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How to set up Page-level AdSense ads in your blog

By: Unknown on 5:33:00 PM / comment : 2 , , , ,

This article describes Page-level ads, a new type of AdSense advertisement which Google has recently introduced.   It includes how to set up these ads if you use Blogger, and some troubleshooting information about them.  

 It also describes how to fix an error in the code which is supplied, which causes a message like "Attribute name "async" associated with an element type "script" must be followed by the ' = ' character".

What are Page Level AdSense ads

Google has recently introduced a new type of Adsense ad-units, which may be shown to people who visit a website using a mobile device (eg smartphone of tablet),

There are two types of Page-level ads:
  • Vignette ads:   When a visitor on your site clicks on a link to another page on you site, a vignette ad may be loaded as a full-page overlay which the user needs to close before they see the page which they navigated to.
  • Overlay ads:   these are smaller ads which show at the top or bottom of your screen, and which "stick" to the edge, so they seem to stay in place as the user scrolls up and down your site.   The visit may click on them in the usual way.

For Blogger users, these ads are only currently available if you have a full AdSense account: if you only have a hosted AdSense account, then you cannot get the code to install them.   But if you do have a full AdSense account (either because you have a custom domain, or because you signed up for AdSense before the "host AdSense account" option was introduced), they are attractive because they don't count towards the count of advertisement-units which you are allowed to display on each page.

They also only work if you have a mobile template switched on for your blog, so that visitors who use a mobile device see mobile-optimised screen.


How to install AdSense Page Level ads in Blogger

Log in to your AdSense account.

Go to the My Ads tab

Turn on one or both of  Overlay or Vignette ads options.
(By default, they are both turned Off.    Click on the empty box beside the "0" to turn an option to  on:  in these controls, 0 means "off" and 1 means "on".)




Click the < > Get Code button.

Copy the code that is generated.

Switch to Blogger, and edit your template in the usual way.

Find the text   <head>    (including the brackets).

On the very next line after <head>, paste in your code.

Optional - but highly recommended - add comments to clearly show what this code is for.   I usually use
<!-- START ADSENSE PAGE LEVEL ADS -->
and then the code goes in here ...
<!-- END ADSENSE PAGE LEVEL ADS -->
Preview the template, and make sure it's working.
(See Troubleshooting section below if you get a message about   Attribute name "async" associated with an element type "script"    or similar.

Save the template.



Job done!   This is all you need to do to enable page-levels ads for your blog:   you do not need to install gadgets to say where these ads go, because Google handles this for you.


How to see what page-level ads look like in your blog

Visit your blog using a smartphone or tablet.

Add the text   #googleads   at the end of the website address, so it changes from something like:
http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/?m=1
to something like:
http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/?m=1#googleads

After this, when you click on a link to move a different page in your blog,  a Vignette style ad will display - these are whole-page ads, which include a "close ad" button, like this:



Troubleshooting

Extra "src" text in the ad-code

Right now, there is a problem with the code that AdSense are providing.   I don't know if this is because Blogger doesn't understand a feature that AdSense is using, or if it's a genuine bug.    But if you see a message like this when you try to preview the template:
Could not load template preview: Error parsing XML, line 21, column 15: Attribute name "async" associated with an element type "script" must be followed by the ' = ' character.
then there's a very simple change that you have to make.

All you have to do is delete the "src" immediately after the word async.

So your code changes from like this:
<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<script>
  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({
    google_ad_client: "ca-pub-DONT-USE-MY-NUMBER-GET-YOUR-OWN-PUBLISHER-ID",
    enable_page_level_ads: true
  });
</script>

to like this:
<script async ="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script>
<script>
  (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({
    google_ad_client: "ca-pub-DONT-USE-MY-NUMBER-GET-YOUR-OWN-PUBLISHER-ID",
    enable_page_level_ads: true
  });
</script>

Different Page Level settings for different websites

If you are using Adsense across several different websites, then you may want to enable one of vignette or overlay ads on some sites, and a different option on others.

Currently, there is no way to do this:  you must choose one combination of:
  • No Page Level ads
  • Overlay ads only, no Vignette ads
  • No Overlay ads, but do show Vignette ads
  • Allowing Google to choose Overlay and/or Vignette ads

Stop Vignette ads being attached to some links

By default, any link to another page in your blog may have a Vignette ad attached to it.    However there may be some links which you specifically don't want this to happen to - for example if the user really needs to remember what was on the current page once the get to the next one.

You can prevent any Vignette ads being displayed when a user clicks a link by adding a tag to the link.

The tag to add is:
data-google-vignette=�false�

and you need to switch to Edit HTML (top left of the post-editor window) to add it.

This is an example link to another page on this blog which is prevented from having a Vignette ad, and this is the HTML code I've used to achieve this.
<a data-google-vignette=�false� href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/stop-malicious-use-of-your-adsense.html">an example link</a> 

More help

Google have provided more information about Page level ads here.


Related Articles

Setting up a mobile template for your blog

Editing your Blogger template

Hosted AdSesne accounts for Blogger users

Taking action when someone has copied your blog without permission

By: Unknown on 5:06:00 PM / comment : 0 , , ,

This article is about the steps you can take when someone has made an unauthorized copy of something that is published on your blog.


Finding out that your blog has been copied

Previously, I've described how copyright applies to blogs in very general terms, and the steps you can take to apply copyright protection to your blog.

Even if you follow these these steps, if you put material onto the internet it is quite likely that someone will copy it.

This maybe done out of naivety, or as a deliberate attempt to rip you off, or as part of an organised spam-blogging ("splogging") operation.


There are several way you might find out that someone has copied your work:
  • You, or your friends, notice it
    Maybe you or one of you readers searched for a certain phrase and you found your content elsewhere.  Or maybe you found a link to an identical post on a help-forum or discussion board.  If you use a lot of in-post linking (ie you link to another article in your content), and notice you are getting a lot of visits from somewhere unusual, then you might visit that site and find your post copied word-for-word, including the unchanged links.
  • Google's spam bots notice it:  
    If you get an email or a notice saying that your blog has been identified as potential spam, then one of the possibilities is that a real spammer has chosen your content.

