Useful Links & Tips for Bloggers (Part II)

After the success that my previous post "Useful links and tips for Bloggers" had, 

I thought I should share with you some more links and tips that you may find interesting,
or even more if you've been wondering "Gosh... how do I do that?".

So, here we go...

1. OPENING LINKS IN A NEW TAB OR WINDOW

When you add a link to your text, there is a small white box at the left bottom where it says "open this link in a new window". Always tick that box so when someone clicks on the link, it will automatically open in a new tab or window, and this means that they won't have to leave your page and can return back!

2. NO-REPLY EMAILS

I've noticed many bloggers lately who comment on my posts and I'm not able to respond back to them, as they have set their profile as no-reply. Of course I could reply under the post comment,  but this way the commenter will not get my reply right in his/her e-mail inbox and they'll have to come back to the specific post and check if there is a reply. Too fussy! So please go to your Dashboard - Edit Profile, and make sure to tick the box where it says "show my e-mail address" and then click "Save". So simple and yet important!

3. HOW TO CHANGE YOUR FAVICON

You know this orange B that shows up next to your blog title? This is the default Favicon of blogger. If you've noticed I've placed a pink "S" which is characteristic of my blog. You can easily replace it with any image you choose, so that you'll have your own unique Favicon. Let's see how: first of all find the image you like and save it to your computer. The image should be square, not more than 100KB and to be titled as ".ico" at the end, otherwise it won't be accepted. Hmmm... did I scare you? You don't need to be scared, because now there is the  Favicon Generator that does everything for you! You just choose your preferred photo from your computer and it's converting it automatically in to an ".ico" image! You then have to copy and paste this new file somewhere into your computer and then you Go to Dashboard - Design - Edit Favicon - Choose file (choose your pic) - Save. Easy peasy right?

Moreover, if you believe this conversion thing is a hassle (which is not I assure you!), you could also select a pre-made ".ico" favicon from various sites, such as:  this one or this one.

4. HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN SIGNATURE

This is a very easy one! There is a site called My Live Signature. You don't have to register or anything like that, just click the "Click here to start" button and you'll be given four different options on how to create your own signature. You just choose the one that suits you best! I've created mine from the creation wizard which give you some specific fonts, sizes and color to  choose from. Important note: do not forget to tick the transparent box at the end of these steps! Then you copy the signature's html and you go to your Dashboard -  Settings - Formatting - Post Template. There you paste the html and from now on it will always automatically show up in every new post that you create!

5. ARE YOU A BLOGSPOT.COM? CHECK YOUR BROWSER!

Blogspot blogs, Google Chrome browser and Gmail are three things that go together! Google owns Blogger, Gmail and Chrome are owned by Google too, so they're very well connected. If you use the whole package you'll see that everything functions much faster and smoother. I used to have Internet Explorer and a yahoo mail and I faced a lot of problems. Some times I couldn't see the blogs I follow on my Dashboard, and I got an error when fetching stats and it was all related to the browser! I then switched to Google Chrome browser opened a gmail acount and everything is now much easier. Another plus is that whenever I receive a new mail in my inbox, I get a notification at bottom right of my computer informing me so! Love that!

So guys, I was thinking of something... if you have any questions on how to do this or that, just send me an e-mail so that I know exactly what worries you and write a relevant post about it. That is, if I know the answer of course (I'm not a blogging guru you know...LOL), I've just spent many many hours trying to figure out things and stuff about blogging, all by myself, so I know at least the basic stuff. (Don't tell anyone, but when I was thinking of creating my own blog, I didn't know what a "url" is....!!!)

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