Lining up the first post and the sidebar

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b>In some Blogger templates, there is a big gap between the bottom of the header and the start of the first post, and this means that the posts and the sidebar are not aligned.  This article explains how to adjust the gap, and so remove that problem</b><b>.</b><br /> <b><br /></b> <br /> <div style="clear: both;"> </div> <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/u/1/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_oLagX_sI1Y_6JCVWp125lyxZIpKJzV3gag8u4IM1-i4lDd4HG-AUXYjjBaSuCuEBithVMoF-u4YeSUWetlK0wnWUyipgGBq6-Knem_JuJe53r3UkoKzHpicYiYPMdsg8f43QL3oeTA/s1600/gap-between-header-and-post-heading-layout-reduction-mind-the-gap.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_oLagX_sI1Y_6JCVWp125lyxZIpKJzV3gag8u4IM1-i4lDd4HG-AUXYjjBaSuCuEBithVMoF-u4YeSUWetlK0wnWUyipgGBq6-Knem_JuJe53r3UkoKzHpicYiYPMdsg8f43QL3oeTA/s320/gap-between-header-and-post-heading-layout-reduction-mind-the-gap.png" width="320" /></a></div> In the <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-template-does-your-blog-use-quick.html">templates that Blogger provides</a>, as well as all third-party templates, the amount of space between elements on the screen is not accidental:   designers put a <b><i>lot</i></b> of effort into working out what spacing will look good, and then finding ways to put CSS code into the template so that the spacing they want is shown in any browser software that Blogger supports.<br /> <br /> <br /> But there are times when you may want to change this spacing, and this is easy to do, provided you are willing to accept the <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/06/editing-your-blogs-template-advantanges.html">disadvantages of editing your template</a>, and if  you can work out exactly which part of the template code to change.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> The pre-Header gap</h2> A pet-hate of mine is the blank space above the first post, which looks strange unless you put something else in to the space.  In this example, I've got an <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/setting-up-adsense-on-your-blog.html">AdSense</a> link-unit in the area highlighted in red, just to fill in the empty area:<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwCOuNyMmcPUwrUaNHJC8GqQEGwvTUIsrqpsFzPzZPxFDwk7IfUOlfxkN-47vEvyeXnCtzWIM41ZG4A4wpIly6xcnZBwDi2CX1Ihb7oBWRFdSBwa34jduzTabwjG2Fh0GS0lWlyU_MmzI/" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img al="picture of blog screen with a big empty gap above the first post header" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivwCOuNyMmcPUwrUaNHJC8GqQEGwvTUIsrqpsFzPzZPxFDwk7IfUOlfxkN-47vEvyeXnCtzWIM41ZG4A4wpIly6xcnZBwDi2CX1Ihb7oBWRFdSBwa34jduzTabwjG2Fh0GS0lWlyU_MmzI/" width="90%" /></a></div> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <br /> <br /> <h2> How to change the gap above the post header</h2> 1  <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-edit-your-blogger-template.html"><b>Edit</b> your template</a>  - don't forget to take a backup.<br /> <br /> <br /> 2  <b>Find</b> this code<br /> <blockquote style="background-color: #ead1dc;"> <span class="Apple-style-span">h3.post-title, .comments h4 {<br />  font: $(post.title.font);<br />  <b>margin: .75em 0 0</b>;<br />}</span></blockquote> The exact numbers used in your template may be different:  the key thing is to find the CSS command that is putting a margin above the post header.  In the template that I took this example from (Simple), it's the "0.75em" - which puts 75% of the space of a the post-header characters as a blank space above the header.<br /> <br /> <br /> 3   <b>Change the <i>first</i> margin value</b>:  how much to change it by depends on your template, but in some cases I've used 0 successfully.<br /> <br /> In CSS, when a margin statement has three numbers beside it, they refer to the<br /> <ul> <li>top, </li> <li>left-and-right, </li> <li>bottom </li> </ul> margins respectively.   So if you want to do something else to the post-header, eg indent it, this is the place to make changes<br /> <br /> <br /> 4   Click <b>Preview</b> to see what the blog will look like - keep doing this until you get the right setting.<br /> <br /> <br /> 5   When you are happy with the spacing, click <b>Save Template</b> to apply the changes to your blog.   (Or Clear Edits if you cannot get it right and need to stop trying).<br /> <br /> <br /> Note:  If you make a big change to your template like this, it would be a good idea to check out out in at least one version of the other browsers that your readers use - at the moment, this usually means Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Chrome.   But it may depend on your niche - a tool like <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/02/setting-up-google-analytics-for-your.html">Google Analytics</a> will give you some statistics about what browsers, and screen sizes, your visitors have.<br /> <br /> Also, it is possible to make this change by just <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/09/adding-new-css-formatting-rule-to-your.html">installing a new CSS rule</a> for h3.post-title into your blog - because the latest one found is always the one used, and because the template designer's Add CSS function puts the rules you add after the othr rules.   I don't recommend it here, though, because working with the original rule makes it easier to see the effect of making changes to any of the values in the area.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> Other affected spacing</h2> If you have more than one post per page, then this change will also reduce the amount of space between the bottom of one post and the header of the next one.   Depending on your template, you want want to add a little more space into the margin statement in the <b><i>bottom</i></b> of the post-footer, eg<br /> <blockquote style="background-color: #ead1dc;"> <span class="Apple-style-span">.post-footer {<br />  margin: 20px -2px <b><i>20</i></b>;<br />  padding: 5px 10px;<br />}</span></blockquote> <br /> If you display comments in your blog, you also need to check the impact on comments, because the original command applied to h4 items in comments as well.<br /> <br /> If you are making a lot of changes, you may want to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/making-test-blog-for-planning-template.html">make a test blog</a>, and <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/planning-changes-to-your-blog-in.html">plan your changes in private</a> before applying them to your main blog.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <h2> Related Articles</h2> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/02/setting-up-google-analytics-for-your.html">Setting up Google Analytics to get statistics about for your visitors</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/09/adding-new-css-formatting-rule-to-your.html">Adding a new CSS rule to your blog's template</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/06/editing-your-blogs-template-advantanges.html">Advantanges and disadvantages of editing your template</a>.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-edit-your-blogger-template.html">How to edit your blogger template</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/what-template-does-your-blog-use-quick.html">Who did your blogger template come from - the quick way of finding out</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/making-test-blog-for-planning-template.html">Making a test-blog for template changes</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/planning-changes-to-your-blog-in.html">Planning changes to your blog in private</a></div>