If you found out that someone has copied you work because Google's spam-bots detected the problem, then you simply need to follow the instructions in the email that Google sent you, or consult the Blogger Help Forums.  In short, you will be advised about a four step process that you need to follow.   This is tedious, but the nice part is that Google is dealing with the copy-cat for you, and (if you're not a spammer) you'll get your blog back.

If you find out some other way, then you need to decide what do to about the problem (if indeed you believe is is a problem).   This is closely linked to what you want to achieve - this could be any of:
  • Do nothing - if you don't mind being copied, and you're willing to risk being incorrectly identified as a spammer
  • Getting the copied work taken down
  • Leaving the copy in place, with your name or URL  added beside it
  • Being paid compensation
  • Receiving a public apology
and I'm sure there are other possible remedies, too.

Once you know what you want to achieve, you can plan what steps you need to take, based on the notes in the next section.

Reality check:  There is nothing wrong with being ambitious and wanting to receive $10M compensation.  But  unless you can afford really good lawyers, it might be a good idea to have a backup plan which involves a realistic goal too, eg having your name added to the copyright materials, or having them taken down.


Steps for resolving copyright problems

Start the easy way

Unless you're certain that the copying was deliberate and malicious, the first step is most cases is to send a nice email to the person who made the copy, telling them that it's yours and what you want done about it.  (You might need to just leave a comment on their blog, if no email address is provided.)

    Report them to their internet service provider

    The obvious first step if politeness doesn't work is to complain to their web-host:
    • If they use Blogger (ie their URL is WHATEVER.blogspot.com, or they have a custom domain but the source-code on their site looks like Blogger code),
      then you should contact Google through this page:   http://www.google.com/blogger_dmca.html 
      Google have a very thorough process for dealing with claims of content stealing - and if the other site that you say has stolen your work is also published in Blogger, they can look at the dates in their database to see who actually published it first.
      Make sure that you read all the details of Blogger's policies before you submit a complaint:  they don't like malicious complaints, and you could be fined quite heavily if you claim that you own something which you don't really own.
    • If the person who has copied your work isn't using Blogger, you may need to do some detective work with whois (use Google-search it to find a whois service for the domain you're looking for) to see   who the host is, and what process this host uses to resolve copy-right complaints. 
      This could be particularly difficult to do if they're not located in the same country that you are (so their laws will be different), or if they use a different language.
    • If the person who has copied your work has put it into YouTube, you can use information and tools on  YouTube's opyright page.


    Complain to other services

    If the other party's web-service-provider can't or won't help, then you could try reporting them to other services that the use.

    For instance many websites are also on Facebook:  if the contents includes your material, or links to a website that's distributing your copyright material, you may be able to use Facebook's intellectual property violation reporting process.  (I haven't tried it myself, but have been told that this can be particularly effective.)

    If they show advertising on their site, then complaining to either the advertisers, or to the company that organises the advertising programme, may be effective.  AdSense is quite sensitive to not having it's ads shown along with copyright violations, and provides a policy violation reporting form that you can let them know about the problem.

    Charge them

    Logodollar2Some people have had success from sending the offender a bill for use of your work.  This takes a bit of thought:  if they pay the invoice, then legally you may have licensed them to use your work for far less than it is worth.   On the other hand, if the amount that you ask them for is ridiculously high, they will probably just laugh and ignore you.

    Threaten legal action

    This can be fun:  write a very formal-sounding letter demanding that they cease-and-desist from using your work (name it very specifically) by a certain date, and advising that failure to do so may incur penalties including but not limited to commencement of legal proceedings for in which you will be looking for legal expenses as well as damaged incurred.  

    If you would actually be willing to sue the person (see the section below), then consult a lawyer, and get them to send the letter.   But if there's no chance that you actually will sue  (and most bloggers simply don't have the time, resources or levels of proof to do so), just make the letter sound good.   If necessary, get a friend who can write pompous-sounding letters to draft it for you.    Send it by regular mail - emails are too easily ignored - and make it look official.

    Finding the address to send a letter to can be a challenge - one option is to scour your copy-cat's work, and see if you can find their company or personal details on LinkedIn (most are smart enough to hide themselves on Facebook).    And if you can, then complaining to their boss may be an option, too, depending on your niche and whether their action might be harming their company's reputation.

    Legal action

    If all else fails, another option is to sue the person or organisation that copied your work.  If you or the copy-cat are in the USA, then the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides an approach for this.   But if you and they are in different countries, then different laws and processes may apply.  But no matter where you are, two things are likely:
    • You will need to hire a lawyer - so it may be expensive and take a lot of time, and
    • You may need to prove that you really did create the work, and when it was made.   
    The second point is where copyright registration services come in to play:  they provide evidence that you really had created the work as at a certain date.  Unfortunately this is one of the ironies of copyright:  listing your material with a copyright service does nothing to stop anyone using it.  But if you don't list it shortly after it's created, you probably won't have any evidence if you ever get to the point of wanting to sue (or even formally complain about) someone who has copied your work.

    There are some other issues with copyright services too:
    • It can be difficult to list a blog, which by its nature has different material being loaded very frequently.
    • You won't necessarily know which services(s) to register with - because you don't know where someone who copies your work is located, so you won't know what services a court in your country will accept evidence from.
    So, while I'm not advising you to avoid the registration services altogether, it's important carefully to choose when and how to use them.

    Peer pressure / Name-and-shame

    If the legal approach doesn't work, or would be too expensive, then another option is to use social pressure to convince your copy-cat that they need to stop copying your work etc.  This can take a range of formats - eg, if a local small business has copied your photograph and isn't willing to compensate you, you might get all your friends to contact the business and threaten not to buy there again.   Or you might start a Facebook campaign, or put a video on YouTube telling your side of a story.   Whatever you do, make sure you that you:
    • Really know what you want to achieve:  fame, a pay-off to stop the campaign etc
    • Consider the risks (ie what could go wrong) and whether they're worth it
    • Don't break the law yourself (it's not worth it, especially if you're the small guy), and
    • Think strategically about what you might do, and how this could affect the relationships in your area or niche:  some people are just too much trouble to have an enemies.

