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April 19, 2008

Complete List of Blogger Tutorials

Here is a complete list of all the tutorials posted on Blogger Buster, organized by category. So please, dive in and read the tutorials which are most useful to you!

Categories

Click on a category heading to skip to this section of the article.

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Blogger News and Issues

This section features important news and tutorials relating to your use of Blogger.com.

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Custom Domains

This section features tutorials in regard to using Blogger's "custom domains" service.

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Customizing your Blogger Template

This section features all the articles I have written with regard to customizing your Blogger templates.

I have further divided this category to help you easily find a particular customization for your needs.

Overall Layout/General Customizations

Here you will find links to posts which discuss general/overall aspects of customizing your Blogger template.

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Header/Navigation

These tutorials can help you develop the header and navigational areas of your Blogger template.

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Posts

Here you can find links to articles which discuss styling of the main posts area, including the comments and post-footer sections.

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Sidebar(s)

These articles have particular relevance to designing your sidebar(s)

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Footer Section

This section focuses on customizations for the footer section of your blog.

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Feeds and Syndication

These articles discuss your blog feeds and blog syndication.

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General Tutorials

This section features general articles of interest

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Images, Icons and Badges

Here you will find articles regarding the use if imagery in your Blogger template and posts.

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Labels Categories and Tags

This section contains articles discussing the use of labels, categories and tags in Blogger blogs.

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Monetize your Blog

These posts feature information about adding advertisements or using Google Adsense in regard to your Blogger blog.

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Resources for Bloggers

Here are posts discussing useful resources for bloggers.

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SEO and Blog Traffic

This category features posts which discuss search engine optimization (SEO) and generating blog traffic.

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Widgets and Add-Ons

Here are articles featuring widgets and add-ons which you can use to add functionality to your Blogger blogs.

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Updates

This list will be updated periodically with new articles as they are published on the site. You may also be interested in subscribing to Blogger Buster to receive updates and news articles as they are posted.

I'm always open to suggestions for future articles, so if you have an idea for an article you would like to see published here, feel free to drop me a line.
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April 16, 2008

Add a "Top of Page" Icon Link

While researching blog designs, I came across a really feature: an icon link to the top of the page which floats in the bottom right-hand corner. As a blog reader, I found this feature to be really useful as it enabled me to jump back to the top of the page after reading a long article or browsing through many posts on the home page. Take a look at the bottom right hand corner of this blog for an example of this in action.

This customization is surprisingly easy to install. You can simply add the code required into an HTML/JavaScript widget in your blog's layout or, if you use a Classic Blogger template, add this code directly into your template code.

So in this post, I'll explain how to add an icon link to the top of your blog with an example image and code for you to use this right away.

How this works

The icon is styled to appear in the bottom right-hand corner of the page (no matter what screen resolution a visitor uses to access your blog), and is linked to target the top of the page using the "#" symbol.

The icon link used in this blog is small and unobtrusive; to help new visitors understand how this can be used, I added title text to the image so the "Back to Top" prompt will appear when the visitor hovers their mouse over the link.

The code used to add a "Top of Page" icon link is constructed as follows (I have forced line breaks for clarity): 

<a href="#"> <-- This link targets the top of the page
<img src="url-of-image" <-- The URL of your icon
alt="alternative text" <-- Alt text for accessibility
title="Back to Top" <-- This will produce the hover text
style="display: scroll; <-- This allows the image to scroll
position: fixed;<-- This fixes the image in place
bottom: 5px; <-- Makes the image appear 5px from the bottom
right: 5px;" /></a> <-- Makes the image appear 5px from the right, 
then closes all tags

How to install the "Top of Page" Icon Link

To use an icon link like the one used here at Blogger Buster, simply copy all of the code below and paste this into an HTML/JavaScript widget in your layout:

<a style="display:scroll;position:fixed;bottom:5px;right:5px;" href="#" title="Back to Top"><img src="http://bloggerbuster.com/images/arrow-up.gif"/></a>

If you use a Classic Blogger template (with no drag and drop widgets), you can paste this code into your blog's HTML code, somewhere between the <body> and </body> tags instead.

Customizing the Icon Link

If you would prefer to use a different image than the one used here, simply replace the URL of the image with the URL of your preferred image instead.

You can also reposition the icon to suit your design needs. For example, if you wanted the icon to be flush with the bottom right corner (no space), change the code explained above to read this instead: 

position: fixed;
bottom: 0px;
right: 0px;

To position the icon further away from the right or bottom sides, simply increase the pixel value to reflect this distance.

