Beta Bloggers Resources: Attention to All New Bloggers

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Google Search for "Revert to Classic Template"

Watching where my visitors come from using my site meter stats on my blogs helps me to see where and how people found my New Bloggers Resource sites and it is always very interesting to say the least. I just had to share these results with you for when people do a Google Search for a specific topic, such as "Revert to Classic Template" and the Google Search engines select my sites as the chosen top 4 positions out of 250,000. You can see this was a real thrill for me, after months of promoting my blog to be of help to new bloggers, I'm now seeing the results in the Google Searches to be very pleasing to me. ("Read more" to view the screen shot of the Google Search page at the bottom of this post)

You, my readers are the ones that have made this all possible by choosing my Helpful New Bloggers Resources and making these two blogs a popular choice for visitors. My blogs have become more visible through the search engines eyes by the number of times you have chosen my sites from the Google Search results for your answers to questions you have. Please keep coming back for more instruction while setting up your new blog and remember you can also contact me at any time if you need additional help. Thanks for all your support in my endeavors of providing helpful and useful information for you.

I took this screen grab to show what I have repeatedly found for this specific topic, other topics I have mentioned are listed here in this previous post Google Search for Specific Topics and you can understand why keywords are so important for poeple to find your niche site.

Google search shows my sites on the top four positions in results for "revert to classic template" out of 250,000 possibilities.

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Resizing Widgets and Google's Search Box

Resizing Widgets and Google's Search Box for a better fit on your sidebar is another recent post over at Beta Bloggers Resources for New Bloggers. I have noticed that many widgets and search boxes are encroaching the written text and thought I would help you out with a little resizing. It's so simple and will make your posts easier to read and look better as well.

Resizing Widgets and Google's Search Box

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Google's Search Box: Your Site or the Web

Google's Search Box has a little back dot for you to change depending if you want to search this site or do a web search (view above). You will see the little black dot set on my site and if you want to search the Web, you will need to change it.

If you are interested in changing the black dot on your Google's Web Search to Your Site Search, it is all explained here for you.
Google's Web Search vs. Your Site Search

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Resizing Widgets and Google's Search Box

Sorry for double posting this, see Resizing Widgets and Google's Search Box

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Beta Bloggers Resources: The Importance of Responding to Your Comments

This article for the "Importance of Responding to Your Comments" was originally posted to Beta Bloggers Resources. Since it's against Google AdSense policies to have duplicate material on my sites, I've added a link to this article and other articles that I have written on my Beta Bloggers Resources.
Beta Bloggers Resources: The Importance of Responding to Your Comments

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Earn Extra Money Blogging

Earn Extra Money Blogging

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Move Over to the New Version of Blogger

I moved all my blogs over to the New Version of Blogger at the beginning of the year. For those who waited for it to be mandatory, I'm just checking in with you to see how smoothly it went for you. Hoping it was a success and also wondering how many of you using the Classic Blogger still had your Classic Template in tact after the move to the New Version of Blogger. My blogs remained the Classic Template until I chose to use the Customize Design and that is when the real change took place. At that time I was able to use the new features for the Layout and Page Elements.

Since I now have two different blogs for the purpose of offering helpful tips and step-by-step instructions, this one is specifically for using the Classic Template and Beta Bloggers Resources is specifically for the New Version of Blogger with instruction for using the Page Elements in your Layout.

You have a choice to stay with the Classic Template or use the Customize Design to change over to using the new and improved features the New Version of Blogger has to offer. If you do change over to the Customize Design and you are not quite sure you like that, remember you can always Revert Back to Classic Template" with no problem. Go ahead and give it a try, one word of caution is you will loose all your links and anything you have added to the sidebar or footer of your template. This isn't a problem since you can revert back to the Classic Template and they all magically reappear.

Read this post on Beta Bloggers Resources for futher detail.
Move Over to the New Version of Blogger

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My Goal and Commitment to Start this Blog

My original goal and commitment to develop helpful resource blogs has been focused on being able to help other newbies going through the beginning stages of blogging. I personally had lots of difficulty just navigating around blogger when I first started, so I guess you could say, I've been there-done that.

Once I started to feel comfortable, I then wanted to help others that may be feeling the same way as I did first starting out. Researching specific questions I had was very time consuming and I thought how nice it would be to find the answers for newbie questions in one location. Since I was using the Classic Blogger, many of the tips and step-by-step instructions I have explained are no longer relevant for The New Version of Blogger. With the encouragement from Rose at BloggerTalk, I started another blog focusing on The New Version of Blogger. All new bloggers are using The New Version of Blogger (formally know as beta) so I now have another blog focusing on tips and step-by-step instruction for the methods used in The New Version of Blogger. Feel free to navigate between the two blogs, Classic Bloggers Resources and The New Version of Blogger Resources to acquire the needed information for the specific topic of your interest. I'll answer any of your questions to the best of my ability or refer you to someone that does know the answers.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for further instructions. If I have been able to help answer any of your concerns or questions, I sure would appreciate you taking the time to leave me a comment. Better yet, link to Bloggers Resources in your sidebar for future reference or for another newbie blogger that just happens to visit your site.
Happy Blogging....Sherry

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Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of Mouth Marketing has and always will be a most effective form of advertising.