    DISCLAIMER

    This article contains general advice about the copyright issues faced by people who use Blogger.   It cannot cover every possible case or specific legal systems. 

    If you need legal advice about a particular situation, consult a lawyer, ideally one who is familiar with copyright law in your country.

    I do not, under any circumstances, suggest using illegal approaches - threats of violence, sabotage, etc.


    Related Articles

    Copyright, Blogs and Bloggers, an Introduction

    Tools for applying copyright protection to your blog

    Putting 3rd party HTML (eg a Creative Commons licence) into your Blog

    Removing the Attribution Gadget from your Blog

    Displaying a gadget only on the home page - or only on a specific page

    By: Unknown on 1:44:00 AM / comment : 0 , ,

    This article is about how to set up a gadget / widget in Blogger so that it is only visible on the first place that a reader sees when they visit your blog (often called the "home page").  It is one of a series of articles about controlling what goes on the homepage of your blogspot blog.


    Front Page Bob
    By Paginator (Own work)
     [CC-BY-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons
    There are a number of reasons why you might want to put a gadget only the screen that shows when a visitor first navigates to your blog's home page.

    You may want to show a welcome message, or a topic-index page, or to give a view of your recent tweets or some other RSS feed.    

    No matter what the reason, the process is very similar:

    How to make a gadget only appear on the first page

    Note:  in Blogger, the words "gadget", "widget", and even "page-element" all mean the same thing.  I generally use "gadget", because the Page Elements tab currently says "Add a Gadget".  But they're absolutely the same.

    1   Add the gadget

    Do this in the usual way.


    2  Place the gadget

    Drag-and-drop the gadget to the place where you want it.   It may be over or under your blog-posts gadget, or in a totally different place.

    A popular place for a gadget that is going to look like a "home page" would be in the Body section, just above the Blog Posts gadget, where "Test Gadget" is in this example:



    3   Find the Gadget-ID  in the usual way.


    4  Find the code for your gadget:

    Edit your template.

    Click in the search box inside the template editor, and look for the widget name that you noted in step 3.   Once you've found it, notice what comes after it.   In this example, it's the line for Blog1:
              <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>
    <b:widget id='Text1' locked='false' title='Test gadget' type='Text'/>
    <b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'/>

    Use the expansion triangle at the left side of the template editor to expand this section of the code.  After you do, it will look like:
     <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>
    <b:widget id='Text1' locked='false' title='Test gadget' type='Text'>
    <b:includable id='main'>
      <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
      <b:if cond='data:title != &quot;&quot;'>
        <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
      </b:if>
      <div class='widget-content'>
        <data:content/>
      </div>
      <b:include name='quickedit'/>
    </b:includable>
    </b:widget>
    <b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>

    5   Add conditional formatting

    You need to put conditional formatting code around the code for the gadget - makings sure that it doesn't go around the code for anything else!  (which is why you noted what comes afterwards in step 4)

    And to avoid leaving blank space where the gadget would have gone, you need to update a "hide" instruction to apply it to the gadget-id you noted in step 3.

    The code to use is this - except put the gadget-id instead of the XXX.

    <b:if cond='data:blog.canonicalUrl == data:blog.homepageUrl'>

    THE red CODE FOR YOUR GADGET GOES IN HERE 
    <b:else/>

     <style type='text/css'>
    #XXXX {display:none;}/*remove blank space that the gadget leaves*/
    </style>
    </b:if>

    The example above looks like this, when the code has been added:
    <b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='no'>
    <b:widget id='Text1' locked='false' title='Test gadget' type='Text'>
    <b:includable id='main'>
      <b:if cond='data:blog.canonicalUrl == data:blog.homepageUrl'>  <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
      <b:if cond='data:title != &quot;&quot;'>
        <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
      </b:if>
      <div class='widget-content'>
        <data:content/>
      </div>

      <b:include name='quickedit'/>

    <b:else/>

    <style type='text/css'>
    #Text1 {display:none;}/*remove blank space that the gadget leaves*/
    </style>

    </b:if>
    </b:includable>
    </b:widget>
    <b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>


    6  Check that it's worked

    Preview your blog before you save the changes:  check that the the widget is visible.

    Save the template changes, and look at your blog.  Check that
    • The widget is on the first page
    • The widget is not seen when you look at an older page (eg one from your archive)
    • The other elements of your blog (other widgets, blog post titles, dates and contents) are all as you expect them - on the first screen, and on other screens too.

    If anything is wrong with how your blog is working, go back to the template editor (Layout > Edit HTML), and upload from the copy of your template that you made at the beginning of step 1.   This will let you blog work properly, while you figure out what went wrong.


    How to display a gadget only on a specific post or page


    Follow exactly the same approach as above.

    But instead of  
    <b:if cond='data:blog.canonicalUrl == data:blog.homepageUrl'>

    Make the conditional statement based on something else.

    This can be a different condition, or a specific page URL.    For example to display a gadget only on a specific page, use this code, and put the address of the page instead of POST-URL:
    <b:if cond='data:blog.canonicalUrl == "POST-URL"'>>

    Note:   for the address of the page, if your blog does not have a custom domain, then be careful to use the "blogspot.com" version of the address, not one with a country-level name  (eg the blogspot.in or blogspot.co.uk version)


    To display a gadget on every page except a specifc one, replace the double equals signs (==) with the HTML code for not, which is an exclamation mark followed by an equal sign (!=).   For example:
    <b:if cond='data:blog.canonicalUrl != data:blog.homepageUrl'>

    Blogger have now provided an expanded list of conditional statements - you can find information about it:




    Where to get more information

    Controlling what goes on the homepage

    Adding a gadget / widget / page-element to your blog

    Editing your blogger template

    Putting a slideshow from Picasa onto your blog

    Getting the HTML code to put a picture into your blog

    Making a gadget that looks like a posthttp://buzz.blogger.com/2015/06/even-more-expansions-to-blogger.html

    Making someone an author on your blog

    By: Unknown on 4:52:00 PM / comment : 0 ,

    This article shows you how to set up another person (ie another Google account) as an author for your blog.

