Header Images for Blogger

By far the most popular posts here at Blogatech are about creating custom headers. I try to provide instructions on how to modify template code to position graphics but you may also need help with obtaining good quality graphics to start with.

I ran across this site, Free Web Page Headers,they offer many high quality 800x200 JPG's that are perfect to use as header backgrounds. Check it out, you may find something that will fit perfectly into your blogs design.

Google Buys FeedBurner

For those of you who are not familiar with FeedBurner, it is a Chicago-based company that provides RSS feed distribution for bloggers. Their tools help bloggers promote and monetize their blog content for the internet. Just recently Google closed a deal to acquire FeedBurner, the details of which are closed to the public but I'm sure there are a couple new millionaires if not billionaires in the world.

If you that have been offering several different types of feeds for your Blogger blog, you can now redirect all your feeds to your FeedBurner account so that you get a more accurate view as to the number of feed subscribers that you have.

If you would like more information, read this post on "FeedBurner Integration for Blogspot Blogs". There is also a Blogger Quick Start Guide that has been updated to include all the necessary info for redirecting your feeds.



Technorati Tags: feedburner, google, blogatech

Attention Grabbing Blogger

It's not very often that I find a blog that captures my attention. More often than not, as I'm surfing the blogisphere it seems that every blog post is the same crap re-written and re-worded. It has been passed from blog to blog so many times that when you see it, you start gaging and the race to click the next link you can find is on.

Recently, I stumbled across Gabrielle and the Tech.Chick.Blog. This is not your average blog. I noticed her Mybloglog avatar, which you see a larger version of above. Can't imagine why it caught my attention. Must have been the use of html tags that I'm so used to seeing all day long.

I started watching her photo slide shows while playing online poker. You know the multi-tasking thing. Bad idea. This young lady is so strikingly beautiful and the photographer so creative with composition that I'm sure I lost a hundred bucks in ten minutes due to a lack of concentration.

I also spent some time reading some of her posts, no really I did. She is quite humorous and interesting. If I was still handing out Blogatech's "Blog of the Week" awards. This one would be a winner for sure.

P.S. If your looking for a t-shirt like Gabrielle's, you can find one here.


Technorati Tags: breast code, tech.chick.blog, blogger's t-shirts

Adding a page to blogspot

Here is a question I see posed quite often, how do I add a new page to my Blogspot blog, such as a contact page? Recently a friend asked me the same question, he wanted a separate page for a time line of events.

The traditional solution for this if you have private hosting is to add a sub-page to your domain name. If your domain url is http://myblog.com, you would create a new page called http://myblog.com/contact.htm and upload this page to your server. Using Blogspot you don't have access to the server where files are saved, so we have to utilize another option.

Since Blogger allows you to create multiple blogs, the solution is to create another blog with a similar name to your main blog, such as, myblog-contactpage or myblog2.
The name is not really important but merely provides you with an address you can link to. Here is an example: http://myblog-contact.blogspot.com. The drawback to this method, is that this new page will not be associated with your blog when indexed by search engines. For just a contact page or other single page use, this is no big deal. I doubt people will be searching for Joe Blows contact page anyway.

Your second page can be formatted anyway you chose. You can use a copy of your original template so when the link is visited, the transition from one blog to the other is seamless and will appear as if both are from the same blog. Another option for styling is the stripped down second page like I have done in the example. I removed the header, sidebar, post date, title and post footer from a Minima template so that all that is left is the post section where you add your information. I also left the footer where I included a Adsense ad.

If you wish to use a stripped down version of Blogger's Minima template, you can find a copy here. When you create your new blog, it will by default be the new layouts type. The stripped version posted here is a Classic type, so in order to use it you will have to follow a few steps:

1. Open the control panel of your new blog. Under the Template tab select edit HTML.


2. At the bottom of this page you will see a text link labeled Revert to Classic Template. Click it. Click ok on the warning.


3. At this point it will either ask you to select a Classic Template style or pick one automatically. If you have to choose one, any will do.


4. Then it will take you back to the Template window that you are used to seeing. Select the entire template code in this window and delete it. Then paste the template code that you find in the link above and save the changes.

You should now be good to go.