Blogger Buster

How to control the Attribution gadget when using the Template Designer

2012-05-17T13:44:00.005+01:00

If you are using one of Blogger's new templates, you'll notice an "Attribution" widget which appears at the very bottom of your site. This will contain details of the template designer, a "Powered by Blogger" statement, and possibly attribution for any background images you've added through the Template Designer.

We can add copyright information to this gadget by editing through the Layout page in our dashboard, but by default are unable to change it's position or remove it.

For various reasons, you may want to remove this gadget from your Blogger layout. For example, if you have highly customized your template so it looks nothing like the original design on which it is based, or you would prefer visitors not to know that your site is operated using Blogger's free service.

Since removing the Attribution gadget is not a straightforward customization, I have developed a simple method we can use to remove this gadget and (if you choose) replace it with a gadget of your choosing.

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Blogging for your Business Hangout

2012-05-15T14:43:00.000+01:00

Updated!

If you missed the Blogging for your Business hangout on Google+ today, you can watch it here instead:

Learn the Basics of Blogger and Get Certified - For Free!

2012-05-02T22:13:00.000+01:00

If you are just starting out with Blogger, Alison offers a useful free e-course which you may find useful.

The Google Blogger course by Russell Stannard offers video training, an end-of-course assessment and Alison certification:

Upon completion of this course you will be able to create your own blog. You will know how to add dates, pictures, links, video and embedded video to your blog. You will understand how to preview and publish your blog. You will gain a good knowledge of the settings that allow you to edit your blog.

Once you've passed the module, you can choose to purchase a PDF or parchment certificate, share your achievement with a badge or simply provide a link to verify your certification.

Admittedly this is a basic course in using Blogger, though it would be very useful for those just starting out or as a refresher course for those who have not used Blogger in some time (the video tutorials provide insight into the new interface and template designer).

Be sure to check it out and let us know your opinions of this free course in the comments below.

Create a contact form with Google Docs?

2012-04-26T11:00:00.000+01:00

While creating a client's website (using Blogger, of course), I decided to try using Google Docs to create a comprehensive contact form.

The form was wonderful: with a bit of tweaking, I was able to embed a CSS styled form (rather than use an iframe); validate required fields with jQuery; redirect to a custom "thank you" page, and even have the form submissions emailed directly to the client!

Feeling rather happy with the results, I created a similar contact form for the Blogger Buster contact page and was in the process of writing up a tutorial when I realized my inbox was rapidly filling up with spam. Which was unfortunately delivered by my Google Docs-based contact form.

Sadly, I haven't (yet!) been able to find a Blogger-compatible solution to create a Google-based contact form with spam filtering and emailed submissions, so I've reverted back to my previous contact form.

I'm still hopeful that a method to prevent (most) spam submissions is still possible, so I've decided to publish a simple version of my Google Docs form tutorial for anyone who would like to use it.

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How to create a contact form for Blogger using Kontactr

2012-04-24T15:00:00.000+01:00

Contact forms enable visitors to our sites to send us emails without having to expose our email address to potential spammers.

I've been using Kontactr to embed a contact form in this site for years now, and still believe it is the most ideal solution for those using the Blogger platform. However, it seems my previous tutorial is now out of date!

Recently, Kontactr added CAPTCHA functionality to their forms which makes even more difficult for spammers to abuse the facility. We can also now customize the appearance of the form to match the design of our sites.

Here is a comprehensive tutorial to help Blogger users embed a functional, customizable contact form for their blog using Kontactr.

Free Blogger Template - CleanRed Portfolio Design

2012-04-23T22:29:00.000+01:00

CleanRed is a portfolio style template, originally created for CSSHeaven.org and now converted for use as a Blogger template.

CleanRed Homepage, including a welcome message above the latest posts

Demo | Download

This template is wholly compatible with Blogger's Template Designer. All fonts, font colours, background colours and widths may be changed through the interface. It's even possible to change the layout while retaining most of the template's stylistic properties!

Read more »

How to Back-up, Restore and Upload New Templates to Blogger

2012-04-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

Although we can customize virtually any element of our Blogger templates using the new Template Designer, there may be occasions when we want to upload a premade template. Similarly, we may need to back-up an existing template before making significant changes, or upload a previously used template to restore a blog to a former design.

The method and application for backing up and uploading templates has changed significantly since the last time I wrote on this subject, so in this updated post I'll explain how to back-up, restore and upload new templates using the new Blogger interface.

Read more »

2012-04-21T00:55:00.001+01:00

I've created the official page for Bloggerbuster on Google+. Take a look and if you like what you see please follow us =)

Adding a Google+ Badge to Blogger (Updating my Blogger Template)

2012-04-19T12:00:00.000+01:00

Adding a Google+ badge to our Blogger templates enables readers to easily connect with our Google+ page. This can be achieved in just a few simple steps by adding a Google+ Badge gadget; it's also possible to customize the badge and change the display effect.

