Choosing best webhosting for Blogger blogs

To many, blogging is not just a hobby, but a business, a career. Time and again, we have emphasized the importance of keeping a business-minded approach in order to be successful. Being a business of sorts, blogging should also be treated as such. Businesses require investments, and need to grow. So does blogging. When people create a free blog, they don't usually think ahead, and instead end up restricting themselves. The most people would do is, buy a domain and leave it at that, especially Blogger users. They don't realize the importance of a proper web-hosting. Hence, in this post, we talk about why you should get a web-hosting, and which host to choose.

Before we move on, I'd like you to take a look at what we've covered so far in this series.

Part 1: How to create your first blog - what platform to choose?

Part 2: Replace your blogspot domain with a Dot com domain From Godaddy

Part 3: Choosing best web-hosting for Blogger blogs

Part 4: 5 most practiced Ways of building Active blog Readership

Part 5: Basic SEO Tips for a Newly Launched Blog - Beginners Guide

Part 6: Making Money with your New Blog - Monetizing Basics

Why buy a web-hosting?

Web-hosting refers to storing your website files on a separate and dedicated web server. This is different from domain hosting. Domain hosting simply refers to purchasing a custom URL for your blog. While it is true that Google provides free web hosting for your Blogger, the fact remains that this hosting is really limited. You will face the following restrictions even if you buy a custom GoDaddy domain for your Blogger blog.

• You can not create sub-domains (subdomain.domain.com)


• You can not create a forum or any similar application


• You can not create custom webpages


• You will be limited to a few custom email addresses (if they are provided at all)


• You will not be able to host scripts on your site, and will have to rely on a third-party


• You will not be able to upload files that you want, except for images and videos that can only be added into your posts


• There's a limit of 1 GB to the total size of pictures you upload


• Each individual page be of at lax 1 MB in size

These are some of the many things that differentiates a blogger from a webmaster. Beginners often don't realize their importance, and are hesitant to spend money on a proper hosting. These features come in really handy if in the future, you want to expand the scope of your blog, and want to add custom pages, applications, tools, and add your custom scripts.

This very blog you are reading runs on Blogger, but is hosted at a custom web-host. We've had experience with many web hosting companies, and have found HostGator to be the best option for bloggers. We ourselves are using HostGator for hosting this blog, along with our sister blog Smart Earning Methods.

Why HostGator?

HostGator provides one of the best hosting services one can ask for. If you navigate over to their homepage, you will find that they have won numerous awards and achievements in their field. And if you search anywhere for the top web hosting companies out there, you will find HostGator everywhere. And not without reason. Their inventory of features is simply astounding!

• UNLIMITED storage space


• UNLIMITED bandwidth


• Free and easy website builder tools


• Free 24/7 customer support


• Feature-rich and easy-to-use control panel

And that's just the start! HostGator has three basic web-hosting plans; Hatchling, Baby, and Business plans. The above mentioned features apply to all. In addition, if you want further options, you can choose the Baby or Business plan.

These plans have flexible payment options. You can either pay on a monthly basis, or once after every three years. The longer plan you choose, the cheaper it will become.



We ourselves are using the Baby plan. It allows us to host an unlimited number of domains on our server. However, most beginners should go for the Hatchling plan, because they will most probably have to deal with a single domain at max. We have more than one blog, so that is why we need the Baby plan. So if you intend to create more blogs, you should choose the Baby plan. Otherwise, go for the Hatchling plan. They have much the same features, except for the option of unlimited domains for the Baby plan.

The Business plan is for corporate businesses, and doesn't apply to bloggers.



Recommended reading: HostGator best hosting Plans for Blogger



One thing that makes HostGator stands out is their excellent 24/7 customer support. They will help you at each step in the installation and setup of your blog. You can also use their live chat, which will connect you to an assistant within a minute! You can ask them any questions, and they will help you out as much as possible.



HostGator also goes crazy on its rates! It offers discounts all the time, and you can use a coupon code to get as much as a 75% discount! That, coupled with a long-termed plan will reduce your investment by a great deal.

So what are you waiting for? Go and get yourself a web-hosting at HostGator, and start enjoying a feature-rich environment where you can tweak your blog to your heart's content. Wish you all the best in your blogging career :)

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How To Add A Tabbed Navigation Widget to Blogger

The tabviews are elements that allow us to group in a single container various gadgets and these can be selected via tabs.
Its main function is to save space on the blog to avoid scattered gadgets in the same category so you can group multiple gadgets into one. There are several methods for creating tabviews, some require jQuery, other MooTools, or any other script.

To add this widget to your blog, just follow the steps below:

Step 1. From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Template and click on the Edit HTML button

Step 2. Expand the style of the template, by clicking on the sideways arrow before <b:skin> ... </b:skin>

Step 3. Search using CTRL + F for the following tag:

]]></b:skin>

Step 4. Just above it, add the following code:

/* Tabview for Blogger
----------------------------------------------- */
.tabviewcont{
margin:15px 0;
padding:0;
clear:both;
}

.tabviewnav {
margin: 0 0 0 14px;
padding:3px 0; /* If you are using a Blogger Template change 0 with 15px */
font-size:12px; /* Font size of text inside tabs */
font-weight:bold;
}
.tabviewnav li {
list-style:none;
margin:0;
display:inline;
}
.tabviewnav li a {
padding:3px 6px;
margin-right:1px;
background:#F6F6F6; /* The background color of the tabs */
border-radius:5px 5px 0 0;
-moz-border-radius:5px 5px 0 0;
-webkit-border-radius:5px 5px 0 0;
text-decoration:none;
color:#222222;
}
.tabviewnav li a:hover {
color:#222222;
background:#EBEBEB; /* Background color of the tab on mouseover */
text-decoration:none;
}
.tabviewnav li.tabviewactive a,
.tabviewnav li.tabviewactive a:hover {
background:#EBEBEB; /* Background color of the active tab */
color:#222222;
}
.tabviewcont .tabviewtab {
padding:5px;
border:1px solid #EEEEEE; /* Border around the container */
background:#fff; /* The background color of the gadget */
}
.tabviewcont .tabviewtab h2,
.tabviewcont .tabviewtabhide {
display:none;
}
.tabviewtab .widget-content ul{
list-style:none;
margin:0 0 10px 0;
padding:0;
}
.tabviewtab .widget-content li {
border-bottom:1px solid #ccc;
margin:0 5px;
padding:2px 0 5px 0;
}