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Make a Clickable Link Within Your Post

Making a clickable link within your post is used when it is necessary to refer your readers to another website or source of information. This is how it will look using HTML tags and the final result is just a few words for your readers to click on. In this example I am using my blogs address, http://helpfulresourcesfornewbloggers.blogspot.com however, I only want it to read "Helpful Resources for New Bloggers" for the clickable link. You may title your link whatever you want between these brackets in the example below.
Enlarge the image to view the example Since I'm on the subject of creating clickable links, here are a few other popular posts you may want to review.
Make a Post Title a Clickable Link
Edit or Add Links in Your Sidebar
Create an Email Me Link
Make Links Open in a New Browser Window

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WHAT? Google Contradicts AdSense Policies!

Most of us using Google AdSense on our blogs have or should have read the Google AdSense Program Policies before implementing Google AdSense on our blogs or websites. Well, the topic titled "Incentives" is very clear that publishers are not permitted to use deceptive or unnatural means to draw attention to or incite clicks on referral buttons, right?

What if I told you, "oh yes you can"?!!

In fact Google encourages you to actively endorse referral products such as AdSense, AdWords, Firefox with Google Toolbar, Google Pack and Picasa by calling attention to the button or text link. If you believe in the product that you're referring, feel free to let your readers know! Of course you may not click on your own ads nor encourage others to deceitfully do so.

Treat referral products as site content rather than the traditional ad space. You may integrate text links or buttons into related content within your page. This will enable your readers to easily find the referral buttons you discuss in your content. You are allowed up to a total of four referral products on any given page.

Be sure to choose only relevant referral products to refer to your readers, such as a site about blogging or web hosting, an AdSense referral unit would probably work best for you.

Rotate referral products when you rotate content, always checking to see that the relevance of your referral product is not diminished by any change in your content.

Are you still wondering why I think Google is contradicting themselves? Then read Google AdSense Help Center and it will all become very clear to you. See the examples of websites listed below for helping you to optimize your referrals implementation.

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MyBlogLog Branded Community as a Social Media Network

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Checklist for Pre-Publishing to your Blog

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Adding a Search Box to My Blog

Adding a search box to my blog for your convenience was on my agenda today. You can search the web or my blog about a specific topic. There are so many helpful topics in the archives and they seem to get lost. I have the Helpful Resources for New Bloggers Site Map for all my posts, however, it is always easier to type a few keywords into the search box to find exactly what you are looking for. This should help you navigate around this blog more efficiently. Please contact me if you are looking for something in particular that you didn't see covered here on my blog. I will be glad to research the topic myself and get back with you via email.

Also as a reminder to all new bloggers and those who have now switched over to The New Version of Blogger, you will find Helpful Resources for The New Version of Blogger here.

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Switching Over to The New Version of Blogger

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Starting the New Year out right, I have switched all my blogs over to The New Version of Blogger and it only took a matter of minutes to complete. Everything is working fine and what a delightful surprise to find all my Classic blogs remained the Classic template and nothing disappeared on me.

Although when I reverted my Classic Blogs over to The New Version of Blogger format to use the New Blogger Layout and Page Elements, things disappeared on my blog (the ability to use the expandable post summaries, Google AdSense at the bottom of my posts and all the links on my sidebar). No problem I just Reverted Back to the Classic Template and the expandable post summaries, Google AdSense and links I previously added to my sidebar were all there again.

The biggest advantage for switching over to The New Version of Blogger is the speed in which you can publish, edit and republish. As far as the new Blogger features for Layout and Add Page Elements go, I prefer to stay with the Classic Template and do things the Classic way for now.

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Google Search for Specific Topics

We all search the web using keywords or keyword phrases for many topics using search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc to provide us with useful information on a particular topic.

I have been watching and noticing the stats on my site meter for the location my visitors came from, such as a Google Search. Listed below are a few of the keyword phrases that have been used to find Helpful Resources for New Bloggers as one of Google's choices for the information pertaining to these keyword phrases.

• revert to classic template
• blogger lost username
• adsense code around text
• google ads in text wrap blogger
• customizing blogspot
• customize blogger
• expandable post on beta blogger
• new blogger expandable post summaries layout
• How can I create expandable post summaries in blogger
• BlogItemBody new blogger
  

Do you ever wonder how others will locate your blog or website by doing a Google search for a specific topic? When choosing your keywords or keyword phrases remember to use variations of the same words in your sentences and think of other keywords that might also be used in doing a Google search for your topic.

Do you have a way to monitor where your traffic is coming from? If not, you may want to review How to Add a Free Site Meter to your Blog. The site meter will give you information as to how many visitors and page views you receive in a day, week, month and a year. The site meter can also be very helpful to learn the location your visitors came from and what keywords they used to find your site (look to referrals on the site meter for this information).

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Selective Expandable Post Summaries

We have all enjoyed using the expandable post summaries in our blogs or website for those long entries, however there are many times when it really isn't necessary. After receiving a comment asking how to do an expandable post summary on a select few entries in her blog, I thought this might be something you would also like to know how to remedy. Here is a new and improved method so you can be selective and won't see the words 'read more' at the end of every post when there really isn't anything more to read.

Follow the step-by-step instructions as previously posted for implementing Expandable Post Summaries using the Classic Template.

If you are using The New Version of Blogger you can Revert to Classic Template to use this same method or follow these instructions for expandable post summaries using The New Version of Blogger.

The portion of html code (in red) that you placed in your template which looks like this below the <$BlogItemBody$> tag. Delete the 'read more' in between the tags so it looks like this. Save Template Changes.