    Google, Blog-Authors and Blogger

    Setting someone up as an "author" in Blogger is one way that you can let other people post to your blog.

    It's easy to do: you tell blogger to create an invitation, which sends the person an email saying you would like to be an author, they click a link in the email and then sign in with a Google account to accept the invitation. And once it is done, the person can write and edit their own posts.
    All you need to know is the person's email address: it doesn't matter if it's a gmail address or not.  You can send invitations to people with hotmail, yahoo, and indeed any email address where your invitee can read their email.

     However the other person will need to use a Google account (which doesn't necessarily include Gmail) to accept the invitation: don't waste time inviting people who are allergic to Google and not willing to sign up for an account.


    How to make someone an author on your blog

    Send them an invitation:
    • Go to Settings > Basic > Permissions
    • Beside Blog Authors, click + Add Authors
    • Enter the email address of the person you want to invite
    • Click Ok


    A few minutes later, the email address that you sent to receives an email invitation, like this, from no-reply@google.com:
    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: You have been invited to contribute to AnotherTestBlog
    Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:47:45 +0000
    From:   THE NAME OF FROM YOUR BLOGGER PROFILE 
    To: maryc@act.nz

    The Blogger user Mary has invited you to contribute to the blog: AnotherTestBlog.

    To contribute to this blog, visit:
    http://www.blogger.com/i.g?inviteID=468-GEEKY-LOOKING-CODE-973&blogID=31-GEEKY-LOOKING-CODE-83

    You'll need to sign in with a Google Account to confirm the invitation and start posting to this blog. If you don't have a Google Account yet, we'll show you how to get one in minutes.

    To learn more about Blogger and starting your own free blog visit http://www.blogger.com.

    When the person who gets the email clicks on the link, they are taken to Blogger, and asked to sign in

    Once they have clicked the link and sign in, the Google account that they log in with has "author rights" to your blog (just the one you invited them to, not any others you've made).

    The person does not need to have a gmail or Google account for you to invite them to be an author - but they will need to sign in using a Google account (new or existing) to accept the invitation.



    What you will see

    Once the person has accepted the invitation, the Google account name (which looks like an email address) that they use to accept it is shown as an author on the permissions tab (the one that you went to to invite them to be an author):



    If they accept the invitation by signing to Google in with a different email address than the one you invited, you will get a message telling you about this. It says
    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: Your invitation was accepted using a different email address
    Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:51:33 +0000
    From: Blogger
    To: YOUR-EMAIL-ADDRESS

    Your invitation for THE-EMAIL-ADDRESS-YOU-INVITED for your private blog "AnotherTestBlog" has been accepted, but using a different email address. It has been accepted by THE-ACCEPTING-EMAIL ADDRESS.

    If your invitation has been accepted by someone you do not know or did not intend to invite, please visit the Permissions tab of your blog where you can choose to revoke access.

    Thanks,
     The Blogger Team




    What your new author will see

    When your new author logs in to Blogger.com - using the Google account they accepted your invitation with - they see a regular Blogger dashboard, except that they only have access to a limited range of functions:


    An author can:

    • Create a post,
    • Edit the date for posts they have made
    • Turn comments of for posts they can edit (provided the default setting is On)
    • Edit a post that they made
    • Add a mobile device so they can post using SMS/MMS - (this may only work in certain countries)
    • Set themselves up to post using email (the mail2Post feature) - note that their "secret words" address is different to yours - and that an author could use this feature to let anyone else post from their account.
    • Remove themselves as an author


    An author cannot:

    • Edit posts made by other authors or administrators
    • Change the template, layout or gadgets
    • Change the blog's URL, title or description
    • Set up for any email address to receive comment-moderation alert messages
    • Moderate comments (even about their own posts), or change the global comments settings
    • Edit any of the blog's Pages
    • See the blog's statistics
    • Install AdSense into the blog (although they can put ad-units of their own inside their own posts)
    • Give other people permission to write on the blog - except by sharing their own mail2Post "secret words" address.
    • Change the default language and date/time settings for the blog
    • Alter the RSS feed settings in any way
    • Set up Google Analytics for the blog
    • Edit the Adult-content warning setting, or the blog's Open-ID URL.


    Troubleshooting

    Be sure your transfer works

    If you are accepting the invitation yourself (eg you are transferring the blog to another Google account that you control), then make sure that you either
    • [Recommended]: use a different browser for each Google account, or
    • Each time you need to change Google accounts, log out of the present account, clear your cache and re-start your browser.

    Make sure the emails arrive

    We sometimes see questions in Blogger Help Forum from people who say that they sent invitations, but the email message was never received.

    The most common solution is that the author-to-be needs to check their spam folder - very often that's where the messages have gone.  If that doesn't work:
    • Try sending the person an email address from your regular email account - so you know if there's a  problem with their email.
    • Cancel the invitation (there's a link in the Invitation screen), wait a few minutes and try again.
    • Try sending an invitation to a different email address that you control, and forwarding that message (without clicking the accept link) to the person.yourself.

    If none of this helps, post a question in Blogger Help Forum: tell us your blog's URL, and exactly what options you have tried.


    More things to think about

    As well as giving the person rights, you may also need to work with them to make sure they understand how you use certain features in Blogger:
    • What policies do you have for responding to comments - Who is notified about comments left about their posts?  What guidelines are followed about complaints?  How do you deal with spam and abuse - and what do you regard as abuse?
    • How do you organise pictures, and other external files that your blog uses?
      I always upload pictures to Picasa-web-albums outside of Blogger, LINK so I can control the picture size/resolution. If you do this, you need to make sure that your new author knows where to file their pictures.
    • Have you got a place where you keep policies, documetation, ideas for new posts, etc (eg I use a separate documentation blog for this) - does your new author need access to this?


    What next?

    Giving someone administrator access to your blog.



