Share This: Social Bookmarking Widget for Blogger

A few months ago I experimented with social bookmarking using some articles I had posted on Associated Content. I wanted to see if social bookmarking actually increased page views since AC pays per view. So I randomly selected about a quarter of my articles and submitted them to Share This. After about 6 months, the bookmarked articles received hundreds of more page views than the un-bookmarked pieces. That's all I needed to see, now I bookmark not only my stuff but anybody's stuff that has the link.

Share This has a bookmarking widget for Blogger that is really easy to use. You create the bookmark using the wizard and they'll upload it to your blog layout and it automatically links to the individual blog posts. It doesn't get any easier than that.

Get yours at the Share This website. You'll have to create an account if you don't have one; it only takes a minute and its free. You can find the widget wizard under the Publishers tab, make sure that you have the Blogger option checked (its default setting is WordPress).

How to Hide the Blogger Navigational Bar

Hiding the Blogger navigational bar is a design decision based on the purpose of the blog. For instance, since this blog is about Blogger I don't really see the point in bothering to hide the bar. However on my other sites, Sysrender and TWTA Newsletter, I've hidden the bar because I feel it gives the sites a more professional look.

You can also remove the bar, but I've come across design issues with removing elements of the templates before, so I'm more comfortable just leaving it in as long as I don't have to look at it.

Under the Layout tab on your Dashboard and click the Edit HTML tab.

Scroll down a little bit past the header info until you get to the template info. This is how the template info looks on my Sysrender layout:

-----------------------------------------------
Blogger Template Style
Name: Minima
Designer: Douglas Bowman
URL: www.stopdesign.com
Date: 26 Feb 2004
Updated by: Blogger Team
----------------------------------------------- */

On the next line, type or cut and paste this line:

#navbar-iframe { display: none !important;}


Click Preview to make sure it works. Click Save Template to save the changes you made.

Adding Google Gadgets

About the Blogger Tweaker

I started blogging awhile ago but I moved over to Blogger from WordPress so I could utilize Google AdWords. After doing the boring stuff like transferring blog posts and stuff, I found that I was spending more and more time tweaking my blog,adding widgets and planning with the layout elements.

It was totally addicting. I soon became a full-blown Blogger tweaker, spending hours messing with my blog but not posting anything worthwhile. I don't know if there are any Blogger tweaker support groups, but there should be.

One thing I did do was compile the tweaks that I had worked out. I found on the Internet that a lot of the tweaker guides were for the older version of Blogger and didn't really work for the templates I was using. Fortunately, I'm taking some HTML classes so I've been able figure out some basic tweaks.

If you have any tips or tricks, let me know. If you have any questions, ask.