Owner: Blogger Buster URL:http://www.bloggerbuster.com Join Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:34:13 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Blogger Buster provides a lighthearted look at blogging hints, hacks, tips and tricks for bloggers across all platforms. Site statistics:Click here
How to schedule Blogger posts to a future date 2007-07-19 14:40:00 One of the few things I'd hope to see in the new Blogger
format was the ability to schedule posts
to appear at a later date. Unfortunately, this hasn't (yet) been implemented in Blogger, so unlike Wordpress users, we can't schedule our posts.
Or can we..?Well, actually, we can! There is a workaround which enables Bloggers to write posts in advance and schedule them to be sent by email at a specific date and time. Here's how it can be done:
Firstly, you should set up your "Mail-To-Blogger" address in your Blogger dashboard if you haven't already done so. To do this, go to Settings>Email in your dashboard, and create a unique email address to send your email posts to. Ensure you keep this address as secret as you would a password, since anyone could use this to post to your blog if discovered!
Ensure you have checked the "Publish" box and then save your settings.Next, you will need to create an email account which enables you to schedule emails to send at a future time. Many
Help! My new blog template/add-on/hack stopped working! 2007-07-22 10:35:00 If you find that your third party template
/images/script suddenly stops working
on your blog, it may well be that the owner/author's hosting service has exceeded the allotted bandwidth, or perhaps that they have simply removed the file altogether! Recently, Hackosphere suffered from bandwidth suspension after his host received far more traffic than was expected. Unfortunately for users of his scripts, this made their hacks and templates stop working! In order to avoid this, it's always a good idea to download all images/CSS files/Scripts you use from third parties and upload them to your own hosting provider, then alter the link in your template to reflect the change. While I try to ensure all template and image files used in my Blogger templates are hosted on a server which can accept a great amount of traffic, I do still appreciate it when users upload template images to their own image hosts. Free image hosting is provided by YourHostedImages.com Phot
Special effects for "Peekaboo" posts 2007-07-26 10:45:00 You've probably noticed the "expandable posts
" feature in my blog. Well, the creator of this great hack has now come up with an even better alternative: Peekaboo posts" with a fade-in fade-out effect! This really does look great on a blog: the post expands and retracts within the same window by fading in and out slowly. For full details and to get the script to install in your blog template, pop on over to Hackosphere's blog. Read more:Special
"Sweet Dreams" now available as a three column template 2007-07-24 10:25:00 I've now modified the "SweetDreams
" template
to include a second sidebar to the left of the main column. You can preview this template in action here. The features are pretty much the same as the original "Sweet Dreams
" template, with the added functionality of a third column. I'm happy to see that even videos are filtered in black and white in the sidebar (though not when playing in the main column!), and that overall the design looks rather good. You can download the "Sweet Dreams" three column template below: Download "Sweet Dreams" three column template (zip file) Included in this download are the XML template file, a help file, all images used and widget templates for you to add your own music and search widgets. You are free to modify this template if you wish, but please leave the author credits present in the template. Please do not redistribute this template without a link to the author! For more three column Blogger templates, take a look Read more:available
Win a web design scholarship! 2007-07-28 12:01:00 I've been contacted by CollegeScholarships.org to help promote their excellent web-design
scholarship contest, which is open to all US citizens attending full-time, post-secondary education. The winner of this contest will win a scholarship to the value of $5,000!
Although BloggerBuster typically features help for Blogger, I thought it would be good to post about this competition for those familiar with WordPress templates to have their chance at winning this great prize!Here's some more info from CollegeScolarships:We are launching a cool new website, New Scholarships.org, and are in need of a fantastic design to replace the current default WordPress look. Since we are already experienced in handing out scholarship awards, this is a fun way for us to receive a great new website design...and a talented student to receive $5000! (collegescholarships.org)
The design needs to be a WordPress template, which should be uploaded to your webspace before submitting the URL and your detai
I'm back! 2007-07-28 11:51:00 Hello everyone! I'm back from my holiday now, and unfortunately it seems that some of my pre-written posts haven't been posted (an error from my email service, I'm sure), so I do apologise for the lack of new material this week.