Some Examples of "Top of Page" Icon Links

You needn't be restricted to using an arrow for your top of page link! Some of the designs I showcased in this recent post used ingenious methods of linking to the top of the page:

Left: La Blogueria uses paperclips to link to the top (and other parts) of the blog.

Center: In Tuneando el Blog, the icon link is animated when the mouse hovers over it!

Right: This page curl at the bottom right of Mi-Microsmos is a cleverly disguised (and very stylish) link which features a prompt on mouseover.

I hope this tutorial has been useful and helped you create your own scrolling icon links to the top of your blog.

If you have found this post useful, please consider subscribing to Blogger Buster for updates of new articles as they are published.
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March 12, 2008

Removing your name from the Top Commenters Widget

Important Update: You can now remove your name from the list using the revised widget installer for the Top Commenters widget.

This means that you don't need to follow the instructions below, though they will remain as a reference point for anyone using Yahoo! Pipes to create their own applications.

The Top Commenters Widget enables you to display the names of the top ten people who comment on your blog. However the default installation does not remove your own name from this list.

Here are the instructions to follow which will enable you to remove your own name from the list. This does require you to make some customizations to the Yahoo Pipes application which is used to generate the widget, but I'll take you through the process step by step.

Assuming you have already installed the Top Commenters widget in your blog, you will probably see your own name in this list. To remove your own name from this list, you will need to apply a filter to the Yahoo Pipes application used to parse and display this list.

There are essentially three steps to this process:

  1. Make your own copy of the Yahoo Pipes "Top Commenters" application.
  2. Filter your own name from this application.
  3. Change the reference number in the widget code to match that of your own application.

It is not difficult at all to make these changes, and should take only a few minutes to achieve.

Instructions

You should have already installed the Top Commenters widget in your blog, so if you haven't already added this, please do so now as it will make things much easier for you to understand!

Making a copy of the Top Commenters Application in Yahoo Pipes

This step is much easier than it sounds! Simply visit the page for my version of the Top Commenters widget. You will be prompted to enter your Yahoo! login information to see this pipe. If you're not already a member of Yahoo! you can create a free account in minutes to begin working with this application.

The page for this pipe will look something like this:

To make your own copy of this application, all you need to do is click on the "Clone" link as highlighted in the image above.

On the next page, you will see the output of the pipe application (the top commenters on Blogger Buster), along with some configuration options near the top of the screen.

Here you need to click the "Edit Source" link, as shown in the image below:

This link will take you to the page where you can add your filter to the application.

Filter your Name from the Pipe Output

For those who haven't used Yahoo! Pipes before, the next screen may be rather intimidating! There are many different boxes and options on the screen, though there is only one which you need to alter: the one which says "Filter your name" as shown in the image below:

As you can see in the example above, I have filtered my own name from the Top Commenters widget by adding my name into the text input box.

Simply replace "Amanda" with your own name (that which would normally appear as your name in comments). Then click on the "Save" button at the top of your screen.

Edit: While this method worked fine for me while testing, many of you have experienced problems in filtering your name from the list. There is one extra step you can take to ensure your name will be properly removed from the list.

In the pipes editing screen, you will notice a box marked "Blog's URL (Text)". In this box, remove both instances of the URL for Blogger Buster, and replace this with the URL of your own blog, like this: 

http://yourblog.blogspot.com
or
http://www.yourblog.com
Be sure NOT to add a trailing backslash to the end of your URL as this will prevent the pipe from working properly!

The Blog URL box appears like this in the template, with the boxes for the URL input marked for your convenience:

Once you have changed the URL, be sure to save your pipe.

Change the reference number in your widget's code

This is the trickiest part of filtering your name from the Top Commenters widget, but so long as you are careful you should experience no problems.

Your own copy of this application has a different reference number to that which is currently installed in your blog. To filter your name from the widget list, you need to change the reference number to match that of your own widget.

Firstly, you will need to extract the ID number of your new application. You can find this easily by looking in the address bar of the page you are on (providing you have not changed location since saving your pipe). I have highlighted an example of how this would appear in the image below:

Copy only the number string from your address bar to your clipboard. An alternative way to extract this ID number is to go to My Pipes, click on the link for your copy of the Top Commentator widget, and look for the "Pipe Web Address" which should be just beneath the description of the pipes application.

With this long number saved to your clipboard, go to your Blogger dashboard and click on the link to edit the contents of your Top Commentators widget.

