Rotating Post Widget for Blogger Blog

In blogger best intentions is keeping the visitor as long as possible, keeping him busy with all the wonderful content you have. But, in many cases, due to the time-related blog building logics, your visitor is leaving the site, without even knowing how much interesting stuff he failed to read beside.

Many different widgets are trying to fill the gap, and random post widget for Blogger is one of them. If you have a blog with more than 20 posts than this gadget is just the thing you might be interesting in.

 

Main features:

1. Shows one post title at a time.

2. Links to the post.

3. Shows post excerpt also.

4. Every 5 seconds shows a new post.

5. Cycles through all the posts in the blog.

6. Starts a new cycle at the end of the list.

7. Once loaded continues cycling even when not connected to the Internet.

8. Uses official Google AJAX technology.

9. Can be used on other blogging platforms (not tested).

10. Hovering with mouse cursor over the post title halts the rotation till mouse moves off the gadget.

 

Drawback:

Posts are not random, the sequence is quite defined - from the newer to the older posts.

Code:

Get code from the developer’s post http://www.blogdoctor.me/2009/01/random-rotating-post-gadget-with.html. If you need to modify the widget as per your particular needs, review the questions and answers below the post. I removed the author’s name and date, for example, decreased dimensions and fonts in half, and placed it in the side column. You can review the Random Post widget modified in the right sidebar.

 

Note that there are three areas you need to put particular data from your blog to make it work. Change "MYBLOG" to actual blog sub-domain and "BLOG_TITLE" to actual title of your blog. Then paste the modified code in the Html gadget and save the gadget. Get your AJAX API key and put it in above code instead of 'PUT_AJAX_KEY_HERE'.

Installation:

1. Login at Blogger.com.
2. Click Layouts link on Dashboard.
3. Click Add Gadget link in sidebar on Page Elements subtab of Layout tab.
4. In popup window scroll down and click Html/Javascript gadget.
5. In Contents window copy the code below and paste after modifying it.

6. Move the new widget blog to the desirable location on your template.

Swim-up suites at El Dorado Royale.

Image via Wikipedia

“I prefer outdoor swimming. I don’t like indoor swimming pools; I am severely claustrophobic.

Imagine by excitement when I stepped out of my suite at El Dorado Royal and saw the winding artificial river connecting to a pool and swim-up bar. Aunt Malathy, it is so refreshing and I am madly splashing and screaming with sheer delight. I wish you were by my side”-email from my sister’s son who is enjoying is honeymoon in

Mexico along with his colleague who happened to get married on the same day my sister’s son got married. They planned their cancun honeymoons with my help.

Ocean Front Casita Suites at Karisma Hotels include veranda hammocks in which two can cuddle up.

In addition to such romantic offerings, El Dorado Royale also indulges romantics with divinely decadent pleasures like milk baths and aromatic massages in their dedicated spa.

That’s it! I called out to my husband and asked him to read the email. He turned scarlet and he is 53 years young.

How to spot and correct spelling mistakes in your blog?

Contrary to our own confidence, we do commit spelling mistakes in our blog post. This might happen in spite composing our blog post in MS Word as our eyes tend to overlook red colored spelling errors.

Human eyes automatically correct spelling and grammar mistakes and read. When I happen to read my own older blog posts, I used to detect spelling mistakes. I would naturally be ashamed as how could I have not spotted it before hitting the 'publish' button.

Here is a wonderful solution to correct all the spelling mistakes in your blog post.
Go to http://www.spellery.com/ and type in your blog's home page URL. If there are spelling mistakes, they will be listed.

You can then type those words one by one in your blog's search box, go to the blog post where the error is and correct it.

Very useful tool-eh?

Using Favicon for your Blog or Website (Part 3)

Using Favicons on Blogger Blog

Favicons activation for the blogger using Blogger platform is easy as well. However, the old method of getting a custom Favicon to display in a Blogger blog no longer works, as of October 2008. If you had your Favicons before that, and they suddenly disappeared, you will just have to reinsert the code in a different area of your Blogger template. If you never had them before, the following instructions will work for you.

The process will take two simple steps, taking that you already found or created your Favicon (review earlier publication).

Step 1: Upload your Favicon file to the Host


Any free images hosting will work for you, if it answers two major questions: reliability and support for ICO format. The easiest way for the Blogger users is taking advantage of the Google Page Creator. You just need to copy the ICO file to a host server so you can link to it.

Go to Google Page Creator and login using your Google account details (use the same details you use for Blogger login). The first time you login to Page Creator you will be given the option of creating a site based on your Gmail address. You might not worry about the look of your new website, as for now you are using it just for your Favicon icons secure storage. When icon has been uploaded, record its web address, as you will need it at the step 2.

Step 2: Add the Favicon HTML to your Blogger site


Go into the Blogger Layout Editor and choose the "Edit HTML" option. As always, before doing any modifications to your template, make sure to save a backup copy to a secure location at your hard drive.

Insert the following code between the]]></b:skin>and </head> tags in your Blogger template:

<link href=’http://YOUR_GMAIL_ADDRESS.googlepages.com/YOUR_ICO_FILENAME.ico’ rel=’shortcut icon’ type=’image/x-icon’/>

Don’t forget to change the URL so it points to the .ico file on your Google Page Creator site (code elements highlighted in red font). Now save your template and view your blog. If your new Favicon doesn’t show up straight away you may need to clear your browser cache.

Note, that the Favicons might not be visible on some browsers. For example, browser I use most often, Maxthon (IE-driver based), did not show them right away. While other browsers, I tried, showed them instantly: Firefox, Chrome, and Flock. Yes, if you use Internet Explorer, the Favicon will not appear unless you have bookmarked your blog and refreshed your browser.

Additional Information:
http://www.thebeginnersbloggingguide.com/2008/05/how-to-add-favicon-to-your-blogger-blog.html
http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/04/favicons-made-easy.html
http://www.bloggertipsandtricks.com/2008/10/fix-for-missing-favicon.html

How to imprison your blog visitors in your blog?

From my experience I realize that I am retained in a blog that I visit when I see more such posts clearly by the side or at the end of the blog post I am reading.

Displaying the related posts is a definite way to retain your blog visitor in your blog for a long time.
As the visitor clicks on every related post, he will be shown more to visit. This had happened to me in Etienneteo blog and in John Chow blog.

Unfortunately, there is no widget in blogger that shows related posts but if you operate a WP plug, there is a plugin to display related posts.

In my Income Opportunities blog, I have a displayed a widget that shows all of my blog posts in that blog. This widget is developed by Vin of Blog Doctor. I find it very useful to retain the blog visitor.

You can visit my Income Opportunities blog and view the widget in the right sidebar under the name, "Money Makers". It is actually an archive of all of my blog posts.

Earn more money with your blog.

Using Favicon for your Blog or Website (Part 2)

The Best 5 Free WordPress Plugins to Enable Favicon on your Blog

In our previous publication we explained how you can create custom Favicons to be used as your trademark for you blog. The next step would be activating it. The related action plan will be different for various blogging platforms. In this post, we will present several plugins to enable Favicon for your WordPress blog.
As a first step of your activation process, you have to upload Favicon you generated earlier to your blog directory, for example, http://localhost/blog/, or you can keep it in one of your free image storage location, when the link to the image is handy for the further processes. As the next step, you can use one of the free Wordpress plugins to create a link to it from the header of the Wordpress blog pages and administrative console.

faVicon is a simple and easy to use plugin, creating a new options menu. After downloading faVicon.zip, unzip the contents and upload them to your wp-content/plugins Wordpress directory (you do not need to upload all images file - they provided only for examples). Then, navigate to the plugins page in the Wordpress administrative console and press Activate.

As plugin is activated, in the top navigation bar of your administrative console, click on Options. Then, in the sub menu thatappears, click on faVicon. An options page will then appear. In the text boxes labeled Favicon URL, Animated Favicon (GIF) URL, Admin Panel Favicon (GIF) URL, enter the web address of your desired favicons.