    Related Articles

    Understanding Google accounts

    Putting AdSense ads into your posts

    How to put posts into your blog's pages

    Why RSS / Subscribe to Posts matters for your blog

    Your blog and the so-called-social networks:  Facebook, Twitter, eg al

    Putting pictures onto your blog

    Advertising and your blog, some things to consider

    Turning the RSS feed off or on again

    By: Unknown on 4:07:00 PM / comment : 0 ,

    By default, public Blogger sites offer an RSS feed.  But there may be times when you need to turn it off, either for good or temporarily.

    RSS and Blogger

    Previously I've explained what RSS is and why it's important for bloggers.

    But there may be times when you want to turn off your RSS feed, either because you don't want to offer one at all, or because you want to make some posts, or changes to existing posts that are not notified to  your RSS subscribers.

    Or you may need to turn it back on again - for example, if you want to use a dynamic template, to offer a subscribe-by-email option, or to enable automatic posting to Google +.



    How turn off a blog's RSS feed:]

    In post-Sept 2011 Blogger (aka the new interface):
    • Go to the Settings > Other tab.
    • Under "Site Feed", use the drop-down to change Allow Blog Feed to "None".  
      (This is the only option that totally turns your feed off:  the others, including Custom, leave some aspects of the feed on.)



    How turn on your RSS feed

    This is just the same as turning the feed off (see above), except that your need to choose one of these options instead:
    • Full - the whole post is shown in your feed
    • Until Jump Break  - only the part of the post before the jump break is sent to your feed
    • Short - only the first 120 (ish) letters, or less if the jump break comes first, are sent to your feed.

    Also, the new interface has a Custom option, and the old interface has an Advanced Mode.   If you use these , you can individually set the value for post feed, comments feed (all comments), and comments-feed-per-post.


    Private blogs and RSS
    Blogs that are not public do not offer RSS feeds, because they cannot be secured.   So if your blog is private, then it does not matter what setting you choose, your blog will not offer an RSS feed.



    Related Articles

    Understanding RSS - why it's imporant for bloggers who want to grow an audience

    What are dynamic templates

    Linking your blog and the social networks

    Follow-by-email gadget:  an easy way to offer email subscriptions

    Private blogs aren't as secure as you might think

    Putting files into Blogger's root directory

    By: Unknown on 4:01:00 PM / comment : 0 , , ,

    This article explains the issues, and options, for putting a file into the "root directory" of your Blogger blog. 


    Turnips (Brassica rapa) 
    from Wikimedia commons 
    Originally posted to Flickr 
    by thebittenword.com.   
    Licensed under the terms of 
    the cc-by-2.0.
    If you are using certain non-Google products to enhance your Blog, they will sometimes tell you to put a file into your root-directory.   They may even tell you to use an FTP  tool to do this.

    Sometimes this happens when a product also gives you code to install into your blog , This approach is used when the code is written for websites in general rather than specifically to work with Blogger: putting useful files into a place relative to the root directory makes it a lot easier to move a website from a test-address to the live one, so is a common approach outside of Blogger.
    Or maybe the other tool has been designed to verify that you do own the website in this way, rather than asking you to change the website code itself.


    How to add a file to your blog's root directory

    The short answer for Blogger users is "sorry, you cannot do this".

     The long answer is still no:  "there is no way to do this, but see the rest of this article for an explanation of why, and some suggested work-arounds."


    Why not? Every other website tool lets me do this.

    Home - cpg1.5.x demo 1287551599033
    Posts:  Blogger's tool for managing
    the content on our blogs
    If you're clever, and have lots of time, you can make a website just using a text-editor like notpad, a graphics programme, and ftp software that lets you put the files into the right places on computer that's connected to the internet.

    Tools like Dreamweaver take away a lot of the time-consuming work, and some of the need for cleverness.  But you still need to know a lot about the internet to do things in a way that makes a good website.

    Content management systems make this easier still: they let a technically-minded person do the nuts-and-bolts work to make the website, and give authors / artists / editors / content-creators simpler-to-use tools that let them put "stuff" (ie content) into the website, without needing to worry about the details of how it works.

    Blogger is a (very simple) website content-management system, it creates our web-pages for us based on data that we put into certain places. Administrators can set up and change templates, other people, eg authors simply make posts.

    When we use Blogger, the main way that we change the data in our web-pages is using the Blogger software. 

    Some items inside posts or gadgets can be changed using other software, eg Google Docs, provided they were were set up using that other software in the first place. But - key point - there is nothing in the way that Blogger is put together that means we need to access the base directory. So they don't let us do so.    And I doubt that this this will change anytime soon.


    What to do instead

    The options for getting around this restriction depend on how the file that you need to put into your root directory is intended to be used.


    Installing code

    If you have code to install into your blog, and a file to go with it, then you just need to
    1. Host the file somewhere else (maybe in your Picasa-web-album for the blog, if it's a picture)
    2. Change the code to point to the full path of where you have hosted the file, instead of the relative path used in the code
    For example, here is the code for a button linking to my blog, with the picture in the root directory:
    <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://www.Blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="//Logo.png" width="100" /></a></div>
    To change this to use a specific location, I just add a file-path and the file-name of the picture wherever it is hosted.
    <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://www.Blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> <img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSgGF-FXN1lOHv3Sv5pFZxcx2LSfeHFwJvJJvPdpSlkPO085cItJJP_JZbVC_sGdZJPZ2r_7JWG63cb8c-YYIO7DpNrR0vX4hH68srGp_w9rJVlhvHXLleSzZVsBKxPeD4RwiHjoqlIoz4/s320/Logo.png" width="100" /></a></div>

    TIP: blogger's editor sometimes gets links mixed up, so it's important to start the filepath with "http://"




    Verifying ownership

    If someone wants to use a file's position to check that you control a website, then they will have code on their own website that looks for the file in your root directory.

    You cannot change this code. And you cannot place the fie.

    So you need to ask them for an alternative way to verify, that is suitable for people without root directory access.

     If they don't have any alternatives, try lobbying for this on their product support forum:  by not having alterantives, they are ensuring that Blogger users, among others, cannot use their service.