Lining up the first post and the sidebar

In some Blogger templates, there is a big gap between the bottom of the header and the start of the first post, and this means that the posts and the sidebar are not aligned.  This article explains how to adjust the gap, and so remove that problem. In the templates that Blogger provides, as well …

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How to Add Adsense Ads inside your Blogger Blog Posts

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <h2 style="text-align: left;"> Adding Adsense or other Advertising Ads inside Your Blogger Blog Posts Manually with Ease, controlling their Position and display inside individual blog posts</h2> <div> <ul id="allmethods"> <li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3308800623801503566#method1">Aligning Ads in the center</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3308800623801503566#method2">Aligning Ads left or right</a></li> </ul> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvvAU4GDkoo59wRuHq0x3WMB3qjg3715YFjVYqUWMLzssDs4toLKrGYnxzPLWQJeG699uEYuh-wZ9jwsAgjKvzyrk5QJFXz_QhyX0lgQooEhNUyTczrquU4cpNPigkHy38QQ8uuvDL58/s1600/How+to+Add+Adsense+Ads+inside+your+Blogger+Blog+Posts+via+geniushowto.blogspot.com+ad+placement+Optimization.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="How to Add Adsense Ads inside your Blogger Blog Posts via geniushowto.blogspot.com ad placement optimization and control" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnvvAU4GDkoo59wRuHq0x3WMB3qjg3715YFjVYqUWMLzssDs4toLKrGYnxzPLWQJeG699uEYuh-wZ9jwsAgjKvzyrk5QJFXz_QhyX0lgQooEhNUyTczrquU4cpNPigkHy38QQ8uuvDL58/s1600/How+to+Add+Adsense+Ads+inside+your+Blogger+Blog+Posts+via+geniushowto.blogspot.com+ad+placement+Optimization.jpg" title="How to Add Adsense Ads inside your Blogger Blog Posts | optimizing and controlling ad placement " width="320" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Optimizing and Controlling Ad placement inside blog posts</td></tr> </tbody></table> Monetizing your Blogs and websites with Adsense or other popular Advertisements is a common practice among bloggers as they depend on advertising revenues to support their cause and why not they have worked hard for it. While Monetizing your blog posts with Ads can earn you revenue the crucial factor of ad placements inside your Blog posts is crucial in improving your Ad click through rates without affecting the reading visibility of your readers. The thing becomes quite tough when you are starting out as a freelance writer and are not aware of those web technologies and terminologies used to structure and position content inside webpages and now have to add some piece of code which you have no idea where and how to add in your blog posts, now you don't have to be a coder or expert at HTML but you can do this effortlessly in next 5 minutess as you get enlightened on how to place ads inside your blogger blog posts in 4 simple easy to follow steps. Let's get started with the simple How to tutorial.</div> <div> </div> </div> <a href="http://geniushowto.blogspot.com/2014/07/add-adsense-ads-inside-your-blogger-blog-posts.html#more">Read more »</a></div>

How to Add Adsense Ads inside your Blogger Blog Posts

Adding Adsense or other Advertising Ads inside Your Blogger Blog Posts Manually with Ease, controlling their Position and display inside individual blog posts Aligning Ads in the center Aligning Ads left or right Optimizing and Controlling Ad placement inside blog posts Monetizing your Blogs and we…

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What "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" really means