Here is what the code inside your widget should look like: 

<script type="text/javascript">

function pipeCallback(obj) {

 document.write('<ol>');

 var i;

 for (i = 0; i < obj.count ; i++)

 {

 var href = "'" + obj.value.items[i].link + "'";

 var item = '<li>' + '<a href=" + href + ">' + obj.value.items[i].title + '</a> </li>'

 document.write(item);

 }

 document.write('</ol>');

 }

 </script>

<script src="http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_
render=json&_callback=pipeCallback&_id=c92ac21897d8b56e61cfa85930dd89a1&url=
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloggerbuster.com&num=10" type="text/javascript"></script>
I've highlighted the existing ID number in yellow. You need to replace this with your own unique ID for your newly edited pipe. Be careful that you only replace the ID number, and don't accidentally delete or move any other section of code!

Once you have changed the ID number, simply save the changes to your widget and take a look at the widget in action in your blog. You may need to refresh the page to see your changes in place, but if all has gone well, your own name will now be omitted from the list!

I hope this tutorial helps you all to filter your names from the Top Commenters widget easily and without problems. If you do experience problems with this, feel free to leave your comments below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
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January 06, 2008

Weekly Review #1

This "Weekly Review" is one of the new features I decided to introduce for Blogger Buster in 2008. From now on, each Sunday you can expect a review of news, interesting articles and resources I've discovered through my blogging week.

I hope you'll find this a useful addition to the regular content posted here, and welcome your feedback on this, including any recommendations of sites which you have found useful too!

So far, it has been an interesting start to 2008 and I have quite a collection of links to offer for this week's feature, both from my feed reader and through sites which readers have recommended.

News on the Blogger Buster front

New features added

To get the New Year off to a great start, I've introduced three new features to the site: the Blogger Template Design series began on Friday and will continue over the next few weeks with a step-by-step guide to creating your own unique Blogger template for your blog. Today, you are reading the "Weekly Review" where I will be posting blogging highlights from the past week, and on Tuesday, I will post the first of the "Reader's Questions" series, where I will answer questions from my inbox about Blogger and blogging in general.

Blogger Buster enters the Technorati Top 5000

I was thrilled to discover that Blogger Buster is now in the Top 5000 blogs in Technorati's ranking. At the time of writing, this blog ranked at 4286, so we're gradually creeping up in the ranks. Thanks to everyone who linked back to Blogger Buster, and also to those who have made this site a favorite in their Technorati profile. I hope that this time next year, we may even be creeping up towards the top 1000...

Guest posting for Blog Bloke

On Wednesday, I made my first guest posting over at BlogBloke.com: Become a more productive blogger with a ten minute workout. This post seems to have attracted much interest over on Blog Bloke's site, so check it out if you haven't already done so and let me know what you think. I hope to make guest posting a regular feature over at BlogBloke.com, so it's likely you'll see more of this in forthcoming weeks.

And finally...

I released my new blog, Techiboo.com on New Year's Day, which features more general articles about blogging, social media, web design and internet lifestyle. Please do check it out if you haven't already, and let me know what you think to my new site.

Blogging News

"Weblogs" are ten years old!

I was perhaps a little late in realizing that weblogs celebrated their tenth birthday late last year. The term "weblogs" was apparently coined on Decenber 23rd, 1997 when Robert Wisdom decided to start his own web page, logging the best links and sites he found on the internet on a daily basis. And so the blog was born!

You can read more about the tenth anniversary of blogs over at The Guardian, which lists some of the highlights in the past decade of blogs.

Technorati Top 100 suffers link spam

We all know and hate link spam, usually suffered through comments pointing to undesirable sites. Unfortunately, the Technorati Top 100 blogs became victims of this unwanted attention over the weekend, when spammers decided to overrun the Top 100 bloggers by favoriting them, including links back to their own unwanted blogs. More details over at MixedMarketArts.com who discussed this trend in detail. I do hope Technorati can put a stop to this spam soon, or we will all end up with spammers promoting their unwanted services through our blog profiles!

The Bloggies are open for votes!

The annual Bloggies are back for the 2008 showcase of the best blogs as voted by the public. You can vote your favorite blogs for a variety of awards, including Best Entertainment Weblog, Best Blog about Politics and Best New Weblog. Voting is open until Friday, and unlike other blogging awards, you don't need to register to make your votes. Be sure to get your nominations in while there is still time!