Go back to the dashboard, click on the title of your blog, click on view blog and now click on the title of your post by going to previous posts in your sidebar. Your browser window will now display the URL of this post. Drag and drop this http:// address you see in the browser window to the desktop.

Go back to the dashboard to edit your post, drag and drop this http://address into the post at the area you want to separate the text for the expandable post summary. Notice this HTML code in red, you need to add this before and after the URL of this post. The example below is how the text will look for your post using the Edit Html. Now when you click the 'Read more'..... in your published blog it will show the full post only for this selective expandable post summary. You have now Created a Clickable Link to implement the 'read more' in your selected post. For all future posts you will need to follow this same method when you want it to be expandable but at least you can be selective for each and every post.

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Blogger Checklist for Your New Blog

A blogger checklist for your new blog was inspired by visiting BloggerTalk. After reading a post by truthdancer mentioning a checklist in the order of importance would be beneficial for new bloggers.

I have made a checklist for new bloggers to follow using my previous posts. I don't believe you have to follow the exact order of this list, however they are all things you will want to accomplish to have a successful blog. Review Blogger Resource Site Map for other topics of interest.

The instructions for adding code into the template are based on using the Classic Template. If you have changed over to Beta, you can't switch back to the Classic Blog but you can Revert Back to the Classic Template to use this method.

For Beta Bloggers go to the dashboard to manage your blogs, go to Layout and Add a Page Elements for adding a List, Link list, Picture, Text, HTML/JavaScript, AdSense, Feed, Labels, Logo.

• Create Your Free Blog Account
• Content is King
• Customize Blogger Settings
• Create an 'Email Me' Link
• Edit or Add Links in your sidebar
• Sitemap-Indexing and Search Engines
• Create XML and RSS Site Feeds to your Blog
• Add a Site meter to your Blog
• Defend Your Site with a Plagiarism Warning Banner
• Promote Your Blog to Increase Traffic

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Make the Post Title a Clickable Link

You can make the title of your post a clickable link. This is a nice option for your readers when using Expandable Post Summaries. They will have the choice of 'clicking on the title' or 'read more' for the complete article.

Make sure you have customized your blog Settings by going into formatting to change the Title and Link field to read yes, Save changes.

• Go to previous posts in your sidebar and click on the title of the post.
  
• Drag and drop the http address you see in your browser window to your desktop.
• Edit eash post you want to make a clickable link.
• Drag and drop the http address for each post from the desktop and put that into the Link field under the Title field of each post.
• Publish post/Save changes.

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Comment from Lorelle on WordPress

I have recently received a comment from Lorelle on WordPress thanking me for the recommendation I gave her on Defend your Site with a Plagiarism Warning Banner, you can read her comment there.

Lorelle also wanted to respond to my post about Links Opening in a New Window. Explaining to me this is bad manners today and in violation of web standards, especially those dealing with accessibility standards. Lorelle on WordPress is a professional blogger and I have taken her advice very seriously. I thank her for taking the time to inform me as a new blogger this is against web standards. I am happy to say, no more links will open in a new window on my sites thanks to Lorelle. :)

Lorelle also goes on to say, "put all your energy into your content and the links will come to you". Traffic and readership take time!!!

I feel honored that Lorelle, a professional blogger took the time to send me her comments. Thanks again for all your advice and encouragement Lorelle!!!

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Ultimate Google Adsense Secret (for free)

Ultimate Google Adsense Secret (for free)
By Kaspar Gering

(can be found from expensive e-books and from this free article)

Introduction

In our previous articles you read that to maximize your Google Adsense revenue, you should have some seo done, you should have ads on more than 1 website, you should have high traffic and more importantly, targeted traffic. To get that traffic, you are advised to optimize your website for search engines (this is called SEO). You have learnt that if you get 1000 visitors a day and if you acchive at least 1% of them to click on your ads (which is a low click-trough-rate or CTR), and if one click is somewhere between $0.1 or $0.5, you get $1-5 a day (because 10 x 0.1 = 1).

You are wasting your time and traffic if you are having 500-1000 unique visitors a day and you're only making $1-5 a day. Lots of e-books are saying they've found the secret, they've found the goose that lays the golden eggs, they say they know how to squeeze more revenue from Adsense. But guess what, we've also found the secret, and we are giving it away for free!

How To Maximize Google Adsense Revenue

The main key to maximize your Google Adsense profits is to try getting ads targeted on high-paying-keywords. Instead of $0.5 from one click, you could make $5-30 from one click, which then means that to make serious money, you might only need 100 visitors a day. The key is to find those high-paying-keywords. Only one service that we know is showing you the prices of keywords.

Using Google Adwords To Find Keyword Price

Google AdWords? Yes, Google Adwords is for advertisers but you can register. Of course, it would be polite if you'd also use this service in the future in the proper way and if you would pay for some campaign. When registering an account with Google Adwords, lots of people stop right in the beginning because they see that they need to set up an advertisement campaign. Yes, you must set it up first, but you don't have to pay for it yet. You can pay for the campaign later (or you can stop using this service and not to pay at all). In the meanwhile you can use Adwords tools, like Keyword Pricing Tool etc.

When you're setting up campaigns, Google wants you to enter some keywords to target your ads for the right audience. When you're typing in the keywords, it shows you the possible prices of the keywords. Lets say, if you want to check the price of a keyword "broker", you just type "broker" into the field and Google shows you that you need to pay $25-30 for each click that is targeted to broker keywords. So in general, lets say that you see a website and it's content is about brokers and brokering, and it also has some ads on, it's pretty sure that the site might get 25 dollars from each click on those ads, of course, only if broker ads are shown at all, if the webmaster has had a good job optimizing the website and optimizing the content for those keywords.