I do have quite a mountain of work and emails to wade through, but I will get back to everyone who's been in touch as soon as I can. Thanks to all those who have left comments, I do appreciate your input and suggestions. Please check back soon for new posts (more Blogger templates are in the pipeline too..)Thanks, Amanda
How to hide the Blogger Nav-Bar 2007-07-28 11:45:00 At the top of most Blogger
blogs you'll see a navigation bar, which enables you to flick from one blog to the next (plus additional options when you are signed in). Many bloggers have used CSS techniques to hide the nav-bar. At first, I thought it may be against Blogger's terms and conditions to do this, but after reading this post by Kawaljit, I now think it may be okay: The Blogger's TOS page makes no reference to navbar while Google representatives in the Blogger support group (nickname: Blogger Employee) have always ignored discussion threads seeking an official stand on hiding navbar. There's some hope now. Google recently organized a road show in select Indian cities to promote their Blogger platform. Ankit attended the event and requested clarity on the navbar policy from the Googlers present at the roadshow. They immediately called up their team based in Google's Bangalore office and confirmed to Ankit that it's legal to hide the navbar. If you
Free animated email icons 2007-07-31 08:56:00 I've collected a selection of animated
email icons you may like to use in your blog. These images are all free to use, all I ask is that you don't link directly to the images on my server! Instead, you should download the images to your computer and upload them to your own image host instead.
To download an image, right click and choose "Save image as..."
Please note that you will need to host these images on your own server. If you try to upload them to Blogger, the images will not be animated! Here is an example of the HTML code you could use to link to the image on your own server:
<img src="http://yourimagehost.com/images/email1.gif" border="0">Hope you enjoy these images!Technorati Tags: free | animated | gif | email | icon | icons
Protect your email address from spam bots! 2007-07-31 06:02:00 Bloggers often wish to offer their email address
to provide a way for readers to communicate with them directly. however, in posting your email address on your blog, you will run the risk of your address being harvested by spam-bots, which scan the web in a similar fashion to search-engines, though specifically targeting email addresses to add to their databases.Here are some of the best methods you can use to protect your email address from spam:
My favorite method, and the one I use currently, is to scramble your email address using javascript, which ensures your address is "broken" when read in the source code, thus protecting it from spam-bot discovery. I used the "email scrambler" tool from BlogFlux.com which automatically generates the required javascript using your email address, and also provides a <noscript> section for browsers which cannot read javascript.
To use this tool, simply visit the BlogFlux email scramble page, and enter your email address in the box pr Read more:Protect
A search widget for your blog 2007-07-30 04:23:00 Over at Beautiful Beta, I found a wonderfully simple search widget
which operates in a similar way to the "Search this blog" feature found in the navbar. You can easily implement this widget into your blog by using the widget installer below:
Install Blog search widget
This form will take you to Blogger where you can choose to install the search widget into your sidebar (or other element of your template). However, if you prefer to install the search widget manually, you should take the following steps:
Go to Template>Layout in your Blogger Dashboard.
Create a new HTML/Javascript element in your sidebar.
Insert the following code into the widget:
<p align="center"><form action="http://www.bloggerbuster.com/search" method="get">
<input name="q" size="25" type="text"/>
<input value="Search" type="submit"/>
</form></p>
Give your widget a title if you like (eg: "Search this Blog"), and click save. You should now have a fully functional search
Use CSS styling to alter images in your blog 2007-07-29 10:59:00 You can easily create filters for your text and images to alter them automatically using CSS styling, rather than alter each element individually. I've done this on a couple of the Blogger templates I've created: the "Sweet Dreams" template uses a greyscale image filter, while the "Sunset" theme uses transparency to create a halo effect around images. In this tutorial, I'll show you some of the most commonly used CSS styling filters which you may want to use to change the appearance of the images in your blog.