This Week's Links

Here are links to some of the best sites and posts I've come across this week in the field of blogging:

  • BlogBloke.com: Previously hosted at Instabloke.com, Blog Blokes popular blog has moved over to a new domain. Be sure to update your feeds and bookmarks for Blog Bloke, and check out the new look for this site.
  • The best of Skelliwag in 2007: Skelliwag.com is a veritable treasure trove of articles and resources for bloggers, especially in regard to blog promotion and blogging habits. This post highlights the best of Skellie's posts over the past few months the blog has been online, which I would really recommend as an introduction to this highly interesting blog.
  • Captions for images in blog posts: Peter discusses methods of adding captions to your images in Blogger posts, a highly useful feature to assist your readers in the understanding of your blog content.
  • Disqus.com (for Inline Comment Forms): Angel tipped me off about Disqus.com which offers a commenting service you could use to add inline comments to your Blogger posts. In action, these comments look much neater than the version I blogged about previously. As yet, I haven't extensively tested this service myself, though I will be sure to post about this when I do.
  • EarthFrisk.org: This is a new and rather wonderful search engine, which collects the search results from over a dozen different search engines and filters the results to find the best matches to your queries. So far, I've been really impressed by this service, which soon hopes to become a rival for Google searches (though of course we have yet to see how popular EarthFrisk becomes).

    A novel feature is that you can add your own profile for anyone searching for your specific name, including links to your sites and a profile image. Furthermore, you can choose to search social media sites like Technorati and Flickr in order to find the best results for your queries.
  • Free Business cards for your Blog (from OoPrint): OoPrint are offering a selection of free business cards specifically tailored to bloggers. You will only need to pay for postage costs for these free cards, and unlike those offered by Vistaprint, you can expect to receive your cards in a matter of days (not weeks). There are 32 designs to choose from, many of which are graphically tailored to bloggers, and all of which seem to be of good quality. These would certainly be a useful tool for promoting your blog offline!

I hope you have enjoyed this first Weekly Review. For next week's feature, I would welcome any of your own suggestions, so do send me an email if you find any interesting sites or articles you would like featured in the next review.
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October 28, 2007

Remove "nofollow" tags from your template to spread some link love

If you take a look at the source code for your blog, you'll probably see several references of the rel='nofollow' tag. This tag was originally created to prevent search engines from indexing links in order to reduce spam. However, this simply doesn't seem to work, even as a deterrent to would be spammers. Spam still exists, and if anything the problem of spam is worse than ever.

But the most annoying thing about the "nofollow" tag is this: it prevents legitimate, and helpful links from being indexed by three of the top search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN. Rather than deter spammers, it's more of a deterrent to commenter's and those who would otherwise link back to your blog.

There is something we can do about this: remove the "nofollow" tags!

Why I have removed "nofollow" from my blog

After much consideration, I have now removed all instances of rel="nofollow" from my blog template. This means that your backlinks, and links in your comments will now be indexed by the three major search engines when they spider this blog.

I believe that it's only fair to reward those who provide useful and informative comments with a proper link back to their blog, and the same goes for those who link to my posts too! As Loren Baker rightly says:

Linking to someone with a NoFollow attribute is a sign of not trusting them. It’s like reaching to shake someone’s hand, but stopping to put on a pair of latex gloves.

At present, I'm not concerned that my DO-follow approach will make Blogger Buster a target for comment-spam: “Everyone who passes a human inspection should get the link love.” And if a comment appears to be spam? I always can always use the "delete" button to remove it! You can read my comments policy here.

How you can remove "nofollow" tags from your own Blogger template

This method works only for Blogger "layouts" blogs. At present, there is no way of removing "nofollow" from classic templates which are hosted by Blog*Spot (though if you are publishing by FTP, you may want to take a look at this very technical post).

As always, you should make a full backup of your template before making any modifications. To do this, go to Template>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard, and click on the "Download full template" link near the top of the page.

Next, open up your template in Edit HTML mode, and ensure you have checked the "expand widget templates" box. The code you need to find in your template is contained within the blog posts widget, and unless you tick this box you will be unable to find any instances of "nofollow" in your template!

Finally search for all instances of rel='nofollow' in your template. The easiest way to search for these is to use the search function in your browser (CTRL or CMD + F). In total there should be three instances of this tag, the first is in the backlinks section, which will look like this:
<a expr:href='data:backlink.url' rel='nofollow'><data:backlink.title/></a>
If you would like to remove the "nofollow" attribute for backlinks (links to your blog) you should remove the phrase highlighted in red.

The second and third instances of "nofollow" are located in the comments section, and should both look like the example below:

<a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'><data:comment.author/></a>
Again, you should remove only the phrase highlighted in red to remove this "nofollow" attribute from comment links in your blog.

Once you have removed the "nofollow" tags to your preferences (backlinks, comments or both), you can save your template and let your blog readers know about the changes you have made.

