Better Blogger Tips

Integrated Digg Button for Blogger Blogspot

noreply@blogger.com (The Whizz) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:35:00 +0000

Today I am going to show you how to add a large integrated Digg button to a Blogger Blogspot blog. The button will display next to the text of the first paragraph in your Blogger posts. This tweak is not difficult but you will be changing your template code so please make sure you backup your template before making any changes.

To add a large Digg button to your Blogger Blogspot posts

1. Login to your Blogger blog if not already logged in

2. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML

3. Back up your template by downloading the full template

4. Check the Expand Widgets Template box

5. Find this line of code using CTRL + F

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

6. Paste the Following code above <p><data:post.body/></p>


<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>
digg_url="<data:post.url/>";
</script>
<script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/>
</div></b:if>


7. Click on the Save Template button

8. Click on View Blog link and navigate to an individual post page. You will see your new digg button is only visible on the post page.

Today I have shown you how to add an integrated Digg button to your Blogger Blogspot blog in under a minute. Adding a Digg button will encourage readers to promote your blog by digging your blog content. As Digg is a ready source of traffic any articles dugg by visitors is likely to lead to increased site traffic.

List of Better Blogger Tips Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (The Whizz) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 11:27:00 +0000

Here is an easy reference list of every Better Blogger Tips article posted to date

Category: Monetize Blogger
Add a Paypal Donate Button to Blogger
Benefits of Adding Chitika to Blogger

Category: Advertising Programs
Benefits of Adding Chitika to Blogger

Category: Blogger FAQ
How to Delete the Navbar in Blogger

Category: Gadgets for Blogger
Add a Paypal Donate Button to Blogger

About Better Blogger Tips

Benefits of Adding Chitika Ads to Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (The Whizz) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:28:00 +0000

In this article I will discuss the advantages of monetizing your Blogger blog with Chitika, a pay-per-click advertising program. If you are unfamiliar with Chitika Premium ads then let me clear up this point right away. Chitika can be either an alternative to Google Adsense or used in conjunction with Google Adsense. Today I will be exploring the reasons why Blogger webmasters might add Chitika to their Blogger blog in addition to their existing Google Adsense ad units to create a multiple revenue stream.

How Much Can I Earn From Chitika

Chitika Referral Program
Earn money from referrals. For every Chitika publisher referral you’ll earn 10% of what your referrals earn. And you are eligible to earn commissions for each referral for 15 months following each referral’s approval date

Is Chitika Right for My Blog?
Chitika Premium Ads are suitable for Blogger blogs that already have existing Google Adsense or Adbrite ad units. There is no conflict because Chitika unlike Google Adsense only serves non-contextual ads. Chitika ad units don't resemble Google Adsense ad units either so it is easy to distinguish them.

Your Blog Needs to Be Receiving US Visitors
To get the best results with Chitika your Blogger blog needs to be receiving visitors from the US and Canada. You will need a significant amount of traffic from this region to make it worthwhile. The higher proportion of US traffic received the greater the number of Chitika ads that will be served on your blog.

Your non-US visitors will not see these ads at all unless the alternate URL feature is enabled. Chitika gives publishers the option to submit an alternative URL such as Google Adsense so that a selected Google Ad unit or similar will be displayed where there is no suitable Chitika ad unit to display. This will only work if you have 2 or less Google Adsense ad units operating at any one time. If you have three Google Adsense units already displaying the ad will not be served. One way to get round this issue is to set up an alternate URL for a linked ad unit. Remember that 3 Google Adsense linked ad units can be displayed on any one page.

Chitika Only Displays Ads to Visitors Arriving via Search EnginesChitika only displays Premium ads to organic traffic. That is visitors who arrive via search engines. To get the most out of Chitika, therefore, your blog needs to optimized for search engines. Chitika serves a vast array of ads to websites based on searched keywords and phrases. If your blog is about cars and a visitor arrives after entering a phrase in a search engine such as "new ford explorer" Chitika will serve an ad about the Ford Explorer.

Advantages of Chitika
Chitika ads can be run concurrently with Google Adsense or Adbrite ads. 100% compatibility with Google Adsense

Chitika provides the option of a multiple revenue stream

Chitika provides an Alternate URL feature to ensure an ad is served where it has nothing suitable to serve

Chitika has ads for all types of content particularly product-related including including automotive, finance, health, consumer electronics, news, sports, travel etc

Chitika also has a referral program. For every Chitika publisher referral you’ll earn 10% of what your referrals earn. And you are eligible to earn commissions for each referral for 15 months following each referral’s approval date

Chitika is a Pay-Per-Click program. Chitika will pay you 60% of Chitika's revenue

There is no cost to sign up to Chitika. It is entirely free.

In this article I have discussed the benefits of adding Chitika ad units to your Blogger blog. I have explored some of the many advantages of signing up for Chitika. If you want help with inserting Chitika ads on your Blogger blog please refer to my article Add Chitika Ads to Your Blogger blog.