Here are some examples of filters and how they may be implemented:
Alpha Channel
Allows you to set the opacity of the element
For text:<span>Alpha Channel</span>
For images:Filter: Alpha(Opacity=100, FinishOpacity=0,
Motion Blur
Blurs the element in a specified direction to the desired strength
For text:
<span>Motion Blur</span>
For images:
filter:blur(add=1, direction=225, strength=10)
Chroma
Removes the specified hexadecimal c Read more:Use CSS
Mobile blogging with Flickr 2007-08-03 05:53:00 Blogger's mobile blogging service is a great idea, but unfortunately not all mobile phone networks are yet supported (see here for information about which networks currently are). You could still post by email using your mobile phone, but image attachments are not supported by Blogger. So what's the alternative? Use Flickr
's mobile blogging service instead!
I often post by camera phone on one of my other blogs, and have found Flickr's mobile blogging service to be ideal for my needs. To start mobile blogging with Flickr, you'll need to take the following steps:
Create your free Flickr account (if you haven't already done so). Flickr also provides a paid service, but you don't need to pay extra charges to use the mobile blogging service.
Set up your blog by going to Your Account>Blogs in your Flickr dashboard. Click on "Add New Blog" and follow the steps to verify you are the owner of your blog.
Next, you need to set up your email address which you will use to post your photo Read more:Mobile
A "popular posts" widget for Blogger 2007-08-01 17:38:00 After some searching for a "Popular Posts" widget
for Blogger
, I discovered AffiliateBrand's widget (thanks to Blogger Tricks). This widget is free to use, and displays your most popularposts
based on tracking of page impressions.
You can see an example of how this works in my sidebar, however please note that I have customised the overall appearance of this widget to suit my blog (which I will post about later, once I've ironed out the kinks). The default widget provided by AffiliateBrand looks something like this:
The widget is very simple to install, and now you don't even need to sign up to AffiliateBrand membership to be able to use it! You will need to register your blog's address though, in order to ensure that your most popular posts are tracked. Here's how to get this widget for your own blog:
Visit AffiliateBrand.com and click on "Blog Window-Create/Edit" in the left sidebar.
Add your blog URL into the box provided, and click "Add Blog". Your blog's URL will the
Adjust padding in Blogger templates 2007-08-01 13:27:00 "Padding defines the space which surrounds the content within an element, unlike margins, which define the space around the element itself. This is most noticable in blog templates whose elements (eg: sidebars, main posts section) have coloured backgrounds or borders. In similarity to margins, padding can be defined within the style section of your blog's template using CSS definitions. Here I will explain how padding can be defined, giving examples and images to help you alter the padding of elements in your own blog.
As I have mentioned, padding determines the space surrounding the content of an element. To explain what I mean by this, here are two examples of a table cell, the first has no padding defined while the second is padded by 10px on all sides:
A table cell with no paddingA table cell with padding
In blogs which feature borders around it's element, or differing background colours, defining the padding of each elements may be crucial in achieving a user friendly templ Read more:Blogger
Adjust margins in Blogger templates 2007-08-01 05:50:00 In Blogger
templates, margins define the space between elements of the blog, such as the space between the main posts section and the sidebar. If you have added a second sidebar, or simply wish to alter the layout of your blog, you may wish to change some of the margin specifications for elements of your template. In this post, I'll explain how this can be achieved, with examples to help you understand what can be done.
The margins of each blog element (ie: header, sidebar, main-section) are specified in the "Style" section of your Blogger template:
In the "new" Blogger layouts templates, the style is specified between the <b:skin> and </b:skin> tags
In "Classic" Blogger templates, the styles are specified between the <style> and </style> tagsFor both types of Blogger templates, margins can be defined in the same ways.The best way for me to explain how margins work is by using an example; here is the style element for my right sidebar as it appears in my bl
Add a realtime clock and date widget to your blog 2007-08-04 08:45:00 While creating a new template, I've been experimenting with a real time clock/date javascript code to add as a blog widget
. You can see an example of this at the top of the Sunset blog here.