Let readers know about your Do-follow policy

Most "do-follow" bloggers feature a logo or comment policy in their sidebar to let readers know that their links will be followed. Randa Clay (one of the "poster children" for the Do-follow movement) created a set of badges you can add to your sidebar. Alternatively, she has provided CSS code which you can use to create a badge without the need for externally hosted images, as you can see here:

U COMMENT
I FOLLOW

Here is the code used for this CSS styled badge:

<div style="background-color: #FFFFFF; width: 123px; height: 52px;">
<div style="background-color: #FF9900; float: right; width: 118px; height: 20px; color: #000000; font: bold 15px arial; padding-top: 3px; margin: 2px 2px 0px 2px; text-align: center;">U COMMENT</div>
<div style="background-color: #000000; float: right; width: 118px; height: 20px; color: #FFFFFF; font: bold 15px arial; padding-top: 3px; margin: 2px; text-align: center;">I FOLLOW</div></div>

Things you should know about using "Do-Follow" in your Blogger blog

If you are considering joining the "Do-Follow" movement to allow comment links and backlinks to be indexed by search engines, there are a few things you should be aware of:

  • If your blog is "private", the rel=nofollow tags will still be generated, in order to ensure your blog is kept private!
  • We have no control over Blogger's comments pages, which will still include the rel="nofollow" tags, even if you remove these from your template entirely. However, comments which feature on your post pages will not have this tag in place, which is the most important thing!
  • When you post a comment while logged in to your Blogger/Google account, you will generate a link to your author profile, rather than your actual blog URL. Instead, you may prefer to choose "Other" for your comment identity, which will allow you to post your name and blog URL instead of a mere link back to your profile page.

    Only blogs which allow "anyone" to comment will have this feature enabled in the "post a comment" section. So you may wish to consider changing the comment settings for your blog if you do decide to adopt a Do-Follow policy.
  • Blogs which use Haloscan to display comments cannot remove the "nofollow" tags from their comments.
  • As far as I am aware, the "nofollow" tags cannot be removed from Classic Blogger templates, as the tag is generated by Blogger within the <$CommentAuthorName$> link, and is not available for removal by the blog's author.

    However, if you publish via FTP and have some technical knowledge, you may want to check out Ronnie Dodger's informative post.

Of course, the removal of the "nofollow" tag is not suitable for every blog, so you should think carefully before using the Do-Follow approach!

Please feel free to leave your comments and opinions below, especially as you now know that your comments will be followed!

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May 17, 2008

How to Install Intense Debate Comments in Blogger Blogs

Intense Debate is a commenting system which is designed to inspire conversation. Including such features as threaded comments (allowing readers to reply to each other in comment threads), avatars and a voting system, many Blogger users are now choosing this as an alternative to the default Blogger commenting system.

Many readers have requested a tutorial about installing and using Intense Debate. So in this post I'll explain exactly what this new service has to offer, and how easily this can be installed in your Blogger powered blogs (including some troubleshooting tips to make sure everything runs smoothly!)

What Are the Main Features of Intense Debate?

Intense Debate is a fully featured commenting system which provides many more features than Blogger's standard comments, including:

  • Comment form beneath posts (on the same page)
  • Threaded comments, which allow commenters to reply directly to each other and be visible as a comment "heirachy"
  • Comment avatars (of registered Intense Debate members)
  • The ability to vote comments up/down (so the most popular comments can float to the top of the list)
  • Profiles for registered members, which include links to members' blogs and social media profiles
  • Widgets for top commenters and recent comments which you can add to your Blogger layout with ease

You can read about these features in full detail, or watch the two minute video of Intense Debate functionality which explains this service in a snap!

How to Install Intense Debate in your Blogger Blog

It is surprisingly easy to install Intense Debate commenting in your Blogger template! Even when I tried this method for non-standard and highly customized templates, I found this method worked just fine.

If you would like to use Intense Debate as an alternative to Blogger's commenting system, here is what you should do:

  1. Head over to the Intense Debate home page and add your blog's URL in the box provided. Then click on the Install Intense Debate" button:

  2. If your blog is hosted on Blogspot (eg: yourblog.blogspot.com), Intense Debate will automatically detect your blogging platform.

    If you use a custom domain (eg: www.yourblog.com), you will need to choose Blogger as your blogging platform.

    Once Intense Debate is sure of the platform you are using, you will see a screen like this:



    Here you have the choice of installing Intense Debate comments as a widget (the easy method) or directly in your Blogger template, to appear below your posts (the recommended method).

    If you choose to add this as a widget, simply click on this option and follow the steps to add this as a widget in your blog sidebar.

    If you would prefer to use the full commenting system, continue reading instead!
  3. Installing the full Intense Debate commenting system really is a breeze! In this case, you will need to follow the steps provided on the installation page to make a back-up of your full Blogger template by going to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard, and clicking on the "Download full template" link.