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b>This article explains what "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" means when you see it while setting up a custom domain for your blog - and what you can do to fix it.</b> <br /> <br /> <div style="clear: both;"> </div> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <h2> What is a custom domain</h2> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIZh9wsIX172xp75KsscGOLOo_ik8Uf57gCbmhu2UcgD6l5Yb5VjoLFgZBkpdFc7OnNz8u1PXsbrI-viE9Vne2S8yAzeci75xGcscXSqs4HClsHhKAn3lZx2z47ahgzNhUTLePGz-0DsF/s502/banish-syd-the-cyber-squatter.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIZh9wsIX172xp75KsscGOLOo_ik8Uf57gCbmhu2UcgD6l5Yb5VjoLFgZBkpdFc7OnNz8u1PXsbrI-viE9Vne2S8yAzeci75xGcscXSqs4HClsHhKAn3lZx2z47ahgzNhUTLePGz-0DsF/s320/banish-syd-the-cyber-squatter.png" width="200" /></a></div> A custom domain is a "real" website address, instead of the free one that you get when you first set up a blog using Blogger.   It's one of he essential steps if you want to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/11/use-blogger-to-make-a-website.html">use Blogger to make a "real" website</a>.   For example:<br /> <ul> <li>You initially set up    www.yourBusiness.blogspot.com</li> <li>Then you hear that people will treat you with more respect if you have www.yourBusiness.com  or www.yourBusiness.co.uk. </li> </ul> <br /> In this case, www.yourBusiness.com  and   www.yourBusiness.co.uk   are both "custom domains", ie web-addressed without "blogspot.com" or "wordpress.com" at the end of the address.<br /> <br /> To use www.yourBusiness.com, you need to either use Blogger's custom domain wizard - available under <b>Settings > Basic > Publshing +Buy a custom domain</b>.<br /> <br /> To use www.yourBusiness.co.uk   (or any other type of URL that Blogger doesn't offer), you need to firstly buy the URL from another domain registrar, and then use a similar procedure to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/04/using-domain-purchased-from-another.html">use that URL for your blog</a>.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> Sometimes things go wrong</h2> If you're lucky - and most people are - then setting up your blog to use your custom domain is a smooth process:   there are a few minutes where your new address doesn't quite work for you, and a few hours while it doesn't work for people around the works.   But the computers all catch up with each other fairly quickly and within 24-72 hours it's working perfectly.<br /> <br /> But sometimes things go wrong - and that is when you see this message in one of Blogger's screens:<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Another blog or Google Site is already using this address</blockquote> <br /> Mostly (pretty much always, in fact), this <b>doesn't</b> mean that another blog is using the address that you just paid $10 for.<br /> <br /> What it means is that <b>something has gone wrong with the process of setting up the domain</b> for your blog.   Nothing more, and nothing less. <br /> <br /> You can check this by looking at what happens when you try to navigate to the address.   Most probably you will see something like this:<br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXw6ykf91ErWQHWdckCGy7ElOIuZgvMg-zUw2hodzVlyfPSqLrNpyKs3ISl-_60uV1cfcYwGVcFcNrGzkJodDfHS6tjMMJc00t28QOkwnBFKGHWNEGbs43FkJnyYHaBz8xCb1QwArgdFM/s640/404-error-message-example-from-chrome-robot-in-pieces.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwXw6ykf91ErWQHWdckCGy7ElOIuZgvMg-zUw2hodzVlyfPSqLrNpyKs3ISl-_60uV1cfcYwGVcFcNrGzkJodDfHS6tjMMJc00t28QOkwnBFKGHWNEGbs43FkJnyYHaBz8xCb1QwArgdFM/s640/404-error-message-example-from-chrome-robot-in-pieces.png" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> That's what I see using Google Chrome - other browsers will display it a little differently, and Google may change the picture from time to tile.   But the key part is the "404" error code, which says that there is no website currently using the address.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> How to fix it</h2> <h3> The Masterclass:</h3> Chuck from Nitecruzr.net has recently published <a href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/02/how-to-solve-error-another-blog-or.html" target="_blank">a comprehensive article about the various sources of this message, and how to fix it</a>.    As he explains, it's<b> not so much an error message as a symptom</b>.   Basically, it's Blogger's way of saying "there's a problem with your URL setup".<br /> <br /> His post may look daunting at first; there's a lot of technical language, and you need to delve into all sorts of places you may not have looked before, including <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/setting-up-your-custom-domain.html">setting up an administrator account for your domain</a> in the registrar. And just to make it more complicated, Google changed they way that they offer domains (by removing free single-user accounts in Google Apps) in January 2013, so now it also depends on when you purchased the domain, too.   But it's worth trying to work out the problem, and its solution yourself, before asking for help (see below). You will learn about how Blogger works with custom domains, and it stops the help-forum people being overloaded with questions.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h3> Methods that used to work</h3> When I've had this problem in the past, the first thing I did was to check that Google Sites was disabled on my Apps account. This was easy, and often effective, but I suspect it's not so relevant any more.<br /> <br /> Another older approach was to enter the custom-domain into the <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pZHHZdeYKeHitQbvxkvwnCg&email=true" target="_blank">Magical Custom Domain Form</a>, and wait 48 hours to see if Google have fixed it. In the background, the Google staff would check domain settings and fix up problems if they could. However it looks like that process isn't supported any more: clicking the link now brings up a message<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span class="header" style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "sans" , sans-serif; font-size: 19px;"><b>We're sorry.</b></span><span class="bodytext" id="errorMsg" style="font-size: 13px;">The form at this URL could not be found. Make sure that you have the right URL and that the owner of the form hasn't deleted it. </span></blockquote> <br /> <h2> Asking for help</h2> If you really cannot work out a solution, then <b>post a question in the </b><a href="http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/blogger" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Blogger Product Forum</a> - I usually use the "How do I" category.    Include:<br /> <ul> <li>Your blog's URL     (eg   yourBusiness.blogspot.com)</li> <li>The URL you are trying to use   (eg yourBusiness.com or yourBusiness.co.uk)</li> <li>Whether you bought the URL thru Blogger, or from another domain registrar</li> <li>Details of all error messages you are seeing</li> </ul> <br /> Post the details into a <b>new question</b> (use the big red "Post a Question")button - don't try to hijack someone else's question, because their problem and solution will probably be different, for this particular error message.<br /> <br /> Make sure your question has a <b>meaningful title</b>   (eg  "Custom domain - another blog or site is hosted"):   many helpers don't read questions with generic titles like "help" which don't give any clues about what skills are needed to answer the question.<br /> <br /> If your question doesn't get answered in <b>a day or two</b>, <b>post an update in the same thread</b> - even something as simple as the word "bump" will take your question up to the top of the pile again, and tell the helpers that you are actively looking for help with the problem.<br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <h2> Related Articles</h2> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/11/use-blogger-to-make-a-website.html">Using Blogger to make a proper website</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/04/using-domain-purchased-from-another.html">Using a website address from another domain registrar for your blog</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/setting-up-your-custom-domain.html">Setting up an administrator for a custom domain purchased through Blogger</a></div>