Step 5. Find the </head> tag and just above it, paste this script:

<script type='text/javascript'>
// Tabview for grouping gadgets

//<![CDATA[
document.write('<style type="text/css">.tabview{display:none;}<\/style>');function tabviewObj(argsObj){var arg;this.div=null;this.classMain="tabview";this.classMainLive="tabviewcont";this.classTab="tabviewtab";this.classTabDefault="tabviewtabdefault";this.classNav="tabviewnav";this.classTabHide="tabviewtabhide";this.classNavActive="tabviewactive";this.titleElements=['h2','h3','h4','h5','h6'];this.titleElementsStripHTML=true;this.removeTitle=true;this.addLinkId=false;this.linkIdFormat='<tabviewid>nav<tabnumberone>';for(arg in argsObj){this[arg]=argsObj[arg]}this.REclassMain=new RegExp('\\b'+this.classMain+'\\b','gi');this.REclassMainLive=new RegExp('\\b'+this.classMainLive+'\\b','gi');this.REclassTab=new RegExp('\\b'+this.classTab+'\\b','gi');this.REclassTabDefault=new RegExp('\\b'+this.classTabDefault+'\\b','gi');this.REclassTabHide=new RegExp('\\b'+this.classTabHide+'\\b','gi');this.tabs=new Array();if(this.div){this.init(this.div);this.div=null}}tabviewObj.prototype.init=function(e){var childNodes,i,i2,t,defaultTab=0,DOM_ul,DOM_li,DOM_a,aId,headingElement;if(!document.getElementsByTagName){return false}if(e.id){this.id=e.id}this.tabs.length=0;childNodes=e.childNodes;for(i=0;i<childNodes.length;i++){if(childNodes[i].className&&childNodes[i].className.match(this.REclassTab)){t=new Object();t.div=childNodes[i];this.tabs[this.tabs.length]=t;if(childNodes[i].className.match(this.REclassTabDefault)){defaultTab=this.tabs.length-1}}}DOM_ul=document.createElement("ul");DOM_ul.className=this.classNav;for(i=0;i<this.tabs.length;i++){t=this.tabs[i];t.headingText=t.div.title;if(this.removeTitle){t.div.title=''}if(!t.headingText){for(i2=0;i2<this.titleElements.length;i2++){headingElement=t.div.getElementsByTagName(this.titleElements[i2])[0];if(headingElement){t.headingText=headingElement.innerHTML;if(this.titleElementsStripHTML){t.headingText.replace(/<br>/gi," ");t.headingText=t.headingText.replace(/<[^>]+>/g,"")}break}}}if(!t.headingText){t.headingText=i+1}DOM_li=document.createElement("li");t.li=DOM_li;DOM_a=document.createElement("a");DOM_a.appendChild(document.createTextNode(t.headingText));DOM_a.href="javascript:void(null);";DOM_a.title=t.headingText;DOM_a.onclick=this.navClick;DOM_a.tabview=this;DOM_a.tabviewIndex=i;if(this.addLinkId&&this.linkIdFormat){aId=this.linkIdFormat;aId=aId.replace(/<tabviewid>/gi,this.id);aId=aId.replace(/<tabnumberzero>/gi,i);aId=aId.replace(/<tabnumberone>/gi,i+1);aId=aId.replace(/<tabtitle>/gi,t.headingText.replace(/[^a-zA-Z0-9\-]/gi,''));DOM_a.id=aId}DOM_li.appendChild(DOM_a);DOM_ul.appendChild(DOM_li)}e.insertBefore(DOM_ul,e.firstChild);e.className=e.className.replace(this.REclassMain,this.classMainLive);this.tabShow(defaultTab);if(typeof this.onLoad=='function'){this.onLoad({tabview:this})}return this};tabviewObj.prototype.navClick=function(event){var rVal,a,self,tabviewIndex,onClickArgs;a=this;if(!a.tabview){return false}self=a.tabview;tabviewIndex=a.tabviewIndex;a.blur();if(typeof self.onClick=='function'){onClickArgs={'tabview':self,'index':tabviewIndex,'event':event};if(!event){onClickArgs.event=window.event}rVal=self.onClick(onClickArgs);if(rVal===false){return false}}self.tabShow(tabviewIndex);return false};tabviewObj.prototype.tabHideAll=function(){var i;for(i=0;i<this.tabs.length;i++){this.tabHide(i)}};tabviewObj.prototype.tabHide=function(tabviewIndex){var div;if(!this.tabs[tabviewIndex]){return false}div=this.tabs[tabviewIndex].div;if(!div.className.match(this.REclassTabHide)){div.className+=' '+this.classTabHide}this.navClearActive(tabviewIndex);return this};tabviewObj.prototype.tabShow=function(tabviewIndex){var div;if(!this.tabs[tabviewIndex]){return false}this.tabHideAll();div=this.tabs[tabviewIndex].div;div.className=div.className.replace(this.REclassTabHide,'');this.navSetActive(tabviewIndex);if(typeof this.onTabDisplay=='function'){this.onTabDisplay({'tabview':this,'index':tabviewIndex})}return this};tabviewObj.prototype.navSetActive=function(tabviewIndex){this.tabs[tabviewIndex].li.className=this.classNavActive;return this};tabviewObj.prototype.navClearActive=function(tabviewIndex){this.tabs[tabviewIndex].li.className='';return this};function tabviewAutomatic(tabviewArgs){var tempObj,divs,i;if(!tabviewArgs){tabviewArgs={}}tempObj=new tabviewObj(tabviewArgs);divs=document.getElementsByTagName("div");for(i=0;i<divs.length;i++){if(divs[i].className&&divs[i].className.match(tempObj.REclassMain)){tabviewArgs.div=divs[i];divs[i].tabview=new tabviewObj(tabviewArgs)}}return this}function tabviewAutomaticOnLoad(tabviewArgs){var oldOnLoad;if(!tabviewArgs){tabviewArgs={}}oldOnLoad=window.onload;if(typeof window.onload!='function'){window.onload=function(){tabviewAutomatic(tabviewArgs)}}else{window.onload=function(){oldOnLoad();tabviewAutomatic(tabviewArgs)}}}if(typeof tabviewOptions=='undefined'){tabviewAutomaticOnLoad()}else{if(!tabviewOptions['manualStartup']){tabviewAutomaticOnLoad(tabviewOptions)}}
//]]>
</script>

Step 6. Finally, look for this line:

<div class='column-right-inner'>

Or if you use an old template of Blogger, search this line:

<div id='sidebar-wrapper'>

Step 7. Paste below one of these two lines, this code:

<div class='tabview'>
<b:section class='tabviewtab' id='Tab1' maxwidgets='1'/>
<b:section class='tabviewtab' id='Tab2' maxwidgets='1'/>
<b:section class='tabviewtab' id='Tab3' maxwidgets='1'/>
</div>

Step 8. Save changes, and go to Layout and there you will see the new areas to add gadgets.

