Spice Up Your Blog

Get Free Image Hosting With No Bandwidth Limits

2010-07-24T17:00:00.003+01:00

Many of you will have noticed last month some of the images in the older posts on this blog were replaced with the ugly 'Bandwidth Exceeded' message from Photobucket.When i first started Spice Up Your Blog i hosted many images on Photobucket with no problems but as we became more popular and Spice Up Your Blog grew the Photobucket limits kicked in.Image hosting websites like Photobucket, Flickr and ImageShack manage to catch unsuspecting users with Bandwidth Limits rather than storage limits in an attempt to get them to pay for an upgrade.

Storage And Bandwidth

Here's the simplified explanation - For example Photobucket allow free users a huge amount of storage.You can upload lots of pictures and images to your account without any problems it's when you share those images the trouble starts.When others use images you store in your account it adds to your bandwidth quota.The Bandwidth limit unlike the storage limit is quite small for free users so when i share an image on Spice Up Your Blog and lots of people use it on their blogs my bandwidth usage increases.With a blog as popular as this one it takes very little time to reach the bandwidth limit and see all the images replaced with the ugly bandwidth exceeded image.

Photobucket Quote

"...Bandwidth is used when digital content is viewed from a link you posted on another website or sent in an email (e.g., MySpace, eBay, message boards, etc.). Bandwidth is a measure of the number of bytes passed over time via direct linking. It is calculated by adding up the size of each of your images or videos as they are sent from Photobucket. The “Monthly Bandwidth" number is the amount of bandwidth you have used within the last month. The month is determined by the day of the month you registered your account...."

Avoid Bandwidth Limits

First off if you are a Blogger user try to upload your images directly to your blog.If you have an image you want to use in anywhere in your blog create a post and upload the image, remember you don't have to publish the post just grab the image URL.Did you know all the images you have uploaded to your blog are automatically stored in Picasa web albums ? You can check out your Picasa Web account here - Picasa Web Albums

No Bandwidth Limit Image Hosting - One of the image hosting websites i have found with no limit on Bandwidth is IMGboot.Although they have restrictions on other parts of accounts the storage and Bandwidth are unlimited.You can check them out here - IMGboot.com

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Feedback

IMGboot is just one site with no limits on Bandwidth have you found other image hosting sites we should know about ?

Get Your Blog Listed On The Blogger Showcase

2010-05-27T13:35:00.002+01:00

Some time back i stumbled across a blog that had been specially set up to showcase the best blogs hosted on Blogger.I decided to submit Spice Up Your Blog as the process was simple and their was no strings attached.Having seen many attempts at similar ventures after submitting my blog i forgot about it and carried on with my business.

However it's been a few months since i submitted Spice and i have been surprised with the results.I'm not one of the bloggers who are constantly checking stats and traffic, let alone checking were the traffic comes from.But every time i do check my Analytics or Hitstats accounts i see a steady flow coming from The Blogger Showcase.

I love to see any attempt by fellow Bloggers to provide an outlet for people to showcase their work.People new to the game can quickly become disenchanted when it comes to getting their blog noticed and many quickly give up.So I'm happy to promote this great site and hopefully help The Blogger Showcase grow as well as help bloggers display their work.

The Blogger Showcase is for Blogger Powered blogs only and lists the latest blogs with screenshots on the homepage.You can also browse blogs by their category or the top rated blogs in each category.

Screenshot Of Blogger Showcase

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Here is the link to the site and once there you can use the 'Submit A Blog' link on the right under the header to have your blog listed : The Blogger Showcase

You can find Spice Up Your Blog listed here (Maybe add a review in the comments) : Spice Showcase Page

Browes through some of the blogs listed and you may find some new blogs to follow.Let me know what you think of the Showcase Site.As i said their are lots of similar sites but i think the as The Showcase is for Blogger only it is a great way to get exposure for your Blogger blog.

jQuery Blurred Image Effect For Blogger

2010-05-24T21:55:00.008+01:00

Back in February i published a popular post showing how to use an opacity or blurred effect with images on your blog.In the post i showed you how to add some code to your template and images which resulted in images being blurred until you placed your cursor over them.So i thought maybe some of you would like to have the effect but the other way around.In this post i will show you how to have all the images on your blog clear but they will blur when your place your cursor over them.This time the blurred image effect is achieved using jQuery so there is only a small piece of code needed.

Got the idea ?

Never mind i currently use the effect in the template gallery blog so you can check it out.Hover your cursor over any of the images in the posts or the post previews on the home page - Link : Template Gallery

Remember while the original Opacity effect could be used on selected images this effect will be on all images within your blog.Heres how it's done..

jQuery Blurred Image Effect

Step 1. In you dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs Html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

</head>

Step 3. Copy and paste the following code Directly Before / Above </head>

<script src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function(){
$(".post img").fadeTo("slow", 1.0); // This sets the opacity of the thumbs to fade down to 30% when the page loads
$(".post img").hover(function(){
$(this).fadeTo("slow", 0.5); // This should set the opacity to 100% on hover
},function(){
$(this).fadeTo("slow", 1.0); // This should set the opacity back to 30% on mouseout
});
});
</script>
<script type='text/javascript'>
$(document).ready(function(){
$(".latest_img").fadeTo("slow", 1.0); // This sets the opacity of the thumbs to fade down to 30% when the page loads
$(".latest_img").hover(function(){
$(this).fadeTo("slow", 0.5); // This should set the opacity to 100% on hover
},function(){
$(this).fadeTo("slow", 1.0); // This should set the opacity back to 30% on mouseout
});
});
</script>

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

With the code in place you can now save your template and check out the cool new image effect on your blog.

If you want to check out the original post with the opposite opacity effect here is the link : How To Use An Opacity Blurred Hover Effect On Images And Pictures

What do you think ?

View Versions Of Your Blog From The Past

2010-05-13T12:16:00.002+01:00

Yesterday i removed a sidebar gadget from this blog accidentally, a little silly but it can happen.I'm sure a lot of bloggers have had that "Oh No" moment when they mistakenly removed something.I no longer had the code for the gadget yet within a few minutes i had the gadget back in place.

How ?

The way i managed to get the code back for the gadget was using "Google Cached Pages".

Every time Google crawl your blog they store a version of your blog at the time they visited.This is true for every individual post on your blog also and you can see your blog on the date they last crawled very easily.The version Google provide of your blog when they visited is called "Cached" and i simply went to the cached page were the gadget was still in place, viewed the source, grabbed the code and added it again.

In this post i will show you how to view cached web pages and how to view the code that makes up any page on the web.

How To See Cached Pages

Presuming your blog is not brand new and Google have crawled and indexed it you should be able to access a cached version.

Lets look at the example of this blog - if you search Google for "Spice Up Your Blog" (Click Here To See The Google Results) you will get this :

Below the results circled in red you can see the cached option :

When you go to the cached page you will see a information header stating when the page was captured :

For more information on cached pages use this link to go to Google explanation : Catched pages

How Often Will Your Blog Be Cached

Because Spice Up Your Blog is well established it is crawled very often by Google the cached version is updated most days, You may find your blogs cached version is updated weekly, either way its good to know the option is there and it may come in very useful as it did for me yesterday.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

How to get code from a cached page

As i said above i managed to retrieve the code for a gadget from the cached page so how do we get code from a web page ? This is a little difficult to follow for a beginner but you can get the hang of it.

You can in fact get the code that makes up Any page on the Internet.Once on a web page click the 'View' button at the top of your browser and then click 'View Source' (May differ depending on your browser).You will then be presented with a document containing the code that makes up that page :

You can use 'Ctrl and F' for a search bar to find the exact code you are looking for in the document.

You may not need to get a cached version of your blog or any web page today, you probably wont need to see the source of a web page at the moment but I'm certain this information will come in very useful in the future.

If you have any additional questions or have something to add just leave a comment and i will do my best to help !

