Change the background color of blogger template :An easy way

Sometimes we are not satisfied with our current blogger template background and we wish to change it something else.Blogger have feature which allow us to change the color of the background,post field background as well as side bar color.

There are two method for doing so. The first one involve the using features of blogger while in the other we have to edit the HTML code of the blogger template.

To change the blogger background :Go to the Dashboard > Design >Template Designer >  Background and choose the color which you want to use as the background color.

Another method of changing blogger background is the editing the html code of the template for doing this we have to go the Design and then the edit html now look the code.

body {
background:$bgcolor;

Now suppose if you have selected any color then simply put the hex value of the color in place of the $bgcolor.

And if we want to change the other background color then we can do it in the similar fashion.

How to install wordpress easily using softaculous or fantastico

So far we have learned about the installing wordpress manually,there is another way of installing wordpress with less technical knowledge.Most of the webhosts provides the software like softaculous or fantastico (also known as one click installer ) using which we can install many php scripts in few clicks.

 

Follow the following points to install wordpress :

1.   Logon to your cpanel and scroll down to the software and services and click the softaculous/fantastico.It offers a lot of different apps like blogging engine,wikis,images galleries  and many more.We will install wordpress but the process of installing other apps also same.

2. To install the wordpress click on the wordpress link on the left hand side.

3.Then you will need to fill certain information,the softaculous will automatically fill it in the defualt settings.

4.On fillling the all fields,after a few moments, you’ll see a page announcing that WordPress is now installed on your site

Now simply go to the url www.yoursitename.com/wp-login.php and login with the username and password chosen before

We may also take backup or even completely remove the wordpress using the softaculous.

How to setup and install the WordPress in easy steps

Of course WordPress is the best blogging platform in the blogosphere.Wordpress is developed by Matt Mulenberg.Wordpress offers a huge number of the plugins which automate the most of the manual work.

So in order to start blogging with the WordPress we have to two choices either use the WordPress on WordPress.com or installing WordPress on our own server.

I would recommend to buy a domain name from Godaddy ,the webhosting from Hostgator etc. and install WordPress over there.For installing WordPress we need a PHP hosting with Mysql at the backend.

The hosting company will provide us with the cpanel.The Url of cpanel would be www.yoursitename.com/cpanel or some IP 00.00.00.00/cpanel.

Assuming that you have already downloaded the WordPress from official WordPress site WordPress.org.

Now before doing the install we have to setup the database which is used by WordPress.

Setting Up database in Cpanel Hosting.

Now in order to set up the database :

1. First of all click on the MySql Databases in the Control Panel.

2. Now enter the name of the database and click on create database .

3. Now create a user for that database,we can also use existing user to it but if there is no user present then we have to create a new user.For creating a new user Enter the name of the user and write password twice and click on create user and click on All privileges.

4.The last step is to add that user to the database previously created.Just select the user from the drop down menu and the database from 2nd dropdown and add user.
In this way our database is finally create now we have to move to WordPress install.

Installing WordPress on cpanel based hosting server

1.Upload the WordPress zip file to your server public html directory (file manager)

2.Now extract the WordPress files and move them to public html folder.

3.Now on the browser name write the name of your site then click on the create configuration file.

4.On the next step provide the details of the database in various fields like Database name,username,password.Keep the host as it is and table prefix.

5.After that click on run the install and enter the site title,admin username,password,and email address.Click submit and Wordpress will be install.

Now In order to manage the site go to admin area www.yoursitename.com/wp-login.php and login with admin user name and password and do whatever you want.

We also have another method for installing WordPress on our sever by editing the configuration file Here we have tell the WordPress which database to be use by it by editing wp-config-sample file.First rename it to the wp-config.php and change few following lines it using editor.
define('DB_NAME', 'dbname'); // The name of the database
define('DB_USER', 'dbusername'); // Your MySQL username
define('DB_PASSWORD', 'dbpassword'); // ...and password
define('DB_HOST', 'localhost'); // Most of the time you won't need to change this value

Next we have to do same thing upload the files where we want to install WordPress like in the root directory or in any sub directory.

When file are uploaded go to the go to /wp-admin/install.php. by pointing browser to the www.yoursitename.com/wp-admin/install.php and you will be on the WordPress install page just do the step 5 above and WordPress will be installed.