Practical Use Of This Secret?

If you have a website and some content or you're planning to make a website, get as much as keywords from your industry that you can think of or that you can find and use some "keywords tools" (which can be found from the tools section) and find relative keywords for them. Find how many times are they searched for etc., too. Then check the price of your industry specific and relative keywords with Adwords, find the keyword that pays the most.

Then optimize your content for that specific keyword, or if you want to make your site more optimized, choose the keyword that is searched for more than others and that pays high, too and then optimize your content for that keyword. How to do that? Read keyword optimization articles, which can be found from our article section, too.

That's it, now you know how to really maximize your Google Adsense revenue. Now you know the secret that e-books are selling for $49-99. You got it free. Thank you for reading this article and thank you for not wasting your money on things that you can get for free

You are advised to check out Manfred-Knows.com for more articles like this. You can also find information on how to optimize your website with keywords etc.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kaspar_Gering

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How much is My Blog Worth?

Find out how much your blog is worth, I have done this several times and have seen an increase in value, makes me think I'm doing something right. :) You can check your blog for the fun of it also.......
How much is My Blog Worth?, enter your URL and submit.

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Section Targeting Google's Ads

Section targeting is a way for you to suggest to Google sections of your content that you would like to emphasize or downplay for matching ads to your site's content.... You have probably experimented with using Google's AdSense on your site to maximize your potential revenue and then you find your ads are not relevant to your content. This is a good reason why you should be using Google's AdSense Support for instructions on the use of section targeting. You will enhance the experience for your readers with ads that are well matched to your content and their search. All you need to do is add a set of HTML tags at the beginning and end of the section that you would like to emphasize. Google doesn't make this very clear as to where to add these HTML tags so while I was doing some research of my own, I came across this site SEOnoob and I liked how he explained wrapping the HTML code around the <$BlogItemBody$> in your blog template. This is one step further than Google explained, let me know if that makes any sense to you. For Beta Bloggers, you can "revert to classic template" to find the <$BlogItemBody$> portion of your template so you can use this same method.

Google explains that you will need a significant amount of content within the section targeting tags and they can't guarantee results, it may take up to 2 weeks before the crawlers take into account any changes you have made to your site.

I have experimented over that last few weeks with using the section targeting by adding the HTML code around the <$BlogItemBody$> in the template and I have seen a difference. I know some believe the HTML code could also be used at the beginning and end of each post. Others are happy with their contextual ads and CTRs they have been receiving from Google without doing the section targeting. Do your own experiments and please let me know how it's working for you.

Don't forget, we are the ones providing this medium for Google to place advertisements on our free blog or website as a benefit to our readers who are searching for information. If we don't have the information our readers are searching, there are valuable resources close at hand that just might have what they are searching for. I believe section targeting is our answer to more relevant ads for our content. This becomes a win-win situation, our readers benefit with more information available to them for research and we benefit by getting paid to supply content for the web.
Display Relevant Ads In Blogs by Digital Inspiration

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Google's Webmaster Tools

Google's Webmaster Tools will enable you to see how Google crawls and indexes your site. Simply log in with your Google Account to get started, now click on your site name to view Diagnostics, Statistics and Sitemaps.

• Diagnostics - Summary of the last date when your home page was successfully accessed and when your pages were included in Google's index status. You will also be able to see any web crawl errors.
• Statistics - Provide distribution information for pages Google has crawled for google.com index and also shows the PageRank of your pages in Google.
• The Query stats show you the top search queries.
  
• The Page analysis shows you how the Googlebot sees your site.
  
• The Index stats show you samples of your pages in Google and you can also do an advanced search to find out how your site is indexed.
  
• Sitemaps - Show when you submitted your site to Google, the last download and your sitemap status.
  

Don't be alarmed if you have just started a new blog and when you click on your site name and notice the search "did not match any documents". This all takes time, so remember to continue adding new content and promote your blog to generate traffic.

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Promote Your Blog to Increase Traffic

Promoting your blog to increase traffic will take time and lots of effort on your part.

• Content is King - The best way to increase traffic to your blog is to post consistently, updating your blog regularly with new and interesting content.

• Keywords - You may be a good writer but that alone won't guarantee your success unless you focus on keywords. Keywords are the words or phrases in which people use to search information on the net for a specific topic of interest. Use keywords often in your content so people can find what they are looking for. Now ask yourself, "what keywords am I using so people will find my site"?
  

• Comment on other blogs - Place your comments on other peoples blogs. Remember to take the time to respond to your comments and visit their site in return. Do Not spam or say "I like your site, visit mine", be sincere with your comments. This will also give you a link on their site for others to find you as they read comments, I happen to enjoy reading comments and checking out other sites.
  

• Reciprocal Linking - Exchanging links with other simularly-themed blogs is another way of promoting your blog, you could also have a list of links on your sidebar titled "Blogs of Interest".

• Join Forums - Join forums and get involved. I have joined Blogger Help Group and Blogger Talk, they have both been a great help to me as well as meeting new blogger friends.
  

• Leave your signature (URL in emails and forums)
  

• Writing articles and submit them to article directories like Ezine Articles. This is also a great place for finding well written articles for you to use on your blog.
  

