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Top three qualities of a successful blogger

Top Qualities To Become a Successful Blogger 


The qualities of a blogger should be attended at all times in order to become someone popular, a blogger should have plenty of ideas for creative writing, along with a truckload of motivation. The results sought will not come overnight, there's no guarantee. What you need first are two things in order realize your dream of running a successful blog: a lot of exclusive content and reader loyalty. In each case, time will be needed to develop the success, this is a process and not a short-term event.

qualities of a blogger

Here are three qualities of a blogger who, as a site administrator will need to provide, if his goal is to manage a successful blog.

Patience


A successful blog is a product of time and effort and as a site administrator, you will need patience. As previously mentioned the results will not arrive rapidly overnight, therefore, it is important to realize this from the start. If you are constantly trying to develop new and creative ideas for writing on your blog and at the same time you are worried if you will see any results, this will only make things more difficult. The building of a blogging platform is a "long term" effort, therefore, you must decide whether to accept the challenge or not. This is the main qualities of a blogger.

Credibility


Much of the traffic of any successful blog is based on publishing unique content and its credibility. In fact, the quality of what is in the site will have a direct impact on what will become viral visitors coming to your platform. If it's worth people will talk about your blog, and if they do, others will come to see what you have. Depends on you to publish useful and accurate information, your readers will do the rest.

Consistency


Maintaining a steady stream of creative writing ideas is vital to be able to constantly update the blog. The frequency of publication to a proper schedule is related to the measure of the amount of time you have available and your level of motivation. However, it is important to establish a sort of consistency so that people can schedule their own visits accordingly. Just remember that the more often you write, the more people will visit, so their loyalty will grow faster and their referrals will be extended.

For becoming a popular blogger is important having a healthy source of creative writing ideas, along with a lot of patience and motivation. Ultimately, it will be reduced to you as the system administrator to provide the three qualities of a blogger we discussed above, who is searching tirelessly his goal of having a successful blog. In the end, your own motivation and patience will be the glue with which all the elements will be put together for your dream to come true.

Add Keyboard Keys Effect To Your Text in Blogger with CSS

For many of us the design and the template are the most important, making our readers be more interested and coming back to our blog. In this tutorial, I will show you how to create a keyboard keys effect only with CSS. It is not necessary to add an image, so that your blog will load faster.

how to add keyboard keys with css in blogger

How to Add Keyboard Keys to Blogger


Step 1: From Blogger Dashboard, go to Template > Edit HTML

edit the html of blogger template

Step 2: Look for this line (Ctrl + F)
]]></b:skin>
Screenshot
Click on the arrow to expand the code

Step 3: Just above ]]></b:skin> paste this CSS code:

kbd{
border:1px solid gray;
font-size:1.2em;
box-shadow:1px 0 1px 0 #eee, 0 2px 0 2px #ccc, 0 2px 0 3px #444;
-webkit-border-radius:3px;
-moz-border-radius:3px;
border-radius:3px;
margin:2px 3px;
padding:1px 5px;
}
Step 4: Save the change made.

Now the only thing left to do is adding the tags to the desired text to make it look as it would be inside of the keyboard keys.

For this you need to create a new post, write the text on which you want to apply the style and then switch to HTML - where you have to add before and after it, the following HTML tags:

<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>F</kbd>

Screenshot
text with keyboard key effect

And, it will be visible in your post as:

Ctrl + F

How to do natural SEO on Blogger

Although many insist that blogs hosted on free servers, such as Blogger, are not ideal for performing a correct positioning of your web site, the truth is that a blog hosted by Blogger can be really well positioned and quickly on the Internet if you are using the right SEO tools.

blogger seo

Now, given the latest updates from Google, the best would be hiring a specialized person, however, if we don't have the resources or we want to learn doing this job alone, we can choose to begin with the natural positioning. Here are some tips to start a SEO work (Search Engine Optimization).

The first thing is to pick a correct domain

We must try having our keyword included in our domain name, of course, this may sacrifice our branding but we can use the redirection.