How To Reverse The Order In Which Posts Are Listed On Your Blog

2010-04-22T12:20:00.001+01:00

A very common question i have been asked is on how to change the order that posts are displayed on your blog.Basically all blogs have the format of showing your latest post first and the rest of the posts follow according to the date in which they were published.While this is the default blog standard since the start of web logs some people would like to have their blog posts listed in the opposite direction, so the oldest post is at the top of the homepage and the rest of the posts follow with the latest post last so to speak.

Their are many reasons a blogger may want to reverse the order of their blog posts, for example if you use your blog for short story's you will want the first chapter to be at the top of the homepage not the latest chapter.Until now in order to reverse the order you needed to play around with the dates which had it's faults mainly the fact that the date for each post would be wrong but i recently came across a blogger hack that can automatically list your entire blog in reverse order with just a little code needed and i will show you how to easily add this code to your blog.

This hack was first posted by David Merriman on The Merriman Family Blog and was a hack he had been trying to find for some time.So if you are in the same position here is how you too can change the order of your blog posts to oldest post first.

How To Reverse The Order Of Your Blog Posts

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. Find The following piece of code in your blogs html :
(Click CTRL and F for a search bar to find the code - More Info)

</body>

Step 3. Copy the following code and paste it Directly Before / Above </body>

<script type='text/javascript'>
var Blog1 = document.getElementById('Blog1');
var postContainer = Blog1.childNodes[1];
var first = postContainer.firstChild;
var child = first.nextSibling;
var childNext = null;
var classes = '';

var dateHeaders = false;
while (child != null) {
if (child.className == 'date-header') {
dateHeaders = true;
break;
}
child = child.nextSibling;
}

child = first.nextSibling;

while (child != null) {
if (child.className != null) {
if (child.className.match('date-header') != null) {
childNext = child.nextSibling;
postContainer.insertBefore(child, first);
first = child;
child = childNext;
} else if (child.className.match('post hentry') != null) {
childNext = child.nextSibling;
if (!dateHeaders) {
postContainer.insertBefore(child, first);
first = child;
} else {
postContainer.insertBefore(child, first.nextSibling);
}
child = childNext;
} else {
child = child.nextSibling;
}
} else {
child = child.nextSibling;
}
}
</script>

Once you have the code in place save your template.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Once you return to your blog you should see the last post first and the first post last .. Ehh

This is a great trick that i know a lot of people have been looking for so thanks to David for the code.

Were you looking to change the order of your blog posts and if so why ?

Let us know !

Will Taking A Blog Break Kill Your Blog ?

2010-04-21T13:10:00.001+01:00

Hello There Loyal Readers ! With only two new posts published in the last three weeks and nothing new for the last sixteen days you would be forgiven for asking "Were is that charming charismatic Irishman that writes Spice Up Your Blog gone?".

For the last eight months or so i published a new post almost every day.However a combination of taking 2 weeks off in Sunny Spain and switching Internet service provider on my return i have been on an Internet diet.

Now that we are back and i have every intention of picking up were i left off with lots of new posts with tips and tricks for your blogs i thought it would be a good idea to see how this break has effected Spice Up Your Blog.

Before logging on for the first time in 16 days i was interested in how the break effected the stats.

Will taking a Blog break effect the number of visitors ? - I think this is the natural first question.If I'm not adding fresh content surely the numbers will go down?.In fact the numbers are almost exactly the same as they were when i took the break !

The main difference is the number of return visitors has gone down, we can put this down to the fact that most return visitors are subscribers and followers who are updated when there is new content.On the other hand the number of new visitors has increased.I think we can put this down to the strong archive (Spice Up Your Blog has over 130 posts)and the work i have done to make the archive rank high in search results (80% of visitors to this blog are from Google).So although i am not adding fresh content people are still finding the archive posts in search results.

Will taking a blog break effect the number of subscribers ? - Today the feedburner gadget in the sidebar tells me there is 120 Rss subscribers (That gadget jumps up and down constantly so I'm not sure exactly how accurate the results are but they are a ballpark figure).When i took the blog break Spice Up Your Blog had 89 subscribers, so even though their was no new content the subscribers jumped by 31.Not bad i hear you say, but would the number be over 150 if i hadn't taken the break ?

Will the blog break effect AdSense earnings ? - I took a quick look at the AdSense reports and the figures are almost identical to the numbers before the break.

Comments and Contacts

The main worry i had when taking a blog break was the fact i wouldn't be there to reply to comments and emails from readers.In the last 16 days there have been over 50 comments and lots of Emails via the Contact Me form.I have spent the last hour replying to as many comments as possible so if you asked a question you should get a reply today.

Break Rather Than Quit

One of the factors that can lead to many bloggers quitting is basically because writing to their blog starts to feel like work !

The initial fun and excitement of doing something different and writing a blog becomes a chore and you feel pressure to add content.Spice Up Your Blog is a long term project and i have no intention of quitting but at times i do feel as though I'm writing a post just because i feel I Have To add new content.My father used to say "If you have nothing good to say just say nothing" and i think this is something to take on board when blogging.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

I enjoyed the break and I'm really excited to be back with lots of fresh ideas.I guess the point behind this post is if you find yourself loosing the passion for your blog don't be afraid to take a break.Your blog will still be there when you get back and as shown in the stats above so will most of your readers.

What do you think ?

I'm really interested in your thoughts on this subject :

Have you taken a blog break and did it effect your blogs stats ?

Do you sometimes feel pressure to add content to your blog ?

Have you anything else to add or any extra questions ?

Let us know !

Add The Animated Scrolling Recent Posts Gadget To Your Blog

2010-04-03T22:45:00.004+01:00

When people visit your blog it is important to keep them there for as long as possible, the longer someone is on your blog the more likely they will be to return and subscribe or follower.Displaying a list of your most recent posts in your sidebar is a great way to keep those visitors busy.There are lots of recent posts gadgets and archive gadgets you can use but the one we will cover in this post will defiantly grab the attention of people on your blog.

This recent posts widget is similar to the standard recent posts with thumbnails but with one great twist.This gadget displays your most recent posts and includes a small thumbnail but it has the added extra of using an animated effect that smoothly scrolls through the posts.

You can see a working example of the gadget on the Demo page here : Demonstration Blog

Animated Recent Posts For Blogger

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Add A Gadget' >

Step 2. From the pop up window choose the Html/Javascript gadget

Step 3. Copy the following code and paste it into the Html/Javascript gadget

<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<style type="text/css" media="screen">

</style>

<script language='JavaScript'>

imgr = new Array();

imgr[0] = "http://i43.tinypic.com/orpg0m.jpg";

imgr[1] = "http://i43.tinypic.com/orpg0m.jpg";

imgr[2] = "http://i43.tinypic.com/orpg0m.jpg";

imgr[3] = "http://i43.tinypic.com/orpg0m.jpg";

imgr[4] = "http://i43.tinypic.com/orpg0m.jpg";
showRandomImg = true;

boxwidth = 255;

cellspacing = 6;

borderColor = "#232c35";

bgTD = "#000000";

thumbwidth = 70;

thumbheight = 70;

fntsize = 12;

acolor = "#666";

aBold = true;

icon = " ";

text = "comments";

showPostDate = true;

summaryPost = 40;

summaryFontsize = 10;

summaryColor = "#666";

icon2 = " ";

numposts = 10;

home_page = "http://www.YOURBLOG.BLOGSPOT.com/";

limitspy=4
intervalspy=4000

</script>

<div id="spylist">
<script src='http://popular-post-blogger.googlecode.com/files/recentpostthumbspy-min.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
</div>

Thanks to Abu Farhan for this code.

Note : You must change the URL address in red to the address of your blog.

Optional Changes : There are lost of changes that can be made to the code if your comfortable making changes, the main edit you may want to make is the number of posts displayed.To change the number of posts that are scrolled through change the following :

numposts =10;

You can change from 10 to the number of posts you wish to have displayed.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

To see how to add the original version of this gadget that does not use the scroll effect check out the Featured Posts With Thumbnails Post from last month.

If you need more help just ask !