• Submit your blog to Search Engines - Read more about doing a sitemap-indexing and search engines.
  

• Submit your blog to Free Directories - List of the Top Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog

The Easy Way to Generating SEO Traffic

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Revert To Classic Template After Switching Over to Beta

Go to Beta Blogger Dashboard and you will see Manage your Blogs, click on Layout. You will see Template at the top of the page, just below it click on Edit HTML. Go to the bottom of the template and you will notice "Revert to Classic Template"...... If you really want your beta blog to be the same as the old Classic template then click on the "Revert to Classic Template. You will now be able to do everything the same as before you switched over to Beta.

This is my test for Beta Bloggers Resources after "Reverting to Classic Template". This has allowed me to edit and post the same as I did using the Classic Blog template, editing the HTML template is important to me. Therefore the methods I have previously posted here will work in new blogger as long as you "Revert to Classic Template".

To return to the new blogger features, go to template, click on Customize Design, Upgrade Template, Save template......you are now back to page elements and all the new features that new blogger has to offer.

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Attention to all Internet Explorer Users

I want to bring to the attention of all who are using Internet Explorer viewing my blogs. Go to the bottom of the page to see the helpful links, due to the way it displays on IE vs Firefox. I'm sorry to say everything has dropped to the bottom of my page that would normally be on my sidebar in Firefox.

There is a free download for Firefox if you care to see the difference in browsers.

Thanks for your patience until I get this figured out. I notice several other bloggers showing the fix to this problem in Google Help but when I look up their blog it does the same thing in IE that mine does. Here are a couple of links that may help you
The Real Blogger Status
Blogger Tips and Tricks

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Create Expandable Post Summaries

Creating expandable post summaries are great for long articles on one page. You see a portion of the text at the beginning of each post as the teaser and then click on "Read More" for the full text. I'm going to attempt to make this sound a bit easier and show you how I accomplished this little trick..........

You can read through bloggers explaination for Expandable Post Summaries, keep this window open to refer to for the portion of html code that will be needed to copy and paste for each section of your template mentioned. Your individual posts will also need a bit of code.

Are you ready to try this? It took me many times of reading this blogger help page over before I would attempt to go for it. Knowing I can always Clear Edits and start over I decided to give it a whirl. After great success, I now have expandable post summaries in all my blogs. I wanted to share this with other new bloggers, so here I am doing my best to make this sound a little easier to accomplish, especially for all those who don't understand all that HTML stuff.

Go to the blogger dashboard, click on your blog name, click on the the Setting Tab and then click on the Archiving Tab to make sure you have Enable Post Pages set to YES, don't forget to save any changes you make. Now click on the Template Tab, scroll down to the area you see in the image below (real close to the top of your template), copy and paste this portion of code from the blogger help page to this portion of your template. Follow the example below

Next you will need to add another bit of html code after the <$BodyItemBody$> tag:

This area will be located about half way down in your template, look for the "post-body" and the $BlogItemBody$ area. Follow the example below

I changed the Read more! to (Read more...!). This TEXT can be whatever you like. When finished adding the html code in these two areas, preview this and if you see (Read More...!) at the end of each of your posts, you have located the correct areas to copy and paste these two portions of code. If you don't see the "Read More" at the end of your posts, Clear Edits and start over. I'm sure everything will go just fine however, it is always a good idea to have your template backed up. You have now completed the first two steps, close that window and Save Template Changes.

Now go to the Edit Posts section, edit each individual post that you want to add this feature to. Decide where you want to stop the text for that post and insert this html code at that point and also at the end of post is a bit of html code that you need to paste.View this image for an example

Congratulations, you have now completed this operation! Please tell me how you like it, was this explained clearly enough? I sure would appreciate any feedback you can offer me, thanks. You may also be interested in the following.

Selective Expandable Post Summaries for ClassicBlogger
Selective Expandable Post Summaries for The New Version of Blogger

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Links or Photos Opening in a New Window

Links or photos opening in a new window are very important, for the simple reason of not loosing the page you were just on. So many times as a novice computer user I would have a great site that I was viewing and when I would see a link, I took it. When I was done viewing that, the window was closed and there goes that great website I was just on. You'll never know if a newbie is visiting your site or the potential income you lost by not having your links and photos open in a new window. It's so much more convenient for the newbie as well as the oldie! :)

Since I posted this information I have been advised that this is not acceptable for web standards and have removed all target=_blank from my blog, this will be your choice if you still prefer to use this method.

For all those who would like to learn how to make your links or photos open in a new window, here it is:

• Links opening in a new window:

You will need to click on these images as I could not use HTML with broken tags to explain this to you.

• Photos opening in a new window:

If for any reason this wasn't clear enough just let me know, questions and comments are always welcome.

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Google's AdSense Policies

Google's AdSense policies are very important to read and understand if you are planning to use Google's AdSense on your blog or website. I notice on the Google Forums many questions that could be answered by simply reading Google's AdSense Policies........ Refer to this information often if you value your adsense account. The following topics are covered:

• Account Transferability
• Ad Placement
• Alternate Ads
• Client Software
• Code Modification
• Competitive Ads and Services
• Copyrighted Material
• Dialers
• Incentives
• Labeling Ads
• Language
• Prohibited Clicks and Impressions
• Site Content
• Site Functionality
• Site Responsiveness
• Webmaster Guidelines

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Create an Email Me Link

To create an Email Me link for others to contact you personally, choose an email address that you want to designate for this type of correspondence. I chose gmail for all blogger correspondence as to keep it separate from my personal email........
You can place this Email Me link on your sidebar and/or in your posts for feedback or questions from your readers. You will find there are many people who would never leave you a comment however they would correspond with you by way of an email. This works great for getting feedback from your readers.

