Who uses Blogger? | Bloggers Lair | Yakezie Forums

I use blogger, and have since I started. There are definitely some serious drawbacks of Blogger, but it has never hindered me from doing what I wanted to do. The biggest thing I wish I could change would be to use trackpacks/pingbacks. Have you figured out a way to do that?

I would remove the NavBar from the top of your site. I can show you how if you'd like. Email me at the link below.

Jacob, I just removed the Nav Bar on your advice.  To be honest, I have been considering this for a long time.  I hate it being there but, on the same token, since Blogger gives me free hosting I thought it was nice to give them some free advertising.  The site does look nicer with it being gone!  I do think there are ways to add trackbacks to your blogger blog as I've read about it a little, but I haven't played around with them yet (partially because I do not fully understand the concept yet).  I'll let you know if I ever figure it out.

Eric, you touched upon one of my biggest fears – being incorrectly categorized by Google as a spam blog!  I do a backup once a week.  Hopefully I never have to find out the process for quickly uploading to a new hosting site.  :)  Google/Blogger is extremely vague about what makes a blog a spam blog.  They allow advertising and they allow affiliates (hence their partnership with Amazon).  I think that most of the time sites get targeted because they are only ads/affiates and no real content.  However, I also think legitimate blogs sometimes can get targeting in their clean-up process… hence the reason backups are so vital. 

I'm on Blogger too.    Been using it for 3 years now and it works well enough for me.  

I've thought of switching to Wordpress but haven't done so.   I've been on Blogger so long that I'm not sure switching now would be worth the effort and I'm a little worried of a switch breaking everything.

Jacob, I did those things too (the favicon and the reversing the order)… you are making me feel very clever that I am doing all the right things!  :)

Do you do any sponsored posts or reviews on your site?  That is the one thing that makes me a little leery of Blogger (and actually, of any blog as I hear they can hurt your search engine ranking).  I have a few thoughts on that subject that I will put in another thread when I have time to actually write it. 

Back to Blogger… it amazes me all the cool things people are learning how to do with it.  My next change will be adjusting how the comments are shown so that those from me will show up in a different color so they stand out.

My Personal Finance Journey said:

Nice work! Looks good. You can also choose a little icon for your site to show up in the 

Also – another big thing I did was change around the order of how Google indexes your posts on their search results. For example, their default is to show your Blog Name first, then your title. However, I've found that it's better for SEO to have your title first. 

I am very cognizant of the ease with which Google can delete a blog. I back up my blogs once per week on email and also on a network drive (independent of google). 

___________

The Single Saver said:

Jacob, I just removed the Nav Bar on your advice.  To be honest, I have been considering this for a long time.  I hate it being there but, on the same token, since Blogger gives me free hosting I thought it was nice to give them some free advertising.  The site does look nicer with it being gone!  I do think there are ways to add trackbacks to your blogger blog as I've read about it a little, but I haven't played around with them yet (partially because I do not fully understand the concept yet).  I'll let you know if I ever figure it out.

 

Eric, you touched upon one of my biggest fears – being incorrectly categorized by Google as a spam blog!  I do a backup once a week.  Hopefully I never have to find out the process for quickly uploading to a new hosting site.  :)  Google/Blogger is extremely vague about what makes a blog a spam blog.  They allow advertising and they allow affiliates (hence their partnership with Amazon).  I think that most of the time sites get targeted because they are only ads/affiates and no real content.  However, I also think legitimate blogs sometimes can get targeting in their clean-up process… hence the reason backups are so vital. 

The Single Saver said:

Who among us uses Blogger? I know there are several of us out there.

 

I know most people like Wordpress but I use Blogger at The Single Saver and, for now at least, it really meets all my needs.  I have been able to do a lot of customization, it has unlimited bandwidth, and it is free!  But I don't want to turn this into a Blogger vs. Wordpress thread.  Instead, I just thought it would be nice to see who uses Blogger so we can compare blogs and, perhaps, help each other out with design questions. 

Hello!  I've been using Blogger for about 2 years & have not had a problem yet.  If you want to take a look at my blog & make suggestions, I'm very interested.  I don't know how to back up my posts.  I don't make any money, so it's helpful that Blogger is free. 

Maggie

http://www.SquarePennies.blogspot.com

Jacob, no I have had the favicon for ages.  I read somewhere that it doesn't work in every browser… maybe that is the issue  Hmmm….  it does show up in Firefox and Opera. 

Maggie, thanks for the link to your site.  I just visited and love it.  There are so many good crafts ideas I want to try out now! 

Maggie – to backup your posts (very important), go to your Blogger Dashboard, then go to the Settings menu. Under the Basic category, click Export Your Blog, then download to save a copy.

As far as suggestions for your site – 1) remove the NavBar from the top of your site 2) Purchase a domain ($10 per year) for squarepennies.com so that you don't have the blogspot in your url 3) Get yourself a navicon 4) Rearrange the way your posts appear in Google Search results by making the post title be first.

____________

Maggie said:

The Single Saver said:

Jacob, no I have had the favicon for ages.  I read somewhere that it doesn't work in every browser… maybe that is the issue  Hmmm….  it does show up in Firefox and Opera. 

 

Maggie, thanks for the link to your site.  I just visited and love it.  There are so many good crafts ideas I want to try out now! 

Thanks so much!  They are a lot of fun!  Any suggestions for improving my site would be greatly appreciated!

Maggie

http://www.SquarePennies.blogspot.com

The Single Saver said:

Maggie, Jacob gave you some great advice.  I 2nd all of it.

 

From a design standpoint, you might want to try to make your blog 'different' so it stands out.  The background you use is used by lots of blogs on Blogger.  The benefit to being a little bit unique in your appearance online is that it makes your site more memorable. 

Thanks, I didn't realize that.  I will look at other backgrounds, but it's hard to know what would look unique.  I'll be looking at their templates today. 

Maggie

Maggie, here are a few resources for you (I just did a few searches on the internet so these are sort of random):

Favicons – http://www.bloggingtips.com/20…..gger-blog/

Hide Blogger NavBar – http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2…..d-for.html

Swapping Blog Title and Post Title – http://www.techrena.net/blogge…..seo-tweak/

Whenever you make changes to the template, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS download the template first.  That way if you mess up you can just reload the original template back in.  I know this from experience.  :)  To download the template, go to Design, Edit HTML, and then 'Download Full Template.'  (This is not the same as exporting the blog, as Jacob explained how to do above.) 

As for backgrounds, this is just my personal opinion but I would consider staying away from images (unless it is a custom image or something VERY low-key) and going with colors.  Images tend to be very rememberable and are easily recognized as 'blogger' images.  Blogger allows you to do a lot of customizing so play around with it and have fun.  And if you mess up you can always reload your template or blog! 

Maggie… just took a peek and I like it.  I think you can change the blue sidebars, though with the blue background image I sort of like it.  Sometime soon I will set up a test blog to fool around with and when I do I will duplicate your design and see if I can't figure out the color change for you.