Shut Up & Read discussion

This thread is really for my questions on how to work the whole blog page. I've just started my blog and it is currently under construction so I'm hoping my fellow groupies can help me with my question and on setting everything up!


Thanks~!

First off. How do you get the labels at the top of your blog?

do you mean page labels?

Yes, I'm guessing that's what it is. I just want labels that followers can click on and it will show them like reviews, books, etc...

can you go take a look at my blog and then tell me what you want, then i can send you how I did it, im newer at blogging but I am getting a bit better everyday lol so I think LOL

http://tana-someofmyfavoritebooks.blo...

wow your blog is awesome! I see you have the page labels at the top right? I want something like that but i saw another members blog Janina http://synchronizedreading.blogspot.com/... can you take a look at hers and tell me if you can help me :)

I think she must have just formatted her's different.

if you go on your blog and then go to your dashboard, or click on the B on the top left corner, then go to design in then click on add a gadget a list should appear and you want to add pages, from there you need to still be on the dashboard and make sure you page gadget is close to the top of the page right under your blog title bar.

thanks so much! I will follow those directions and figure it out, I will be back with some more questions for you lol. Thanks for the help.

then you can add more pages by click on the button that says posting top left corner, then right below 3 more tabs will appear and there you click on edit pages, when your in there you click add new page and you can have a bunch of pages ie home, reviews, contact me stuff like that.

I hope that helps lol, I just kept playing around with the gadgets and seen what I liked.

ask away I will try to help as much as I can

Thanks for this, I've posted a few blogs on my new blog over at blogger but the formatting is a lot different than my other blog on Xanga, so this mini tutorial helps a lot!

Well I am just glad it all made sense to someone. lol

@Melissa that is exactly what I'm having trouble with on blogger, the formatting is pretty complicating at first but it gets easier because we have awesome ppl like Tana to help out the less fortunate lol.

@Alice: lol, thank goodness. I'm glad I'm not the only one whose having trouble. I'm just sticking to the basics for now, and doing a few posts. I'll make the blog a little more fancy later on.

OH Melissa I would love to follow your blog when your ready share the address with us.

Here it is: http://midnight-orchid.blogspot.com/ :D

great start Melissa, you should go into the design view and add a gadget called followers that way we can click on it and follow your blog.

Oops, I thought I did. I will go fix that now.

ETA: I added the Followers gadget as well as Follow by email, they are at the bottom of the blog.

great thanks, I am following you.

An Author approach me and wants to know if i am intrested in doing a blog tour. I am intrested but i have no idea what a blog tour is lol...help me out here somebody :)

lol I know I am doing my first in January so all I know is the author will tour blogs so you will get one date and on the date you will post either an interview of the author or a bio and info on the book. some do giveaways stuff like that. Now the good thing about this is the blog tour will be posted on other blog sites and your will be listed so it could increase your followers. You should make sure you have read the book that the tour is about.

thats all I know I think my first one is on January 21st

awll cool. Which author are you doing?

her name is Marie Landry, the book is called it will be released in January I enjoyed the book

who are you doing

If you create your blog name, are you able to change it if you don't like it anymore?

Tt wrote: "If you create your blog name, are you able to change it if you don't like it anymore?"

It depends on what blogger service you're using. And of course, if the name is you want to change to is available. Some blogs let you change it, some don't.

@Tana It's not official but his name is C.S. Splitter, the books are Haven't read them but hope to soon!

I have The Reluctant to read and review I think from the publisher. I haven't read it yet though.

I know they look really good. Sorry i always put Sheri's name when im talking to you that is the third time i did that Ms.Tana :)

lol thats okay, I am trying to get caught up on my reading and then I have to sit down and write up reviews. I should be getting to his book soon.

How do I add a comment box to my blog?

your comment box is there under your book review, I made a comment so you would see it.

Tt wrote: "How do I add a comment box to my blog?"

Also if you use blogger and are creating a page which normally doens't allow comments there's a tab near the bottom that says "Post Options" click it and there should be something that says allow comments click it and waaalaaa!!

Thank you guys! I'm trying to make my blog more fun for everyone to look at because the one I had up was dead LOL.


Also how do I make my own button so people can add it to their blog?

I found a page that does it for you, I'll post the link

http://mycoolrealm.com/sandbox/gbgen/

I used a blogger template to design my page about self publishing, and I love it. I'm new to blogging too but have been able to find what I want with a few google searchesand by testing out some changes to the html in the preview pane. Take a peek if you'd like :)

Leslie Deaton Blog

I stumbled in here, which is fortunate for me as I am new to blogging. Great suggestions about changes. Visited some wonderful blogs and made some improvements on my own blog after reading through.

Thank you for answering questions I didn't know I needed to ask. And thank you Alice for opening the discussion.

Elldee (L. Darby Gibbs)

I am a new blogger as well, and I was glad I could come to this thread and ask the "Pros" questions about their blog and how to make mines better.

So yes, thanks Alice!

No problem guys! I've been getting better in the blogger world thanks to this thread! Wishing everyone luck on their blogs! And keep asking questions!

I'm having trouble following blogs back. When I'm on my actual blog there is a list of the people that are following on my right and I try and click on them to get to their blog but it doesn't show up, but it does have a follow button for google friend connect at the top. Is that the same as following their blog back or something different? -Thanks

I just started my blog, and I have no idea how to change the design. How do you do that?

Here's my blog; http://aliveinthepages.blogspot.com/

Alice Belikov wrote: "I'm having trouble following blogs back. When I'm on my actual blog there is a list of the people that are following on my right and I try and click on them to get to their blog but it doesn't show..."

I press the 'Follow' button and then i just follow, so yeah. I think that's right :)

Hi Alice

Most blogs that are run by blogger will have the google friend connect box and you should be able to hit the follow me button without to much of a problem. You may need to sign in to google account first so when you click follow me they see your information (your profile picture icon). Usually if I am not signed in when I hit follow another box with appear and make me sign in to my account...does this happen to you?

You may also see another box that is networked blogs I click on those and follow them to.

Hope that kind of helps not sure though LOL

Saga (byshiver) | 38 comments I just started my blog, and I have no idea how to change the design. How do you do that?

There is probably a quicker way to do this, but this is what I do.

Click on the number of posts you have or the number of page views. Both are shown on the opening blogging page (not your blog, but where you open to after you log in) just below the title of your blog.
On the left will appear a number of links. Select template if you want to change the colors, backgroup image and such. Select layout if you want to change where things are on your blog.

I am not sure what else you need to know at this point. So I am going to stop here. I'll lead you further in if you need it.

Elldee

Hi Elldee, ok this is what I do but I think it brings you to the same place lol

On your blog the very top left hand corner there should be a B if you click on that it brings you to your dashboard then I click on design, then you should see close to the top template designs I click on that.

then on the left hand side you should see a list that says templates, backgrounds, adjust widths,layout and advance... here you click on each of those tabs you can make changes to your blog...width new colours templates etc. Play around in their you don't click save if you don't like what you see underneath. I just kept fooling around there till I found something I liked.

Tana wrote: "Hi Alice

Most blogs that are run by blogger will have the google friend connect box and you should be able to hit the follow me button without to much of a problem. You may need to sign in to goo..."

yes it does have me log in to my account but does yours give you the option of twitter, google, and yahoo? just making sure I'm doing everything right.

How do you put a backround in?

I am no expert on that one I just used what blogger had. LOL

if you follow my instructions above you can click on the links and find all kinds of things click on backgrouds and then you can find different backgrounds.