    If the official answer is still "no", then you could also ask in other on-line forums if anyone has found any other work-arounds.


    What other reasons have you found for installing files to your root directory?   
    What work-arounds have worked for you?




    An afterthought: what isn't recommended

    Transclusion-iconI've recently seen someone suggest in a help forum that people with custom domains can put files into their blog's root directory by FTP'ing the files into place.

     This may be true, if the service that you are purchasing from your domain registrar includes file-hosting. But file hosting(*)
    1. Isn't necessary for a custom domain used in Blogger (since Google hosts our files for us), and
    2. Isn't available as part of the services when you buy a custom-domain through Blogger.

    So it's not a general solution for most Blogger users, though it may work for some.

    Initially I was a little sceptical of the idea: Blogger doesn't expect to see any files in our root directory, so I was concerned that it might do strange things if it found them there. But on reflection, I think there is probably a low risk of this happening, since the file-location is outside Blogger's control.

    (*) To avoid any confusion, file hosting and DNS hosting are not the same thing. If you buy a custom domain for your blog from a registrar without going through Google/Blogger, then you do need to pay for DNS hosting, but do not need to buy file-hosting.


    Related Articles

    File hosts - places to store files used in your blog.

    Picasa-web-albums: a quick introduction

    How Blogger data is organised

    Setting up a new administrator for your blog

    Options for letting other people write in your blog

    How to remove the numbers in blogger post URL's

    By: Unknown on 12:51:00 PM / comment : 0 , ,

    This article looks at the numbers that are in web-page addresses created by Blogger, what they mean and how you can influence them.


    no symbol over digits section of blog-post website address
    When you first publish a post, Blogger assigns a permanent web-address (aka an URL or a permalink) to the post.  I've previously explained how you can control the words used in this hyperlink.

    A common question from people who are researching SEO for their blog is "how do I get rid of the numbers in the post-URL?".

    Unfortunately the answer is not as straighforward as most people hope for.


    Numbers near the start of Blogger URLS

    As described in setting the content of your post's permalink, the URL given to posts published in Blogger shows the year and month of the original publication date for the post. I think this is because Blogger was originally set up as an on-line diary, with a lot of the features organised around the post-date.


    numbers in the website address of a blog post, as show in Internet Explorer


    Today, there are ways of giving your blog a home page, showing your posts in pages, and changing the order of the posts, which let your blog be a lot more than a date-ordered web-log.

    Some blogging software (eg Wordpress) lets you choose the structure of the URLs which are used, eg leaving the date out totally, or puting it after the words.

    However Blogger does not currently have any way to remove the date-part of the post URLs. And I could be wrong, but my best guess is that this will not change anytime soon.

    So what options are available to remove the year and month numbers?

    If you just don't want people to know the correct month and year of the post, then you can change the date before you publish the post for the the first time. Maybe make it something non-sensical (eg 1/1/1990). (However do remember that your RSS feed will show the actual date of publication, not the assigned date).

    If you have some content where any month-and-year are particularly irrelevant, put it into a Page instead of a Post - because Page URLs don't contain a date.  But remember that you need to give users a way to get to these Pages, and that remember that they are not sent out in your RSS feed, so subscribers won't see the content.

    The third - and least attractive - option: is to accept that this is how Blogger works and that you need to live with it or switch to another blogging tool.


    Numbers near the end of Blogger URLS

    Blogger puts digits at the end of post-URLs in order to make sure that each post ever published has a unique address.

    Notice that I said "ever published": if you publish a post, then delete it, and then publish a second post with the same year, month and either title or customized-URL-words, then the second post's URL will have some digits put on the end, to stop it being the same as the first one.

    Once a post is published, you cannot remove the digits and keep the same words and month/year.  The only way to avoid them is to make sure that your post-URLs are unique. So if you publish a post and notice that it has digits on the end of the URL, one option is to delete that post, and replace it with one which has a different publication date or customized-URL-words(don't forget to copy the post contents before you delete it!)   Or you could just set it back to draft status, and then publish it again with different and this time unique customized-URL-words.

    For example, if you publish and find that you get
    www.all-about-cats.com/2012-07/vegetarian-cat-food-recipes01.html
    you may want to delete the post, and republish the content in a post with a different date like
    www.all-about-cats.com/2012-06/vegetarian-cat-food-recipes.html


    Does it really matter?

    Crystal 128 karmPersonally I'm not convinced that having numbers in Blogger URL's is a problem.

    If the content is so weak, and poorly linked to by other sites and social media that the presence of numbers in the URL is affecting visitor numbers, then it seems to me that there are more important things for you to be worrying about.

    On the other hand, if your blog is already popular and well-optimized, and you're looking to get the last possible bit of SEO benefit - you'd be better off using your time to write even more good quanlity, unique, content so that your exisiting subscribers visit more often, instead of fussing over something that you cannot control.

    Or am I mistaken?


    Related Articles

    Setting the custom-URL for a blog post

    Giving your blog a home page

    Putting Blogger posts into pages

    How to set the date for a post

    The difference between Posts and Pages

    What is RSS and why it matters for bloggers

    Removing a post from your blog

    Copy the contents between blog posts - and keep all the formatting.

    Using Labels to categorize your Blogger Posts

    By: Unknown on 3:08:00 PM / comment : 0 ,

    This article explains how to use Labels to categorise the Posts in your Blog, and how you can get around some of the limitations in Blogger's categorising tools.

    Why categorise your Posts

    watermelon salad recipe can be labelled / tagged as fruit, salad, dessert and pink
    Grouping your blog's contents makes it easier for people who have reached your blog via Search to find other posts that they may be interested in - provided you add tools to your blog that let them navigate using labels.

    It's essential if you want to make it look like you have put your Posts into Pages.

    And it helps you to find posts yourself.


    Blogger's tools for working with categories

    The only tool that Blogger provides for categorising or grouping Posts is Labels.

    In short, Labels are tags that you apply to posts.