Most of the hosting companies gives the third party tool like Softaculous and Fantastico to install WordPress in easy steps.To know how to install using them click here.

Know Best blogging platforms..!!

So...In order to start with the blogging,we have choose the platform for our blog.Although there are many blog platforms available but here we are compiling best 5 blogging platforms..some of them are free and for some we have to pay for hosting charges if we want a self hosted blog.

 

Blogger: 

 

                   

 

Blogger is the free service offered by Google.Its main feature is the ease of use and almost instant setup.Blogger by default provide the blog address like http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/ but also provides choice of your domain name like http://www.yourblogname.com/ .Today there are millions of blogs which are running on blogger and you don't have to pay anything except if you use the custom domain then you have to pay almost $10 per year to your domain registrar and nothing else.

 

WordPress:

 

                    

 

Word press is the open source blogging platform written in php while using word press we have two choices either created a word press hosted blog at http://www.wordpress.org/ or install word press on our own server.It is best platform for the blogging.If offers full control over our self hosted blog and various themes,plugins,and gadgets.Almost our any need of a blog can be fulfilled by enormous plugins offered by WordPress.But if we want to have a self hosted WordPress blog we have to pay for domain charges as well as hosting charges for the server.The self hosted WordPress blog is nice than that of using WordPress.org.

 

Typepad:

 

                    

 

Typepad is a another blogging platform used for blogging.It was created by Six Apart Ltd originally launched in October 2003.It was made keeping in mind of non technical users.It also supports multiple authors,mobile blogging etc.It also supports LinkedIn.It is a paid service and the company offers a 14 days trial before using the paid service.

It is currently used by many large organization and media company to host their weblogs such as MSNBC,BBC,Sky News etc..

 

Squarespace:

 

                  

 

It is another blogging platform but relatively less used by blogging community as compared to the Word-Press and blogger.It offers hosting option that offers an easy way to set up a blog, or even a full website. It also has best interfaces for designing, customizing and personalizing your blog without needing to know programming language or finding third party templates.It is a paid service with the pricing starting from the $12 per month.It also gives the various functionalities but yet it is not popular because there is already free platforms available which almost offers same functionalities like this.

 

Livejournel:

 

                 

 

Livejournel or LJ is also a platform where users can keep their blog,journal or diary.Live Journal Inc. is a US company with headquarters in San Francisco, California, and a regional office in Moscow.Remember the movie "The Social Network" the Mark Zunkerberg also used the LJ for the blogging.There are many features in the LJ like other blogging platforms.LiveJournal also allows "voice posts" to their paid and sponsored users, where one can call into the system and record an entry.

 

Although there are several other blogging platform from which we can start our blogging journey.In my personal experience WordPress and Blogger are the best to use.And in WordPress the self hosted WordPress blog is the best for blogging.

 

To know how to getting started with the WordPress click here

 

 

 

Know what is a blog and types of blog.

 

Before making a blog and know how people earn money from them it is necessary to know what is a blog? "A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web,people made it to share their knowledge to the users about subjects or topics they know or what the people wanted to know."

 

 

 

There is a slight difference between a website or a blog.The frequency of updating in blogs is faster than that of the websites.There are other things like archives ,comment box etc. which are found on blogs not on websites.

 

In blogs the recent post appears on the top while older posts goes on the bottom.One can categorize various posts on the blogs using labels.

 

The activity of updating a blog is “blogging” and someone who keeps a blog is a “blogger.So one who is involve in blogging is a blogger.

 

Different Types of blogs: There are various types of blogs some of them are:

• Personal Blog: These are the blogs which people create to show their life to the users they wanted to share with.Its just like a diary but here blogger has the choice of sharing or not sharing blog or to share with specific users.Except personal blog most of the blogs are shared with all users.
• Business Blog:The business blogs mainly focus on the topics related to the business word like stocks market and other business related topics.Companies also make their blog to interact with the customers.
• Technology Blog:The tech blog focus on the tech tips and tricks and technology news.They also focus on the gadgets and reviews.The technology blogs are written by most of the people from tech background.
• Entertainment Blogs:These blogs focus on the celebrity,films,movies,songs,TV etc.Today some of the famous blogs are entertainment blogs.
• Moblogs:The blogs are now also differentiated on the basis of device they are using .The blog written by mobile device or PDA is a moblog.

Besides these there are many types of blog like politics,lifestyle sports etc. Click to know about best blogging platforms.