You just have to click on Add a Gadget to add the gadget to the tab that corresponds, or drag a gadget you already have to that section.

If you want to add more tabs, then just add before the last </div> a line like this:

<b:section class='tabviewtab' id='Tab4' maxwidgets='1'/>

Note that each line you add should have a different ID, for example Tab5, Tab6, etc..

You can add multiple tabs, just repeat the last step and likewise remember to change the name of the IDs.

Remember that if your sidebar is too narrow, then you should not put a lot of tabs, or tab titles that are very long.
You should also note that this gadget does not speed up the loading speed of the blog, is only to group gadgets into one, even, depending on the blog-may take a while to load the tabview.

Read More

Replace Threaded comments with Google+ Comments in blogger

You might be familiar with the latest commenting system Google has introduced that integrates Google+ comments with Blogger blogs. This new commenting system is a major improvement over the default Blogger system, and it supports threaded comments. It also looks a lot better. We earlier shared a tutorial on how to enable this new Google Plus commenting system for Blogger blogs. But some people still have problems implementing it on custom templates. For them, we have compiled this short tutorial on how to effectively implement and use this new improved commenting system.

Switching to Google Plus comments

To enable Google Plus comments for your Blogger blog, you will first have to connect your account to your Google+ account. To do this, just follow these steps.

• Log into your Blogger dashboard, and choose a blog you want to connect


• Click on the Google+ button from the left sidebar


• Click on the Get Started button on the top-left side to connect your account. This will not appear if your account is already linked.


• Follow the simple instructions to connect your blog.


• Once connected, you will see an option Use Google+ comments on this blog. Checking this will enable the new Google Plus commenting system.

This will turn your Google Plus comments on for default templates. But it won't work for custom templates. For that, you will have to tweak your template source code and make some edits as instructed in the section below.

Displaying Google comments on custom templates

There are two ways to do this. You could either use the easy way, which is the Revert to default option, or you could do it the geek way, which is via the HTML editor.

The easy way

Custom templates have customized widgets that usually override the default settings. And that is why this commenting system might not work with custom templates. However, if you were to somehow remove those overrides, the commenting system would display on your blog without a hitch.



To do that, you can revert your Blog Widget to defaults in your template HTML editor via the following steps.

• From inside your blog's dashboard, click on Template from the left sidebar.


• Click on Edit HTML

(Before moving on, we'd suggest you backup your template, just in case anything goes wrong)

• Click on the Revert Widget templates to defaults button


• Now, Be careful to select Blog1 Widget from the list. Do not select any other, as it will reset other widgets to default as well.

This will solve the problem most of the times, but there's a big problem. You will lose the customization in your Blog Widget. So if you want to preserve the look of your current widget, then I'd suggest you use the alternative geek's way.

The geek's way

This isn't as geeky as it sounds. All you have to do is replace a couple lines of code with another. From inside your HTML editor, press Ctrl + F and search for "threaded_comments". You will see a chunk of code as shown below.

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == & quot;static_page&quot;'>
   <b:if cond='data:post.showThreadedComments'>
      <b:include data='post' name='threaded_comments'/>
      <b:else/>
      <b:include data='post' name='comments'/>
   </b:if>
</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == & quot;item&quot;'>
   <b:if cond='data:post.showThreadedComments'>
      <b:include data='post' name='threaded_comments'/>
      <b:else/>
      <b:include data='post' name='comments'/>
   </b:if>
</b:if>

Carefully look at the bolded code, and then replace them with the following line of code.

<b:include data='post' name='comment_picker'/>

If you want to display comment count, you can simply modify the above line of code

<b:include data='post' name='comment_picker'/>

Still not working? Please feel free to mention your queries in the comments below. And please try to be as relevant as possible. Thank you :)

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Expandable Recent Comments Widget for Blogger/Blogspot

The Expandable Recent Comments widget for Blogger is a very accessible widget that can be collapsed or expanded through user interaction, so we don't have to click the author's name or post title link in order to read the content of a comment. The expanding content can be shown or hidden by clicking the plus/minus icon or by hitting the "Show all" or "Hide all" button.

To add the Expandable Recent Comments widget for Blogger, please follow the next steps below:

