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What is Bloggers Guide all about
Bloggers guide is a series of interesting, educative, creative and blog enhancing posts which have been well edited by various bloggers in the Tech World. Blogging though free needs some technical know how to get the best out of it. I once experienced this at my early days of blogging. This is one of the reasons am taking my time to start a blog for you, build it, develop it, help you write, give you SEO and a chance to do free guest posting.Why Did i start this Series
I started this series not to make money or become famous but as a way of appreciating those few bloggers out there with their technology blogs who helped me during my early days in this blogging market. Everybody has an intention to choosing blogging. And i choose it as a way of sharing my experience and Lifestyle.
So i started it for your sake and i will continue my great work which i pray to help many bloggers in the World either from Nigeria, any country. I just gave you the reason why you should always comment and share all my articles so that many beginners like you won't be lost in the blogging Crib.
Blogging Platforms
Previously on my posts How to choose a Blogging Platform and Best Blogging Platforms in the series bloggers guide i careful explained everything about blogging platforms leaving no trace of doubts. I won't start all over again if you missed it just try and read them. Both know this a blogging platform is "the rock where your weblog stand".
Blogger.com as a Blogging Platform
Blogger.com also previously explained in one of my previous articles, is one of the all time best website to power you little internet home. I would love to go detail so do read carefully a little reference i made to Wikipedia."Blogger is a weblog-publishing provider that lets in multi-consumer blogs with time-stamped entries. It turned into advanced through Pyra Labs, which was bought via Google in 2003. normally, the blogs are hosted by means of Google at a sub-domain of blogspot.com. Blogs can also be hosted inside the registered custom area of the blogger (like www.example.com). So blogspot.com area publishing could be redirected to the custom domain. A user could have as much as one hundred blogs in keeping with account.
Up till may additionally 1, 2010, Blogger allowed customers to post blogs on other hosts, through FTP. All such blogs had (or nevertheless have) to be moved to Google's own servers, with domains other than blogspot.com allowed through custom URLs. not like WordPress.com, Blogger lets in its users to apply their personal area free of rate, whilst WordPress.com prices round $eleven to use a custom domain. Blogger can not be hooked up on an internet server. One has to apply DNS facilities to redirect a custom URL to a blogspot domain."
Source: wikipedia.com
Advantage And Disadvantage of Using Blogger.com
Everything we humans always want is perfection when we ourselves are not perfect but that doesn't stop us from getting what we want. It will be encouraging enough for every beginner to know the pros and cons of what he is intending to do. Now a quick review
Why you should not Choose Blogger.com
Lets kick of with the important specific reasons why you should run from blogger. But do put in mind while reading this the features you would love to find in a platform so that evaluating would be much more easy to use
Rumors of It not Being Reliable:
This happens to be the first problem you have to consider. I don't imaging you wanting to own a blog in a Crib that is not reliable. During my early days of blogging this was my greatest fear. Still don't know how true this is but somethings should be put into consideration.
During my designs and template customization, i had to search online for pro-bloggers who could help me out since i knew nothing then. That was when i encountered this issue, it was being discussed by lot of bloggers using this platform and many of them tend to support.
With lot of evidence derived from various services offered for free by Google which they later shutdown for reasons still unknown. This became the mitochondrion of bloggers leaving the service for other good platforms like WordPress, Joomla, Tumblr and many others. Reference* read my previous article for list of blogging platforms.
Limitation of Mobile Friendly Templates:
At the beginning of blogging with Google service, this might not be a real problem for you but when you start getting visitors and impressions there would be a need for a change in the work scheme. What do i mean by this? Blogger offers mobile friendly templates for free and you can customize them all you want.
But does this really make my site look professional? Its a NO from me. As a pro-blogger would say, Making money with your blog starts from your design. I use blogger as a platform here at Ohen's Crib but take a look at my template and compare with other bloggers in the Likes of Nigerian Linda Ikeji. Now am not saying her blog is not Beautiful but every blogger user can easily customize his template to that exact one
Is that what you want too with you blog? Some other blogs have advanced in templates and having to stick to bloggers basic templates is really boring and stocking.
Reasons why you should Use Blogger.com as your Service host
The reasons why you should choose blogger is your host is quite unlimited depending on what you want from blogging.When i opened my blog with a unique name Ohen's Crib, do you know i got recognized by google in just two days?. that's an amazing function of blogger automatically summit your blog to google immediately without you paying a damn.
Blogger also features a lot of uniqueness by giving you a special admin control panel to let you rule your world without paying any web developer to help you.
Its a whole new home with its writing dashboard where you can so edit to the extent of making everything turn into a photo book or even a video a post. Use colours, Use headings and enjoy blogging.
View and edit you post from one place, Use SEO practices, Add extensions like windows live writers, firebug and many others.
Make your blog look entire like a website by buying custom templates, design your own templates and also use free available templates.
Features Of Blogger.com
Your entire blog apart from your content, entire depend on your host. Everything need for the design, functioning, friendless and also SEO depend on you service host. This is a major case of concern as the above listed options define of blog and make it suitable for our readers and subscribers.
Blogger in this aspect offers us a lot of services, Gadget, templates and many other flexible features which can make us have a great blogging experience, free from limitations.
1. Admin Control Panel
Blogging style turns into fashion and trends with bloggers easy to use control panel which just comprises of a lot of tools summed up into few tools to let you navigate through you blog at ease. Control which includes the following listing
- A front page which navigate you to the blogs you follow and important news from blogger buzz and also give you a listing of your blogs on that account with the actually all time number of page views. With an easy option to either post directly from there, View all your posts, View you blog just the way visitors see it and finally add a new blog for free within 5 seconds.
