Blogspot is the blogging platform owned by Google. Google offers to create free blog using
. There are other famous platforms as well like WordPress but everyone has its own pros and cons. For all those who are new to blogging and want to take a start then blogspot is a good option. Blogspot layout is simple and easy to use. Below are the complete steps on how to create and configure blog. Follow these easy steps and you will be able to start a blog.
If you don't have a gmail account, then create one. For creating a blog, you will need this account.
Creating New Post
Click on the New Post button and then you will see an editor where you write your post. In editor you can insert photos, video, block-quotes. Editor offers you two writing mode: compose and Html. In compose you just write like a text pad or Ms Word document and in Html you can use your html programming skill to make your post colorful in various ways.
You might like to learn:
Customize Block-quotes in Blogger
On the right side, you will have Post Settings. These includes:
- Labels - (optional) Name of category under which you want to publish your post
- Schedule - To publish you post on a specific time
- Links - This is the link of you post. Link is created by default as per post title but you can specify custom link as well.
- Location - To show location from where post was published
- Search Description - These are the short phrase about your post contents
- Options - Contains settings of comment, backlinks etc
Mostly we use only Labels and Search Description settings and rest are good at their default settings.
In similar way, you can create a page as well. Under posts and pages you can see all you posts and pages which are published or drafted.
Comments
Here you will see all comments which are commented on your blogs post. Under comments, you will see published and spam comment.
Googel+ - Publish Your Blog Posts To Google+ Automatically
Blogger provides a great option to publish your posts automatically to your profile or page. You can select to manually publish these posts as well.
Stats - Blogs Views, Popular Posts, Reffereing Sites
In Stats tab, you can check you popular posts, daily and monthly blogs views, reffereing sites and other information about your posts. You can select to view above stats as daily, weekly, monthly and all time.
Campaigns - Promoting Your Blog
This settings allows you to create your blog ad to grow your audience. You can promote your blog by using this option but it will cost you money.
Layout - Adding, Editing and Removing Gadgets
That is the best part of blog and mostly used. Here you can add various cool gadgets, arrange them or remove them. To add a gadget, simply click on Add a gadget and a popup window will appear. Blogger itself offers various gadgets for your common use. Just select any gadget and you are done. Remember to click on 'save arrangement' after add or modifying gadgets.
Must Have Widgets for Blogger:
Template - Changing Templates Design and Html
This is also a setting which you will use most of the time. Here you will find 'Live on Blog' and 'Mobile' version of your blog. Under 'Live on blog', you will see two button: Customize and Edit Html.
- Customize - Allows you to change blog template layout, width, text color and font.
- Edit Html - Allows you to edit html your template as per your need.
On right top corner you will see Backup / Restore. Must make a backup before editing html of your template.
Settings - Blog Visibility, Description, Import / Export
Here are the key settings which will make your blog to appear in search results of search engines, present a description about blog. This Setting tab consist of following sub-settings:
- Basic - Important setting under Basic are blog title, Description and Privacy.
- Posts and Comments - Allows you to set how many post to appear on home page and comments portion gives option to publish comment with / without approval.
- Mobile and Email - Allows to publish posts using mobile and email service
- Language and Formatting - Options for changing language, translation and time
- Search Preferences - Here you give meta tags about your blog
- Others - Important setting here is Import / Export blog.
Among above options, most important are Basic and Search Preferences, rest are good for at default setting.
Recommended Templates, Widgets and How To Guides
Summary
Blogger is a simple, easy to use and effective platform for writing blogs. I hope that this guide will help you to create and configure a blog successfully. If you feel any problem during configuring your template, comment below and I will do my best you help. If you like this post, then please like and
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