Go to the dashboard, click on your blog title, then choose the Template Tab, scroll down until you see the "End Profile" section of your template, just below that is a good placement for this html code for your Email Me link. It will look like this:
Now all you have to do is substitute your email address for mine and place it in your sidebar via the template. You may want to review an earlier post of how to Copy and Paste Code as a reminder to always preview before saving any changes to the template. Please Email me with any questions you may have.

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Defend your Site with a Plagiarism Warning Banner

I have placed a plagiarism warning banner on my site to warn potential plagiarists against stealing my content. You can go to Copyscape for more information and place a banner on your site to protect yourself from someone doing this to you.......

I have been plagiarized by someone, however I am happy to report he has now apologized and removed my content from his site. For more information on plagiarism and what to do if this happens to you, read the articles by Lorelle on Wordpress.
What Do You Do When Someone Steals Your Content
Content Theft from Feeds - It is Time To Take Action

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Edit or Add Links in your Sidebar

Go into the template of your blog and scroll down about 3/4 of the way until you see "begin sidebar" section, the links will be in this area. You can edit the links that are already in your sidebar for Google News and Edit-Me and change them by deleting the provided URL address and entering the URL address of your favorite sites. Remember to always Save Template Changes. You may be also interested in viewing these posts.

Make a Post Title a Clickable Link
Edit or Add Links in Your Sidebar
Create an Email Me Link
Make Links Open in a New Browser Window

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Adding a Site Meter to your Blog

Adding a Site Meter to your blog is very simple to do. A Site Meter will display the number of visitors that view your site which is a great way for you to monitor your traffic.

There are many free Site Meters available, you can do a Google Search for free Site Meters or simply choose this SiteMeter and open your free account. They have a variety of web counter styles from which to choose. Once you have selected your style of Site Meter, you will be given a set of instructions but I prefer to skip the instructions and click on "tracking HTML", you will see this in that same paragraph at the top of page for instructions. This is also where you will see your HTML code to copy and paste into your template, I chose the JavaScript HTML for reasons they state.

• Open a new browser window
• Login to your blogger account, which will take you to the dashboard
• Click on Template to Manage your blog
  
• Scroll down to the area you want the site meter emblem to be displayed (example: for the sidebar you will paste the html code between --Begin Sidebar -- and /div --End Sidebar--. If you want it located at the bottom (footer) of your page, place it somewhere between---Begin Footer and /div -- End Footer
  

For all newbies, please review how to copy and paste code.

Send me an email with any questions you may have.

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Customizing Blogger Settings

Customizing your Blogger Settings was briefly mentioned when I explained how to Create Your Free Blogger Account.

Once you have signed in to blogger, which takes you to the dashboard, click on your sites name and proceed to the settings tab..... I have included a link I found to be very informative, Building a Blog has a list of essentials to get you started, most of them are self-explanatory but you should check out each category and get familiar with them.

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Sitemap-Indexing and Search Engines

Getting traffic and promoting your newly created blog will be the next steps to take, otherwise how will people find you doing a search for your blogs topic? You will now need to do a sitemap, get your blog indexed, and submit your site to search engines.

Adding a Google sitemap to your blog will be very simple following these instructions by Chuck for Adding a Google Sitemap. After using his easily understood instructions, please leave Chuck a big thank you, I know he will appreciate it.

Don't confuse this with a sitemap you see in the sidebar for navigation to other topics. A Google sitemap is putting META Tags in your template and this is necessary to do so the "Googlebot" will crawl your sites pages and index them. Now your pages will be easily found through a google search and also generate more traffic to your site.

Indexing can take time so don't wait for your blog to be perfect before you take these 3 steps.

Adding your URL to Google will be the next thing.......go to Add your URL to Google. Next you will want to submit your site to the other search engines.

Submitting your site to each of the 3 main search engines can be done by doing a Google search for each of the following, you will be walked through the process at each one.

• Yahoo submit URL

• MSN submit URL

• Google submit URL (if you haven't already done this one)

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask for help.

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Critique My Blog

Would you like to have someone critique your blog? Well here is a free service for you at "Critique My Blog". Billy Mac will personally read your blog and give you a critique of it on the front page of his blog. I did it and was pleased to hear he thought my blog to be full of helpful information for bloggers, just what I intended it to be. Thank you Billy Mac for the critique and for anyone else interested in reading my review, you can see it here. This is also a great way to promote your blog!

A short story to go along with this, I was viewing other blogs this morning and came across "Skittles' Place" which is a blog of "random thoughts from a random mind", so she states. You will love it!!! From there I was looking at her sidebar and saw Recommended Viewing, that's where I spotted "Critique My Blog". How nice it is to find blogs you might not have ever noticed before. I guess that is a reminder for all of us to have a list of "Recommended" or "Blogs of Interest" in our sidebar for others to enjoy. Thanks Skittles!

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Wrapping Text Around Google's AdSense

Wrapping text around your Google AdSense may appear that the Google AdSense is in my post but it isn't, that would be against Google's AdSense policies. This is called wrapping your text around your AdSense code in the template of your blog.

