All About Social Webz

Blogger is a great free blog platform that is improving every day. New useful hacks and widgets are being created on a regular basis. Here is a list of some of the very best blogger widgets and blogger hacks that will improve the usability of your blog.

Blogger Hacks

Related Posts Widget
Display related posts beneath each of your blog posts. Links are displayed based on labels given to each post.

Tag Cloud Widget
Display a simple tag cloud in your blog's sidebar. The tags are displayed based upon the labels given to each post.

Random Posts Button
This widget creates a link for your template that directs users to a random post when clicked on.

Change the Favicon
Are you tired of the regular organge favicon provided by blogger? This tutorial will teach you how to display your own customized favicon.

Top Commentators Widget
Reward your readers for commenting on your blog with this widget. The widget displays the names of the top commentators and will direct you to their website when clicked on.

Change the Title Tags for More Search Engine Traffic
This tutorial teaches you how to make your post title show up before your blog title in Google search results. This is very important when it comes to Search Engine Optimization!

Recent Posts with Thumbnails
Grab your readers attention with an appealing recent posts widget which includes thumbnails.

Recent Comments Widget
Make your blog look alive by displaying recent comment discussions.

Digg Vote Button
Let your Digg readers Digg your posts directly from your blog with this handy little widget.

Search Bar for Blogger
This widget displays a small search bar in your blog's footer. Your readers will be able to easily search your blog for specific content.

Table of Contents
Allow your readers to easily navigate through your site with an interactive Table of Contents.

Blog Widgets

Facebook Widgets
Connect your blog or website with your Facebook Account using these powerful widgets.

Currently Online Readers Widget
A small widget which display how many users are currently online. The widget also indicates which pages are currently being looked at.

Contact Admin Widget
Let your users stay in touch with you with this contact form.

Post Ratings by Outbrain
Let your users give your post a star rating from one to five.

Social Bookmarking Widget
This widget lets your users to easily bookmark your blog posts at the bottom of each post.

PageRank Buttons
 Showoff your blog's Google PageRank with this small widget.

Google Talk Chat Back Badge
A Google Talk chatback badge will let visitors to your web page chat with you. They'll be able to chat with you whenever you're signed in to Google Talk.

Twitter Widget Tools
A great post containg 502 twitter widget tools, buttons, and icons for Engaging your followers.

PayPal Donation Button
If you've got a loyal reader community that might be willing to sponsor you as a blogger, this would be the way.

Google Buzz Share Button
Another way to share your content across a great social network.

Performancing Ads Widget
Another way to make some money from your blog by letting others advertise on your site.

Sudoku Puzzle Widget
Have some fun on your blog with this interactive sudoku game that will easily go in the sidebar.  The sudoku has five different levels of difficulty.

Other

Change Your Template
Choose from a huge list of custom blog templates. Providing your blog with a new design will make it look fresh and new.

Switch to a Custom Domain
Upgrade your blog to your own domain name such as YourDomainName.com

Facebook is the largest social networking site with more than 400 million active users and is growing larger every day! Make sure to use these Facebook widgets for your website or blog to connect with your large Facebook audience. You can use these tools to easily share certain profile information, websites, blogs, and businesses with the Facebook community.

Personal Profile Widgets

Like Badge
Display your Facebook pages for all to see.

Profile Badge
Create a Facebook profile badge to share selected profile information on your website. A profile badge will allow your users to easily connect with you and add you as a friend.

Photo Badge
This photo badge allows you to share your Facebook photos on websites and blogs. Choose from a vertical, horizontal, or two-column layout and also choose the number of photos to be displayed.

Basic Widgets for Website or Blog

Like Box
This allows your users to publish their content and activity to Facebook.
Share Button
A powerful facebook widget which allows your visitors to share your content on Facebook! An excellent Facebook widget for blogger.

Page Badge
Lets you share your Facebook page (one that you have created) information on your website.

Twitter Link
Connect your Facebook page with Twitter. Whenever you update your Facebook page, your twitter followers will be updated as well with a tweet. A great Facebook widget for your website!