    Each post can have as many Labels as you want (there is an upper limit of 5000 labels-per-blog, but most people don't get near it).

    And you can use labels for different purposes.  For example, a post titled "Photographing Long-haired Black Cats" could have three different labels
    • Cats - the the animal it's about
    • Photography - for the functional category
    • Jane Smith - for the author
    The Labels gadget lets readers choose which groups of posts to see:  when a visitor clicks an item on the labels gadget, they are shown a list of posts that have the selected label applied to them.

    You can add the Labels gadget as many times as you like, selecting which specific label values to show each time.   In the example above, you might add it three times, once for ainmals (showing Cats, Dogs and Rabbits), once for function (showing feeding, grooming and photography), and once for author (showing Jane Smith and Joe Bloggs).

    There are three steps that you need to follow to make effective use of Labels in Blogger.


    How to add Labels to your blog

    Step 1:    Label your Posts

    For each post, add one or more labels.  You can add labels either:
    • In the post-editor, in the Labels section at the right side of the post-editor o
    • From the Posts tab, tick the posts you want to put the labels on, and then use the drop down arrow from the top icon that looks like a small luggage-tag:   choose the label or "New label ...").

    Step 2:    Add the labels gadget

    Add the Labels gadget to your blog - the same way you would add any other gadget .   You can add it as many times as you need, choosing which labels to show each time.
     
    Warning:  If you choose to show only a certain selection of Labels in a gadget, then this is all that it will show even if you add new labels to your posts later on.  However if you don't restrict which labels are shown, then new ones are automatically shown in the gadget if they are associated with published posts.

    Drag-and-drop the labels gadget to wherever you want it:  some people put it just underneath their header, to make readers think they've looking at a more traditional web-page.

    Step 3:   Add Labels navigation

    Another way for your readers access labels is from the display in the post header or footer of the list of labels assigned to each post.

    This is turned on by default in most templates:  you can change the setting and move it around using post-templete settings found under  Layout > Blog Posts (edit).




    What your visitors see


    A List of Posts:

    If a visitor to your blog clicks on an item in the labels gadget or in the labels-list that is show for apost, then the "labels-view screen" is used to show them the posts that have the selected label.

    This screen is like the main screen: is only shows a certain number of posts and visitors need to use the newer-posts and older-posts links to move back through the list.

    Like the main screen, if you have used jump-breaks in your posts, then the list only shows the first part of each post.  If you haven't used jump-breaks, then the whole posts are shown.



    A summary message:

    Unlike the main screen, in most templates there is a message at the top of the page saying:
    "Showing newest posts with label WHAT-EVER-YOU-CHOSE. Show older posts"

    Or if there are no published posts with the selected Label, the message is slightly different.  Some people change their template to customise or remove this message:  Chuck in The Real Blogger Status has written an excellent description of  how to do this.


    What Labels aren't - but appear to be

    Many people think that Labels are a way of actually putting Posts into pages.  However the Posts aren't actually moved around.  The labels-screen is just a way of viewing a smaller-than-usual group of Posts, and can make it look like you have put your posts into sub-pages.


    Making multi-level categories

    Currently, Blogger only supports one level of grouping.  The only way you can make sub-groups of Labels is to add two categories to each post - one for the "major" category, and one for the "minor" category

    For example you might use labels like these
    Major category:  Minor categories:
    Recipes: Sweet, Savory, Wheat-free
    Party-games: ice-breaker, run-around, silent, outdoor
    Music: lively, soft & gentle, traditional, instrumental
    Each post would need to have at least one label from the major category, and one from the minor categories.

    If you do this, you need to be clever about adding two levels of gadget, with only a selected group of labels shown in each gadget.   You might even need to edit your template, to only show certain gadgets in certain situations.


    Related Articles

    Posts, Pages and Navigation

    Setting what goes on the Home Page

    Editing your blog's template:  advantages and disadvantages

    Making it look like you have put your posts into pages.

    Copying all the posts from one blog to another

    By: Unknown on 1:06:00 PM / comment : 0 ,

    This article is about how to copy all the posts from one blog to another, using Blogger.  There is a separate article about copying individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another.


    New Holland tractor with NH 850TL front loader    To copy all the Posts from one blog to another, you need to export them from the first blog, and import the file that was created into the second file.

    Any Pages (see The Difference between Posts and Pages) in the first blog, need to be moved individually, because pages aren't currently included in the export file.
    If you want to totally replace the contents of the destination blog with the contents of the source blog, then you should delete the existing posts from the destination blog before you import the file.  (NB   Delete posts by going to the Posting / Edit Posts screen, and pressing the Delete button that is beside the post.   Don't delete the entire blog, or you will lose access to the URL).


    Follow these steps to copy all posts from one blog to another


    1  Log in to Blogger.

    2  Go to the export tab from the  Settings / Other tab.

    3  Click on Export Blog.

    Export-blog window on the old Blogger interface:
    the new interface looks a little different, but has the same links

    3a  If you are using the new interface, click Download Blog on the confirmation message window:


    4  Your computer will download a file.   For Windows users, it will probably be put in the My Documents / Downloads file.  Or you system may use another place, or it may ask you where to put it.   Whatever happens, you will need to know where this file is saved to.

    5  Open the blog that you want to move the posts to
    (You may need to log out and in again, or perhaps just switch to different browser or tab)

    5  Delete (using Posting / Edit Posts) any Posts that are already there, but which you don't want in the refreshed blog.

    6  Go to Settings > Other and click Import Blog.  When the box opens, choose the exported file that you made earlier, and enter the security-text.
    Import file selection screen in the new interface:
    the old version of Blogger is very similar.

    7  Choose whether or not to automatically publish all imported posts.  
    Only tick the box if you DO want the posts automatically imported.   If you don't tick it, the posts will be loaded, but with have status of Draft, so won't be visible by readers until you publish them.

    8  Click Import Blog.

    9  Check that the import worked successfully, by looking at the blog, and also at the list of posts under Edit Posts:  are the right number of posts there, do they have the right labels etc.


    Results

    IMG redCowRoadworks4586All the posts from the source blog will be copied to the destination blog.

