First Things First

The only thing you need to set up your free blog on blogger.com is an email. If you don't want to use your work email, you can get a free email at places like yahoo or gmail. I have three separate emails that I blog from. I use my school email for all blogs related to education, my personal email for my blogs about my family, my children's blogs and my blog about loss and I have opened up ANOTHER email to remind me of those first steps I took when I first became a blogger and created THIS blog.

Go to blogger.com and fill in all the information they ask you. Don't lie on your birthday. When setting up a blog for a friend I didn't know what year she was born so chose the current year. Blogger said that she wasn't old enough to blog and then blocked her email (sorry Chrissy). You do not have to put your birthday anywhere, and it will only publish the information you give them... (more on that later).

You will create your account, name your blog and then choose your template. Blogger has a lot of cute templates that you can use. If you would like your blog to look like this one (and change the backgrounds based on your mood or the season), you can do so later. I have other posts that will give you instructions on how to do that. To get to those posts later, you can click here. For now, choose any blogger background, just so we can get started.

Once you click "start blogging" you will be taken to your "dashboard" which is where you will add interesting things to your blog (widgets), control the settings, design and most importantly... POST! The dashboard is set up to look like a folder system and the tabs will help you navigate through them. The first stop I would suggest in setting up your blog is the "Settings" tab.
It is here where you can change the title of your blog (if you'd like), add a description (though you don't have to) and control who can see your blog. You can change these things at any time. I have turned off all of my search engines on my school blogs and family blogs so that they are hard to find for the 'casual' person, though blogs that I don't mind people reading (like this one or the one I have written about loss) are open to the public. I also blog using the 'old editor' because I use an old template that is compatable with "The Cutest Blog on the Block" backgrounds. I'm guessing you will need to switch to "old editor" to do the things that I mention on this blog. Once you have things the way you would like them, click "Save Settings" at the bottom of the page.

The next thing I would do is stay in the "Settings" tab, but click "Comments". If you would like to encourage comments, click on "Anyone" next to where it says, "Who Can Comment?".

The only other thing I would do on this page is scroll all the way to the bottom and right above where you will save the settings it says, "Comment Notification Email". If you would like to be notified anytime anyone makes a comment, enter your email here. You can enter multiple emails. For example, anytime someone comments on my classroom blog I get an email of that comment to both my home and school emails. If there is a comment that is inappropriate, I can delete it at any time.

There are many things that you can play with in settings, but (to me) these are the important details to setting up a blog prior to actually posting.

How to change your layout for Cutest Blog on the Block Backgrounds

If you would like to use "The Cutest Blog on the Block" backgrounds, you will need to change your layout design. To do that click on the "Design" tab and then click on "Edit HTML" (see above). Delete the code that is in the Edit Template and paste the one that I send you via email. To copy the code, highlight the entire code I send you and click "Control C" to copy it. Then click"Control V" to paste it in the box (above). If you are using a mac you would use "Command C" and Command V" to copy and paste.

You may email me for the code at momdoran@yahoo.com. Because I don't always check that email (it was created for the purpose of setting up this blog), please leave a comment here either with your email address or asking me to check my momdoran@yahoo.com address. I do not want to put out my personal address on this blog.

Happy Blogging!

How to Add a Cute Background

There is a great site called "The Cutest Blog on the Block" and it has wonderful (free) things for your blog. This post is to show you how to add a free background to your blog. First, you will need to change your design layout (I posted how to do that here). There are probably other ways to do this but I am just showing you what I know.

Once your layout is changed, you can add a background. First you will need to choose that cute background at "The Cutest Blog on the Block". Click on Backgrounds for Blogger and let the fun begin! They have the background styles listed in different categories down the right side of the blog.

When you find a background you like, click on it (Do not choose 3 column layouts). The site will give you directions on how to add the background. But for those 'visual' learners out there, here is where you will need to do. First copy and the code they give you, and return back to your blog.

Click on your "Design" tab and you will see the layout below.