Add Read More or make post summary with image thumbnail on blogger.

 

 

With this method,the image thumbnail as well as the Read More button will automatically add to the blog posts.There is also a conventional method for doing this but if we want that each post automatically have Read More button and on the Home page of blog it will show the image thumbnail.

The image thumbnail comes from the first image which we use in our post no matter at what position.Even if we have use only one image and which is at the last of the post.

So here are the steps to be followed:

1.   Go to the dashboard of your blogger account > Design > Edit Html.Now back up your template  before making any changes.

2.    Now Check the expand widget  template which is on the top right side of HTML window.

3.    In the code window look for the line </head> by using ctrt+f .

4.   Now copy the code from http://www.pastebin.com/Dbpkkrdq and paste just after that.


5. Now find this line <data:post.body/> and replace this with the code from http://pastebin.com/pUH9gkci

6.  Now check if it works by clicking preview then click save template and you are done.

Note: If you want to customize the Read More button i.e. its size,color or the text name then edit the line 

<a class='more' expr:href='data:post.url'>Read more ...</a>

If i want the sky blue color and a big size for the read more button my code would be :

<a class='more' expr:href='data:post.url' style='float:left;font-family:arial;font-size:21px;color:skyblue;'>Read more ...</a>.

Moreover we can also customize the snippet by changing value of varibles like thumbnail_mode,summary_img,summary_noimg,img_thumb_height,img_thumb_width.

Its done enjoy. Any doubt feel free to ask in the comments or through mail.

Add "Read More" or "Continue Reading" button to your blog posts

 

 

 

When we write a blog post we sometimes dont care about the how long is it going ,till we have finished the whole concept which we wanted to share with readers.The long post on the blog covers whole of the front page and  it seems to have only one post.So whenever we wanted to show more and more posts on the blog front,we have to add a button "Read More" etc so that the blog show few lines of the post and whole post come after we click the "Read More"

 

 

 

 

 

In the past or with the old Google Text editor we have to do it mannually by edit HTML but after updation in the text editor we have to simply insert a jump where we want our post to be broken by poiting curser there.

But if u use the old  post editor, you can use jump break in Edit HTML mode by adding <!-- more -->  to the blog post

 

 

 

 

And if you  want to change the Read More to a new name you can do it by Clicking Layout and Edit Blogpost Widget.

 

However if u want that the Read More button comes automatically in your blog posts and along with the auto thumbnail of the image then Read Here

How to Hide the Navbar from Blogger blogs.

Google default blogger blog come up with the navbar in the top ,but if we want to remove the navbar from the blog we have to edit the template of the blog.Sometimes installing new templates automatically remove the navbar from the blogger blog.

So want to get rid of it:

 

 

 

Here is the simple steps:

Go to Blogger Dashboard then go the Design section of the blog ,click on the edit HTML and the backup your template before doing any changes to the template.

 

Now paste the following code anywhere on the template section usually i have pasted just before starting of the body of the blog.

 

                                      #navbar-iframe {

                                                                 height:0px;

                                                                 visibility:hidden;

                                                                 display:none;

                                                                 }

 

Click save template and here you go .Click refresh and check the blog navbar has been gone.

Remove attribution Powered by Blogger in blogs.

Many times we want to keep our blog clean without much widgets .In the blogger blog we have in the attribution filed where we have something like that "Template designed by XYZ and powered by blogger"

 

                    

 

Please backup your blogger template before you make any changes to it. This helps to revert back to the original template when something goes wrong while editing your template. The steps for backup and restore are discussed here

 

If we want to remove the above from our blog and wants to looks cleaner we have to remove that for doing  this :

• Go to blogger dashboard then to the Design then click on the Edit HTML.
• Press ctrl+f and find the word attribution.
• Make the attribution widget  as a comment by inserting symbols <!--   and --> the section will be look like this or we can simply delete the code from template

        

Now just simply click on the save template, there would be a notification that the do u want to delete the widget,click Delete Widget  and click save template .

See how easily you have remove the attribution from blogger.

There is also another method i came to know but i never tried yet.Similar to above steps find attribution in the Edit HTML and click change the Locked to false from true and then simply remove the attribution from the Design remove widgets method.

Moreover  there would be changes is the blogger so the tricks sometimes may be work or sometimes not.Please let me know if the trick is not working