Adding Expandable Recent Comments Widget to Blogger

1. From your Blogger dashboard, go to "Layout", then click on "Add a Gadget" link:

2. When the pop-up window appears, scroll down and select the "HTML/JavaScript" widget:

3. Copy and paste this code inside the empty box:

<style type="text/css">.row-div {margin-bottom:10px;}.comment-header {margin:10px 0;}.comment-box{margin:0px;padding:0px;font-size:0.9em;height:330px;overflow:auto;}.comments1{padding:3px;border-left:1px dashed #A6A6A6;color: #888888;font-style: italic;padding:0px 10px 10px 10px;margin-bottom:10px;}
</style>
<div style="text-align: center" class="comment-header"><input class="comment-button" id="commshowall" type="button" onclick="if (this.value == &#39;Show all&#39;) { unfold_all(this); this.value=&#39;Hide all&#39;; } else { fold_all(this); this.value=&#39;Show all&#39;; }" value="Show all" /></div>
<div class="comment-box">
<script type="text/javascript">
var tgl=false;var title_arr=new Array();var arr=0;var err="[err]";var icon_expand="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrdCZk965xG28mfVGHeCYKYtw9005n18qqQmrMJ4JKpQSpmY4x6sitUiN51ZeNDleh_i4KbnN5pWNECXYuP31SV3aRxagxJ9x5hbFVALEgIBG5eXMfJNictLXTXpkXQ5qAWfdSrw4ywJeL/s1600/icon-plus.png";var icon_collapse="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-2ZKeSe3d11SKPGs1oquWVl6hEyVbo37Fu-912XOQB095ykGYAlNBNexKwDKEXsnw0sLhW0gvySEqiBf3bVqXkP2U4Fhnq6D_NKRhUvTA-HSyAmUrbrornJoDXXbS6T9Vq4iY-Lc_pSh6/s1600/icon-minus+copy.png";var maxcomments=20;function real_posttitle(postid){for(var i=0;i<title_arr.length;i++){if(title_arr[i][0]==postid)return title_arr[i][1];}
return err;}
function showrecentposts(json){var numposts=999999;for(i=0;i<numposts;i++){var entry=json.feed.entry[i];var postid;var title;if(i==json.feed.entry.length)break;for(var k=0;k<200;k++){if(entry.link[k].rel=='self'){postid=entry.link[k].href;postid=postid.substr(postid.lastIndexOf("/")+1,100);}
if(entry.link[k].rel=='alternate'){title=entry.link[k].title;break;}}
title_arr[arr]=postid+"&#176;"+title;title_arr[arr]=title_arr[arr].split("&#176;");++arr;}}
function unfold(el){var comid=el.id.substr(8,10);if(el.src==icon_expand){el.src=icon_collapse;document.getElementById("com_id"+comid).style.display="block";}else{el.src=icon_expand;document.getElementById("com_id"+comid).style.display="none";}}
function unfold_all(el){try{for(var i=0;i<maxcomments;i++){document.getElementById("com_id"+i).style.display="block";document.getElementById("click_id"+i).src=icon_collapse;}}catch(e){;}
el.value='Show all';}
function fold_all(el){try{for(var i=0;i<maxcomments;i++){document.getElementById("com_id"+i).style.display="none";document.getElementById("click_id"+i).src=icon_expand;}}catch(e){;}
el.value='Hide all';}
function showrecentcomments(json){var numcomments=999999;var postid;var i=0;for(i=0;i<numcomments;i++){var entry=json.feed.entry[i];var alturl;var anonymous=false;if(i==json.feed.entry.length)break;for(var k=0;k<entry.link.length;k++){if(entry.link[k].rel=='self'){postid=entry.link[k].href.split("/");postid=postid[5];}
if(entry.link[k].rel=='alternate'){alturl=entry.link[k].href;break;}}
var postlink=alturl.split("#");postlink=postlink[0];var linktext=postlink.split("/");linktext=linktext[5];linktext=linktext.split(".html");linktext=linktext[0];var profilelink="";try{profilelink=entry.author[0].uri.$t;}catch(e)
{anonymous=true;};var posttitle=real_posttitle(postid);if(posttitle==err){posttitle=linktext.replace(/-/g," ");}
var commentdate=entry.published.$t;var cdyear=commentdate.substring(0,4);var cdmonth=commentdate.substring(5,7);var cdday=commentdate.substring(8,10);var ctime=commentdate.substr(11,5);var monthnames=new Array();monthnames[1]="january";monthnames[2]="february";monthnames[3]="march";monthnames[4]="april";monthnames[5]="may";monthnames[6]="june";monthnames[7]="july";monthnames[8]="august";monthnames[9]="september";monthnames[10]="october";monthnames[11]="november";monthnames[12]="december";if("content"in entry){var comment=entry.content.$t;}
else
if("summary"in entry){var comment=entry.summary.$t;}else var comment="";if(i<maxcomments){if(tgl){tgl=false;var cl="row-a";}else{tgl=true;var cl="row-b";}
document.write('<div class="'+cl+' row-div"><img id="click_id'+i);document.write('" style="cursor:pointer;" onclick="unfold(this);"');document.write('src="'+icon_expand+'" />&nbsp;');document.write('On '+cdday+' '+monthnames[parseInt(cdmonth,10)]+' '+cdyear);document.write(', at '+ctime+', ');if(anonymous==false){document.write('<a href="'+profilelink+'">'+entry.author[0].name.$t+'</a> ');}else{document.write(entry.author[0].name.$t+' ');}
document.write('commented on <a href="'+alturl+'">'+posttitle+'</a>');document.write('</div>');document.write('<div class="comments1" id="com_id'+i+'" style="display:none;">'+comment+'<\/div>');}}
document.getElementById("numcom").innerHTML=i;}
</script><script type="text/javascript"  src="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?start-index=1&max-results=999999&alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentposts"></script><script type="text/javascript"  src="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default?start-index=1&max-results=999999&alt=json-in-script&callback=showrecentcomments">
</script></div>

Note: Replace http://helplogger.blogspot.com with the URL address of your blog or site.

4. Save the expandable recent comments widget for Blogger / Blogspot by clicking on the 'Save' button... and you're done!

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Replace your blogspot domain with a Dot com domain From Godaddy

One thing that makes people, who want to start a blog, hesitate is the set up of a custom domain. Even people who have a free blog don't immediately want to move to a custom domain, because it all seems like a a lot of work, and too complicated at that. Many are unsure as to where they should get a domain from, and are afraid they'll get scammed online. We have compiled this small guide to help such people overcome their hesitation, and take the big step that will essentially influence the growth of their blog. For this purpose, we walk you through Domain setup from GoDaddy, a large and reputable domain registrar.



Update: MBT Readers can signup now for an account with a special discount of 35% on all purchases: Offer Expires 30th april!

Before we move on, let me remind you that this post is a continuation of our Blogging Guide for Beginners series. If you have missed something, you can find it below.

Part 1: How to create your first blog - what platform to choose?

Part 2: Replace your blogspot domain with a Dot com domain From Godaddy

Part 3: Choosing best web-hosting for Blogger blogs

Part 4: 5 most practiced Ways of building Active blog Readership

Part 5: Basic SEO Tips for a Newly Launched Blog - Beginners Guide

Part 6: Making Money with your New Blog - Monetizing Basics

Recommended: 10+ Reasons why you should buy a custom domain for Blogger

What is GoDaddy?

GoDaddy is a large and reliable domain registrar and web hosting company that serves millions of domains - so you can be sure that they won't be running away with your money. The best thing I like about GoDaddy is, it is integrated into Google Blogger. If you have a Blogger blog, you can simply buy a domain from inside your Blog's dashboard!