Click on "Add a Gadget"

There are many different Gadgets that you can choose from (more fun for later). To add a background, you will want to scroll down a bit and find the one that says HTML/Java Script.

Next you will paste the code that you got from The Cutest Blog on the Block into the content box. It is important to leave the "Title" Box BLANK! (I have pasted my code just as you should.)

Save the code, cross your fingers and then view your blog. You should have a nice new background.

Whenever you change backgrounds, you will go through the same steps. Don't forget to delete the code from your old background before adding a new one. I have had students who have had difficulty with backgrounds and it is usually because they added new backgrounds without deleting the old.

Happy Blogging!

Posting with Pictures

Now it's time to do what you came here to learn about... BLOG! You will do all of your blogging on the window posted above. If you are planning on using multiple pictures in your blog, I highly recommend uploading them first! To upload a picture, click on the icon of the picture (see this isn't that hard...).
Once you do that, this window (above) will pop up. Choose the picture you would like to upload and then decide what size you would like that picture to be and WHERE you would like to put it. Then you will click "Upload Image".

If you are using MULTIPLE pictures (this is important) you will upload the picture you want to show up last, first. So if I was posting a blog about Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh my!), I would upload the Bear picture first, then the Tiger, then the Lion.

I upload all of my pictures before I write my text and the first picture you see on my blog posts (the last one I upload) I always make Large/ Center. The other pictures I upload I prefer them to be of medium size (and I put mine on the left). Personally I think that the small pictures are a bit too small for my eyes, but that is all just personal preference. Play with it to see what works best for you. Once you have your pictures uploaded, then you can start typing around them.

Try it out and let me know if you have any questions about it. The best way to get good at blogging is to "do it". I blog A LOT and no one believes me when I say blogging takes no time... In my opinion, what takes the longest is choosing what pictures to use and uploading them. The actual typing and publishing takes not time at all (that is- if you know what you want to say).

Once you have a blog post done (aka some pictures and text), click on "Publish Post" and see what it looks like. If you don't like it, you can always come back and edit it!

And don't forget to spellcheck first! Grammar snobs like I pick up on those things rather quickly... (and always read what you write out loud a few minutes later so you don't accidentally omit or add words that don't make sense). I hope I have taken my own advice on this one...

Happy Blogging!

Changing Colors/ Fonts/ Etc

Whether you are using a blogger background or one from "The Cutest Blog on the Block", you may want to change certain things about your blog like colors, fonts, etc... To do this you will need to click on the "Design" tab and choose "Template Designer".

Once you are in the Template Designer you will see a menu at the top and a copy of your blog near the bottom. Click on "Advanced" and you will see a list of things that you can change about your blog. For example, here I have changed the font of my blog title as well as its color and the color of the border. The best thing about this window is you can see the changes you are making on the sample of your blog below. Nothing will be saved however unless you click "Apply to Blog".

Adding Standing Pages

Standing pages are great! If you are wondering what a standing page is, look near the top of my blog. You will see "Home" (which is where you are reading this) and "All About Me" which is the standing page that I just added for the purpose of showing you how to add one. If you are a teacher, you may want to add standing pages to focus on different subjects or different things you would like your community to be able to find quickly on your blog. If you are a director of a Childcare Development Center (Hi Ronda) you may want to use a different standing page to showcase the different classes. This is how you add a standing page.

Click on your "Posting" tab and instead of choosing "new post", choose "edit pages". Since you haven't added a page yet, you will see a blue button that says "new page". Click on it.
Once you click on it, you will see a page like the one above. This is the 'new' editor on blogger but it is very similar to the old version. I added the title "All About Me", Uploaded an unflattering picture taken by my four year old son, wrote a few sentences and clicked "Publish Page".
When I did that, Blogger sent me to a page like you see above. This is where you choose where you would like your standing pages to be. You can have them on the side of the blog or near the top (see those beautiful blue boxes again?). Choose what is right for you and click "Save and Publish".
If you want to make changes to any standing page, or add a new one (you can add up to 10), just click on 'Edit Page". The "Home" page is the main part of your blog (like where you are reading this).

Happy Blogging!