The time continuously updates like a real digital clock, and should appear in the same color scheme as used in your blog template. You can further customize this widget by adding <div > style tags around the code.As yet, I haven't integrated the code into a widget installer, but if you would like to use this widget in your own blog, simply copy and paste the code below into a Javascript/HTML element. For those using classic Blogger templates, you can paste the code where you would like it to appear in your blog's template:
I do plan to make a widget installer and further customizations to this javascript, which I will post about as soon as it is ready.Technorati Tags: blogger | widget | date | time | realtime
| clock
A new tagging bookmarklet for Bloggers 2007-08-08 14:23:00 Tags are useful to feature in your blog posts as they help your blog be spidered and categorised by social bookmarking sites like Technorati, Del.icio.us and BlogMarks. Tag links usually look something like this: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/posts/tag/bookmarklet?from=http://www.bloggerbuster.com" target="_blank" rel="tag">bookmarklet</a>. The most important feature of the tag link is the 'rel="tag"' part, which informs bookmarking services that the link is a "tag" and not just a regular link. Blogger labels are defined in a similar way. As you can imagine, it is a rather time consuming process to write out each tag individually, so instead I use a "bookmarklet" to do most of the coding for me.
As I discussed in this previous post, I have been a faithful user of Oddiophile's technorati bookmarklet: this acts like a bookmark in my browser, yet when I click on the link it brings up a javascript window, into which I type the words I want to make into tag links. Y
A "time of day image greeting" widget for your blog 2007-08-07 17:52:00 I've created a widget
which displays a different image greeting depending on the time of day: morning, day, evening or night. You can see this in action below:
Try visiting this page at a different time of day to see the other images.
This widget uses the local time of your computer to display the correct image for the time of day. Until 10am, the image will say "Good Morning", until 5pm it will be "Good Day"; until 8pm it will be "Good evening", and then finally, "Good Night".To install this widget in your blog, you can either use the widget installer button, or copy and paste the code further down the page into an HTML/Javascript widget of your blog.Here is the code to copy and paste into your blog if you prefer to install the widget manually (or would like to display this in a post:
<div align="center"><script src="http://kunoichi.info/bloggerbuster_templates/greeting.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>You can copy and paste this code intop an HTM
"Butterfly": a new girly 3 column Blogger template 2007-08-06 07:40:00 Here's a new "girly" 3 column template
for you lady bloggers! It's called "Butterfly
", featuring floral and butterfly styled images against a dark background. Here's a screenshot for you:
The "Butterfly" template features:
Left and right sidebars
Unique girly design and header background
Animated butterfly in sidebar
Customized AddThis social bookmark buttons in each post to match the template color scheme
Butterfly styled dividers between each post
Customizable colours, fonts, etc.
Label cloud styled to match colour schemeYou can see the template in action here, and can download the full template below:The zip file contains both the template XML file and all images needed to run the template which you can upload to your own hosting provider. It also contains a help file to assist in uploading and using the template.Download Butterfly Template (zip file)You are free to modify the template, but please leave the author details within the XML template! A link back to Blogger
Buster
Blogger layout problems in FireFox 2007-08-05 09:41:00 I've recently decided to make the switch from MS Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox, and have noticed problems
when viewing the layout
s screen (in Blogger
dashboard) of my three column templates.Unlike in IE, where the frame adjusts to match the width of the template, in Firefox, the right sidebars seem "cut off".
Luckily, the sidebar (and occasionally, other elements) are not cut off in the layouts view. In order to see and edit these elements, you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page and slide the scroller in the frame to the right. You'll then see the full span of your blog, and will be able to edit your right hand sidebar elements.However, I have found a solution which allows you to see your blog elements laid out in good view from this:
To this:
To do this, you will need to edit the "body#layout" section in your blog template (this is found just before the closing </b:skin> tag). This section of your stylesheet affect how your layout looks in the layout edi
A digital clock widget for your blog (with installer) 2007-08-05 06:17:00 Yesterday I posted the code for a date and time widget
you can install in your blog. However, I wasn't particularly happy with the time element of this, and so have created two new digital clocks instead: one for pale backgrounds (the clock displays in black) and another for dark backgrounds (where the numbers are displayed in white). You can preview the clocks in action here and here.