How To Put A Related Posts With Images Gadget Under Your Blog Posts

2010-03-30T14:05:00.003+01:00

One of the most popular related posts gadgets for Blogger users is the related posts with thumbnails provided by linkwithin.The easy installation and clean look of the gadget makes it an easy choice for most bloggers.However the linkwithin gadget does not suit everyone and does not work with every template for example the template I'm currently using will not display that gadget properly.If your having similar issues with the linkwithin gadget don't worry, in this post i will show you how to use an almost identical gadget that is coded to work well for all blogger templates.

If your not familiar with the related posts with thumbnails gadgets lets look at how it works, whats displayed and were it appears.The gadget will be located below all your posts and will list a number of posts (The number is specified by you) that are related to the post it appears under.In order to display related posts the gadget uses the labels used in each post and lists posts using the same labels.Along with the post title this gadget displays a thumbnail (Small version of an image you used in the post) and a short description of the post although this is optional.

Demo

You can see a working example of this gadget by viewing any post in the new template gallery: http://www.templates.spiceupyourblog.com/

How To Add The Recent Posts With Thumbnails To Your Blog

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html' > Tick the 'expand widget templates' box

Step 2. In your templates Html find the following piece of code :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to help find the code - More Info)

</head>

Step 3. Place the following code Directly Above/Before </head>

<script src='http://www.sigmirror.com/files/49136_fib7l/relatedpost.txt' type='text/javascript'/>


<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<style type='text/css'>
#related-posts {
float:center;
text-transform:none;
height:100%;
min-height:100%;
padding-top:5px;
padding-left:5px;
}

#related-posts h2{
font-size: 1.6em;
font-weight: bold;
color: black;
font-family: Georgia, “Times New Roman”, Times, serif;
margin-bottom: 0.75em;
margin-top: 0em;
padding-top: 0em;
}
#related-posts a{
color:black;
}
#related-posts a:hover{
color:black;
}

#related-posts a:hover {
background-color:#d4eaf2;
}
</style>

<script src='http://blogergadgets.googlecode.com/files/relatedthumbs21.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</b:if>

Step 4. Find the following piece of code in your blogs html :

<data:post.body/>

If <data:post.body/> appears in your template twice use the second occurrence.

Step 5. Place the following piece of code Directly Below / Under <data:post.body/>

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div id='related-posts'>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<script expr:src='"/feeds/posts/default/-/" + data:label.name + "?alt=json-in-script&callback=related_results_labels_thumbs&max-results=6"' type='text/javascript'/></b:if></b:loop><a href='http://www.spiceupyourblog.com' target='_blank'><small>Get This Gadget</small></a>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var currentposturl="<data:post.url/>";
var maxresults=6;
var relatedpoststitle="Related Posts";
removeRelatedDuplicates_thumbs();
printRelatedLabels_thumbs();
</script>
</div><div style='clear:both'/>
</b:if>

Note : You can change the amount of related posts to be displayed by changing the maxresults=6 as highlighted above in red.
You can change the title above the gadget by changing the text Related Posts highlighted in red above.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

This is a nice gadget that will keep people on your blog looking through your archive, a vital factor in building a following for your blog.

If you have any questions just ask !

Remove The Blogger Quick Edit Pencil And Spanner Icons

2010-03-06T23:25:00.003Z

A recent question i received was about the quick edit icons on blogger.The quick edit icons are the spanner and screwdriver that appear below all the gadgets on your blog and the pencil that appears at the top or bottom of your blog posts.

These icons are shortcuts you can use when on your blog to make quick changes.The spanner and screwdriver can be clicked to make a change to any gadget in your sidebar or elsewhere on your blog while the pencil can be clicked to edit a post. I actually find these very useful, however if you want them removed from your blog it's an easy process.

Screenshot Of Blogger Quick Edit Options

The quick edit pencil for editing your posts and the quick edit spanner and screwdriver for editing your gadgets are removed separately and here's how it's done.

Remove Quick Edit Pencil

Step 1. In your blogger dashboard click 'Layout'

Step 2. Click the 'Edit' option for your blog posts as shown below :

Step 3. UN-Check the 'Show Quick Editing' box as shown below :

Step 4. Click save and the quick edit pencil will no longer appear on your blog.

Remove Quick Edit Spanner and Screwdriver

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to find the code - More Info)

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Paste the following code Directly Above / Before ]]></b:skin>

.quickedit{display:none;}

Save your template and the quick edit tools have been removed from your blog.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

You can always switch back in the future, and remember if you keep them in place no one else can use them.

Have you removed the quick edit options, and if so why ?

Move The Blogger NavBar To The Bottom Of Your Blog

2010-02-28T19:48:00.003Z

A recent suggestion i seen in the comments for Blogger Buzz the official Blogger Blog, was to provide the option to display the NavBar on the bottom of your blog instead of the top.

A lot of blogs have Removed the Navbar but it can be very useful for both the author of a blog and especially for the readers so this seemed like a great idea.

However it's highly unlikely Blogger will consider this suggestion but if you also like this idea don't worry, i have a way you can move the navbar to the bottom of your blog in just 3 steps.

To show you how it looks take a look at this demo : Bottom NavBar

Move The Blogger Navbar

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html'

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs html :
(Click Ctrl and F for a search bar to find the code - More Info)

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Place this code Directly Above/Before ]]></b:skin>

#navbar-iframe {
position: fixed;
right: 0px;
bottom: 0px;
left: 0px;
}

Click Save and the Navbar on your blog is now positioned at the foot of your blog !

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Very easy, another cool effect is using a Hover Effect Navbar.This effect makes the navbar only visible when you place your cursor over it.

Will you move the NavBar of have you removed it completely ?

10 Methods of Refining Your Writing Technique

2010-02-20T22:05:00.007Z

Guest post by Tom Walker

It’s a rare find to discover a writer who is ever truly happy with his or her technique. For most writers, there is a constant search for ways to better themselves when it comes to their trade. There is a variety of areas upon which an author might be looking to improve, including style, ability, proofreading, tone, grammar or descriptive word power. If you are looking for ways to better your writing technique, here are some tips that could help you in your efforts.

1. Understand Your Topic

There are few more aggravating things to someone reading your work than to think they are reading about one subject only to find themselves reading about something completely unrelated. Not only is this aggravating to the reader, but to the publisher as well. This is why it is important to read and understand the publisher’s directions before you start writing. You don’t want to write an entire article only to discover after the fact that you’ve completely missed the mark when it comes to discussing the assigned subject matter.

2. Know Your Audience

Understanding who will be reading your work is almost as important as how well you write it. Are you writing for children who still have a limited comprehension of the English language? Are your readers in foreign countries where American slang doesn’t quite compute? Knowing for whom you are writing content can significantly alter the way in which you write it.

3. Writing Style

With the recent prominence of online writing, styles have changed. Blog posts, search engine optimized writing, and keyword articles often differ greatly from newspaper and magazine writing. It is pertinent that you know what type of writing you are expected to do before you begin a work.

4. Try to Find Your Groove

Almost everyone has a certain time of day or night when they write more effectively. Try to find when you hit your stride and make an effort to buckle down and do the majority of your work or your most difficult work during these times. Knowing your more productive periods can allow you to schedule the rest of the day around those times and make the most of them, filling the down times with more menial, less mentally taxing activities, and putting the peddle to the metal when it’s time to work.

5. Outline

Sometimes getting started is the most difficult part of writing. Putting together an outline can bring the structure of your writing together and form a layout that you can follow to put your ideas in order in a coherent and easy to follow way. If you are tired and don’t feel like forming paragraphs or getting into detailed descriptions, jot down ideas, phrases, and keywords to remember your ideas by so that you can come back later when you are fresh and expound upon your thoughts.

6. Proofread

Even the best writers must proofread and edit their material. You’ll be amazed that those words that flowed so fluently from your mind onto the paper or computer screen, and sounded so great, don’t always look so good when you re-read them. Look for grammatical mistakes, improper word usage, and tense changes as common errors when you proofread.