What "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" really means

This article explains what "Another blog or Google Site is already using this address" means when you see it while setting up a custom domain for your blog - and what you can do to fix it. What is a custom domain A custom domain is a "real" website address, instead of the free one that you get wh…

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How to remove the numbers in blogger post URL's

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b>This article looks at the numbers that are in web-page addresses created by Blogger, what they mean and how you can influence them.</b> <br /> <b><br /></b> <div style="clear: both;"> </div> <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OPc_nZ5IOujLx8JPLMKhk88vlbfEYP2rpMJJ9fdAWRuCBeFoMo9bWzso8qE2mKioVFeRN1fEU6U0TcNsFXNydjCW7Z91QeMvqZNj9Ocg5aUC-XfoTcw2kfVLMY7FVVVdAs5CHS-pj-eS/s313/remove-numbers-blogger-post-url.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="no symbol over digits section of blog-post website address" border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-OPc_nZ5IOujLx8JPLMKhk88vlbfEYP2rpMJJ9fdAWRuCBeFoMo9bWzso8qE2mKioVFeRN1fEU6U0TcNsFXNydjCW7Z91QeMvqZNj9Ocg5aUC-XfoTcw2kfVLMY7FVVVdAs5CHS-pj-eS/s200/remove-numbers-blogger-post-url.png.png" title="Removing the numbers from your post URLs" width="200" /></a></div> When you first publish a post, Blogger assigns a permanent web-address (aka an URL or a permalink) to the post.  I've previously explained how you can <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/Control-words-used-for-post-urls-in-blogger.html">control the words used in this hyperlink</a>. <br /> <br /> A common question from people who are researching SEO for their blog is "how do I get rid of the numbers in the post-URL?".<br /> <br /> Unfortunately the answer is not as straighforward as most people hope for.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> Numbers near the start of Blogger URLS</h2> <span style="background-color: white;">As described in <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/Control-words-used-for-post-urls-in-blogger.html">setting the content of your post's permalink</a>, the URL given to posts published in Blogger shows the <b>year </b>and <b>month </b>of the <b>original publication date</b> for the post. I think this is because Blogger was originally set up as an on-line diary, with a lot of the features organised around the post-date.</span><br /> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghV9UV26-Lv5rVxeVilfYD_ke7R4Dks5RQc2OVaEj4gCejfX03bYkqLb5cjn2QKc3SxqeCJ6MYJutZmltVYmf-zwGTlZxfVKQIk6LMsp_Xm6If0ALt_xaNx7C2BS3vFHLmPXbRmwOPpYnj/s638/digits-in-url-example-internet-explorer-private-mode.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="numbers in the website address of a blog post, as show in Internet Explorer" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghV9UV26-Lv5rVxeVilfYD_ke7R4Dks5RQc2OVaEj4gCejfX03bYkqLb5cjn2QKc3SxqeCJ6MYJutZmltVYmf-zwGTlZxfVKQIk6LMsp_Xm6If0ALt_xaNx7C2BS3vFHLmPXbRmwOPpYnj/s400/digits-in-url-example-internet-explorer-private-mode.png.png" title="Digits in a Blogger post-url" width="90%" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Today, there are ways of <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/setting-what-goes-on-home-page.html">giving your blog a home page</a>, <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-put-put-posts-into-your-pages-in.html">showing your posts in pages</a>, and c<a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/03/showing-your-oldest-post-first-in.html">hanging the order of the posts</a>, which let your blog be <b>a lot more than a date-ordered web-log</b>.<br /> <br /> Some blogging software (eg Wordpress) lets you choose the structure of the URLs which are used, eg leaving the date out totally, or puting it after the words.<br /> <br /> However <b>Blogger does not currently have any way to remove the date-part of the post URLs</b>. And I could be wrong, but my best guess is that this will not change anytime soon.<br /> <br /> <h3> So what options are available to remove the year and month numbers?</h3> If you just <b>don't want people to know the correct month and year</b> of the post, then you can <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2009/12/changing-date-for-post.html">change the date</a> before you publish the post for the the first time. Maybe make it something non-sensical (eg 1/1/1990). (However do remember that your RSS feed will show the actual date of publication, not the assigned date).<br /> <br /> If you have some content where any <b>month-and-year are particularly irrelevant</b>, <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/difference-between-pages-and-posts.html">put it into a Page instead of a Post</a> - because Page URLs don't contain a date.  