    Many of the post characteristics will be the same as in the original blog.  This includes:
    • title
    • post contents
    • published-date and time
    • label(s)
    • post-author.


    Any comments from the source blog will also be copied over - sometimes it takes a few hours for the links for them to be re-establshed properly.

    The URL for each post will be based on the URL of the blog you have imported them into and the publication-date that the posts had in the source blog - for example:
    www.YourNewBlogName.blogspot.com /2009/05/name-based-on-post-title.html

    Any internal links in the blog will still point to the post in the old blog
    For example this link points to a popular article in Blogger-HAT.  
    If I export-and-imported this post into a new blog, the link would still point to the same place, ie the post in Blogger-HAT - not to the post in the new blog.

    Any pictures, videos etc in the old blog will still be in the same place that they were in (Picasa-web-albums, YouTube, Google Videos etc).

    If you have imported more than the number of posts that Blogger allows per day (currently 50 I think) then to make any more posts today you will need to complete the captcha-test (ie entering the letters in the funny-shaped word).   This will go away approximately 24 hours after you last enter more that the maximum-posts-per-day.


    Importing to the same blog

    If you try to import posts into the same blog that you exported them from, Blogger will not import any posts, and give you an error message.

    If you do want to do this (eg to create a duplicate set of posts), then do the export, change some small detail of the original posts title or date/time, and then do the import.


    Related Articles

    The Difference between Posts and Pages

    Moving individual posts, or pages, from one blog to another

    Converting Posts into Pages

    Moving some posts form one blog to another 

    Deleting blogs and blog-posts

    How to set the URL for Blogger posts

    By: Unknown on 8:42:00 AM / comment : 0 , ,

    This article shows how to use the Permalink options to control the URL used for a post in your blog.

    URLs and Blog Posts

    When you first publish a post in blogger, an URL (called a permalink in blogger) is automatically generated for that post. It looks like:

    www.yourDomain/yyyy/mm/WORDS-ABOUT-MY-POST

    In this URL:

    • yourDomain is either your custom domain (eg fred-fish.com) or your blogspot domain if you aren't using a custom domain at the time (eg www.blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com)
    • yyyy/mm is the year and month of the post's original publication date.

    Years ago, Blogger chose the WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-MY based on the title, or the first words in the post if the title was blank. They used some rules eg leaving out "the" and other common words, and putting numbers on the end so that every post has a unique URL (called a "permalink" in Blogger).

    However Blogger have now provided a tool that lets you choose the WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-POST separately from the post-title.


    How to change the customisable part of the URL for a post

    1  Edit the post in the usual way.

    2  In the Post Settings area (currently at the right hand side of the editor), there is a section called Permalink.

    3   Click on Links to show the options in it.

    4   Click the custom URL radio button

    5   Type the words that you want to use in WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-POST into the Custom URL box

    6   Click Done.

    7   Finish the post, and Publish it.

    Restrictions

    The only characters you can use are:
    • lowercase letters (ie a, b, c ... z)
    • uppercase letters (ie A, B, C ... Z)
    • digits (ie 0, 1, 2 ... 9)
    • underscore (ie _)
    • dash (ie - )
    • full-stop, also known as a period (ie .)
    It looks like there is no restriction on the number of characters you can put into the URL.  For example, I was just able to make a post in my test blog, with this URL:  
    http://bhat-draftarticlestore.blogspot.ie/2012/07/123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-123456789-.html
    (you cannot see the post, because that particular blog isn't open for public reading.)


    If the combinaton of yyyy-mm from post-date (which you can change - see Setting the Post Date) and WORDS-ABOUT-YOUR-BLOG is not unique, Blogger will leave out the last character(s), and put in numbers to make it unique.

    It only applies to Posts, not Pages:  the only way to influence the URL / permalink for a Page on your blog is to choose the initial words in the page-title very carefully.   (Ref:  the difference between Posts and Pages)


    Why should you bother? What words should you use?

    Firstly, it's only worth changing the custom words in your post-URL  if SEO matters for your blog.

    If you think the change is worth it, then you need to think about what specific words
    1) accurately reflect the content of your blog, and
    2) are likely to be the words that people search for.

    Unless you're a spammer, there is no point in making your post url www.myBlog/2012-07/hot-and-sexy-topic if your post doesn't have any content about hot-and-sexy-topic. (And if you are a spammer, you may as well leave Blogger now, before you get kicked off anyway.)

    Leave out smaller filler words like "the" "a" "and" - unless they are relevant to the post-contents. For example include "the Who" if your post is about the band called The Who, but leave it out if your post is about the cats who can fly.

    Lastly, many SEO experts (self-proclaimed and otherwise) say that dashes are better than dots or underscores. Only Google and Bing know if they'are correct or not. But it's probably a good idea to use xxx-yy-aaaa instead of xxx_yy_aaaa or xxx.yy.aaaa, just in case they are.


    Changing the post-title after publication

    Google's help-article about the custom-permalink feature says:
    "because Blogger automatically creates the URL from information from your post title, your URL would change should you decide to edit the title. This would result in broken links, and fewer visitors to your blog"

    This isn't the way Blogger worked before: until now, I often published a post with one title using the words I wanted in the URL, and then very quickly edit it and change the title to the words I wanted in the title. For example, for a recent post
    • the URL is  http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/html-code-for-popular-gadgets-in.html
    • the post-title is now:  Where to get the HTML code for popular gadgets in Blogger

    I just tried this again in my test-blog, and found that it's still true: even if you change the title, the post URL doesn't change.


    Changing the custom-URL words after publication

    Originally, after you hit the Publish button for the first time, there was no way change the permalink:  if you click on the Permalink option in Post Settings, you are shown the custom value that you chose, but you cannot change it.




    However you can now:
    • Edit the post.
    • Click the Revert to draft button.
    • Edit the post URL in the same way

    and the URL of your post will be changed.  Note that if you do this, the post characteristics (view count, comments) are kept.   This means that Blogger must be associating them with the unchanged internal post-identifier, not the URL.
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