Why choose GoDaddy?

GoDaddy offers some of the cheapest domain rates you could get anywhere. Their .com domains (which are usually the most expensive) can be purchased for as low as $10 (even $7 using some discount offers). They also give you plenty of features you can employ to extend the functionality of your blog.

• Hosting with site builder - A basic free and easy to use website builder for beginners who'd like to make a small website of their own in no time at all


• Easy starter guide - A detailed step-by-step guide to help beginners get started online


• Personalized emails - Get your own email addresses (you@yourdomain.com) instead of the conventional you@gmail.com (or similar) emails


• Sub-domains - Create personalized sub-domains such as contact.yourdomain.com instead of just www.yourdomain.com


• Domain forwarding - Easily forward or redirect to another domain


• And much more.....

Buying a domain

Buying a domain through Blogger is extremely easy. From your dashboard, click on Settings. Under the Publishing section, click on the Add a custom domain option.

You will get an option to choose from among a list of top-level domains (.com, .net etc). Choose any, and then continue to next step. Blogger will check with GoDaddy whether your domain is available or not. If it is, you can continue to domain registration, which is basically a form you have to fill.



Once filled, you can proceed to Google Checkout. It will ask for your credit card details, and will charge you only $10. Once the transaction is successful, you're all done! Sit back and relax as the Blogger team sets up and configures your DNS settings. Once this is over, you will be able to access your site at www.yoursite.com!



Was this post helpful to you? Do give your feedback in the comments section below. And remember: please keep your comments relevant, and avoid spamming and/or promoting your own blog/business. Thank you :)

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How to create your First blog - what platform to choose?

Alright. So here's a topic that has been dragged around quite a lot by now. But it never seems to go out of fashion, because every year, more and more people are entering the blogosphere. Recent trends have changed the job-oriented mentalities, and have inspired entrepreneurship. Therefore, it is high time people should start looking into alternative sources of income, or even a productive hobby that can reward them for their time and effort. Hence, in this post, we are going to walk new users through in creating and setting up their first blog, and the platform they should choose.

Note: This post is the first installment in our Blogging - Getting Started series. Here's what we'll cover

Part 1: How to create your first blog - what platform to choose?

Part 2: Replace your blogspot domain with a Dot com domain From Godaddy

Part 3: Choosing best web-hosting for Blogger blogs

Part 4: 5 most practiced Ways of building Active blog Readership

Part 5: Basic SEO Tips for a Newly Launched Blog - Beginners Guide

Part 6: Making Money with your New Blog - Monetizing Basics

Is blogging worth it?

That depends on how you see it actually. The key behind blogging is hard work and dedication. Every job needs those two ingredients, but blogging needs them more than anything. If you are willing to give a couple hours or so to your blog every day, 365 days a year, only then can you hope to earn decent pay-checks.

Reward is something that comes later on. So blogging needs determination to wait out that time with all the hard work without hoping for an immediate reward. Tonnes of people fail at blogging simply because they want to 'get rich quick'. Please realize that there is no easy way out. And if you'd rather not invest as much of your time and efforts, then I am afraid blogging isn't for you.

If, however, you do have the determination, and want to create your own blog, then here's something you should read before creating a blog.

• Important things to consider before starting blogging in 2013

Choosing a platform

This is a very important question you must settle before you move on, because it will ultimately effect your growth. Although there are various blogging platforms available out there, two of the most used and recommended are Blogger and WordPress.

The debate between Blogger and WordPress is a long, and never-ending one. Indeed, different people have different point of views, and different reasons for liking either of the two platforms. The decision, however, ultimately depends upon what sort of a user you are, and what you intend to do with your blog.

Blogger

Blogger is the best option for you if you're a beginner user. It is easy to implement, and the learning curve is a very comfortable one. Blogger is customizable to a great extent, and doesn't need you to have any skill-sets for using it. Anyone can set up a Blogger blog. And best of all, there's little to no investment required. For your blog, you will only need to buy a domain, which is worth $10, give or take a few bucks.

Another great thing I like about Blogger is, it is pretty easy to tweak. There's a single template code which you can edit to change the outlook of your blog. And the implementation is pretty clean and efficient too. Blogger is optimized for search engines, and contains easy social integration.

There is, however, a catch. Blogger is limited in the sense that it isn't for programmers. You can not run PHP or ASP scripts on your blog, nor can you fiddle around with a database. There's also a limit to the number of stand-alone pages, and the number of users you can have.

WordPress

WordPress is an extremely powerful open source software that is customizable to a great degree. And best of all, it supports PHP, so it is the number one choice for programmers and web developers. You could create heavily dynamic content or flexible database applications on your WordPress site. Hence, it is preferred by the corporate and business sector, where functionality is the biggest priority.

However, the learning curve is pretty steep. WordPress can be difficult and challenging. Even the slightest of tweaks can take up a lot of time and effort. And since the software is constantly updated, plugins you are using currently might not work well with the next update. Hence, you will end up a lot of time debugging errors and finding solutions.

WordPress also requires you to invest a lot of money in it. You have to buy not just a domain, but a hosting as well. And if you want full customization, you will need to buy a framework. So even the start-up investment can reach as high as $150-$300 - let alone on-going investments in hosting renewals, plugin subscriptions, and so on.

(NOTE: There are two types of WordPress blogs. Free (www.yourblog.wordpress.com), and self hosted (www.yourblog.com). Free blogs are hosted on WordPress.com, and are extremely restrictive. They only serve as a demo for self hosted blogs (WordPress.org). In this post, we are talking about self-hosted blogs which are fully customizable, and not free WordPress blogs)

So in essence, between Blogger and WordPress, Blogger is the better option for beginners. WordPress requires a lot of time, effort and resources. But Blogger is totally free (apart from the domain). And it's not like Blogger blogs can't be professional. This very blog is run on Blogger. And you can see for yourself how much customization we have done. So WordPress is best for corporate and business sector websites, whereas Blogger is best for individuals who have little to no development experience. Hence, we would recommend you choose Blogger, and not WordPress.

Creating your first blog

Creating a blogger blog is really simple.

• Sign in, or register yourself at Blogger.com


• Once in your dashboard, click on the New Blog button on the left side.


• Now, you will see a pop up where you will be prompted to enter a Title and Address for your blog. Fill the fields, and then pick a general template.