7. Read it Aloud

Sometimes proofreading your work isn’t enough. When mentally reading the words that you wrote, it’s easy to remember the phrases as you meant them to be read, and scan over typos. Try reading the words aloud. You might be surprised at the mistakes you catch.

8. Be Receptive to Criticism

There are few things a writer hates more than criticism. However, healthy, constructive criticism can be a great way to improve your writing. Don’t be frustrated by the opinions of others. Instead, listen to what they have to say, consider their ideas, and reevaluate what you have written or how you have written it.

9. Read Other Authors

Whether it is by way of blogs, news articles, magazines or novels, reading other authors can help to improve your writing by observing the style of others. Most great artists don’t become great on their own. By watching and learning from others, you can pull the best pieces of their creativity to mold your own unique writing style.

10. Put Yourself Out There

You likely won’t learn anything new by playing it safe. Sometimes you have to put yourself out there and take a chance. Explore new topics, try new writing styles, and look for new areas to discover. Expanding your horizons when it comes to writing can help you build your experience and can lead to new areas of writing in which you never imagined yourself working.

This is a guest post by Tom Walker, a writer and designer who works with a supplier of Epson original ink, toners, paper and accessories. He blogs regularly on the CreativeCloud.

If you would like to be a guest writer on Spice Up Your Blog it couldn't be easier.
To see how it works check out the info page : Write A Post

Overcoming The Disadvantage Of Writing Blogs In Your Second Language

2010-02-18T21:05:00.002Z

In this post i want to take a step back from design and gadgets and look at some of the home truths of blogging.

If your first language is not English and more to the point if you have some English but are not fluent and choose to write your blog in English you could be at a big disadvantage.Internet users couldn't care a less were your from but Internet users do want information in a clear to the point format and they want each step to be fully explained.If you don't offer that someone else will.

Blogging has turned into an information source, the original weblog idea of sharing photos and family and friend activity through blogging has moved to social networking sites.Your blog might not directly be presented in a 'How To' format but if you stand back and take a look most blogs are information blogs in some way.

Search Engine Trouble

Not only is it harder for bloggers without fluent English to connect with their readers and get their point across in a way that is understandable they are also at a disadvantage when it comes to search engines, the readers of your blog may take the time to understand the point your making Google will crawl and discard your blog without a second look.

Most of the blogs i subscribe to are in a similar niche as Spice Up Your Blog, Tech blogs, Gadget blogs and other Blogger help blogs.I really enjoy One blog in particular that posts some great content, although this blogger posts about all things tech and Internet based, he uses the blogger platform so he also posts lots of blogger tutorials and most are great useful tips.The writer of the blog is from India and is currently still learning English, this has had a huge impact on the success of his blog.

Finding Help

I have left lots of comments on his blog and we would often send five or six comments back and forth so i felt comfortable enough to contact him and offer him some help.

First lets look at an example of how his limited knowledge of English was effecting his blog.
(He has asked for his blog not to be named in the post)

Lets say for example this blogger writes a post with a new 'Recent Posts Gadget' this would be how the post is presented :

Post Title : "Another Blogger Gadget" <-- Does not include the name of the gadget or the purpose of the gadget.Its important that the title includes terms people will search for and titles that will be clicked in search results.Also if you are already on his blog and see the archive in the sidebar a title like this will not entice you to check it out, it could be anything.

Post Content- First Paragraph : "Step 1 click..." <-- The blogger has given no introduction or description for the post, just jumped into how its done.Not only is an introduction important for readers its absolutely Vital for search engines.Google place more importance in the first two paragraphs of posts than anything else.He should include the words 'Recent Posts Gadget' and 'Blogger' at least twice in the first two paragraphs as well as explaining the advantages of using it.Basically he needs to sell the Post.

End of the post : "Click Save that's it" <-- No explanation of what was just done, no links to other posts to keep readers on the blog (A link to a similar post before the finish will get much more clicks than a list of related posts), no offer of extra help or mention of comments.

The post is poorly set up for readers and is almost invisible to search engines.The main keyword in the post is 'Step' so his blog could be indexed totally wrong by search engines.This of course is not the bloggers fault, he is learning English and picking effective titles and post formats is at the moment beyond the leval he has reached.
(Although much better than any effort i would make at another language)

So what can be done to fix this ?

OK it's very easy point out the problems but are their solutions. The one thing their is no shortage of within the blogging community is people willing to help but most of the time you must seek help. I contacted this blogger and put forward two ideas :

Google Translate

First write his posts in his own language, once the post is complete copy the entire post go to Google Translate paste the content into the area provided and translate it into English.

Proof Readers

But Google translate can make errors so this was the second proposal - Once he has translated the post go to Google Docs and put the post into a document and send it to me, i will give the post a quick proof read and fix any errors, once that done i send it back and he publishes it.

Translating the post into English takes about 30 seconds, adding it to a document takes another 30 seconds, the proof read takes less than 2 minutes by me...Easy.

All you really need is to reach out and look for help, but to make sure this works you must look at some extra points.

Notes

I think it would be important to find more than one other blogger that is willing to proof read your posts, i will not always be available.I suggested this to him and he now has another blogger willing to help.

I think it's very important the blogger or bloggers you pick to proof read write in the same niche, it's easier if they understand the posts you write and what they are about.Also if you do contact a blogger see if you can offer anything in return, not cash this will only complicate the arrangement.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

This has worked out great for the blogger in question and he is already seeing the advantages with an increase in subscribers and an increase in search traffic.If you going to make it as a blogger you must be willing to to leave your comfort zone and put yourself out there.

Your Opinion ?

Are you writing a blog in your second language ? I would love to hear how it has effected you.

And if you were contacted by someone looking for a proof reader would you be willing to help ?

10 More Great Blogger Gadgets For Your Blog

2010-02-16T23:59:00.006Z

Every now and then i like to write a post with lots of quick tips and gadgets for your blog.Most of the tips are too short for a full post but defiantly will spice up your blog.So in this post we will focus on ten Blogger gadgets you can use.I have the code for most of these gadgets in the post so it couldn't be easier.There are lots more gadgets available and more being created everyday, so it wont be long before the next list !

Most of these gadgets are added as Html/Javascript gadgets in your layout page.If your unsure about how to add a Html/JavaScript gadget, at the end of the posts i will show exactly how it's done.

Ten Great Blogger Gadgets

1. Display the current date on your blog - The first tip is great and very easy.Display the current date on your blog, and i have it broke down to just one line of code.

Preview :

Code - Add code to a Html/Javascript gadget :

<script src='http://spiceupyourblogextras.googlecode.com/files/simplecalendar.js'></script>

2. Disable Right Click On Your Blog - Personally i don't like to see right click disabled but if you want it disabled on your blog here's how it's done.

Code: Add this code to a Html/JavaScript gadget on your blog :

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>

var message = "function disabled";
function rtclickcheck(keyp){ if (navigator.appName == "Netscape" && keyp.which == 3){ alert(message); return false; }
if (navigator.appVersion.indexOf("MSIE") != -1 && event.button == 2) { alert(message); return false; } }
document.onmousedown = rtclickcheck;
</SCRIPT>

3. When Did Google Last Visit Your Blog - This cool gadget will display when the google bot or spiders last crawled your blog.To get the gadget go to This website and enter your blog URL.When you click 'Check Google Bot Last Visit you will generate some html code.

Preview :

Note : Add your code to a Html/Javascript gadget on your blog

4. 5 Star Rating gadget for your blog - This is the ourbrain rating system, go to the outbrain website Click Here and they have an option to add the gadget directly to Blogger

Preview :

5. Add Google Talk To Your Blog - You can add a Google Chat widget to your blog and Chat with your friends without leaving your blog.

Preview :

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;lt&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;br&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Code : Add the following code to a Html/JavaScript gadget on your blog

<iframe width="234" frameborder="0" src="http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/client?fid=gtalk0&relay=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fig%2Fifpc_relay" height="350">
</iframe>

6. Add A Wibiya Tool Bar To Your Blog - The Wibiya toolbar has become very popular amongst bloggers on all platforms.The Toolbar includes bookmarking buttons, Twitter integration, Facebook integration, Chat features, Rss features and lot more.I used it for a while and really liked it, you have a selection of colors to suit your template.