Create Value Added Content

Not only rewrite articles, or write like it would be something for us. We should write thinking about our target audience, i.e., giving advices, tips, suggestions, guidance on specific topics and, aside, put links, use anchortext and keyfrases.

The topic of the links is important

They should be of quality and is no longer needed to place five or ten links within the text of your website, now, what matters is that the link is in context and is relevant.

Finally, the domain, in value-added content and a right use of the internal and external links, will not be useful if we don't try to update our blog constantly.

How often should you update your blog?

This is not necessary to be done on daily basis, although this may be ideal as in this way we could achieve a greater relevance in search engines, but has to be a constant work. Let's say, two or three times a week would be enough, what should not happen is updating only three times a week and doing nothing next week.

Keep in mind that search engines happen to pass daily on our blog in order to index our content.

I hope that you find these SEO tips useful and if you would like to receive more tutorials by email, subscribe for free to this blog, check out the facebook page or add the RSS feed.

How to Add a Recent Forum Topics Widget to Blogger

If you are using the Nabble forum in your blog is very likely that this gadget will interest you because, as the title says, it will show the lastest topics that have been published in your forum in a very similar manner to the recent comments gadget which uses the blog's feed.

nabble forum

First you should go to your forum and look at the bottom where it says Feeds, click there, then two links of the Feed will appear (the first being the Topics only Feed and the other one is Topics and replies), choose the one you want.
using nabble feeds to see latest forum topics

After this, log in to your Blogger Dashboard, go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget link, choose Feed from the gadgets list and paste the Feed URL you have selected inside the text box.

configure gadget feed in blogger

Click on Continue, and you only have to configure the parameters, then Save changes to see the results.

That's it! Enjoy :)

Add a forum on your Blogger blog with Nabble

If you have many users on your blog and many comments, perhaps you should consider a forum to finish enriching your blog.
free embeddable forum with nabble

Create a Forum With Nabble


To implement a forum we will use Nabble, in my opinion, the best free option. We go to Nabble page and there, we will create an account (keep in mind that this account will be the moderator of the forum).

And once we have everything set (it also has a wide variety of customizing options), go to Options -> Application -> Change appearance:

nabble change appearance

There, we can also edit the CSS of the forum and other things...

Now we have to give the structure of a real forum, i.e. organizing it by categories. To do this click on the Options menu, select Application, then click Change application type:

nabble option change application type

Then choose the Forum category and save your changes.

To finish, we only have to create categories and for this go back to Options, this time select Structure and then choose Create a new sub-forum:
nabble create new sub-forum

Fill in the details of the category and that's it, you will have your forum running.

The rest are small details, like sort categories (Options > Structure > Manage sub-forums), customize your avatar and your signature (YourNickname > Account Settings), change permissions (Options > Users > Permissions), etc..

Now for integrating the newly created forum to your blog, you must go to Options - Embedding options and copy the javascript code.
nabble forum embedding options

Embed the forum in a Blogger page


Go to your Blogger Dashboard and create a new Blank Page


Once there, get in the HTML mode.

Paste here the code that we copied earlier, and if everything went well, we should see our brand new forum for our blog!
create a forum for blogger with nabble

I hope this tutorial was helpful to you and you will begin using this great service.

Top Commentators Widget with Avatars for Blogger

The commentators are a fundamental part of any blog, since they are the ones that give life to the blog, opening and replying to discussions which leads to more activity in the posts.
how to add top commenters widget to blogger

It is therefore very important to know which are the most active users of your blog, the users who leave more comments, and for this reason, today I present a great method to display a list with the top commentators.

The gadget will look something like this:

add top commentators widget to blogger

This Top Commentators gadget comes with user's avatar and is done with JavaScript.