Developers Widgets for Website or Blog

Like Button
Allows facebook users to share web pages from your website on their profile.

Comments Box
Lets your users comment on your website content with their Facebook account.

Recommendations
Provides your website users with personalized suggestions for pages to visit.

Live Stream
Lets Facebook users to post and share content in real-time.

Activity Feed
Lets users know what their facebook friends are doing on your website through comments and likes.

Login Button
Displays a login button along with profile pictures of facebook friends who have already signed up.

Facepile
Shows profile pictures of people who have liked your facebook page or have signed up for your webpage.

Registration
Another way for users to sign up for your site.

Google Buzz is a great social tool which is very similiar to Twitter and Facebook. It's a wonderful way to engage and interact with your readers! Make sure to implement these Google Buzz buttons into your blogger posts, so that users can easily share your content on Google Buzz.

Add Google Buzz it Button to Blogger

1. Go to Layout >Edit HTML in your Blogger Dashboard.
2. Back up your existing Template before making any changes!
3. Make sure to check the "Expand Widget Templates" box.
4. Here is the Google Buzz it Code:
   

   <div style="float:right;padding:4px;">
   <a expr:href='&quot;http://www.google.com/reader/link?url=&quot; + data:post.url + &quot;&amp;title=&quot; + data:post.title + &quot;&amp;srcTitle=&quot; + data:blog.title+ &quot;&amp;srcURL=&quot; + data:blog.homepageUrl ' rel='nofolloW' style='text-decoration:none;' target='_blank'>
   <img alt='Buzz It' src='http://i48.tinypic.com/idyc04.png' style='border:0px;'/></a>
   </div>

5. Search for this line of code in your template:
   

   <div class='post-header-line-1'/>

   and place the Google Buzz it Code right after the code you searched for above.
   If this doesn't work, then search for this code below and place the Google Buzz it Code directly before it.
   

   <data:post.body/>

6. Now save your template and you're done!
   

Add Google Buzz Button with Share Count to Blogger

1. Here is the Google Buzz it with Share Count Code
   

   <div style="float:right;padding:4px;"> <script type='text/javascript'> njuice_buzz_url = '<data:post.title/>'; njuice_buzz_title = '<data:post.url/>'; njuice_buzz_share = 'reader'; </script> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://button.njuice.com/buzz.js'/> </div>

2. Place the Google Buzz it with Share Count Code either
   directly after this:
   

   <div class='post-header-line-1'/>

   OR
   directly before this:
   

   <data:post.body/>

3. To change the style of the widget add either
   

   njuice_buzz_size = 'small';

   or
   

   njuice_buzz_size = 'simple';

   just after
   

   njuice_buzz_share = 'reader';

4. Save your blogger template and you're done!

Hosting a blog on your own custom domain is essential and it's important to find a reliable and affordable web host.  Having the right web host that you can trust is key for any website or blog.  So I've come up with an updated list of the best web hosts for blogs.  Please feel free to ask any questions because I am happy to help!

Hosting a blog on your own custom domain is essential and it's important to find a reliable and affordable web host.  Having the right web host that you can trust is key for any website or blog.  So I've come up with an updated list of the best web hosts for blogs.  Please feel free to ask any questions because I am happy to help!

You may realize it's time to take things seriously and upgrade to your own custom domain (eg:yourblog.com). This post will hopefully help clarify the benefits of getting your own web domain and where to start. Just like always, you are more than welcome to ask me any questions and I am happy to help you through the process.

Why Choose a Custom Domain?