As part of updating my Blogger template, I added a badge to the sidebar which enables readers to directly connect to the official Blogger Buster page on Google+. I've documented my methods here for other Blogger users who may find this tutorial useful.

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How do I find a blog on Blogspot?

2012-04-18T14:00:00.000+01:00

Many blogging services and social networks allow visitors to search for sites and users hosted on their service by keywords or tags.

For example, those visiting Tumblr can search for posts tagged "Blogspot", or visit Wordpress.com to search for posts tagged with Google.

Unfortunately, there is no built-in feature to find posts or blogs which are hosted on Blogger. So in this post I'll explain methods you can use to connect with like-minded people and find interesting blogs to read on Blogspot.

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Adding threaded comments to a customized blog (Updating my Blogger Template)

2012-04-18T11:00:00.000+01:00

Since deciding to update my Blogger template, one of the features I've been most looking forward to using is threaded comments. This enables us to reply directly in response to comments left on a post.

After diving into reams of code and going a very long way about updating my template to include this feature, I stumbled across a very simple way to add this functionality to older Blogger templates.

To help anyone else using a custom Blogger template include threaded comments for their site, I've written this quick tutorial which (unlike my original method!) should get you up and running with comment replies in no time!

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Uploading a custom favicon to Blogger (Updating my Blogger Template)

2012-04-17T14:55:00.000+01:00

Blogger Buster Favicon

Back in June last year, the Blogger team enabled Blogger users to upload their own favicon to replace the default Blogger icon.

Initially favicons could only be uploaded if they had been converted into .ico format, though it's now possible to upload a square-shaped favicon in .png.gif or .jpg format as long as the file size is below 100kb.

I prefer to use this built-in feature instead of the methods I'd previously used to add favicons to my Blogger sites, particularly as the icon is hosted on the root of our domain (*.blogspot.com/favicon.ico or custom-domain.com/favicon.ico).

Since I have updated my icon as part of updating my Blogger template, I've documented my method (and troubleshooting) for others who are updating their Blogger templates.

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Updating My Template to use Blogger's New Features

2012-04-17T10:19:00.002+01:00

As many of you may have noticed, I've not been actively using Blogger for some time due to illness and maternity leave. So many updates have happened in my absence and until now I have barely had time to update my own sites.

Looking through all of Blogger's recent updates and settings, I've realized there are lots of tweaks I need to perform to update this site. Since I haven't already written about most of these Blogger customizations, I'll be documenting my progress for anyone else wishing to update their sites to use Blogger's new features over the next few days.
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Redirecting from Blogspot.com to country specific domains

2012-04-16T11:00:00.000+01:00

In efforts to country specific laws, Blogger have begun redirecting blogs hosted on blogspot.com subdomains to country specific domains (ccTLDs).

For example, if you are in the UK and viewing a Blogger hosted blog which would usually have be hosted on a *.blogspot.com subdomain, you'll be redirected to *.blogspot.co.uk.

This is happening to enable Blogger to censor content on a country-specific level. For example, if the UK asked Blogger to remove a page of content from a blog, the page would no longer be available to view by visitors in the UK; it would however be available to view in other countries.

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Blogger rolling out local domains?

2012-04-14T00:53:00.001+01:00

While creating a site for a local company on Blogger today, I noticed the blogspot domain the site is hosted on suddenly changed from blogspot.com to blogspot.co.uk.

The site can still be accessed using the dot.com url I originally created, though it's automatically redirected to the dot.co.uk version.

So far I haven't been able to find any information about this new enforcement of local sub-domains, and may only assume this is a new feature the Blogger team are rolling out.

Have any of you noticed a new local domain extension for your Blogger hosted site? Please let us know what you think about this update in the comments below.

Image credit: The Booklight

How to Add Post Titles to Read More Links in Blogger

2011-04-04T09:00:00.001+01:00

Add interest to your "read more" links by including each post's title

Blogger's Jump-Link (Read More) feature enables us to display summaries of our blog posts on the home page (and all non-item pages).

We can configure the text displayed for the Jump Link (which links to the post's item page) by editing the Blog Posts gadget in Design>Page Elements. However, I've also found it useful to add the title of the post beside the Jump-Link text to clarify the title of the post to which it links.

If you're reading this post on the Blogger Buster home page, you'll see an example of this in action a few lines below.

This is a very easy customization and the modified Jump-Link will inherit any current style you've applied to this section. Here's how to add this featre in a single, simple step.