How to Add the Top Commenters Gadget to Blogger


1. To add this gadget, you have to go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget link.

2. Select the HTML/JavaScript gadget and copy/paste within the empty box the following code:

<style type="text/css">
.top-commentators {
margin: 3px 0;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ccc;
}
.avatar-top-commentators {
vertical-align:middle;
border-radius: 30px;
}
.top-commentators .commenter-link-name {
padding-left:0;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var maxTopCommenters = 8;  
var minComments = 1;       
var numDays = 0;           
var excludeMe = true;      
var excludeUsers = ["Anonymous", "someotherusertoexclude"];   
var maxUserNameLength = 42;
//
var txtTopLine = '<b>[#].</b> [image] [user] ([count])';
var txtNoTopCommenters = 'No top commentators at this time.';
var txtAnonymous = '';
//
var sizeAvatar = 33;
var cropAvatar = true;
//
var urlNoAvatar = "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzV3Q3zNvH9FAseHExZGkxZY1o0Zg0yzuQzLZVJV7pX99qf_Kn2qTLygaLZop71J0VLOTK1NT6LoVVaoHdz3nPWI0IMie0tsFSrHqzLwXnD3xY_4UNkPLLA4KdIXWbFFVmb2SqY5n99U5x/s1600/avatar_blue_m_96.png" + sizeAvatar;
var urlAnoAvatar = 'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88xtk9JsSUAh1b5ByrzgXjc1oPJhdOHEIZNEvqrSlDzH0zTWtPb2pMCb6GLRloCHJxnCC3Q-oTjvfz60ijae7OKxexm8Zrdnrrs9BGZ7VnxJ1UGlttto-ojRmIVzzAtmgiomnWgcPSg6N/s1600/avatar1.png' + sizeAvatar;
var urlMyProfile = '';
var urlMyAvatar = '';

if(!Array.indexOf) {
 Array.prototype.indexOf=function(obj) {
  for(var i=0;i<this.length;i++) if(this[i]==obj) return i;
  return -1;
}}
function replaceTopCmtVars(text, item, position)
{
  if(!item || !item.author) return text;
  var author = item.author;

  var authorUri = "";
  if(author.uri && author.uri.$t != "")
    authorUri = author.uri.$t;

  var avaimg = urlAnoAvatar;
  var bloggerprofile = "http://www.blogger.com/profile/";
  if(author.gd$image && author.gd$image.src && authorUri.substr(0,bloggerprofile.length) == bloggerprofile)
    avaimg = author.gd$image.src;
  else {
    var parseurl = document.createElement('a');
    if(authorUri != "") {
      parseurl.href = authorUri;
      avaimg = 'http://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=' + parseurl.hostname;
    }
  }
  if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile && urlMyAvatar != "")
    avaimg = urlMyAvatar;
  if(avaimg == "http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" && urlNoAvatar != "")
    avaimg = urlNoAvatar;
  var newsize="s"+sizeAvatar;
  avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+-c\//, "/"+newsize+"-c/");
  if(cropAvatar) newsize+="-c";
  avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+(-c){0,1}\//, "/"+newsize+"/");

  var authorName = author.name.$t;
  if(authorName == 'Anonymous' && txtAnonymous != '' && avaimg == urlAnoAvatar)
    authorName = txtAnonymous;
  var imgcode = '<img class="avatar-top-commentators" height="'+sizeAvatar+'" width="'+sizeAvatar+'" title="'+authorName+'" src="'+avaimg+'" />';
  if(authorUri!="") imgcode = '<a href="'+authorUri+'">'+imgcode+'</a>';

  if(maxUserNameLength > 3 && authorName.length > maxUserNameLength)
    authorName = authorName.substr(0, maxUserNameLength-3) + "...";
  var authorcode = authorName;
  if(authorUri!="") authorcode = '<a class="commenter-link-name" href="'+authorUri+'">'+authorcode+'</a>';

  text = text.replace('[user]', authorcode);
  text = text.replace('[image]', imgcode);
  text = text.replace('[#]', position);
  text = text.replace('[count]', item.count);
  return text;
}

var topcommenters = {};
var ndxbase = 1;
function showTopCommenters(json) {
  var one_day=1000*60*60*24;
  var today = new Date();

  if(urlMyProfile == "") {
    var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
    var expr = /(^| )profile-link( |$)/;
    for(var i=0 ; i<elements.length ; i++)
      if(expr.test(elements[i].className)) {
        urlMyProfile = elements[i].href;
        break;
      }
  }