Preview :

You can go to the Wibiya website to set up your toolbar, once you generate the code paste it into a Html/Javascript gadget.

7. Add This To Your Technorati Favorites Button - Technorati is one of the most respected blog directories and list the most popular blogs online, and in each category.This nice button will allow your visitors to quickly add your blog to their faves.

Preview (It's live so you can save this blog to your faves)
:

Code :
(You must replace my URL in red with yours)

<a href="http://technorati.com/faves?sub=addfavbtn&add=http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/"><img src="http://static.technorati.com/pix/fave/tech-fav-1.png" target="_blank" /></a>

8. Add popular posts list to your blog - I covered this in a previous posts but it's very simple to add to your blog.Go to This site and click the add to blogger button they will look after the rest.

Preview:

9. Round the corners of your images and let your readers round their images - This is a gadget from Roundpic and it can be easily added to your blog.The gadget allows you or anyone on your blog to round the corners of images.You will have the very same gadget as below on your blog.

Working preview :
(Try it out)

Code :Add as a Html/Javascript gadget :

<form action="http://www.roundpic.com" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data" target="blank"><input value="1048576" name="MAX_FILE_SIZE" type="hidden"><table><tbody><tr><td class="title"><b>Image:</b></td><td class="input"><input name="file" type="file"></td></tr><tr><td class="title">or <b>URL:</b></td><td class="input"><input value="http://" name="url" type="text"></td></tr><tr><br /><td colspan="2" class="submit"><button onclick="getLoader();" type="submit">Round it!</button></td></tr></tbody></table></form>

10. Feeds In Tabs - This gadget is in the Blogger Gadget gallery (When you click 'add a gadget' in your layout page the pop up window contains the gadget gallery).But i don't see it used much even though it is very useful.If you have more than one blog you can display the recent posts for 3-4 of your blogs in a tabbed format, or you could add your twitter feed, feeds for your favorite blogs or news channels etc..

Preview :

To get this gadget go to This site and you will get more info, their is a one click 'add gadget to blogger' button.There are also lots more gadgets from the Blogger Gadget gallery on that blog.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Adding a Html/Javascript gadget to your blog

1. In your dash board click 'Layout'

2. In your Layout page click 'Add a gadget'

3. From the pop up window choose 'Html/Javascript'

4. Paste the code into the area provided.

So there are 10 great gadgets you can use to make your blog stand out from the crowd.Improving your blog can be so easy, check out the last Quick Tips list - 5 Built In Blogger Features You Should Be Using

Have you a favorite gadget from the list ?

How To Create A Mobile Device Version Of Your Blog For Free

2010-02-16T01:05:00.002Z

In this post we are going to bring your blog to a whole new audience.Have you ever tried to view your blog on an IPhone ? Not a pretty sight and very hard to navigate so by the end of this post you will have a Mobile version of your blog available with it's very own URL address, a cool look, Mobile phone friendly and it's free.

According to IDC (Interactive Data Corp) there will be over 1 Billion people using the mobile Internet 2013.We bloggers have to jump on that bandwagon, that's 1 Billion potential readers for your blog.The mobile traffic available from Twitter and Facebook alone is huge.You can even monatize your mobile blog with AdSense and other ad publishers.

The great thing is how easy the mobile version is to set up, it only takes a few steps and you can add a small piece of code to your blogger template that will detect when someone access your blog with a mobile device and send them to the mobile view.

I have set up a mobile version of Spice Up Your Blog so you can see how it works and it genuinely took me less than 3 minutes.You can later go into detail and you could even build a totally custom mobile layout but we will look at first getting your blogs mobile version 'Live' .

Your Blogs Mobile URL

You can buy a custom domain for the mobile version of your blog, i have used the free sub domain and here it is :

www.spiceupyourblog.mobify.me

If you have a mobile device connected to the Internet you can check it out, if not you can still see the page on your computer and get an idea of whats displayed.

I have not had the chance to do much work with the mobile blog yet so you will notice i only have the header and posts included.

How to get your mobile blog online

Step 1. Go To Mobify.me and register for a free account.Once registered ou will arrive on your dashboard.

Step 2. Enter your blogs address in the 'Mobify a website' section and click Mobify

Step 3. You will Now View Your Blog inside a frame, choose the areas of your blog you want to be available on your mobile blog.

You choose what is to be imported onto the mobile version of your blog with a simple 'Select and Click' method - Hover your cursor over the area you want added and you will see red borders appear around the area, press select and it's added.

For larger areas drag the red border until it covers the whole area.It's recommended to use a one column layout, basically your header, posts area and footer.

Read More = Full Posts

On the Home page of this blog i use preview boxes (Click here to see the home page in a new window) that contain a thumbnail image and short summary.I simply dragged the red border over the whole area and all the summary box's.As you see on the mobile Spice Up Your Blog this converted into my full posts being showed.The same will apply to blogs with the 'Read More' function.

Once you have selected the areas you want added click save to get a preview and then 'LAUNCH' - Your mobile version blog is live online.

Directing Mobile Traffic From Your Blog To Your Mobile Device Blog

You now need to add a piece of code to your template that will send mobile visitors to the mobile version of your blog.

In your Mobify dashboard click 'Live' under your your blog title - You can see it in the screen shot above with the text bubble 'Have you launched your site yet'.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see the code needed as shown below :

No in your Blogger dashboard Click 'Layout' -> 'Edit Html'

Find the following code in your blogs html :
(It's at the very top)

<head>

Paste the code you copied from mobify Directly Below <head>

Save your template.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

These steps will get you started but when you have the time take a look at the mobify forum for extra help and tips on adding extra css style and page elements to your mobile blog.

What do you think - Cool Yeah ?

Extra Note - When i was checking the numbers of Mobile Internet Users the report i mentioned also stated that more than 2.2 billion people, over one-third of the world's population, will be using the Internet in some form by 2013.That's up from around 1.6 billion today, it's a great time to be a Blogger.Once your mobile blog is live you can click 'Advertising' in the edit page to put an AdSense unit on the page.

How To Display Gadgets On Only Your Home Page Or Post Pages In Blogger

2010-02-10T21:10:00.005Z

Over the last few days i have been making lots of changes to the layout, look and feel of Spice up your blog.I have also been working with the adsense units I'm using and the areas in which they are displayed.One of the changes i wanted to make was to get the most from the space on the blogs homepage and also make the actual post pages unique.

To achieve this i added some code to my template that would allow me to have some of the gadgets and widgets i use in the sidebars and above the posts only be displayed on the home page of the blog.I also used a similar trick to have some of the gadgets only appear on the post pages of the blog.

Update : You can also make gadgets only appear on the page of a specific post.

Home Pages & Post Pages

For the very new readers and bloggers the home page is the page you see when you land on the blog and a post page is the page you see when you click to read a post, on most blogs they look the very same but they can be set up to have a very different look.In fact you can do lots more than i have done so far if you so wish.

I was only using one adsense unit on my home page and it was at the bottom of the sidebar.I want to keep the header section for my own ads, currently i have a link for InfoBarrel in the header so i needed a way to add another AdSense unit into a prime position on the homepage.

Examples

(I do change the design here quiet a lot so it might not be the very same by the time your read this but you will get the idea)

I decided the best place for a AdSense unit was above the post summery boxes, and it was also the only place i could fit one of the highest paying AdSense units.Because i was pushing the post summary's down by doing this i added the recent post list beside the AdSense Unit on the home page so new visitors wouldnt arrive and only see ads.Now i have the adsense unit in prime position and i am still displaying the recent posts in prime position :

You can Click Here to see the home page in a new window to see the effect for yourself.

Now i dont want the new AdSense ad and the recent post list beside it on the blogs post pages so i add some code to make it only appear on the home page.

I dont want the recent posts list in the sidebar on the home page but i do want it in the sidebar of the post pages so i add the code to make that happen.Heres the sidebar example :

Home Page - The translate gadget is followed by the sponsers.