If you would like to do this also, copy and paste Google AdSense code into the template as usual and add the table align portion of html that you see at the beginning and end of Google's ad code in the photo below. Check out the beginning and end of the AdSense code with the added html. I placed the code in my template (after the "post body" and before the "post footer") using the 200x200 Small Square format. I'm sure you will have the same success changing the look of your blog as I did. Remember to go into your blogger Settings, click on Formatting, scroll to the bottom of the page and set Enable float alignment to NO.

Some templates are set up differently so you will have to experiment to see if this works on your template. Remember after you place the Google AdSense in your template wrapped with this other html code that it shows up the way you want, otherwise clear edits and try again. This was a big accomplishment for me as I'm not HTML savvy.

I'm using the original Blogger (Classic Template) for these instructions. When using the New Version of Blogger, Customized Design Template you will want to refer to this post in Beta Bloggers Resources for Wrapping Text Around Google's AdSense.

Good Luck!!

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Content is King

We have all heard this so many times, "Content is King"! So try to think of a topic you would like to write about, something of value such as providing useful information or share your hobbies with others. Writing about something you have knowledge, experience or are passionate about would be a great start.

Try to keep an "idea page" in your text edit/word processor and write down thoughts as they come to mind and before you know it, you'll have a post or two ready to be published on your new blog/website.

If your are needing a little help with some ideas for topics, go to Ezine Articles, they have an unlimited supply of fresh, unique content for you to use. You might want to try using a few articles free of charge, this will get you started and also be a nice addition to any original content you have already written. EzineArticles was created to bring writers and publishers (people like you) together. You will find this a very helpful resource for putting quality content in your ezines or on your blog/website. You will need to first review the Terms of Service policies before publishing any of their articles.

Don't forget people surf the web for information and you can keep them coming back time and time again if they know you are constantly providing them with new and updated information on their favorite topics. Always remembering this one thing...... "Content is King"!!!

Good luck in all your endeavors to building a quality blog.

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Recover Lost Username or Password

To recover your lost Username or Passord follow these simple steps: Go to www.blogger.com click on "sign in to Blogger". Where it shows you a space to enter your username and password, click on the (?) mark next to the password and it takes you to this page http://www.blogger.com/forgot.g. You could have just gone to this page to begin with but I wanted to show you how I found this page.

If you have lost both username and password......fill in Recover Username by entering your email address. This form will send an email to the address registered on your account. If you don't see an email from Blogger immediately, check your Spam/Junk/Bulk Mail folder. This email will include a link to a page which will display your username and allow you to change your password although it says "Recover Password".

If this wasn't the answer to your problem go here for more frequently asked questions on this topic.

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Blogger Resource Site Map

Google Search for "Revert to Classic Template

Resizing
Widgets and Google's Search Box

Google's Search Box: Search Your Site or the Web

The Importance of Responding to Your Comments

Earn Extra Money Blogging

Move Over to The New Version of Blogger

My Goal and Commitment to Start this Blog

Word of Mouth Marketing

Make a Clickable Link Within Your Post

What? Google Contradicts AdSense Policies

MyBlogLog Branded Community as my Social Media Network

Checklist for Pre-Publishing your Blog

Adding a Search Box to my Blog

Switching Over to The New Version of Blogger

Google Search for Specfic Topics

Checklist for Your New Blog

Make the Post Title a Clickable Link

Comment from Lorelle on WordPress

Ultimate Google Adsense Secret (for free)

How Much is My Blog Worth

Section Targeting Google AdSense

Google's Webmaster Tools

Promote Your Blog to Increase Traffic

Revert to Classic Template

Attention To All Internet Explorer Users

How To Create a Free Blogger Account

How To Customize Blogger Settings

How To Do a Sitemap, Indexing and Submitting To Search Engines

How To Use Free SEO Tools-Free Search Engine Submission

How To Recover Lost Username or Password

Content Is King

How To Add a Site Meter to Your Blog

How To Add XML / RSS Site Feeds

How To Edit or Add Links In Your Sidebar

How To Create an "Email Me" Link

How To Make Links or Photos Open In a New Browser Window

How To Get Paid To Blog

How To Create a Google AdSense Account

Google's AdSense Policies

How To Copy and Paste AdSense Code

How To Wrap Text Around Google's AdSense Code

How To Create Expandable Post Summaries

How To Defend Your Site With a Plagiarism Warning Banner

How To Get Rid Of Word Verification

Spam Update

Critique My Blog

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Blogger Spam Update

I was so happy to receive this email from Blogger yesterday.
Subject: Re: [#77914317] Non-spam review and verification request: http://helpfulresourcesfornewbloggers.blogspot.com

Hello,
Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

Sad to say it still isn't fixed with removing the "word Verification" from my blog. So I sent another request to them last night and hopefully that will do it. Anyone else having this problem? I think blogger identified my blog as spam because of all the links I have.

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XML / RSS Site Feed Syndication Format

This is a syndication format or "feed" for your blog. When you activate Atom syndication, Blogger automatically generates a machine-readable version of your blog. Read more about this at Blogger Help. You may also want an RSS Feed, in that case give FeedBurner a try.

Click on this image to enlarge it.....copy this html code and place this in the sidebar section of your template. View the Atom and RSS Site Feeds in the sidebar.