  if(json && json.feed && json.feed.entry && json.feed.entry.length) for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
    var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
    if(numDays > 0) {
      var datePart = entry.published.$t.match(/\d+/g);
      var cmtDate = new Date(datePart[0],datePart[1]-1,datePart[2],datePart[3],datePart[4],datePart[5]);
     
      var days = Math.ceil((today.getTime()-cmtDate.getTime())/(one_day));
      if(days > numDays) break;
    }
    var authorUri = "";
    if(entry.author[0].uri && entry.author[0].uri.$t != "")
      authorUri = entry.author[0].uri.$t;

    if(excludeMe && authorUri != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile)
      continue;
    var authorName = entry.author[0].name.$t;
    if(excludeUsers.indexOf(authorName) != -1)
      continue;

    var hash=entry.author[0].name.$t + "-" + authorUri;
    if(topcommenters[hash])
      topcommenters[hash].count++;
    else {
      var commenter = new Object();
      commenter.author = entry.author[0];
      commenter.count = 1;
      topcommenters[hash] = commenter;
    }
  }
  if(json && json.feed && json.feed.entry && json.feed.entry.length && json.feed.entry.length == 200) {
    ndxbase += 200;
    document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false&max-results=200&start-index='+ndxbase+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=showTopCommenters"></'+'script>');
    return;
  }

  // convert object to array of tuples
  var tuplear = [];
  for(var key in topcommenters) tuplear.push([key, topcommenters[key]]);

  tuplear.sort(function(a, b) {
    if(b[1].count-a[1].count)
        return b[1].count-a[1].count;
    return (a[1].author.name.$t.toLowerCase() < b[1].author.name.$t.toLowerCase()) ? -1 : 1;
  });

  var realcount = 0;
  for(var i = 0; i < maxTopCommenters && i < tuplear.length ; i++) {
    var item = tuplear[i][1];
    if(item.count < minComments)
        break;
    document.write('<di'+'v class="top-commentators">');
    document.write(replaceTopCmtVars(txtTopLine, item, realcount+1));
    document.write('</d'+'iv>');
    realcount++;
  }
  if(!realcount)
    document.write(txtNoTopCommenters);
}
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false&max-results=200&alt=json-in-script&callback=showTopCommenters"></'+'script>');
</script>

3. Now you just have to save changes and you're done!

Configuration


- To modify the number of users displayed in the gadget, look for var maxTopCommenters = 8; and change 8 with any number you want.
- To change the avatar size of the commenters, look for var sizeAvatar = 33; and change number 33 with the number of pixels you want.

Redirect Blogger 404 Error (Page Not Found) To Homepage

Whenever, by mistake, we or a user misspells an URL inexistent in our blog, it automatically redirects to the 404 error page (page not found). A message like this would appear:

"Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist."

how to redirect blogger 404 error to homepage
And probably this will not make a good impression on the greatest potential users of our blog. Before the user clicks the back button or close the window/browser's tab, thus leaving our site forever, we may want to redirect 404 error in Blogger to a page, where are chances that the visitor will continue reading our blog.

One of the most used methods is the "meta refresh" but the problem with this method is that it breaks navigation (doesn't allow returning back). In this case, the best method is by using Javascript which will be shown below.

Redirect Blogger 404 Error with Javascript


First of all, go to your Blogger dashboard and then to Settings > Search preferences > Custom Page Not Found.

redirect 404 error page in blogger to homepage

Copy and paste the following code:
Sorry, the page you're looking for in this blog does not exist.
You will be redirected to homepage shortly.
<script type = "text/javascript">
BSPNF_redirect = setTimeout(function() {
location.pathname= "/"
}, 5000);
</script>
The message which is going to be displayed can be edited as you want. If you are willing to redirect your blog 404 error page to another page other than your home page, just replace pathname to href and / with the url of your page. And finally, the number 5000 is the delay expressed in milliseconds. You can edit any value if this is more convenient.

Next thing to do is to save all changes made in this section and do a little test to check if the code works well. You can enter a nonexistent URL on your blog, and see if the 404 error page added previously appears, followed by a redirection after 5 seconds. That's it!
 

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