Good Blog Layout

I found a blog recently that impressed me with its simple yet effective layout. The blog is The Best Acne Treatment Guide. Everything that a site needs is right there without any fuss. If you're looking for something, it's right there.

The thing that I like the best is that there's no push to make things overly fancy or difficult. All of the important information is right there, without a lot of the crap that a lot of other blogs have.

A clean look is important with any blog. Many of your readers are going to be frustrated if they can't find what they're looking for, or if they have to go through a bunch of crap just to find what they wanted to see. Avoiding things like pop-ups and flashy graphics are important, and it allows your page to load much faster.

How To Manage Your Blog Posts

This is the follow up to the previous post How To Write a Blog.  After you have a written a few blogs, you will have some options for managing them.  Here's how to do it.

1. Log in to the dashboard.  When you are logged in the main screen that you see is the Dashboard.  From here you have the option to write a new blog, edit your settings, etc.  For this how to, click on Edit Posts.
2. View your list of blogs.  Here you will be able to see the list of all of the blogs that you have written, including drafts.  
3. Quick view.  Click on the triangle to the left of the blog title for a quick view.  This allows you to reference what you have already written about, without having to wait for the full page to load.
4. Edit.  Clicking this link will take you back to the edit blog screen for you to make any adjustments or changes to a previously written blog post.
5. View.  Clicking the view link will open that particular post in a new window.  The main uses for this is to make sure that any layout changes you make look great with that post and to copy the url (web address) for a link.
6. Labels.  Any labels that you have assigned to posts will appear in a box on the far left side of the screen, as well as in green letter to the right of the post title.
7. Comments.  When you receive comments on your posts, they appear as a link to the left of the date the blog was posted.  Clicking the link takes you directly to the comments for that particular post.
8. Check boxes.  The check boxes to the left of the edit link are useful if you have multiple posts in draft and want to publish them all at the same time, or want to delete multiple posts.  To publish, check the posts that you want and click the drop down menu titled "Label Actions," and select Publish. 

This was a quick rundown of the options that you have in the Edit Posts screen.  Next up we'll talk about comment moderation.

How To Write A Blog

This post is going to look at the basics of how to write a blog with Blogger.  If you haven't set up your blog yet, please read How-To Start a Blog.  Your blog can be anything from a recap of your day to your opinion on how to improve nuclear fusion efficiency.  We're not going to help you decide what to write about, just how to do it.

1. Log in to Blogger.  Go to blogger.com and log in using your Google account ID.
2. Click on "New Post".  This will bring up a text edit box that should be fairly familiar to anyone who is comfortable with using email.  
3. Write your title.  This doesn't have to be done right away, but keep it in mind if you don't start with it.  If you are interested in getting visitors from search engines, word your title to be what would be searched that your blog would answer.  For example, instead of "Spending Sunday Wrenching on the Rod," try "Hot-Rod Tune-ups for Dummies."  Make it something catchy that is also easily searchable.
4. Write the body.  In the top right corner of the text box you have two tabs labeled "Edit HTML" and "Compose."  Edit HTML gives you free reign over the format of the body of your blog post, although it's not recommended unless you have some understanding of HTML and CSS programming.  The compose tab is a WYSISYG (what you see is what you get) format.  This is the best place for a beginner to start.  At any time during your writing you can click on the "preview" link to see what your blog will look like when it's finished.  You now have your canvas and 26 letters worth of paint to use.  Time to paint your picture DaVinci!
5. Add links.  In order to add clickable links into your blog using the Compose editor, highlight the words that you want to be the link and click the tab in the bar at the top of the editor that has a globe with a chain link on top of it (after the italic i).  This opens a box for you to type the destination url (web address) of the link.  If the url is something you know off the top of your head, type it in.  If not, open your destination page in a new window and copy the url from the browser.
6. Add photos and video.  Photos and video make your blog much more exciting.  This blog is for information delivery only, so I don't feel much need for pictures, but most other applications need pictures.  The tabs for these are next to each other in the bar above the text editor.  Photos is a landscape looking tab, and video is just to the right of it.  Click the tab and upload the photo or enter the url of the photo/video location.
7. Preview your blog.  As soon as your post is finished click the Preview tab and give it a final proofread.  Make sure that you are happy with the photos location and the links are correct.
8. Publish your blog.  Click the Publish tab to post your blog to the internet.  From the next screen you can view your post.  Do this one last time to make sure that everything turned out to your liking.  If there are any errors, use the Edit Post button to go back and make changes.

There you have it.  Blogging is easy, and with these tips the learning curve should be flattened out for you.