You can easily install these clock widgets into your blog using the forms below:For blogs with pale backgrounds: For blogs with dark backgrounds: I will be developing more widgets in the future, so be sure to check back for updates. If you do have any problems installing these widgets, feel free to get in touch.Technorati Tags: blogger | widgets | digital | clock | time | real+time
Site Changes (Sticky Post) 2007-08-14 07:03:00 During the next few days, I'll be making a few changes to the site to you find the information you need more easily. This post will be updated with new information as changes are made. So far, the following changes have been made:
"Template" label now includes all posts relating to Blogger template downloads. All posts previously filed under this label are now labeled "Template Mods". This is to better distinguish between posts about modifications, and actual Blogger templates.
"Template" link in the header now takes you to the "Blogger Template Downloads" page, which lists all Blogger templates I have created with links to the individual posts.
I hope this doesn't disrupt your enjoyment of the site! These modifications are intended to help you find relevent information more easily, and to eliminate confusion about which posts relate to which subject! Please do let me know if you feel I should make further changes to the site by commenting here or sending me an email.
Read more:Sticky Post
How to change the comment link in your Blogger template 2007-08-11 12:40:00 You can easily change the comment link at the bottom of your blog posts to read something different to "(n) Comments (where "n" is the number of comments). Instead, you could change it to say "Post your comments here", or even "Comments (4)", as I have done in this blog. This post explains how this can be achieved.
To change the text for your comment link, open the HTML editor for your blog template
(Dashboard>Layout>Edit HTML), tick the "Expand widget templates" option, and find this section of code:
<span>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 <data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/> <data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>
</b:if>
</b:if>
</span&g Read more:Blogger
Loads of free Classic Blogger Templates 2007-08-10 09:25:00 For those of you still using ClassicBlogger
templates, I've just come across a great site featuring loads of beautiful template designs for you: Isnaini.com.
At Isnaini.com you'll find literally dozens of beautiful and original blog templates to download. Each template downloads as a zip file, which contains the template code. Even "New" Bloggers can take advantage of these designs: to use Classic templates in your blog, you can revert to Classic templates using the link right at the bottom of your "Edit HTML" page in your Blogger dashboard. Then you can simply copy and paste your new classic template code in the editing box.If you're looking for "new" Blogger templates, be sure to check out my Blogger Templates
Downloads page where you'll find a wide variety of original templates, updated regularly to showcase new content.Technorati Tags: blogger+templates | classic+blogger+templates | layouts | html
Read more:Loads
Blogger template downloads 2007-08-09 06:54:00 On this page you will find links to all my Bloggertemplate
s. Each template features a screenshot and link to the blog post for the full description and download link.
Blogger template downloads (organised by date, newest first)"Butterfly" template
Features: Animated butterfly in sidebar, AddThis social bookmark buttons on each post; unique girly design; Label cloud; Custom post dividers.Read more and download"Sweet Dreams" 3 column templateFeatures: unique design; 3 sidebar elements in each sidebar column; animated header; label cloud.Read more and download"Sunset"Features: 2 columns in right sidebar, plus extra section for Adsense/Blog description, etc; themed fonts and color scheme; label cloud.Read more and download"Sweet Dreams" 2 column templateThe original "Sweet dreams" template!Features: Animated header; label cloud; widget for background music; animated sidebar headings.Read more and download"Blues"Features: Classic design with two sidebars on the right; label cloud; AddT
How to modify the Popular Posts widget to suit your blog's style 2007-08-14 11:16:00 In this previous post, I explained how to use the Affiliatebrand Popular Posts widget
. As you can probably tell, I've modified this widget in my own blog so that it matches the overall look of my template. My method is far from being perfect, but as my original post has attracted many readers, I've decided to share this method with you in order for you to customize your own widgets.