Post Page - Now the recent posts can be seen below the translate gadget.

So now we know what it is lets look at how you can use the same techinque on your blog.The first step is of course to decide what gadgets you want to display on your home page only or your post pages only.

Steps To Display Gadgets On Home Or Post Pages

If the gadget you want is not already on your blog add it first.For this example i am using a test blog and i am going to use the same recent posts widget.I have already added it to the blogs sidebar.

Name The Gadget - You will later have to find the gadget in your blogs template so to make this easy make sure the gadget has a name or title, i am looking for my recent posts gadget so it has the title recent posts if the gadget you want to move does not have a title just give it the title xxxxx and you can remove it when finished.

Step 1 - In your dashboard Click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html' > Tick the 'Expand widget templates' box

Step 2 - Now you want to find the gadget in your template so i looked for 'Recent Posts' you look for the title of your gadget or xxxxx if you used that name.
The easiest way to do this is to click 'CTRL and F' for a search bar to help find the code - for more info on this click the extra help link at the top of the post.

You want to find a section of code similar to the one below :

<b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>

<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>

For some gadgets like your archive the section will be larger but you want everything between :

<b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='HTML'>

And

</b:includable>

Step 3 - Now we have the code for the gadget we have to add two pieces of code to make it display on the home page only.You can see the two pieces of code i added to make this happen in red below :

<b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'>

<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:if>
</b:includable>

Copy the code in red and add in place for your gadget.

Take you time and make sure you have it added correctly, once your sure you can save your template.

Adding a gadget to your blog post pages only

To make a gadget display on the post pages only follow the same steps to find the gadget in your template.The only difference is the code added.This time you use the two piece of code shown below :

<b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Recent Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>

<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>

<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:if>
</b:includable>

Once again copy the code in red and put it in place for your gadget.
When your sure the code is added properly save your template and your done.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

You can do this with as many items in your sidebars as you like and with any gadgets, if you need extra help you only need ask in the comments.

Will this help you with your blog ?

How To Connect Your Free Co.Cc Domain To Blogger In 12 Quick Steps

2010-01-28T01:49:00.012Z

Last month i showed you how to get a free Domain name for your blog.This post has been very popular with lost of people taking advantage of the service and making the change from the blogger .blogspot.com sub domain.

The free domain offered is from Co.Cc and we covered the pros and cons in this post :

How To Get A Free Domain Name For Your Blog

Since that post i have been contacted by a few people that were unsure how to connect their new free domain with Blogger, others had made some mistakes or skipped steps when connecting their free Co.Cc domain with Blogger.

So in this post i have a full guide with screen size images to help you set up your domain with Blogger.

Here are the 12 steps required

Step 1. Log into your Co.cc account.

Step 2. Click the set up option for your domain.

Step 3. Once again click the set up option.
-

Step 4. Choose option 3 Zone Records and fill in the details as shown below, for value enter :
ghs.google.com

You now have the Co.cc side set up and ready to go we now have to change our settings on Blogger.

Step 5. Log into your Blogger account

Step 6. In your dashboard click 'Settings' then 'Publishing'
Step 7. Click 'Custom Domain'

Step 8. Click 'Switch to advanced settings' (Don't worry it's not too advanced)

Step 9. Enter the domain you created on Co.cc into the space provided.
Step 10. Fill in the Catcha code and click save.

Your domain has now been set and connected to your blog but you have a last setting to complete.

Step 11. Your new domain will probably already in the box but if not add it shown below and tick the redirect box.
Step 12. Once again enter the catcha code and save your settings.

Your done !

Your domain may take some time to connect with your blog although if you have followed the steps correctly it should not take anywhere near the 48 hours you are told.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

Remember if you decide to change to another domain in the future or change to a .Com you can set that up and direct your Co.cc to that address.As you now know how the set up works you could buy a Domain from Co.cc and they will look after the rest.

If your still having trouble help is only a comment away.

How To Put Adsense Ads At The Top And Bottom Of Your Blog Posts

2010-01-21T00:50:00.002Z

AdSense ad units can be placed almost anywhere on your blog, from the top to the bottom of the Blog it's self to the top or bottom of the posts.I have in previous posts showed how to place AdSense ads in your header section and how to place AdSense inside your posts i will leave a link to those posts at the foot of this post.

Here i will show you how to have AdSense ads automatically fixed directly below the posts title and under the last line in every post.These positions are two of the highest best paying places to put ads.

You can use any size and any type of AdSense ads although you will have to consider what looks best and fits best on your template.

I am going to try and write this in a way everyone can follow just take your time if your a newbie.I will do this by breaking it into three sections, in the first two you will see were to put the code but make sure to look at the third section as AdSense code added directly to your template wont work.

Three Parts To Adding The Code

1. I will show you were to place the code to have AdSense under the post title.

2. I will show you were to place the code to place AdSense directly below the post.

3. I will show you how to parse the code so it will work on your blog.

How to Place AdSense Below The Title

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' ► 'Edit Html' ► Tick the 'Expand Widget Templates' box.

Step 2. Find the following code in your blogs html :

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

Step 3. Place the AdSense code Directly Below the code you found.

If you cannot find that code in your template leave a comment and i will find the code you need.

How to put AdSense directly below the posts.

Step 1. In your dashboard click 'Layout' ► 'Edit Html' ► Tick the 'Expand Widget Templates' box.

Step 2. Find the following code in your blogs html :

<data:post.body/>

Step 3. Place the AdSense code Directly Below the code you found.

Parse And Add the AdSense code.

Before you can add any AdSense code to your blogs template you must parse the code.Don't worry this is not hard and i have a tool on this site for you to parse the code.

Step 1. Click Here to go to your AdSense account in a new window.

Step 2. Log in and create the new AdSense ad unit you want to use for the top or bottom of your posts and generate then copy the code.

Step 3. Click Here to go to my AdSense Parse Tool.

Step 4. Paste the AdSense code into the Parse box and click convert, copy the converted code and place it in the positions shown above.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Note : You can place banner ads or even text and pictures in these positions, you don't need to parse banner codes that is only for AdSense.

To see how to put AdSense ads in your header section Click Here.

To see how to put AdSense inside the middle of your posts Click Here.

If you have any trouble with any part of the post just leave a comment I'm glad to help, if it worked for you let us know.

New Blogger 'Keep Widgets' Setting When Changing Your Template

2010-01-20T06:35:00.006Z

Blogger has just added an exciting new option that makes it so much easier for people to change their template and use a custom template.Now instead of having to delete the widgets on your template when changing you have a "Keep Widgets" button.

One of the biggest turn offs for people who wanted to use a custom template on their blog was when they made the change they would lose most of the widgets and gadgets they had on their old template.There is ways to overcome this but for people with little Html knowledge it was a bridge too far.They often didn't make the change or allowed the widgets to be lost and had the frustrating job of having to find, edit and add them again.

But those dark days are Gone !

You now have the option to click the new "Keep Widgets" button and loose nothing.

Look at the screenshot below :

You are told

"Warning: Your template does not contain the following widgets:"
"Would you like to keep these widgets on your blog or delete them?
Deleting widgets cannot be undone."

Once you click "Keep Widgets" you new template will be uploaded and your Gadgets and Widgets will be kept.You can return to the layout section and move them around if required.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

I think this will lead to total overhaul of blogger and we will see more people who were maybe cautious of using custom templates making the change.

From some of the comments i get here and questions i answer in the Help Form this was a needed change by the Blogger team maybe next they will add an auto unzip option :D

You have no excuse now there are thousands of awesome templates out there go get creative, to get you started here are some of my favorites :

► The Top 10 Dark And Black Style Free Blogger Templates : Click Here

► My Top Ten Magazine Style Free Blogger Templates : Click Here

► My Top Ten Elegent Artistic Style Free Blogger Templates : Click Here

What do you think will this new option help you ?