    This saves a copy of your existing blog template (including any widgets and customizations) to your computer.

    Once you have done this, go back to the Intense Debate installation screen and click the "Browse" button to locate your template file on your computer.
  4. Next, you have a decision to make: you can either:
    • Choose to install Intense Debate on posts where there are no existing comments
    • Choose to replace all comments with Intense Debate comments instead.
    If you do choose to replace all comments, these existing comments will not be lost! You can retrieve and import these to Intense Debate afterwards if you choose to do so (as shall be explained shortly).

    Check the radio selection for the option you prefer, then click the "Upload file and continue" button.
  5. On this next screen, you will see a box filled with code. This is your Blogger template code which has been modified to include the Intense Debate commenting system.

    Copy all of the code in this box to your clipboard. Then go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard.
  6. Replace all of your existing template code with this modified code from Intense Debate.

    You can check that you have installed this correctly by previewing your changes. If the installation was successful, you will receive no error notifications and can proceed to save your template.
  7. Finally, click on the "Finish" button right near the bottom of the Intense Debate installation page. Then visit your blog in your web browser to check out your new commenting system!

Changing the Comment Settings

Once you have installed Intense Debate comments in your Blogger blog, you may like to change some of the settings to suit your individual requirements.

To change your Intense Debate settings, you will need to access your Intense Debate dashboard and click on the "settings" link for the blog you wish to access.

Here are the different comment settings you can change to suit your needs:

  • Blog Info: Here you can alter any details for your blog, such as the URL, blog title and RSS feed.
  • Comment Posting: This section includes any moderation opions you may wish to alter. You can choose to moderate all comments before they appear beneath your blog posts; moderate posts containing words in a blacklist, and even automatically delete comments if they contain certain "banned" words and phrases.
  • Email Notifications: Choose whether you would like an email to be sent to blog authors whenever a new comment is posted (similar to Blogger's comment settings).
  • Display Settings: If you would like to enable "threads" (this allows a person to comment directly to another commenter), tick the appropriate box. You can also set the default order of comments (readers will be able to re-order this list for themselves if they choose).
  • Comment Link Text: In this section you can choose to alter the text used for your comment links. By default this is set to Comments ([#]) where [#] is the number of comments. You could change this to "[#] Responses", "Observations: ([#])" or indeed any other link text which you prefer!
  • Add another blog admin: This setting allows you to add new moderators who can access your Intense Debate settings, which is useful for group bloggers.

Changing the Appearance of your Intense Debate Comments

When you first install Intense Debate comments, you will notice the color scheme and fonts match those already present in your template! This is lucky since Intense Debate do not recommend that you alter the CSS for your comments (this is still in beta, the code used may alter and render such changes invalid).

There are however a few changes you can make from within your Intense Debate dashboard. To access these layout settings, go to your Intense Debate dashboard and click on the "Layout" link for the blog layout you wish to alter.

From this page, you will be able to alter the following settings:

  • Comment Size: This setting means you can alter the avatar and font size for each comment as "compact", "normal" or "large".
  • Button Style: This affects how links to "post a comment", "post-reply" and "submit" are displayed in your comment section. Choose from either a button or text link style (which appear like normal links in your posts)
  • Comment Layout: This option enables you to change how comments appear beneath your posts. The default setting is for comments to be permanantly displayed beneath each post. Alternatives include "peekaboo comments" (activated by clicking on the comment link), and comments in a pop-up page.

    Most bloggers choose the default (comments already present beneath posts) setting, which is also my personal preference as clicking on a link adds another step for readers and offers less incentive for actually leaving a comment on your posts.

One thing you may notice on the layout page is that "Chameleon" is the only choice of style for your Intense Debate comments, though there is an image which suggests other styles may become available soon:

Import Existing Comments from Blogger

If you choose to install Intense Debate for all your existing blog posts (including those posts which already have comments) you may prefer to import any existing comments from Blogger to be displayed alongside your new Intense Debate comments.

Importing your old comments is very easy. Simply go to your Intense Debate dashboard and click on "Overview" for the blog whose comments you wish to import.

Next click on the "Blog Tools", then on the "Import Comments" link in the left hand column.

On this page, you will be prompted to log in to your Blogger account, which will allow Intense Debate to access the API for importing your comments. Once logged in, you will be able to choose which blog you wish to import from and to (be sure to import/export comments from the same blog, otherwise Intense Debate will not be able to allocate them to the correct posts!).