• You are now done! You can now start writing great content on your blog. 

If you want to move off the blogspot sub-domain and buy your own, then please refer to the following guides which explain the process thoroughly.

• Blogger's custom domain setup process simplified


• How to buy Blogger domain without a Credit Card

Additionally, you might like reading the following posts once you have set up your blog and are ready to create content.

• Creating a blog that attracts clients


• 10 best blog ideas that will make you more money

Got any more questions regarding blogging? Ask in the comments below, or stay tuned for more of our posts on this blogging series, where we'll discuss various aspects of blogging. Cheers :)

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Create Open Source Projects with Google Summer of Code Program

Are you a university student with IT-related majors, and looking for some real hands-on development experience this summer? Then the Google Summer of Code program is just for you! Google once again is providing students with the opportunity to showcase their skills and work with Google to achieve greater heights. This time around, Google is providing students with a platform to work on Open Source projects sponsored by Google, and overseen by mentor organizations. This is nothing short of an internship, as you will gain real-world industry development experience that applies to your field, plus you will get recognition from Google, and a nice pay-check!

The Google Summer of Code 2013 Program

It's all about coding! The Google Summer of Code is an annual program that has been going on for 8 years now. More than 6,000 Students have worked on projects mentored by over 400 organizations. Students will get to work on actual open source software projects over the summer. These projects will be overseen by mentor organizations, who will guide the students and address technical issues.

Eligibility - There is an age restriction of 18+ for participating in this program. The students must also be enrolled in a college or university. Although preferable, students don't need to be majoring in Computer Science. It depends on the projects you are going for. And project fields also include computational biology and mining engineering etc.

How does it work out?

Big open source projects (like Linux, Mozilla etc) first choose administrators to represent their company as mentors. These mentors then submit a proposal to Google. If that proposal gets accepted, they get an account with the Google Summer of Code program 2013 (Students don't need to worry about this part).

Students then submit proposals for working on specific projects with mentors. The mentors will then choose from among the applicants, and the students can begin coding once they are oriented. Students have to hand in evaluations showing their progress as requested by mentor organizations, and they will pass or fail after evaluation is done by the mentor organization. Failed students are automatically dropped out of the program.

Benefits for students

Being a university student, you should know pretty well how useful these extra-curricular activities can be. Since you'll be looking for a job soon, you will get some real hands-on experience on how things are done out there in the industry. Besides, a project such as this, especially one sponsored and recognized by Google could do wonders for your resume, and would help you out immensely with job opportunities.

Besides, there's a nice payout! Approved and accepted projects will get $5,500 per student, $500 of which will go to their mentor organization. $500 are paid out after the acceptance of the proposal, and $2,250 are paid after the mid-evaluation and final-evaluation each! Real nice way to fill up your pockets this summer, if you ask me!

How to apply?

To apply to this program, visit the Google Summer of Code 2013 website, and register as student. Registrations for organizations have already been completed. Student registration deadline is till May 3rd (12 00 PDT). So hurry! There are a limited number of slots available!

Once registered, you can browse through 177 organizations to work with. Submit your proposal to the mentor of your choice (max proposal limit is 5), and wait for acceptance.

For full details, please visit the GSOC 2013 website. You will find all the instructions available there, along with guidelines on how to submit a proposal. Give it your best shot, because your selection will be made based on your proposal! If you have further questions, please feel free to ask me. Also refer to this FAQ for answers to your questions. All the best :)

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Install GooglePlus Comments Widget on custom Blogger Templates

Blogger recently implemented Google Plus comments on their Blogger platform, and we know that many bloggers like you have gone ahead and implemented this new functionality to your blogger blogs. But a lot of our readers have been asking us how to add Google Plus comments, or Google Plus comments API  to Blogger custom templates? This feature turns on and off smoothly for default templates. But most bloggers don't use default templates. For them, we have compiled this short tutorial on how to implement Google Plus commenting system on custom Blogger Templates.

Why enable Google Plus comments?

Google Plus comments are much more flexible, and allow you to keep track of your conversations better. They also help keep the discussions organized. Besides, readers can share their comments, or make comments on your Google Plus posts to make them appear on your blog. This expands your reach as your followers' extended circles can see your content too.

Although there's some controversy regarding the usefulness of this commenting system versus the harms (something we discussed at length in our last post), the choice is really yours. But if you do want to implement this feature on your custom Blogger templates, then here's how you can do that.

Enabling Google Plus comments

To start off, first log into your Blogger account, and click on the blog you want to add Google Plus comments to. Now, click on the Google+ option on the left sidebar. You must be the admin of a blog to be able to view this option.

Now, you need to upgrade our account, and integrate it with Google Plus if you haven't already done so. You will get a "Get Started" button if you haven't. Follow the simple instructions, and then move on to the next step.

Check the option that says Use Google+ Comments on this Blog - For default templates, this is pretty much all you need to do.

For custom templates, here's what you need to do;

• Click on the Template tab from the left sidebar, and then click on Edit HTML.


• From the code editor, press Ctrl + F, and search for 'threaded_comments'

• You should see the following lines of code

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == & quot;static_page&quot;'>

   <b:if cond='data:post.showThreadedComments'>

      <b:include data='post' name='threaded_comments'/>

      <b:else/>

      <b:include data='post' name='comments'/>

   </b:if>

</b:if>

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == & quot;item&quot;'>

   <b:if cond='data:post.showThreadedComments'>

      <b:include data='post' name='threaded_comments'/>

      <b:else/>

      <b:include data='post' name='comments'/>

   </b:if>

</b:if>

• Replace the code written in bold with the following line.

<b:include data='post' name='comment_picker'/>

Take care not to make a mistake while editing. And it would be a good idea to backup your template (Backup/Restore option at the top-right), just in case.

For comments to work on custom templates, you need to add the code as well as to enable it. You can see the demo of a custom template above for yourself. I hope this post answered all your questions. If not, please feel free to ask more questions in the comments below. Cheers :)

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Some Disadvantages of enabling Google+ comments on Blogger‏

The Google Plus comments integration with Blogger is turning quite some heads now, and a lot of bloggers have gone ahead and implemented it. This seems to be one of the biggest improvements in Blogger over the recent past. And at first glance, it looks pretty slick, with a clean and solid implementation. It makes things really easy, especially for bloggers who can track the conversation more easily. At the same time, readers can contribute right from Google Plus, without needing to open the blog. However, upon closer inspection, it seems that the new implementation isn't without its flaws.