Use A Different Background Color For The Authors Comments On Your Blog

2010-01-18T22:40:00.004Z

This is becoming a very popular trend in the blogging community.The hack is simple and the effect is used to make the admin comments stand out and let people easily see which comments are yours.Regular readers will have noticed i have been using the hack for a while and all my comments have a black background with white text while all other comments have a white background with black text.

Once you have made the change all your comments will show in a different color and you can choose the color schemes it does not have to be black and white like i use.A few months back i had been considering using a different comment system like discuss or intense debate but decided to Spice up the default blogger comments instead and there is a lot you can do with the Blogger comments, i will be covering more comment tips in future posts.

In a recent post i showed how to add images and text above the comment section Add Images Above Blogger Comments Click Here to see that post.

This trick is a little harder as we need to make a few changes so make sure your template is backed up.

Here is a preview of how my comments look :

So lets change your comments

Step 1. In your dashboard click ►'Layout' ►'Edit html'► Tick the 'Expand widget templates' box:

Step 2. Find the following piece of code in your blogs html :

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Place the following code Directly Before or Above ]]></b:skin>

.comment-admin {
clear: both;
margin: 10px 0 14px 0;
padding: 10px;
width: 400px;
background: #000000;
color:#ffffff;
}

Note: The two parts highlighted in red are the Background Color and text Color they are currently the same as mine using a black background and white text :

Background: #000000 (black)
Color: #ffffff (white)

You can change these Click Here for a color code chart to pick new colors.
( ? ) You will see a 3-6 digit code beside the colors use that code.

This next bit can be a bit tricky as you need to replace a large section of code so take your time

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Step 3. Find the following section of code in your template
Tip: Use CTRL and F to look for the first line and then locate the entire section.

<dd class='comment-body'>
<b:if cond='data:comment.isDeleted'>
<span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
<b:else/>
<p><data:comment.body/></p>
</b:if>
</dd>
<dd class='comment-footer'>
<span class='comment-timestamp'>
<a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'>
<data:comment.timestamp/></a>
<b:include data='comment' name='commentDeleteIcon'/>
</span>
</dd>

Step 4. Replace that entire section of code with the code below :

<b:if cond='data:comment.author == data:post.author'>
<dd class='comment-admin'>
<p><data:comment.body/></p>
</dd>
<b:else/>
<dd class='comment-body'>
<b:if cond='data:comment.isDeleted'>
<span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
<b:else/>
<p><data:comment.body/></p>
</b:if>
</dd>
<dd class='comment-footer'>
<span class='comment-timestamp'>
<a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'>
<data:comment.timestamp/></a>
<b:include data='comment' name='commentDeleteIcon'/>
</span>
</dd>
</b:if>

Once you have it replace click save and check out your new comment section !

Hopefully you will get it first time but as long as you have your template backed up you can repeat until you get it right.

If you have trouble making the change or need more help with any part just leave a comment and i will be glad to help.

How To Create A Stylish Signature And Add It To Your Blog

2010-01-14T23:55:00.005Z

If you look at the bottom of the posts in my blog you will see they all finish with my signature.I think the signature looks great and adds a bit of style to the posts.These signatures are very easy to create and add to your blog and in this post i will show you how.

You can actually use a small pad to write you signature or pick from one of hundreds of pre-made signatures.I picked the pre-made signature, using the pad to create your actual signature is almost imposable.

Create the signature

Im going to create another signature and walk you trough the steps.

Step 1. Go to My Live Signature and click 'Start Now' you don't need to register.

Step 2. You have 2 free options here, choose to use the wizard as i did or be brave and try to write one.

Write in your name as i did below :

Choose the font you want to use from the hundreds they have and click next as below :

Follow the steps to design the signature :

►You now choose the size i choose size 3.
►Select the color, i choose a transparent background.
►Choose the angle slant, I choose 2.

Now your signature is ready, click on 'Want to use this signature?' as below :

Now choose 'Generate html code' you will be provided with the code :

This is the code for my new signature :

<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/48/010EAA2D956848A1728F82E9602766AD.png" style="border: 0 !important; background: transparent;"/></a>

And this is the new signature :

If you know how to upload the image to Blogger or Photobucket or any image hosting you may want to do that, if not don't worry we will use it as it is.

We only want the image and we don't want the image to be a link back to My live signature so you can remove the code in blue and keep the code in red :
(If your not sure how just change www.mylivesignature.com to the address of your blog)

<a href="http://www.mylivesignature.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://signatures.mylivesignature.com/54488/48/010EAA2D956848A1728F82E9602766AD.png" style="border: 0 !important; background: transparent;"/></a>

Add the signature to your blog

There are two ways to add the signature to your blog the first way is the easiest but it wont be in you previous posts.
The second way adds it directly to your template.

First way to add the signature to your blog.
.
1. Click 'Settings' in your dashboard and then choose 'Formatting' in the top menu as below:

2.Scroll down to 'Post Template' and paste in the code and save:

Now everytime you you go to write a post the signature will be already in the post.

Second way to add the signature to your blog.

In your dashboard Click 'Layout' > 'Edit Html' and cick the 'Expand Widgets Box' :

Find the following code in your blogs html :
(Click 'CTRL and F' for a search bar to find the code)

<data:post.body/>

Paste the code for your signature Directly Below or After <data:post.body/>

Note : If <data:post.body/> is in your template twice place it after the second one.

If you have any trouble or need more help leave a comment below.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Now save your template and your signature has been added.

Have you added a signature and were you able to write your own signature using the pad ?

Add An Awesome Ferrari Style Font To Your Blog In 2 Minutes

2010-01-12T19:16:00.004Z

In this post i will show you how to add a cool Ferrari style font to your blog.This is the second font i have covered in this blog and as with the Aircut Light font we covered this can be easily added to your blog in just two minutes.Before these posts adding a stylish font to your blog was a long drawn out process and as i said before a pain in the behind .

This font is called Ferro Rosso and you can see a preview or demo of this font used on the Blogger minima template Click Here.

Who Can Use It.

As with the Aircut Light font there is one restriction.The font color is black and this can not be changed.If you use a black background or theme unfortunately it wont work, if just your header background is black you can maby use an image for your header or use a white background, you can find lots of header images for blogger just do a search.

Lets add it to your blog

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your Email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Step 1. Click 'Layout' ► 'Edit Html' for your blog.

Step 2. Find the following code in your blogs html :
(You wont need to search It's at the very top)

<head>

Step 3. Copy the code below and paste it Directly Below <head> :

<link href='http://www.fontburner.com/css/fontburner.css' media='screen' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/> <link href='http://www.fontburner.com/css/fontburner_print.css' media='print' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'/> <script src='http://www.fontburner.com/fontburner.js' type='text/javascript'/> <script src='http://www.fontburner.com/js/black/ferro_rosso.php' type='text/javascript'/>

Now save your template and the Ferro Rosso font has been added, to switch back just remove the code.

If you have any questions or need more help just let me know.I have so many more fonts to share with you so keep posted.

Have you a favorite font you would like me to cover in a future post ?

6 Ways To Keep Your Blog Archive Alive, Getting Hits And Making Money

2010-01-08T23:55:00.006Z

As our blogs grow and we add more and more content we tend to drive ahead forgetting the trail of posts we have left behind us.Yes the Blog Archive, it can be a trip down memory lane looking back at the posts we lovingly created...But should you just let your blog archive lay down and die ?

Your archive can be kept alive and can justify it's existence by bringing visitors to your blog and keeping current visitors on your blog.If you advertise on your blog with AdSense or other advertisers and sponsers you archive can keep attracting traffic from search engines, and keep earning for years.This all sounds great, but your archive cannot survive by itself it needs you to provide life support.

So lets look at 6 ways we can keep our archives alive

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

1.The first is obvious but a big one simply keep your archive updated.

Obvious yet most bloggers fail to do it.When i say updated i mean a few things, once you have been blogging for a while you learn new tactics and tricks.You find the best way to present your blog posts for your readers, for S.E.O. and to look more professional.Go back through your archive and make sure your archived posts are up to standard.You don't need to do it all at once, a good way to organise this is to edit an old post every time you publish a new post.