When you choose to import these comments from Blogger, the existing comments will not be deleted! If you decide to uninstall Intense Debate for any reason, you can export all your Intense Debate comments to an XML file, and restore the view of your existing Blogger comments.

I'm not sure that it's possible to export Intense Debate comments back to Blogger at this time as Blogger's API does not allow comments to be automatically created using such third party software (though I strongly suspect it may be possible for respected services like Intense Debate to do this in the future).

Manage your Intense Debate Profile

One of the more useful functions of Intense Debate is profiling. By using your Intense Debate profile to leave comments on ID-enabled blogs, you can increase your reputation, link to your other social networking profiles, add an avatar and monitor comments left on all blogs you visit!

Readers can vote comments up or down (depending on their perceived value to the conversation). Comments which are voted up increase that commenters reputation (whilst the reverse also applies too).

Troubleshooting Intense Debate Installations

From my experiences is using Intense Debate so far, I am happy to say that there are very few possible problems which could occur.

While testing Intense Debate installation with both default and heavily customized (third party) Blogger templates, I have only found two possible problems which may occur during installation: imported comments may not appear as soon as they are imported, and the comment count on heavily customized templates may not appear.

Both of these can usually be resolved easily using the following methods:

Imported comments do not appear

First of all, check the comments in your Intense Debate dashboard to ensure these do appear for the appropriate blog (if not, you should attempt to import them again).

If the imported comments are present, chances are that Intense Debate has not caught up with these comments yet. Be patient, and soon enough you should notice these comments appear in the Intense Debate comment area beneath your posts.

If after a day or so the imported comments do not appear, you should ask for help in the forum. This forum is watched by members of the Intense Debate team who seem very helpful and will be able to help you resolve this problem quickly.

The comment count does not update

I've only ever noticed this problem occur in heavily customized templates where the comment count appears near the top of each post, rather than in the post-footer section.

I suspect this problem may occur because the comment-link tags is separated from other elements of the comments section, and is not parsed correctly by Intense Debates (otherwise flawless) installation system.

The fix for this problem is a little more complicated, but not too difficult.

Depending on whether you have chosen to replace all comments with Intense Debate, or only the posts which do not already have comments, you should use one of the following methods to solve this:

  • If you have chosen to replace only posts which don't already have comments:

    Firstly, backup your existing template code (to ensure you can restore your template if thhere are any problems).

    Find this section of code in your Blogger template:
    <a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:top.commentLabel/> <b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>(1) <b:else/>(<data:post.numComments/>) </b:if></a>
    Check that this section of code is not surrounded by Intense Debate HTML comments, which appear like this:
    <!-- Intense Debate -->

    <!-- /Intense Debate -->
    If these comments do not appear around this section of code, replace the code with the following instead:
    <!--Intense Debate--> <b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 0'> <div expr:id='"IDCommentPostInfoTitle"+data:post.id' style='display:none'><data:post.title/></div> <div style='display:none' expr:id='"IDCommentPostInfoTime"+data:post.id'><data:post.timestampISO8601/></div><div style='display:none' expr:id='"IDCommentPostInfoAuthor"+data:post.id'><data:post.author/></div><div style='display:none' expr:id='"IDCommentPostInfoCats"+data:post.id'><b:if cond='data:post.labels'><b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'><data:label.name/>|</b:loop></b:if></div> <a expr:href="data:post.url" expr:name="data:post.id" class="IDCommentsReplace">Comments</a> <b:else/> <!--/Intense Debate--> <a class='comment-link' 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> <!--Intense Debate--> </b:if> <!--/Intense Debate-->


    Finally, save your template. If this was successful, you should see the comment count appear on your posts which relates to the true number of comments (whether Intense Debate or Blogger generated comments).
  • If you have chosen to replace all comments with Intense Debate:

    Again, backup your existing template to restore if there are problems using this method.

    Find the following section of code in your template and ensure it is not surrounded by the Intense Debate HTML comments:
    <a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:top.commentLabel/> <b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>(1) <b:else/>(<data:post.numComments/>) </b:if></a>
    Providing this section is not surrounded by the Intense Debate HTML comments, replace this section with the following code:
    <!--Intense Debate--> <div expr:id='&quot;IDCommentPostInfoTitle&quot;+data:post.id' style='display:none'><data:post.title/></div> <div expr:id='&quot;IDCommentPostInfoTime&quot;+data:post.id' style='display:none'><data:post.timestampISO8601/></div><div expr:id='&quot;IDCommentPostInfoAuthor&quot;+data:post.id' style='display:none'><data:post.author/></div><div expr:id='&quot;IDCommentPostInfoCats&quot;+data:post.id' style='display:none'><b:if cond='data:post.labels'><b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'><data:label.name/>|</b:loop></b:if></div><a class='IDCommentsReplace' expr:href='data:post.url' expr:name='data:post.id'>Comments</a>

    <!--/Intense Debate--> <!--Intense Debate-PRE ID <a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:top.commentLabel/> <b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>(1) <b:else/>(<data:post.numComments/>) </b:if></a> -->


    Then save your template and check to make sure the comment count appears in your blog posts.