- To also make navigation easier for you blogger offers a sub menu which showcase to you the basic things in your blog panel: An Overview Page; showing total views in a scale, news from blogger buzz, general updates and many other options. Post Page, Pages, Comments, Google+, Stats, Earnings, Campaigns, Layout, Templates and settings. All the words are self explanatory.
- Add many other options to spice up your experience.
2. Writing Dashboard
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| Writing Dashboard |
The writing dashboard is a great combination of tools that can make your writing simple, beautiful and styled. It is a similar to the Microsoft word dashboard with the basic tools for writing available.
- It features the HTML and Compose mode which allows you write articles directly in HTML format of compose an article with simple text just like in Microsoft word.
- Writing features the use of Headings, Sub headings, Minor headings and normal text. Also allows you to make text either coloured, italic, bold or underlined.
- Medias including photos and videos can be inserted directly from a lot of services, your computer, blog, a URL , Picasa and lot of other services.
- Writing dashboard features a right sidebar that allows you add labels, schedule your post, add a permalink, add a location, and other options like allow comments and use of line breaks.
- Lastly a top bar which allows you Publish post, Save post, Preview post and Close post
The layout option helps arrange your gadgets in a drag and drop style to make it suit your taste. This is where you get to add gadgets to your sidebar, footer, header and allow you arrange how your post body will look. A little hitch among all the available gadgets my favourite is HTML/Javascript because with it you can add lots of spicing to you blog.
To me this is one of the options why WordPress was not a deal for me. Sharing options, social networks, polls, About gadget, Popular post gadget among a countless list of others are available and rated free for all bloggers.
Template Section
The template section is the brain behind your customization, it's look, colours and every other outlook option except gadgets involves this section. This section also give an amazing sub division.
- Customize and
- Edit HTML
The customize options lets you design your blog, set you layout (sidebars, footer), choose your theme colours, background image, header customization, body customization and many other options as listed in the page which you should understand easily.
Edit HTML is an advance option for pro bloggers, It allows you edit the frame work of your blog in HTML codes, CSS and many other coding. A bad work on it can destroy you entire blog but that doesn't mean you should not play around. You can play with it as you wish but a little advice, always backup your template by saving an xml file of it before messing with your HTML. Use the preview option whenever you change or add a coding to avoid errors.
Settings Tab
This is the last option i will brief you on. As the name implies. it enable you change a few things in your blog. Your blog description, Title, Privacy Option, Publishing options, HTTPS Settings, Permissions which include adding authors to you blog (multi author blogging), setting who should read you blog, your search preference (Custom robot tag, Meta tag, custom redirects and other options), Language and Formatting, Post and comments, mobile and email, and other options.
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How to Start A Free Blogger Blog
Opening a blogger blog is a simple task which might look complicated if you are not properly guided. Before making the decision to run your weblog on blogger, you must put into consideration, all its pros and cons to avoid making a mistake or even loosing your blogging career.Lets go on with the step by step guide on opening a blogger blog in just few a clinks.
Note: Before getting to this step you must have chosen a unique domain for your blog which will be your blog URL immediately it has been published to the web. I advice you make it personal with special word to avoid the "Already exist message from blogger".
Step One
Create a gmail account, if you already have one just note down your email password and name as this will be the main control for your blog. If you don't have an account, establishing one will only take about 20 minutes and you can use it immediately after creating. I recommend gmail because blogs on google services offers all google packages (Drive, Google Plus, Adsence ) making blogging easy, exciting and money making.
Step Two
Log on to Blogger.com and fill in your email details. Please take note of every word, every Capital letter, small letter, Signs because it is case sensitive. If you forget your password, use the recovery option.
Step Three
Fill in your details in the pop up window, Your blog title; which is the name of your amazing weblog, Address; Which is the URL of the homepage of your blog, which all links in your blog will direct to. (Note: when filling in your address do not add www. or https. rather just write the address and the blogger sub-domain will add itself).
Take a look at my blog, it's title is Ohen's Crib while its Address is www.ohenscrib.blogspot.com. Yours should look similar when you are through.
Select any template of your choice. These are just simple templates, which can be edited, changed and upgraded later as you continue blogging.
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Step Four
Now you have a blog on the net which should be seen on search engines as from the third day (depending on your weblog name and address) this won't work if you do not post on your blog. This doesn't mean your blog is not live. It is live, it only means that you can only view your blog through your URL.
Other forms to be filled by you are all bonus setup and when it comes to Author profile selection, i recommend you to select Google plus Author profile but you can also use the other option and write about yourself. Both are great.
Step Five
Understanding the control panel; Just refer back to top to read everything i already wrote about the control panel which for now should look a bit unfamiliar but with time and usage it will become flexible for you.
If you want to use a custom domain for your blog, It is also easy and can be done in just a few clicks. But i won't be dealing on it, because am based on free blogger.com in this post. Refer to two of my Friendly tech blogs for that Helplogger.blogspot.com and Ogbonge blog.
Writing Your First Post
After all the read and click click, now its time to write your first post. Write it as a message article and do use the post to tell all your visitors what your blog is all about. Do read post from other bloggers on ways to compose your first post.This is where i will stop in this teaching post which took me over two weeks to write, edit and preview. The purpose for this well detailed article is to enable young bloggers understand the blogger interface and start a blog without having to call or pay a web developer.
Article: Blogger.com Free Blogging Platform
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