when you display the source code for the page, the Google data is invisible...that does not make Google happy and it is a TOS violation of AdSense...and they will pull your account for that!

Adsense does not allow you to alter their code other than "minor" edits. what we are going to do is considered a "minor" edit.

I contacted AdSense with the following question:

Subject: Wrapping Adsense code in blog post
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:12:15 -0700


I would like to put the adsense ads inside of a blog post. To make it look EXACTLY like you give it to me (when viewed as a Page source code) it is necessary for a minor alteration. For Blogger to parse the Adsense Code in XML template, the Javascript has to be escaped, using html entities...It looks EXACTLY like you gave it out when viewed by Page source, so is this permissable?

Adsense answered my email with this:

Hi Bonnie,


We do permit minor edits to the AdSense code to place inside the blog posts. Please keep in mind publisher may not alter any portion of the code or manually change the layout of the ads. For instance, publishers may not alter the ad height variable to mask the Ads by Google moniker.


Thanks for your cooperation.


Sincerely,


Sean
The Google AdSense Team

So here is how we are going to parse the HTML to make it compatible and when viewed by using the Page Source code, it will look exactly as given to you by Adsense.

This is an example of a piece of Adsense code as given out by Adsense:

<script type="text/javascript"><!--
google_ad_client = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = "468x60_as";
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
//-->
</script>
<script type="text/javascript"
src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
</script>

You are going to change the (<) to (&lt;) and the (>) to (&gt;) and the quote marks ( " ) to (&quot;) They will all be HTML entities. The code will then look like this:

&lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;&gt;&lt;!--
google_ad_client = "pub-XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX";
google_ad_width = 468;
google_ad_height = 60;
google_ad_format = "468x60_as&quot;;
google_ad_type = "text_image";
google_ad_channel = "";
//--&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;
&lt;script type=&quot;text/javascript&quot;
src=&quot;http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js&quot;&gt;
&lt;/script&gt;

The next post will show you how to place this in your template!

In the real estate industry, there are three things that are the most important about a property...location, location, and...location!

1.) So the very first thing that I want you to pay attention to when working to increase your AdSense performance is location! We'll start with the HEAT MAP to the left. The dark spots are the page locations where readers spend the most time looking. Utilize as many of these spots as possible.

2.) Place your ads above the FOLD...in newspaper language, this is the face location, or what you see on the page when it opens. Depending on your screen size it could be a little more or a little less than what you see here. But rule of thumb is that ads below the FOLD are seldom seen or clicked!

3.) As indicated in the HEAT MAP, the left side of the page is a premiere location. Readers are accustomed to seeing the navigational menu on this side of the page, so move your menu to the right side, like I did, and use the left for your ads!

Now the next section of performance enhancement has to do with the Ads themselves.

1.) Use lots of Ads! Google gives you ad allowances per page, utilize all that you can. But you must keep track of what you are using and what methods work best. You can keep track of this by...

2.) Utilizing the CUSTOM CHANNELS. AdSense gives you the ability to put a name tag on each ad that you make. This will help you to find out which ads work best, according to the fonts, colors, size and placement on the page.

A.) Match the FONTS to those on your page, especially if you are wrapping the AdSense in a blog post!
B.) Match the COLORS of your Ads to the colors of your website. Visitors will look at them more, especially BLUE LINKS. Blue links have a higher CTR than other color links because people are just used to clicking on blue links!
C.) Use Large Ads where possible. The Large Rectangle (336x280) is the best performing ad unit.
D.) And get rid of any borders, so your readers eye can wander around the page unimpeded.

I already did a TOUR on creating a Google Doc or Spreadsheet.

So you can go to your Google Doc & Spreadsheet, log in with your Gmail account. You get the WELCOME screen. you can then click on New Document or New Spreadsheet, create your sheet and save it.

So we'll dispense with that tutorial. Let's say that we already have a and you want to embed it in a post that you're making.

To publish a Document, click on Publish (upper right-hand corner). A new window opens, select Publish to blog. Input your blog provider, then your username and password, click Okay!

For a spreadsheet, click Publish now, then click "more publishing options". A window opens with more publishing formats, pick "HTML to be embedded in webpage". Specify the range of cells...the whole spreadsheet, one page, specific cells, etc. Click "generate URL". Copy that code into an Edit Post box and publish!

What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a display for the layout of your website. It is an aid to the search engines and to your visitors. Year ago they only consisted of a list of links, but now a sitemap is a descriptive roadmap of your site.

It is fleshed out with keyword details for each section and subsection to help your visitors enhance their touring experience. And the biggest benefit is that it gives the search engines more fodder!

To create a good sitemap.

Be sure that it is linked from your HOME page. this forces the search engine to find it right away, and then follow it all the way through your site. If you link it from other pages, and the spider finds a dead link, it will quit the search!

Small sites can place every page on their list, while larger sites should not because an never-ending list of links causes the search engine to think of you as a link farm. A good sitemap should have no more than 25 to 40 links. It also is easier on your visitors!

The title of each link should contain a keyword and link to the original page. Also write 10 to 25 words to tell what the page is about. This part contributes to your depth of content with the search engine.

If you have 15 pages on your site, then every page should be linked to every other page in the sitemap, and PLEASE make sure that all of your links work! When a person or a search engine find a broken link they both lose interest...FAST!

And just like you can't leave your website to fend for itself...don't neglect your sitemap. Keep it updated and current...Your visitors and the search engines will love you!

A good sitemap:
...gives a quick overview of your site
...gives a concise path for the search engines to follow
...gives a text link for every page of the site
...gives easy to follow paths for visitors
...gives a short description of each page
...uses important keyword phrases

Why is a SiteMap important?
Because it improves the value of your site by getting it indexed. This is your most important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) goal! A sitemap provides a one-stop shopping experience for the spiders, and it can also be invaluable to lost visitors!


If you wish to delve further, check out SEO Chat for great info on the subject.

A good place to start is with Google SiteMaps