Related Articles
How to Add Chitika Ads to Blogger

Start Making Money from Blogs with The Blog Mastermind Coaching Program Led By Six-figure Blogger Yaro Starak

How to Delete the Navbar in Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (The Whizz) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 21:30:00 +0000

Today's article contains instructions on how to hide, remove, delete, get rid of and prevent the Blogger Navbar from showing up.

Some Reasons to Keep the Blogger Navbar
Before you race off and remove the navbar keep in mind that Blogger provides the navbar at the top of every Blogger blog hosted at Blogspot to allow for easy navigation. If you delete it you will lose this functionality which in many ways is a shame.

Some of the advantages of the navbar apart from ready access to the Dashboard and other Google options such as Google Adsense, Gmail, Google Analytics, Picase Web Albums and Google Webmaster Tools are:

Search function for visitors to search your blog
Option to visit a random blog (the next blog)
Option to flag a blog if it contains objectional material
Offers a quick and easy and highly visible button for visitors to start following your blog

Steps to Hide the Blogger Navbar
This method will not delete the navbar it will only prevent it from showing up.

1. Login to Blogger and go to select your blog from the list of blogs if you have more than one

2. Select Layout > Edit HTML

3. Tick the Expand Widgets Template

4. As a precaution you might like to back up your template at this point by clicking download

5. Scroll down about 10-15 lines of code in your template until after the credits and you will see the beginning of the declaration of variables:

/* Variable definitions
====================

6. Immediately before this line and after the end of the credits place the following code:

#navbar { height: 0px; visibility: hidden; display: none; }

7. Save your template

8. View your blog without the navbar showing up. It is not actually deleted only hidden

Troubleshooting
If this code doesn't work the most likely reason is that you have forgotten to tick the Expand Widgets Template box. If you don't do this step Blogger will accept the code into the template but the navbar will still be present

In this Blogger tips article I have shown you how to quickly and easily remove the Blogger navbar from showing up in your Blogger Blogspot blog. Any questions just let me know.

Related Articles

Add a Paypal Donate Button to Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (The Whizz) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:24:00 +0000

In this tutorial I will show you how to add a Paypal donate button to the sidebar of your Blogger Blogspot blog to encourage readers to reward your hard work. If you have set up your Blogger blog with the object of making a few bucks on the side adding a donate button is one of a number of ways to generate income from your blog. For more tips on how to make money from your Blogger blog please see my article 6 Money Making Tips for Blogspot Bloggers.

1. If you are not signed up for a Paypal account do so now

2. Once you have your account set up login to Paypal

3. Click on the Merchant Services tab

4. Click on the Donations link found in the right sidebar of the PayPal Website Payments Standard Solution Option One

5. You will now be taken to the Paypal Create a Payment Button screen.

6. Choose Donation from the dropdown menu

7. Select your button if you to have a different one from the default pictured above

8. Select your currency from the range of options in the drop down menu

9. Choose to have donors enter their own contribution amount or set a donation amount by selecting the appropriate radio button

10. Select the Secure Merchant ID radio button otherwise your email address will be visible to all

11. Save your button at Step 2

12. If you want to allow donors to write a short comment you can set this up at the Step 3 Checkout page

13. Click on the Create button

14. After a moment you will be taken to the button code screen where you will need to copy the button code. The easiest way to do this is to right click your mouse and choose copy. Don't forget to logout of Paypal at this point

15. You are now ready to insert your button code into Blogger so begin by logging in

16. Navigate to Layout > Page Elements and click on add a gadget in the sidebar

17. Select the HTML/Javascript widget from the gadget list

18. A dialog box will appear. Paste the button code into the Content box. Right click your mouse and select paste

19. Choose a title that fits with your blog. You can leave the title blank if you wish to

20. Save your widget by clicking on the Save button.

21. In the Layout > Page Elements screen you can position your widget whereever you like in the sidebar. By default it will be at the top. Remember to Save your changes.

22. To view your new button in the sidebar of your blog click on the View Blog link in the tab menu

23. If you are curious to see how your button behaves click on it and you will be taken to the Paypal Checkout screen

This tutorial has discussed how to add a Paypal donate button to the sidebar of your Blogger Blogspot blog.

About Better Blogger Tips

noreply@blogger.com (The Whizz) — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:12:00 +0000

Better Blogger Tips is a blog for all the newbies and non-technically minded who want to customize their Blogger Blogspot blog. Better Blogger Tips provides step by step tutorials to support you to build the kind of blog you want regardless of your level of technical knowledge.

I appreciate that you want to spend your time writing content for your blog rather than searching for hours all over the net to find the solutions to this problem or that. Let me take the hard work out of blogging using the Blogger platform so you can relax and concentrate on developing your dream website. Whether you want tips, tricks or straightforward step by step instructions on how to customize Blogger you will find them here on one site. If you don't find what you are looking for just ask and I will try to help and may even consider writing a post depending on the complexity of the issue raised.