But remember that you need to give users a way to get to these Pages, and that remember that they are not sent out in <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">your RSS feed</a>, so subscribers won't see the content.<br /> <br /> The third - and least attractive - option: is to <b>accept that this is how Blogger works</b> and that you need to live with it or switch to another blogging tool.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> Numbers near the end of Blogger URLS</h2> Blogger puts digits at the end of post-URLs in order to make sure that each post ever published has a <b>unique address</b>.<br /> <br /> Notice that I said "ever published": if you publish a post, then delete it, and then publish a second post with the same year, month and either title or <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/Control-words-used-for-post-urls-in-blogger.html">customized-URL-words</a>, then the second post's URL will have some digits put on the end, to stop it being the same as the first one.<br /> <br /> <b>Once a post is published, you cannot remove the digits and keep the same words and month/year.</b>  The only way to avoid them is to make sure that your post-URLs are unique. So if you publish a post and notice that it has digits on the end of the URL, one option is to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/deleting-blogs-and-blog-posts.html">delete that post</a>, and replace it with one which has <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2009/12/changing-date-for-post.html">a different publication date</a> or <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/Control-words-used-for-post-urls-in-blogger.html">customized-URL-words</a>(don't forget to <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/03/moving-post-from-one-blog-to-another.html">copy the post contents</a> before you delete it!)   Or you could just <b>set it back to draft status</b>, and then publish it again with different and this time unique customized-URL-words.<br /> <br /> For example, if you publish and find that you get<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <i>www.all-about-cats.com/2012-07/vegetarian-cat-food-recipes<b>01</b>.html</i></blockquote> <span style="background-color: white;">you may want to delete the post, and republish the content in a post with a different date like</span><br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> <span style="background-color: white;"><i>www.all-about-cats.com/2012-06/vegetarian-cat-food-recipes.html</i></span></blockquote> <br /> <br /> <h2> Does it really matter?</h2> <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACrystal_128_karm.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="By Everaldo Coelho (YellowIcon) [LGPL (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons"><img alt="Crystal 128 karm" height="200" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Crystal_128_karm.png" width="200" /></a><span style="background-color: white;">Personally <b>I'm not convinced</b> that having numbers in Blogger URL's is a problem.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="background-color: white;">If the content is so weak, and poorly linked to by other sites and <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/04/linking-your-blog-to-social-networks.html">social media</a> that the presence of numbers in the URL is affecting visitor numbers, then it seems to me that there are more important things for you to be worrying about.</span><br /> <br /> On the other hand, if your blog is already popular and well-optimized, and you're looking to get the last possible bit of SEO benefit - you'd be better off <b>using your time</b> to write even more good quanlity, unique, content so that your exisiting subscribers visit more often, instead of fussing over something that you cannot control.<br /> <br /> <b>Or am I mistaken?</b><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <h2> Related Articles</h2> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/07/Control-words-used-for-post-urls-in-blogger.html">Setting the custom-URL for a blog post</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/setting-what-goes-on-home-page.html">Giving your blog a home page</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-put-put-posts-into-your-pages-in.html">Putting Blogger posts into pages</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2009/12/changing-date-for-post.html">How to set the date for a post</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/difference-between-pages-and-posts.html">The difference between Posts and Pages</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-rss-subscribe-to-posts-is-important.html">What is RSS and why it matters for bloggers</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/11/deleting-blogs-and-blog-posts.html">Removing a post from your blog</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/03/moving-post-from-one-blog-to-another.html">Copy the contents between blog posts - and keep all the formatting.</a></div>

How to remove the numbers in blogger post URL's

This article looks at the numbers that are in web-page addresses created by Blogger, what they mean and how you can influence them. When you first publish a post, Blogger assigns a permanent web-address (aka an URL or a permalink) to the post.  I've previously explained how you can control the wor…

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Help visitors who arrive at your blog via a link to a deleted post

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUlMAYmX_T2wBmxmXDyXD2KoKPk_4ei9wBVNakgQxF7YUymd1-gp4RiGBcsQ5uuD9_vcRjwRXVY9dOaVE6uVrhsgH6uD9or0JhS0-w5h24CAtPzSkXFBLxeSZOTKRdnqFUCEBPRyCF4GS/w795-h488-no/regular-blogger-hints-tips-weekly-post-generic-picture.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUlMAYmX_T2wBmxmXDyXD2KoKPk_4ei9wBVNakgQxF7YUymd1-gp4RiGBcsQ5uuD9_vcRjwRXVY9dOaVE6uVrhsgH6uD9or0JhS0-w5h24CAtPzSkXFBLxeSZOTKRdnqFUCEBPRyCF4GS/w795-h488-no/regular-blogger-hints-tips-weekly-post-generic-picture.png" width="200" /></a></div> If you sometimes delete posts from your blog, then it's a good idea to provide some help to people who who arrive at your blog via links to those posts.<br /> <br /> (Even if you don't have any links to those posts, it's likely that a search-engine somewhere will have some - and other people may have bookmarked or shared them, too.)<br /> <br /> There are two options for doing this:<br /> <br /> <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <br /> <h2> Post-specific redirects</h2> Use these if you want to re-direct visitors who come to a particular previous post:<br /> <br /> Go into <b>Settings > Search Preferences</b>, click Edit beside <b>Custom Redirects</b>.<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvn-tCWU8XZl3g4nbX1EKdgqMPTFAhV6SHWrcEsdp5BGT1Zi7kFud9XellBAlk9iU8UbsPbenhrFbdQYSVTgcwig0TVJro4lBeuvyAqaW7M5ILm_MUB29mHHHILJzcwhe3dyjzHOzDt1n1/w899-h476-no/make-redirect-instructions-for-posts-removed-from-your-blog.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvn-tCWU8XZl3g4nbX1EKdgqMPTFAhV6SHWrcEsdp5BGT1Zi7kFud9XellBAlk9iU8UbsPbenhrFbdQYSVTgcwig0TVJro4lBeuvyAqaW7M5ILm_MUB29mHHHILJzcwhe3dyjzHOzDt1n1/w899-h476-no/make-redirect-instructions-for-posts-removed-from-your-blog.png" width="90%" /></a></div> <br /> Click <b>New Redirect</b>, to create instructions for what to do if a visitor tries to navigate to a specific post.<br /> <br /> Put the address of the post that you want to make a re-direct for into the <b>From</b> field.<br /> <br /> Put the address of the post that you want to visitors to be taken to into the <b>To</b> field.<br /> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> For both addresses, the part you need to enter is the URL of the post from the first backslash on.   </blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Do not put in your blog-address</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Do include the date-part of the URL and the backslash.<br /> eg<br /> for    <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2013/01/changing-a-label-value-for-all-posts.html">http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2013/01/changing-a-label-value-for-all-posts.html</a><br /> use   <b><span style="font-size: large;">/</span>2013/01/changing-a-label-value-for-all-posts.html</b></blockquote> <div> <br /></div> <div> Tick the <b>Permanent</b> check-box.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Click <b>Save</b>.</div> <div> <br /></div> <div> Click <b>Save Changes</b>.   (Yes, you need to do both Saves)</div> <br /> <br /> <h2> A generic page-not-found message</h2> Use this if you do not want to set up post-specific re-directs, or if you cannot remember the URL of your deleted posts.<br /> <br /> Go into <b>Settings > Search Preferences</b>, and edit the Custom Page Not Found option.<br /> <br /> Put in some text welcoming the visitor, explaining that the page they were looking for is no longer available, and suggesting other places that they could try.<br /> <br />  This text can include links to other posts, so long as you hand-code them. (You might like to get code for this <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/05/getting-html-code-to-put-picture-into.html">using the post editor</a>).</div>

Help visitors who arrive at your blog via a link to a deleted post

If you sometimes delete posts from your blog, then it's a good idea to provide some help to people who who arrive at your blog via links to those posts. (Even if you don't have any links to those posts, it's likely that a search-engine somewhere will have some - and other people may have bookmarked…

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Teach Google-search about your blog with the Data Validator

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b>This quick-tip is about the Webmaster Tools Tool Data Validator tool - which is an easier way to "teach" Google about the way things are described on your blog or website.</b><br /> <br /> <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /><img alt="quick-tips logo" border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" title="Quick tips for Blogger Users - especially about how Blogger works with other popular tools" width="200" /></a></div> Recently, Google <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ie/2012/12/introducing-data-highlighter-for-event.html" target="_blank">announced</a> a new feature in <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/dashboard" target="_blank">Webmaster Tools</a> called the Data Validator.<br /> <br /> This is like a simpler way for website-owners (which is what bloggers really are) to tell Blogger about structured information that they put onto their sites - by point-and-clicking at the information on screen, rather than by learning the intricacies of <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.ie/2012/04/test-html-rich-text-post-snippets.html" target="">Rich Snippets and the snippet testing tool</a>.<br /> <br /> What they've released so far is just an English-language tool for events - "such as concerts, sporting events, exhibitions, shows, and festivals".<br /> <br /> To use it you need to<br /> <blockquote> <i>visit Webmaster Tools, select your site, click the "Optimization" link in the left sidebar, and click "Data Highlighter". </i></blockquote> <br /> And obviously you need to have verified the blog in Webmaster Tools before you start, and to do the "learning" with the same account.   NB   Some blogs will be automatically verified, but some won't:  if yours isn't, then the best way to do this is to choose Alternate Methods and choose HTML Tag - then <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2012/04/adding-meta-tags-to-your-blog.html">add the meta-tag to your blog</a>.<br /> <br /> The bottom line is that for this to work, you need to <b>put the information into your blog the same way every time</b> (aka in a "consistent format"). What will be interesting to see is exactly how "consistent" it needs to be - I suspect that the tool will probably get smarter over time.<br /> <br /> I haven't had a chance to try it yest,  /But I am using a Blogger to manage the website for a small choir which has a concert in January.   So I think I'll start by structuring the announcement of the last concert in June 2012, and then see how well it applies the learning to the next one.</div>

Teach Google-search about your blog with the Data Validator

This quick-tip is about the Webmaster Tools Tool Data Validator tool - which is an easier way to "teach" Google about the way things are described on your blog or website. Recently, Google announced a new feature in Webmaster Tools called the Data Validator. This is like a simpler way for website-o…

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How to find free pictures for your blog, using Creative-Commons search

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b>This article describes the Creative Commons search tool, which you can use to look for pictures, videos, music etc that are available for other people to use under a Creative Commons license.</b><br /> <br /> <div style="clear: both;"> </div> <br /> <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <h2> What is Creative Commons</h2> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3TYPzwjemBi94inWJVqB5JdFr7pInY8QfMLdYiI60lKaFNiYtVsj9CQFDO_i5n5lmr9jvr2Pu94h7MVIEvlM9b5G9K7ciMLcc-g1p248nWzzPhU2wun0dkeRalQh0jO2zPHeWUBp6_9Md/s356/find-free-pictures-for-your-blog-with-creative-commons-search-tool.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Stick-man holding up a Creative-Commons-search logo, while thinking about some images he wants to find" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3TYPzwjemBi94inWJVqB5JdFr7pInY8QfMLdYiI60lKaFNiYtVsj9CQFDO_i5n5lmr9jvr2Pu94h7MVIEvlM9b5G9K7ciMLcc-g1p248nWzzPhU2wun0dkeRalQh0jO2zPHeWUBp6_9Md/s320/find-free-pictures-for-your-blog-with-creative-commons-search-tool.png" title="Blogger-HAT-Man recommends Creative Commons search to find interesting pictures to use on your blog" width="250" /></a></div> Previously I've described <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/copyright-blogs-and-bloggers.html">how copyright applies to bloggers</a>, <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/tools-for-applying-copyright-protection.html">how you can protect your blog-content from copyright theives</a>, and <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-action-when-someone-has-copied.html">what you can do if they take you work anyway</a>.<br /> <br /> The focus in that series was looking after your own rights.<br /> <br /> But rights always come with responsibilities. The details vary by country, but in general you cannot just copy other people's recent work without their permission - in the same way that they cannot copy yours.<br /> <br /> Some people, though, are <b>happy to give other people permission to use their work</b>, often with certain conditions (eg you must including an attribution link to the creator).<br /> <br /> <b>Creative Commons</b> is an easy, legal way for creators to give permission for things they create to be used by other people. It is a framework which offers "licenses" that creators (writers, artists, composers, poets, etc) can apply to their work to say that other people can make copies, and what conditions apply  (eg non-commercial use, only if you attribute me, etc)<br /> <br /> To use it, authors, artists, etc don't need to register their work. Instead, they go to <a href="http://creativecommons.org/" target="_blank">the Creative Commons website</a> and get code / text to put with their published work to show what rules apply.<br /> <br /> Then they can publish or upload their pictures, writing etc anywhere they want, and by linking to the licence <b>the work is as protected as anything on the internet can be</b>.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> How to find pictures & music that are Creative Commons licensed</h2> Creative Commons have a very useful search tool, found at <a href="http://search.creativecommons.org/" target="_blank">http://search.creativecommons.org</a><br /> <br /> This is not a search <b>engine</b>. Instead it is a <b>front-end-tool</b> that lets you choose:<br /> <ul> <li>The <b>keywords</b> you want to search for (the search words)</li> <li>The <b>type of license</b> that you need (use for commercial purposes - yes or no, modify, adapt, build upon - yes/no)</li> <li>Which of the file host/search services to use (eg flickr, Google, Open clip art library - etc)</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVi4ciAbaU001Jm6p817OIZp7ddrsR6hK5RyExoZg-9r0DX6XSc7izS5iRSBmvSEHacs-RmG6pw5w7GA1TL1_OoflTTS8pAUvcrFnJ_uWotSdcR0YjCUBMDBz6iGlQZArtNYrPu8qe16i6/s640/creative-commons-search-main-options-menu-specify-keywords-modifiable-attribution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="screen where you can enter creative commons search parameter values " border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVi4ciAbaU001Jm6p817OIZp7ddrsR6hK5RyExoZg-9r0DX6XSc7izS5iRSBmvSEHacs-RmG6pw5w7GA1TL1_OoflTTS8pAUvcrFnJ_uWotSdcR0YjCUBMDBz6iGlQZArtNYrPu8qe16i6/s640/creative-commons-search-main-options-menu-specify-keywords-modifiable-attribution.png" title="Creative Commons search tool home page" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> Once you have entered the search options, click on the source that you want to look in, and <b>you are  taken to that site</b> and shown the results of the search-query and options you entered.<br /> <br /> For example, when I entered:<br /> <ul> <li>"Christmas"</li> <li>Commercial allowed (because I wanted to make <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/inserting-picture-into-blog-post.html">a picture to use</a> in <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/">Blogger-HAT</a>, where I have advertising)</li> <li>Changes allowed (because I wanted an image that I could use as the basis for another one, rather than exactly as it is now)</li> </ul> <br /> and clicked on Fotopedia, I was shown:<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAPfz6tD83aw8XwdimamG-8jP-PKmDcJfJFGGTc4jhioxPcnQi6IpVdjajMTxBBisis6I0XACMbo8BS6qJ6Pn7qhuRAGw2HqWTSMZ7MdO8c9N1RDjJ01C15v3MBhnMA5R4oB3NQIxUvWuV/s545/fotopedia-search-results-set-commercial-labelled-reuse-attribution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="screen showing three Christmas-themes photos from Fotopedia, and their tools for changing pictures per screen and re-use options" border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAPfz6tD83aw8XwdimamG-8jP-PKmDcJfJFGGTc4jhioxPcnQi6IpVdjajMTxBBisis6I0XACMbo8BS6qJ6Pn7qhuRAGw2HqWTSMZ7MdO8c9N1RDjJ01C15v3MBhnMA5R4oB3NQIxUvWuV/s640/fotopedia-search-results-set-commercial-labelled-reuse-attribution.png" title="Fotopedia search results set for Christmas with commercial use and modifications allowed" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /> From here I could use the search tools in Fotopedia to refine my image-search and find just the right picture that I could use to represent a Christmas carol worksheet on my blog.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> What sources are included</h2> Today, the sources that are linked to from Creative Commons search are:<br /> <ul> <li>Eurpoeana - media</li> <li>Flickr - pictures</li> <li>Fotopedia - pictures</li> <li>Google web - web search results</li> <li>Google images - pictures</li> <li>Jamenda - music</li> <li>Open Clip Art Library - images</li> <li>SpinXpress - media</li> <li>Wikimedia Commons - media</li> <li>YouTube - video</li> <li>Pixabay - images</li> <li>ccMixter - music</li> <li>SoundCloud - music</li> </ul> <br /> <br /> It wouldn't surprise me if this list grow/shrinks, as sites become more or less useful as sources of public-domain or creative-commons-licensed materials.<br /> <br /> <br /> <h2> Things to watch out for</h2> Creative Commons cannot guarantee that the results of searches that start in their tools will always be available for re-use: source systems may change their approach, items may be mis-tagged, content owners may change their mind, etc. So they recommend that you should a<b>lways click-through to the original image in the source site, and double-check the license and attribution requirements</b> there.<br /> <br /> Also, some sites may allow you to link directly to the copy of the image on their site. this can be a lot quicker than making your own copy, uploading it and included it in your blog.  But doing this means that the image will not be used as <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/07/postsnippet-and-postthumbnail-tools-for.html">the thumbnail-image for your post</a>. And if the picture is ever removed from the original site - or its web-site address there changes - then the link in your blog will not work any more.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <hr /> <h2> Related Articles:</h2> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/copyright-blogs-and-bloggers.html">Bloggers and Copyright - an overview</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/tools-for-applying-copyright-protection.html">Protecting your blog-contents from copyright theft</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-action-when-someone-has-copied.html">Taking action when someone has used your copyright materials</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/07/postsnippet-and-postthumbnail-tools-for.html">Thumbnail images - a picture to summarise each post</a><br /> <br /> <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/inserting-picture-into-blog-post.html">Adding a picture to Blogger</a></div>