It has been some days since this feature came out - plenty of time for us to play with it. And there do seem to be some disadvantages of using this new commenting system. These might manifest themselves later on, if not immediately.

Disadvantages of using Google+ comments on blogger

Firstly, to use this feature, users need to use their Google account ID, which can be a bit of a problem for readers who are using alternatives.



But the real problem lies in the fact that this commenting system is dependent upon the URL of your blog. If you change the URL, for example when you are migrating to another domain or re-branding, you will not be able to migrate these comments, and they will be deleted! Unlike Facebook Comment API, Google comments aren't stored on any app accounts. This means that migration is not an option, and that, you'll lost all your comments should any such thing happen.



Another big disadvantage is the increase in Page Load Speed. It takes some time before all the data is fetched from Google. Usually, this isn't noticeable, but try loading your blog on a slow dial-up connection, and you will see those comments appear much later.



Some people have also reported that the comment statistics are no longer accurate (or sometimes visible).



All in all, it's a pretty good package, but Google really needs to spend some more time with it. If you have problems, or have suggestions, please feel free to comment in the section below. Cheers :)

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How to use Google+ comments on Blogger?

Keeping the conversation going has to be one of the biggest challenges bloggers face nowadays. Readers now want more than just information - they need answers! And you, as a blogger, are responsible for answering them, and defending your content. Readers will talk about your content on a multitude of platforms, such as your blog's comments, or on social media such as Google+. So keeping track of all those conversations can be a tedious and indeed a daunting task, which is why Google has now decided to help out its Blogger users by integrating Google Plus comments into Blogger blogs (finally :P).

Google is slowly building upon Google Plus, improving its functionality little by little. Up until now, it had only integrated Google+ share button in Blogger, so you could share to Google Plus right from your Blogger dashboard. Considering that, this comments integration is a big one, and can serve multiple purposes at once.

Track conversations easily

The aim of this new functionality is to provide a means for better conversation tracking. Comments on Google+ and Blogger are now integrated. So you will see two types of comments - direct comments, and comments from Google+. Suppose you or someone has shared your blog post to their G+ profile, and people are commenting on it. Those comments are nicely integrated to appear in your blogger blog. This helps you keep track of conversations really easily, and also helps readers get to know more about what other people think about your blog.

Check out an example of this functionality in action in the image below.

Privacy concerns

Google Plus has decided not to make the same mistake as Facebook, so this new integration doesn't come without its privacy settings. People who comment on a Google Plus post, or on a blog through a Google+ ID, they have the option of sharing their comments with specific circles. So readers can essentially control the people they want their comments to be visible to.

Expand your reach!

Another great +1 of this new integration is that, you can grow your reach. Just like content shared on Facebook or G+ gains reach beyond your fan-base, so do the comments that users make about your blog post. These comments appear in the news-feed of people in the shared circle, i.e. the people who are actually beyond your reach. In this way, you could build a whole new audience and increase traffic to your blog by just taking advantage of this integration.

Integrating Google Plus comments with blogger blogs

Google has made this integration really easy. Just sign into your Blogger dashboard, and follow the following steps.

• Find and click on the Google Plus tab in your blog's dashboard


• Click on Enable Google+ Comments.

Keep in mind that you will need to upgrade to Google Plus before you can use this functionality. Also, comments already made on your blog posts will continue to work with this new widget.

There's another very important thing to keep in mind as well. This trick won't work with custom Blogger Templates, nor some latest Blogger templates. For that, you will have to add a certain piece of code. Mohammad will share a post on adding this functionality to custom templates as soon as his exams are over, so stay tuned! And if you have questions in the meantime, please shoot them our way! Cheers :)

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How to use "x-default hreflang" for international landing pages?

Delivering your blog's or website's content in a multitude of languages can make your web entity accessible to a wider range of audience. Indeed, this is one of the many strategies webmasters employ to increase their website traffic. They can simply configure their homepages to point towards specialized content tailored for different users' different language requirement. but now, there's a new and more SEO friendly way of doing this. Webmasters can now specify such specialized homepages using a new rel-alternate-hreflang annotation that Google only just introduced, and is compatible not only with Google, but other search engines as well such as Yandex.

There are two basic ways of delivering multi-lingual content; either through redirecting users to another page with the corresponding language setting, or dynamically changing your page's content to match the preferences of the users (and based on other things as well like their geographic location etc). But whatever way you deliver the content, this markup will still work perfectly.

'Rel-Alternate-Hreflang'

Take this site as an example. Suppose we were to serve our content in four different languages, English, Spanish, French, and German. The respective URLs would look something like this.

• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/en/


• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/sp/


• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/fr/


• http://www.mybloggertricks.com/gr/


• and so on.....

If we were to add this annotation to our site, the best approach would be to use <link /> tags in the head of our HTML documents. Here's the syntax for this annotation.

<link href="http://www.mybloggertricks.com/en/" rel="alternate" hreflang="en" />
(for English content)

The 'x-default hreflang' attribute

You can use the "x-default" value in the hreflang attribute to indicate that a page indicated by the href attribute doesn't have any specific language preferences, and is the default page for any type of audience. This should be used when the link points to the homepage, and not to any language-specific page. For example;

<link href="http://www.mybloggertricks.com/" rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" />

As mentioned earlier, it doesn't matter whether you change the content of your website dynamically to accommodate different languages, or redirect users to specific pages. This annotation will still work. If you have problems with using this annotations, please feel free to ask us in the comments below. Also share your feedback on the selection of topics at our blog =D

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Become a Google Student Ambassador for your College today!

Are you a fun guy who's always looking for something new to explore? If you're a college/university student eager to look into new opportunities, then here's something you might like. Would you be interested in becoming a Google representative for your college? Google has a program called Google Student Ambassador Program that will empower students, and offer them new opportunities for grooming their skills.

What you get?

Under this program, you will get the opportunity of enhancing your personal development, leadership, and communication skills. And there's more! A certificate from Google, and an entry in your resume for being a Google Student Ambassador would prove invaluable when you're out there, looking for a job.

Besides, there's the swag of working under Google's name!