Add some keywords relevant to your blog if they were not added when you first posted or maby change the title to something more catchy .I am currently working on a post showing the best way to pick a title and write the first paragraphs, the paragraphs search engines index the most so keep posted for that.

2. A full site map not the default.

Adding a sitemap to Google containing all my posts not just the default sitemap (The one most bloggers are using) which only contains your last 26 posts.Even if you don't have 26 posts yet set it up now.Here is how to add the sitemap: How To Submit A Sitemap Of Your Blog To Google

3. Related Posts.

Another obvious one that a lot of blogs have add already is a 'Related Posts' list.This is a list placed under your blog posts containing posts from your archive that are on the same topic.This will send people to your archive.
I have a related posts widget you can use : Related Posts Widget For Your Blog
You could get the LinkWithin recent posts with thumbnails : Click Here

4. Re-Share them and Re-tweet them.

We all tweet our latest post on Twitter and share them on Facebook, Digg and others why don't we give our archives some life by Re-Sharing them.When you happen to find yourself on an old post give it a tweet.

5. Link to them in your latest posts.

Once your blog has 20-30 posts you should start linking back.If your a regular reader here you will notice i always have a line similar to this somewhere in my posts
"I covered this in a recent post click here to see it " or " for more info click here" ..
Yes it's all very organised my friends.
Make sure the link is set to open in a new window and make sure the post your linking to is relevant to the one your writing.

6.Analyze the stats.

This does not have to be hard and you don't need to be an expert to do it.You can add a free 'Hit Counter' to your blog that will show you which posts from your archive are getting the most hits.Learn from this information, once you know which posts are most popular you can try to work out why and use that information to edit the older posts and of course it will help you when writing new posts.
Here is 10 free counters you can choose from : Free Hit Counters For Your Blog
You might also add the Feedjit widget :
Go to Feedjit and click 'Widgets' in the top menu for the Free widgets : Click Here

There are lots more things you can do but remember your archive represents you and if its not up to standard it will look like your not up to standard so fix it or delete it because you cant hide it !

Do you have any tips or a routine to keep your Archive Alive ? I would love to hear any suggestions.

The Top Ten Blogger Tips And Tricks Of 2009

2010-01-01T19:20:00.002Z

As we have entered 2010 it's time to reflect back to 2009 and some of the best and most beneficial tips and tricks for your blog.
It has been a great year for blogging for Blogger and personally for me and Spice up your blog.

So here's a list of the tips that got the most interest the most hits and some of my personal favorites.

Navbar

The blogger navbar has been the topic of much conversation over the last few years, we knew we were able to remove it but were we allowed by Blogger to remove it ?
The answer came in 2009 when a blogger employee said 'There is nothing in the blogger T.O.S. against removing the navbar'.
With that in mind we looked at two tricks for the blogger navbar :

How to remove the navbar

Change The Blogger Navbar To Hover Effect / Peek A Boo Effect

Search Engine Optimisation.

Improving our blogs search engine rank has always been in our thoughts.In 2009 i covered a few tips on making your blog 'search engine friendly' :

How to improve Your Blogs Google rank.Change how search engines see you Blog.

How To Improve Your Blogs Google Rank With Meta Tags & Description

Social Bookmarking

Social Bookmarking was a big hit in 2009.Getting people to share and bookmark your blog could bring floods of traffic to your blog.
To go with the originals like Delicious digg Technorati and Stumble upon, Twitter tweeting and re-tweeting your blog and sharing on Facebook could prove vital in the quest to build a following.
So to make it easy for people to share your blog we looked at some Social Bookmarking widgets to add to your blog, these were the most popular :

How to add the Sharing is sexy social bookmark buttons to your blog

How To Easily Add 3D Social Bookmark Buttons To Your Blog Posts

Free Blogger Templates

The amount of custom templates for blogger went sky high in 2009.We saw more and more websites and blogs popping up offering you some amazing template styles.Not to be left behind i posted my favorite templates :

My Top Ten Elegant Artistic Style Free Blogger Templates

My Top Ten Magazine Style Free Blogger Templates

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its quick easy and of course a free service provided by Google just fill in the form below the post.

Adsense

Some of my most popular posts this of 2009 were on working with Adsense and how to get your adsense ads into the prime areas of your blog.These were two of the most popular Adsense tips :

How To Place Adsense Ads Inside Your Blogger Header Section

How To Put Adsense Ads Inside Your Blog Posts

Believe me making a top ten was hard as there was so many tips to choose from so much so that the two tips that got the most hits were not in the list !

Popular By Hits

So i will cheat a bit and tell you the two tutorials that got the most hits and amazingly the first tip was only posted on 26th of November but almost 80% of the hits i got from search engines was for this tip :

How To Add A Snow Falling Effect To Your Blog

The second post with the most hits was a post we can learn from.I looked to add some space between posts on another blog so i got an image divider and placed it between the posts.Looked good so i added a tutorial on how to do it not thinking it get so many hits.But that's the thing with blogging you never know what will be a hit or a miss !

How to add an image divider between your blog posts

So that was the year that was i have really enjoyed the challenge of running Spice Up Your Blog and have learned a lot.Now I'm genuinely looking forward to 2010 and bringing you fresh and helpful tutorials tips and tricks for your blog.

Do you have a favorite tip or trick that helped your blog in 2009 ?

Thanks for your time and help, Have a save prosperous 2010.

How To Add A Scrolling Recent Posts List To Your Blog

2009-12-22T22:00:00.007Z

As always I'm on the look out for tips, Widgets and Gadgets to display your recent and popular posts and keep people on your blog.With a little help we can implemnt a few tricks to achieve this.
This widget is nice clean and simple and will scroll your recent posts across your blog taking up very little space.

You should check out how it looks :

Click Here To See A Live Demo

Once your cursor hovers over a post title it will stop scrolling so you can easily select the post you want.

I think it would be best placed above your posts like below :

So how do we add it to your blog

Step 1 :Copy the code below :

<script style="text/javascript" src="http://flowerfall.googlecode.com/files/spiceupyourblogscroll.js"> </script><script style="text/javascript"> var nMaxPosts = 15; var sBgColor; var nWidth; var nScrollDelay = 175; var sDirection="left"; var sOpenLinkLocation="N"; var sBulletChar="•"; </script> <script style="text/javascript" src="http://spiceyourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=json-in-script&callback=RecentPostsScrollerv2"></script>

You Must Change My .Blogspot Adderss:

spiceyourblog.blogspot.com

To Your .Blogspot Address :

your-blog-address.blogspot.com

Step 2 :Click 'Layout' Then 'Add A Gadget' for your blog..

Step 3 :Choose Html/Javascript from the menu..

Step 4 :Once You Choose Html/Javascript you are provided with an area to place the code - paste in the code you have copied from above.

Options :

If you like you could write Recent posts above the gadget the post titles will scroll below

You can also change the (speed =175) (maxposts =15) (direction =left) (OpenLinkLocation=N)(BulletChar=•)

If you have expirence there is more you can edit if you want help changing anything leave a comment below

Before we finish : If you need more help or have an opinion or suggestion Please leave a comment Below.
To help you this is a Do-Follow Blog leaving a comment will also help your blogs Google rank.

That's it your recent posts scroll has been added.

Have you used it let us know.How does it look on your blog?

Spice Up Your Blog Information Page

2009-12-18T14:55:00.003Z

The tutorials in this blog can be implemented by anyone however you may need some extra help and that's why i created this page.This page is just some extra info and some alternative code if your having trouble finding code.Before you start making changes to your template here is some information and techniques you will need.

Always back up your template before making changes :

How to Back Up Your Template

Knowing these 3 techniques will help you with our tutorials :

How to copy and paste code and text

How To Add A Gadget to your blog

How To Easily Find Code In Your Template

Here are more tips for beginners :

The basics

One of the most common problems is not being able to find code.With so many custom templates using different code sometimes you might not be able to find code.

Just leave a comment and i will reply with help or if i need to i will have a look at your blog to get it fixed.

With my tutorials no one gets left behind.

Image:
or URL: