"Blogger Secrets: Things You Probably Didn't Know"

"Blogger Secrets: Things You Probably Didn't Know"

By http://MCPromotionsPress.com

Blogging is a pretty popular activity online these
days. It's a great way to connect with your audience
on the Web and create a sense of community.

There are many ways to start your own weblog but one
of the easiest is with a free service called "Blogger."
Owned by Google, it's a feature-rich service that
makes it simple to start a blog of your own.

If you think blogging is just about typing text,
think again. There are many fun things you can
do once you're up and running withyour very own blog.

1) Photo Blogging: Post photos to your weblog
with this free software called "Hello." Get
it at http://hello.com. It makes it easy to
upload photos to your blog.

2) Audio Blogging: Post to your blog by phone.
Once registered, you'll receive a special number.
Call it, leave a message and it's immediately
posted to your website as an MP3 audio file.
To sign up, go to http://www.AudioBlogger.com.

3) Email Posting: Post to your blog by sending
an email from any email application. To set
it up, you'll need to log into your blogger
account and go to "settings" then "email."
You must specify if you want your posts
to publish automatically or saved as drafts
for later publishing. The subject of your
email will be the title of your blog post,
with the email body making up the rest of it.

4) Team Blogs: This allows groups of people
to contribute to one blog. One person must create the blog, then invite others to join in.

5) Templates: Blogger has over 30 templates
to choose from. Make sure you back up your
blog before attempting any changes. There
are also third party template providers you
can choose designs from. See:

http://BlogSkins.com

http://BlogDesigns.com
6) Blogger Toolbars: Google has one built into
its toolbar that makes it a snap to post to
your site while visiting any webpage you might
want to comment on. Firefox also has a toolbar
of its own with blogging components. See it
at http://FireFoxToolbar.com/blogger or Google's
at http://toolbar.google.com/

7) Feeds: Blogger users can syndicate their
content via an Atom Feed. Former Blogger Pro
suscribers can choose between Atom and RSS
formats. You can find this feature in your
Blogging account under "settings," then "site
feed." If you'd rather syndicate in RSS, your
only choice is to use an outside service like
http://FeedBurner.com

8) Comments: If you'd like your readers to
participate on your Blog, you'll want to turn
on "comments." Found under "settings," you can
choose from preferences like allowing anyone
to post a comment, allowing only regular users
to post comments, or allowing only members of
the blog to post (if it's a team blog).

9) TagBoards: Different from comments, TagBoards
also allow your blog readers to post comments.
These act more like a discussion board or chat
room for your blog. However, they're not aimed
at individual posts but attached to your
entire site. You'll find free providers of
this service at:

http://Tag-Board.com

http://ChatterBox.com
This is a great way
to add a feeling of community.

10) PhotoBlogs: If you'd like to share a
lot of photos with your readers on a regular
basis you may want to add a "photo album."
You'll find many sites that offer this free
service such as:

http://Shutterfly.com
http://Ofoto.com
http://DotPhoto.com

11) Polls: Do you know what your readers think?
Running polls on your site is a great way to
get inside your readers minds and get them
involved with your blog. A few free poll service
providers are:

http://FreePolls.com
http://PollHost.com
http://BraveNet.com
http://WebPollCentral.com

12) Advertising: If you'd like to run ads on
your blog and get paid per click, you'll want
to look at Google Adsense. Since Google owns
Blogger too, they make it simple to add their
advertising to your site. See,
http://tinyurl.com/3j3k8

13) Camera Phones: If you have a SrintPCS cell
phone with a built in camera you can send your
pictures directly to Blogger. You'll need to
set up an "email address" to post to. For
instructions, see Blogger's Help section on
"posting via email." On your phone it works
like this: you snap a picture, select "share,"
pick your specific blogging email address,
then ok. Your picture is uploaded.

14) Keyboard Shortcuts: Blogger has many different
keyboard shortcuts you can use while making a
post.

cntrl + B= Bold
cntrl + I= Italics
cntrl + shift + A= Link
cntrl + d= Save as draft
cntrl + s= Publish Post
cntrl + shift + P = Preview

15) FTP: You can host your blog on Blogger's
server, or host it on your own via FTP
access. You'll find this option under "settings"
then "publishing."

16) Email Posts to a Friend: If you'd like to
allow your visitors to email your interesting
posts to their friends you can enable this feature
under "settings," basic tab, then where it says
"show email post links?" say yes.

If you'd like to watch some free tutorials
on "Learning Blogger," see these by Molly
Holzschlng at
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=113

So what are you waiting for? Now that you know
all of the really cool things you can do with
Blogger, why not experiment. Who knows, maybe
there's been a "born Blogger" hiding inside of
you all along. Blog away my friend; the world
is waiting.

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