Favicon Head is a simple way to automatically include correct tags for linking to your favicon in the head of every page in your blog. No file editing is required, you only have to upload the file to the plugin directory and activate it. The default favicon location is favicon.ico, but can be changed through the options page.

Installation Steps:

• Download Favicon Head 1.1.
• Unzip the file and upload it to wp-content/plugins/.
• Click the “Plugins” tab in the WP admin panel and activate Favicon Head.
• Go to the “Options” tab and click the “Favicon Head” sub-page in order to change the favicon location from /favicon.ico.

Features:

• Animated favicon support
• Custom favicon location
• Works in WordPress 1.5 and 2.

Admin Favicon is a very simple plugin, creating a link to a shortcut icon, or favicon, into the header of the WordPress administrative console. After downloading adminfavicon.zip, unzip it’s contents and upload them to your wp-content/plugins WordPress directory (you do not need to upload wpfavicon.ico). If you wish to use the sample WordPress favicon provided, upload wpfavicon.ico into the location of your choosing on your server. Then, navigate to the plugins page in the WordPress administrative console and press “Activate”.

This plugin creates a new options menu. Just navigate to “Settings.” Then, in the sub menu that appears, click on “Admin Favicon”. An options page will then appear. In the text box labeled “Favicon URL”, enter the web address of your desired favicon. If you uploaded the sample wpfavicon.ico, enter it’s location on your server here. Otherwise, use your own favicon image. Typically, this will be an ico file that you’ve created and uploaded to your server. For example, if you’ve uploaded favicon.ico to your main website address, you would enter http://www.MyMainWebsiteAddress.com/favicon.ico

Favicon Manager Wordpress Plugin is a small plugin that allows you to manage the favicon image for your WordPress installation. You can specify any arbitrary file, either locally within your installation, or at an arbitrary url. You can also optionally have the image included in either your RSS2 or your Atom feeds, or both. All options can be set from the new options menu in the administration panel. There is no editing of any files required.

Installation steps:

1. Download the zipped file to your plugins directory and unpack. You should have a new directory containing the favicon manager files now.
2. Activate the plugin from the Plugins panel.
3. Set your favicon location and your feed options from the Options->Favicons menu of the Administration panel.

Features
This is a drop in plugin, there are no additional files to set because it’s all done through the administration panel under Options->Favicons. Once you set your favicon location, it will display below the input field. This helps you determine quickly whether or not you entered your favicon location correctly without having to go refresh other browser windows or tabs to see if it worked. Note that this plugin will only work with WordPress 2.0 and above.

MaxBlogPress Favicon Wordpress Plugin allows you use the preset collection of the embedded favicons, or gives option to link to the image in the blog directory or on the external website. Installation can be completed in three easy steps.

Step 1: Install the plugin and go to: Options >> MBP Favicon
Step 2: Click on the icon which you want to use as favicon:

Step 3: Click on save

Note that when you first activate the plugin you will be asked to register it, which signs you up to an email list which you then have to confirm your subscription to. Upon clicking the confirmation link you are then directed to a page that is trying to sell you some blog traffic package. You’ll need to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to select “no thanks”.

On the following video, Caroline Middlebrook gives a nice video presentation of the plugin installation:

MaxBlogPress WordPress Plugin to install Favicon

Wordpress plugin for autoblogging.

I don't favor any kind of autoblogging method but I like to know about them. It may be useful to someone else.

I know about a few autoblogging software but they all cost money. But this WP plugin is all free with which you can create hundreds of blog posts automatically. Of course the technology behind this is RSS feed.

This wordpress plugin is known as WP-o-Matic. You can create blog posts automatically from the RSS feeds you choose.

I always wonder how to apply filters with the feeds you choose. You may still need to weed out some content-right?

Well, this WP plugin is supposed to come with some advanced filters which of course I don't know. If the interface is user friendly, then I foresee many bloggers use this wp plugin. When I saw the screenshots of this plugin, I believed it can be handled easily, even by me.

Also read Earn Money from your Twitter Profile.