Google Ambassadors get to learn about innovative Google products and programs. They will be kept updated with the latest happenings, and what's currently going on at Google. And this is a big +1 for Google enthusiasts like myself.

These Ambassadors serve to help Google better understand university cultures. Their responsibility is to plan and host fun events on their campus, and they will serve as campus contacts for Google teams. In this way, these ambassadors will get a chance to get to know people at Google, get tips and advice, and more. Connections like these can be invaluable.

Who can apply?

The applicants can be from any major, and not necessarily from IT or technology-related fields. The only requirement is that, you should be social, and ready to take up social responsibilities like these. They should also be involved in their college communities. That, and the fact that they should be enthusiastic about Google and technology, because otherwise, what's the point?

How to apply?

To apply, you must fill this registration form. But along with the registration form, you need to have the following;

• Certified proof of enrollment in your university for the year 2013


• Recommendation letters from 1-2 professors, lecturers, or former Google Ambassadors


• A short video of at most 1-minute length about yourself or your plans as a Google Ambassador. Make this unique and original. Surprise Google!

Hurry up, and grab this opportunity before the registration expires! The length of this program will be one academic year, but the things you learn will stay with you forever. It's a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you wouldn't want to miss it! Good luck :)

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Depositphotos: The Perfect Place to buy and Sell Photos

Are you a blogger or designer who is constantly in search of high quality images and vector graphics to work with? Or are you an enthusiastic photographer and/or designer capable of creating high quality images and graphics or a Blogger who loves promoting affiliate products? In either case, Depositphotos.com is the place you want to be, because it's your one-stop-shop for stock photography, high quality vector graphics, and even videos. You no longer need to pay steep rates for buying photos, as you can obtain royalty-free images from Depositphotos at very inexpensive rates. And if you're a photographer, you can make money while sitting at home by selling your high-quality images!

• Read also: Which Photographs Sell well and Make Serious Money?

What is Depositphotos?

Depositphotos is a U.S based microstock agency that has met with remarkable success over the past few years. It was founded in November 2009, and in a span of just over 3 years, more than 13.6 Million files have been uploaded to this site. It now serves customers in over 192 countries and over 15 languages.

So why Depositphotos, you ask? It is a creative content marketplace for your graphics, but there's a lot more to it than just that. Here are some of the reasons why bloggers and web designers should take a closer look at Depositphotos.

• Smart search - You can browse images by categories, or search for them using advanced search filters with a lot of variety and sort options etc. You can search by category, contributor, keyword(s), file type, file size and orientation, and so on.


• Depositphotos API - An API for developers that allows integration.


• A plethora of files to choose from - From Abstract and Vintage/Retro, to Travel, Cities, Sports and Technology, there's a host of over 37 categories you can browse images from. And there are millions of files available, with new files being added daily. So you'll never run out of images and videos to choose from!


• Pay-by-SMS - A great and flexible option for buyers in certain countries, who can pay via SMS. All they need to do is send an SMS, and the purchase cost will be deducted from their mobile phone credit.


• Free trial-subscriptions


• Inexpensive rates, free trial subscriptions, and attractive contributor incentives (see below).

Opportunities for Bloggers!

Now here are some special opportunities for bloggers to outshine others! If you're a blogger, you have the chance of obtaining a free subscription from Depositphotos for your personal use, or for holding a give-away for your readers. All you have to do is, write a well-written review for Depositphotos on your blog/site, and then follow the instructions given in the link above. If you pass their requirements, you will get a free subscription which will entitle you to download high-quality images for free!

Affiliate Program

Contributors and buyers get incentives in the form of an Affiliate program that rewards them for every friend, family member, or co-worker they refer to Depositphotos. They can also win rewards by promoting the company in several ways.

• Bloggers who have photograph related websites/blogs can get $10 for putting up Depositphotos banner on their site. $20 if the site has an Alexa ranking of below 50,000.


• If a contributor you referred makes a sale, you get $0.03 per sale. The more you refer, the more you earn!


• For every purchase made by a buyer you referred, you get up-to 15% commission.

Pricing and payment options

Buyers have two options to buy photos from Depositphotos, i.e. via the "PRO Subscription plans" or the "Pas-As-You-Go Credits".

• PRO Subscription Plans - With the PRO Subscription plans option, you can subscribe for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or an year. You can choose a subscription type as well, i.e. between 5 photos per day (minimum) to 200 photos per day (maximum), and this will let you download the respective number of photos per day. For most bloggers, anywhere between 5-20 photos per day should be sufficient. The longer and the more images you subscribe for, the better value you get. You can get anywhere between $0.46 per image to $0.15 per image this way.


• Pay-As-You-Go Credits - Alternatively, you can buy credits, which you can later use to download images. There's no download limit per day for these subscriptions, as long as you don't exhaust all the credits. You can buy a minimum of 50 credits for $50, and the more you buy, the lower the cost per credit.

You can also buy stock images without a long-term subscription. The prices range from $0.5 to $9, depending upon the size of the vector image.



Depositphotos has flexible payment options, and you can pay through PayPal, MoneyBookers, or Webmoney. You also have the option of payment via SMS as discussed earlier.

Payout to sellers

That's a good question actually. Sellers can't set the price for their photos, because that's standardized by Depositphotos exclusively. So image prices do not vary from one to another. Rather, they vary depending on size.



As far as as the amount of money paid out to sellers is concerned, that also depends. There are five levels of contributors, and their rank is determined by the number of downloads they get. The rates for different types of subscriptions also vary, as in, purchases via Pay-As-You-Go and purchases via PRO Subscriptions vary in amount (since they vary in the price as well for buyers). The following table sums up contributor levels and their payouts.

		Purchase method
Level	Criteria	Subscription	Credits
Green	> 499 Downloads	$0.30	44%
Bronze	500 - 4,999 Downloads	$0.31	46%
Silver	5,000 - 24,999 Downloads	$0.32	48%
Gold	25,000 - 149,999 Downloads	$0.33	50%
Platinum	150,000+ Downloads	$0.35	52%

Your views?

So what are you still waiting for? This could be your chance to earn big money out of your passion for photography and graphic design!



If you need to ask questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments section below. In the meantime, sign up with Depositphotos now, and start clickin' Especially don't miss it if you are good with Photoshop or any other image editing software.  :)

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