Read more »

5 New Dynamic Blogger Templates for us to Preview

2011-04-03T00:02:00.000+01:00

We can now preview 5 dynamic new Blogger template styles for our blogs which use AJAX, HTML5 and CSS3. These new templates will soon be made available for us to use as the default views for our sites, and will be customizable so we can preserve our blog's individuality.

The "Snapshot" view is an ideal choice for photo bloggers

An Official "Follow by Email" Gadget for Blogger (Easy set up for Feedburner Email Subscriptions)

2011-03-27T08:00:00.001+01:00

Many blog readers prefer to receive updates of new posts by email (rather than subscribing in an RSS feed reader). To make it even easier for our readers to stay in touch with our sites, the Blogger Team have developed a new, official gadget: Follow by Email.

Using Feedburner technology, this new gadget offers a one-click solution for adding an email subscription form to our Blogger-powered blogs. We don't even need to sign up with Feedburner or visit the Feedburner dashboard to configure this for use in our sites!

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Blogger's Forthcoming Features - New Dashboard, Post Editor, Content Discovery and more!

2011-03-21T18:00:00.000Z

While 2010 was an exciting year for Blogger with the addition of the new Template Designer, Real-time stats and web fonts (to name a few of the features released), 2011 looks to be even more exciting.

At SXSW the Blogger team demonstrated two fabulous forthcoming features: an updated post editor and "content discovery". I can't begin to describe how much I'm looking forward to these new features!

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Easy Post Summaries and Thumbnails for Blogger Blogs - No JavaScript Required!

2011-03-07T09:00:00.003Z

The ability to display post summaries and automatic thumbnails is one of the most sought-after Blogger customizations. Using such a feature enables us to create a cohesive layout on non-item pages with the entire post and full-sized image on item pages.

Recent changes to Blogger's functionality now enables us to achieve this using only Blogger code - no need for JavaScript, awkward CSS customizations or restrictions on the length or format of our posts.

With only a few small changes to our Blogger template, we can display post summaries and thumbnails using this easy to manage hack.

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Minimal Swiss Design - Free Blogger Template Released

2011-02-14T12:00:00.041Z

Minimal Swiss Design template - View Live Demo

Although I rarely choose to convert other theme formats to Blogger, every so often a design comes along which I'd love to be available for my favourite platform.

The Minimal Swiss Design theme by Marios Lublinski (released by Smashing Magazine) is just one of those templates. Ideally suited to artists and designers, this simple and beautiful theme instantly inspired me to create a Blogger conversion (including additional theme options for customizing the design).

I'm releasing this Blogger template for free under the GPLv2 License, which means you can use them for all your projects for free and without any restrictions.

Take a look at the live demo site to see this theme in action.

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Xbox Live Gamercard Gadget for Blogger

2011-02-13T17:21:00.000Z

Example Xbox Gamercar

For a recent design project I was asked if it was possible to display an Xbox Live Gamercard in a Blogger site.

Thanks to this useful guidance from Jamie Huskisson I discovered it was surprisingly easy to achieve and have now created a simple Blogger gadget for gamers to easily add their own Xbox Gamertag to Blogger blogs.

Add your Xbox Live Gamercard to your Blogger powered site

Get the Blogger App for your Android Device

2011-02-04T00:26:00.000Z

Blogger App for Android

Blogger have released an official Android application, enabling Android users to post quickly and easily from their device:

We are excited to announce our first version of the Blogger Android App. Using the app you can easily compose a post, attach a photo that you just took with your phone, and either save it as a local draft for later or immediately publish it to your blog - via Blogger in Draft

Android users can download the app for free from the Android Market.

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Add Facebook "Like" Box Beneath your Blogger Posts

2011-02-01T20:39:00.000Z

Facebook has become one of the most popular tools among Bloggers for syndicating blog posts. By adding a stylish Facebook "Like" box beneath your articles in Blogspot, you offer readers a temptingly easy means of sharing your posts with their friends.

Aneesh of Blogger Plugins has developed a simple, customizable way of installing a Facebook Like box for each page of your Blogger-based site. This tool is based on the original code and design developed by Mia of Dezign Matterz. I'm using a slightly altered version of this widget here on Blogger Buster.

In this post, I'll offer an overview of how to install Aneesh/Mia's stylized Facebook Like box, and an additional method for adding a simpler "Like" widget to your Blogger/Blogspot site.

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Like Blogger Buster? Join us on Facebook (Plus 15% eBook Discount!)

2011-01-18T14:57:00.000Z

I've been working on the Blogger Buster Facebook page in recent weeks to include a better landing page, gallery of my recent Blogger templates and content exclusively available for Facebook fans:

Blogger Buster Landing Page