1. It's Permanent.  You get to keep this domain name forever.  Services such as Blogger can deactivate your blog at any given time without notice.
2. Promote your own brand.  If your site is a subdomain (such as .blogspot.com) you're promoting Google Blogger. Get your own domain and you'll be promoting your own unique brand. It gives you credibility and more people will trust you and what you have to offer.
3. More Traffic.  Search engines prefer custom web domains over subdomains.
4. Name Recognition.  It's much easier to remember and locate a domain name such as NinjaMan.com than NinjaMan.blogspot.com.
5. Custom Email.  You can get your own custom email (eg: John@YourBlog.com). It looks very professional.
6. Selling Rights.  Subdomain blogs, such as Blogspot, do not allow you to sell your blog. With your own custom domain you have the right to sell your website if you choose to do so one day.
7. It's Cheap.  Give up one Starbucks drink a month and you can afford your own (.com, .net, .org, etc.) domain! It's only $3.96 a month with HostGator.

Choosing the Right Web Host

HostGator

If you are searching for a web hosting company that has reliable and fast servers, try HostGator. My friend James and I use them to host several sites, and I have been a customer for over one year without any issues. Our high traffic site TheBlogTemplates.com has been running very smoothly since September of 2009 and HostGator can handle it well.

Option 1 : Setup Your Custom Domain with Blogger

1. Assuming you have your own hosting plan with Hostgator or another web host, contact your web hosting company about registering a domain. Tell them that you want to register a new domain name such as YourDomain.com.  Once the domain is registered ask them to create a CNAME record for your domain with the DNS directing to: ghs.google.com.  Please note that it may take a few hours to a day for your DNS settings to update correctly.
2. Now we need to update your Blogger Settings at Blogger.com.  Go to Settings and then click on the Publishing tab. 
   
   1. If you are publishing on Blogspot, you will see a link near the top offering to switch you to a custom domain. Go ahead and click on "custom domain".
      
   2. Now click "Switch to Advanced Settings".
      
      
   3. Fill in the name of your domain. I typed in YourDomain.com as an example.  Once you've done this enter the word verification at the bottom of the page and click "Save Settings".
      
   4. That's it! Your files should now be hosted at your new domain if your DNS settings have been updated yet.
      

Option 2 : Set up Your Custom Domain by Migrating from Blogger to WordPress

Wordpress is a free professional blogging platform which most people prefer over Blogger. Assuming once again that you have a web hosting account with one such as Hostgator, go to your cPanel.

1. Watch this tutorial on how to Install WordPress from Fantastico.
2. Then in your WordPress Admin area (domain.com/wp-admin), go to Manage → Import → Blogger and follow the directions to complete the import.
3. Your blog posts should now be imported to Wordpress and should show up on your website!

few days ago, face book surprised us by launching a lot of social plugins, one of them, actually the most popular one yet is the famous like button,
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to add it to your blogger blog.
and you’ll learn how to customize

• change the verb, like or recommend.
• change it’s color.
• change it’s font.

The button code,

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>
<iframe allowTransparency='true' expr:src='&quot;

http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=&quot

; + data:post.url + "&layout=standard&

show_faces=false&width=100&action=like&

font=arial&colorscheme=light"' frameborder=

'0' scrolling='no' style='border:none; overflow:hidden;

 width:450px; height:40px;'/>
</b:if>

where to add it ?
Log into your blogger account, then go to Layout >> Edit Html.
Before doing any thing you must check Expand Widget Templates box.
And find the next Code

<div class='post-header-line-1'/>

And after it, paste your button code
What, If you didn’t find the code above in your template, The try to find the following,

<data:post.body/>

And paste the button code Before it.
click Save Template and you are done.
in the above code you can customize 3 parts. and i’ve colored them to make it easy for you to recognize,
in the above code change the following parts,

• like this part controls the verb that appear on your button, keep it as you see or change it to recommend if you want.
• arial this part controls the font type, keep it or change it to one of the following, lucida+grande
  segoe+ui
  tahoma
  trebuchet+ms
  verdana
• light this part controls your button color theme, and you have three options, light, evil, or dark
• Update, How to make it appear on your home page.

in the button code there are two parts you’ll need to remove to make this button appear on your home page, the first line and the last line, if you still don’t under stand, please see the following parts and delete it before pasting the code to your template,

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == &quot;item&quot;'>

</b:if>