If you are still experiencing problems with your Intense Debate comments, the best advice I can offer is to visit the forums where members of the Intense Debate team will be on hand to assist you with your problems.

Over to you!

Do you already use Intense Debate? Or are you considering using this free service as an alternative to Blogger's default commenting system?

If so, please let us know your own opinions of Intense Debate comments by leaving your comments below.
Filed under:

June 05, 2008

Blog Rankings: Is Wikio More Accurate than Technorati?

Technorati is the world's most popular blog aggregation and ranking system. Selected as one of Time Magazines 25 sites we can't live without, it is probably the first site which comes to mind when referencing how well our blogs compare with others.

Wikio on the other hand is a relatively new site. A European based news and blog aggregator, Wikio began ranking the top 300 blogs late last year, and currently tracks around 37,000 blogs (compared to the millions tracked by Technorati).

There are significant differences in the ways Technorati and Wikio compile their rankings and this makes me wonder: which of these two sites rank blogs more accurately?

I discovered Wikio's Top Blogs lists quite recently while researching the most popular Blogger powered blogs. While many of the sites featured in the overall list are familiar, I was intrigued to see that Wikio also ranks blogs according to category, such as Technology, Food and Wine, Politics and Music.

The concept I find most interesting about Wikio's blog ranking system is that only links within blog posts contribute towards a blog's authority and rank.

Technorati offers two forms of blog ranking:

  • Authority: This is the number of unique blogs which link back to your blog (the higher your blog's authority, the better!). If the same blog links to yours ten times, only the most recent link will count towards your blog's authority.
  • Rank: The number one ranked blog is the one which has generated the most unique links (the greatest authority) over the past six months. Your blog rank may not be unique: for example, if your Technorati rank is 10,043 there are 10,043 ranks between you and the top ranking blog, and other blogs may share the same authority as yours. The lower the number of your Technorati rank, the closer you are to the top.

With Technorati, any form of link can pass "link love" to your blog: this means links in posts, links in blogrolls and any other links present in the blog template.

Because Technorati tracks all types of "blog reactions", it's ranking system can easily be gamed.

Technorati's Flawed Algorithm

According to Patrick Altoft, there are four major methods of manipulating Technorati rank:

  1. Create a popular plugin
  2. Exchange links
  3. Create popular blogging software
  4. Design a popular blog theme

Each of these methods generates "artificial" backlinks to the author's blog: rather than be editorial (deliberately created by the blog editor to reference another's writings, authority or newsworthiness), these links may be present in the blog layout or blogroll, but not within blog posts.

Blogs which have used any of these methods to generate backlinks or awareness of their product are then manually removed from the Technorati Top 100 list.

Jackbook, for example, should rank at number 43 in the top 100 list:

But when we look where Jackbook.com should feature in the top 100 list, Jacky's listing is nowhere to be seen...

Other sites to be banned from the Top 100 list include Blogger-Templates, Binary Moon and even John Chow!

Does this mean Wikio's algorithm is a more reliable method of ranking blogs?

Wikio's Top Blogs List is Not Without its Faults...

Wikio ranks according to the number of incoming links from other blogs which are found within articles. Using this system is a much more reliable method of determining authority as such links are rarely bought, and are not generated by plugins, widgets and templates.

Although I prefer Wikio's system of ranking, I think there are still a few drawbacks to this system:

  • Only a fraction of the actual number of blogs are tracked, meaning those which are included in Wikio's database may rank much more highly than they relatively should.
  • Rankings are only updated once per month, whereas Technorati updates rankings several times per day.
  • Wikio is a much younger system, and has yet to achieve the popularity (and recognition) held by Technorati.

Wikio's categorical blog rankings do serve the general blogosphere more accurately than Technorati (which seems rather biased towards technology based sites), but as there are few categories (and fewer blogs listed in the database), there is still much which can be improved upon.

What do you think?

Have you explored Wikio to see which blogs rank highly in your chosen niche? How do you think this system compares to Technorati as a means of ranking blogs?

I'd love to know your opinions on which system ranks blogs more fairly, if indeed you think that blogs should be ranked at all!

Please share your opinions by leaving a comment below.
Filed under:

May 05, 2007

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