The widget code provided by AffiliateBrand links to a javascript file which is unique to your blog, and contains all the code nescessary for constructing the widget style. The default widget is made up of images and "iframes" in order to give it a "Web 2.0" style.Unfortunately the appearance of this widget is not something that suits the style of all blog templates!So, in order to be able to style the look of the widget, we need to strip the javascript of all image-related code, and feature only the useful elements instead.But before you do this, be sure to make a backup of the original widget code as
101 quick tips for Bloggers 2007-08-18 10:40:00 Here is my list of 101 quick tips for Bloggers, based on what I have learned from blogging over the past few years:
If you aren't already blogging, start blogging today!Use Blogger for simplicityWrite about a subject you loveChoose your niche wisely
Use a short, unique title for your blogIf you are serious about blogging, buy your own domainEnsure your blog url matches the titleUse Blogger's custom domain serviceUse Blogger layouts and widgetsCustomize your templateCreate a unique blog headerDon't clog up your front page with postsConsider using Ramani's expandable posts hack
Ensure readers can understand the subject of your blog quickly
Blog with consistencyPost at least 5 times a weekMake short postsMake long "article" style posts tooWrite "top 5" and "top 10" posts
Interact with other bloggers
Enable comments on your blogRead and reply to your commentsMake meaningful comments on other blogsBe the first to comment
Allow readers to contact you by emailEnable Haloscan trackback
My new (improved) blog headlines widget 2007-08-17 08:54:00 I have now made a new (and much better) blog headlineswidget
using only javascript (no php required). This has allowed me to include links, and possibly images in the feed which is displayed in the widget, whereas the previous widget did not!
To create this widget, I used the gAjax Pausing RSS Scroller scripts from Dynamic Drive. Rather than relying on a php script to parse the rss feed before it is displayed on my page, this one instead uses Google Ajax Feed API to host/cache the desired RSS feeds, so you don't have to install or host anything on your own server. In order to make the script work, I needed to upload two javascripts to my web host, and add a small amount of code to my template which includes the Google API specific to this site. This version of the scrolling headlines is much easier to use and install, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who would like to install such a widget on their own blog. To download all the files needed to create your own scrolling h Read more:improved
My new scrolling headlines widget 2007-08-16 18:46:00 I have now changed this widget
to a new improved version. Please check out this post instead for details of the new widget, which is much easier to use and customize than the one discussed in the remainder of this post.
To create a "pausing RSS scroller", I downloaded and modified a package from Dynamic Drive Scripts, which includes both Javascript and PHP files. The PHP files are needed to parse the RSS feed, while the Javascripts convert the feed into the scroller you see in my sidebar. I also added some styling elements to my blog template in order to make the scroller more attractive.Since the scripts would not function using my default Blogger feeds, I decided to burn the atom.xml feed through FeedBurner, convert this to RSS 2.0 format, and express only as a summary of the posts. This way, I could ensure the feeds would display properly within the widget, and also that there is no interference to subscribers of my main blog feeds!While I would love to be able to offer this as Read more:headlines
Five ways FeedBurner can improve your blog feed 2007-08-16 15:17:00 If you're not already using FeedBurner
's free services, you're missing out on some great blogging tools! Here are five of the best ways that FeedBurner can help you to improve your blog feed and attract more readers to your site:
Redirect your Blogger feeds through Feedburner: This will help you get a better understanding of your feed subscriber base, and can also give you greater control over how your feeds are displayed (see below). To do this, log into your Blogger dashboard and go to Settings>Feeds. Then add your FeedBurner feed URL in the box provided to redirect all your Blogger feeds for management by FeedBurner.
Include "Digg This", "Add to Del.icio.us", "Email this" etc beneath each feed item: Using FeedBurner's "Feed Flare" service, you can choose to add various links to the foot of each feed item which will enable readers to Digg your posts, add to FaceBook, email your posts to their friends and a whole bunch more! To do this, log in to your FeedBurner dashboard and
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