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Identified as a Spam Blog

I discovered today that I must have been mistakenly identified as a spam blog. I now have to do a Word Verification after each post. This is not the same as a word verification in comments, I'm referring to posting and editing your blog.......
To get rid of this annoying Word Verification, you will need to go to your blog and at the bottom of your post as you are ready to publish, you will see a question mark next to the word verification, click on the question mark and this will bring up a window for you to fill out a form. Of course, I then had to do another word verification showing that I am not a spam blog and sent in the request to Blogger. Now they will need to have a human review my blog and verify that this is not a spam blog.

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Create your Free Blogger Account

To create your free blogger account, go to Blogger.com and complete these three simple steps:

• Click on the Create Blog button
• Choose a title and the title will become your URL address (http://your choosen title.blogspot.com). Be sure to choose a title you like or one that will be relative to your content, especially if you plan on generating an income with your new blog.
  
• Choose a template and create your first post

The dashboard will be your starting point, click on the name of your blog and choose to post, edit, customize settings, template or view your blog. Once you do this a few times you will become a real pro. Remember to return to the dashboard from your blog page, go to the left hand corner of your screen and click on the blogger button.

The dashboard is where all the settings are for your blog and you will need to customize them. The Settings cover anything from Basics to Publishing, Formatting, Commenting, Archiving, Site Feed, Email and Members so get familiar with your settings as you will need to refer to them often.

Wondering what to write about now that you have your new blog all setup???? Anything your little heart desires! Maybe you will want to use your new blog for a journal or share valuable/useful information with others..........your choice. You will need to write about something that people are searching for otherwise how will they find your blog through a Google search?

Go to "create post" and start writing............no need for knowing HTML. When you are finished writing scroll to the bottom and Publish your first post. You have now completed your first steps of developing a blog.

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Getting Paid to Blog

Now that you have several posts to your new blog, you might want to discover your site's full potential for earning money just for writing about something you have lots of knowledge in or are passionate about.

Google's AdSense is one of the easiest ways for you to start earning money. Google's AdSense are contextual ads that Google will place on your site after you copy and paste the code into your template. It is simple and free to join, all you have to do is provide good content and Google finds the best ads for your pages from 100,000 AdWords advertisers........ The Google ads will be relevant to your content and you will get paid when someone clicks on them, remember to never click on your own ads as this is against Google's policies. The price you get paid per click will vary and in the beginning you might only see a few cents but the possibilities are great, so think big!

Here is a little tidbit of info for you: When a publisher that signs up for Google AdSense through your referral earns their initial $100.00 and is eligible for payout, Google will credit your account with $100.00. * A Google AdSense referral is counted when a publisher, who has never previously enrolled in Google AdSense, creates an account and earns at least $100.00 within 180 days of sign-up. The referred publisher must be eligible for payment to qualify as a successful referral.

I found this to be very interesting to learn and thought I would share it with you as a bit of encouragement, helping you to realize the possibilities for making some serious $$$$$$$ with your blog.

"You watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves"
Your next step will be to open your free Google AdSense account and place code in your template to start generating revenue from your site.

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Create Google AdSense Account

To create your free Google AdSense Account, complete and submit your application. Check for an email from Google to verify your email address. Once you verify your email address, Google will review your application and follow up with you via email within 2-3 days (usually sooner). If they approve your application, you'll be able to log into your AdSense account and get started. Go to the tab called "AdSense Setup", from there select "AdSense for content, search and/or referrals. Make your selection and it will walk you through the steps to generate the code you will need to place in your template.

Now that your looking at this AdSense code move that page over to the side of your desk top and open a new browser window and go to the blogger dashboard. Click on your site name and then click on template, this is where you will copy and paste the code you found in the AdSense Setup to the area of your template that you want it to be located.

Where you place your ads will be your decision. Do you want this text or link ad in the sidebar, after the first 3 posts, header or footer part of your template? There are several places you may want your ads to appear, refer to Google's Policies for the number of ads per page.

Go to the next step Copy and Paste Code..........continue reading and you will understand how it's done. It's your decision as you where you want to place the Google ads.

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Copy and Paste Code

To copy and paste code into the template of Classic Blogger

• Login to your blogger account, which will take you to the dashboard.
  
• Click on template to Manage your blog
  

• Open a new browser window
• Login to your Google AdSense Account
• Click on the AdSense Setup tab
• Highlight the AdSense code you want to copy and paste in your template

Highlight the HTML JavaScript code, copy and paste the code you found in AdSense Setup to the area of your template that you want your ads to be located. Following this method of copy and paste refers to all HTML JavaScript code for other add ons as well as Google AdSense. After you copy and paste the HTML JaveScript code in your template, always PREVIEW it first (very important) and this will open a new browser window for you. If your code is where you want it to be, then close that window and SAVE TEMPLATE CHANGES.

Your concern might be, you could mess up your blog, (don't worry) if you put your code in the wrong place of your template, you can always close window and CLEAR EDITS and then you're back to square one, try again.

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Helpful Resources for New Bloggers: Blogger Resource Site Map

I am posting the top Google Searches that have brought you here to Helpful Resources for New Bloggers. This is the Site Map of all my posts and listed below are other popular Google searches. You can also use the search box above to type in keywords for a specific post within by blog.

Make a Clickable Link within Your Post

Adding a Search Box to Your Blog

Revert to Classic Tamplate

Add a Google Sitemap-Index Your Blog-Submit Your Blog to Search Engines

Wrapping Text Around Google Adsense

Create Expandable Post Summary

Plagiarism Warning Banner

Be sure to check out my other helpful resource blog if you are using The New Version of Blogger

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