How to find free pictures for your blog, using Creative-Commons search

This article describes the Creative Commons search tool, which you can use to look for pictures, videos, music etc that are available for other people to use under a Creative Commons license. What is Creative Commons Previously I've described how copyright applies to bloggers, how you can protect y…

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Limiting AdSense ad types for individual websites is now available

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <b>This quick tip is about a new feature that AdSense have just announced, which lets you control the types of ads that are banned - by website, instead of just for your entire AdSense account.</b> <a href="https://draft.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"> <img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_PU7Vj7d4VOpQN_8DH5JBRBuEXtI2mYy09XjWYngPyRusB-eDJVolUkU7SH32FXLP0pJDXAtGBJrNPSNkoAuuXijUxNhQoPZWYzveiibL9S5IZnlhu0hZSXQPyxFgFuiK6XzJNujDJfwV/s217/quick-tips-blogger-hints-and-tips.png.png" width="200" /></a></div> For a long time, I've recommended that <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/setting-up-adsense-on-your-blog.html">Blogger-users who use AdSense</a> should: <br /> <ul> <li><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/02/stop-malicious-use-of-your-adsense.html">Protect their account from malicious use</a>, and </li> <li><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/03/blocking-categories-of-adsense-ads-from.html">Stop sexual-content ads from showing</a> to be sure that they meet Blogger's Terms and Conditions.</li> </ul> The second of these steps is basically about telling AdSense not to show certain categories of ads on your blog. One of the bug-bears with this is that, until now, it's been all-or-nothing:  you could ban ad-categories from either all your sites or none of them.     For example, one of my sites is likely to be visited by people who are unhappy with the idea of dating agencies using suggestive photos of young women in the ads.   Until now, I've had to ban this category from all my sites, to be certain that they weren't show on the sensitive site. But now AdSense have<a href="http://adsense.blogspot.ie/2012/11/more-flexible-controls-with-site-level.html" target="_blank"> announced that they support site-level blocking</a>:  this means that you can tell them not to show particular categories of ads on certain sites, but leave them on others. To use the feature, you will need to <br /> <ul> <li>Tell AdSense what URL / domains / web-addresses you manage (if you haven't done it already) and then </li> <li>Set up blocking for individual sites as required.</li> </ul> The good news is that you can still choose "all sites" - and you can block by category from just sub-domains if you want to. It maybe that you cannot use the website-level blocking yet:  Google started rolling it out in AdSense accounts late last week, and it will get to everyone eventually - I don't have it yet myself, but am looking forward to it eagerly.</div>

Limiting AdSense ad types for individual websites is now available

This quick tip is about a new feature that AdSense have just announced, which lets you control the types of ads that are banned - by website, instead of just for your entire AdSense account. For a long time, I've recommended that Blogger-users who use AdSense should: Protect their account from…

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