I have suggested that properly sizing the Jump Break and Title sections of each post is an important decision, when publishing a post in your blog.
Publishing this blog, using carefully sized post title and jump break sections, allows me to consistently publish posts, with maximum detail visible in main page view - and with the "Read more" link visible.
Potential readers may read a post in this blog - instead of returning to a SERP, and reading another blog. This affects a key reader retention metric, the "bounce rate".
All of that considered, sizing of the introductory post sections won't always produce predictable results.
Reader zoom level is a semi random factor, which makes blog section sizing less predictable than one would wish, when trying to increase reader retention.
I size my posts using "100%" zoom, in the Chrome browser. This may, or may not, produce the same effect, for readers using Edge / Internet Explorer, Firefox, or any other browser. And the differing browser will not be the only varying factor.
All of these details can affect zoom level, screen space requirements, and reader retention - for any different blog. Here it is helpful for the blog owner to know about the typical reader.
- Display screen size.
- Reader age.
- Multi tasking activity.
- Tech interest level.
Display screen size will affect how the blog sections look, to each reader.
Browser choice is not the only variation, that can affect screen space and blog section display sizes.
Reader display screen size used is a detail, that I cannot control. The computer on which I compose most posts has a 6" high screen. A second computer, that I use from time to time, has an 8" high screen. The second computer, even at a 125% zoom level, still displays more post content in one screen page.
This post (in main page view) displayed, at 100% zoom, on an 6" vertical display.
Let's compare this post, displayed at several zoom levels.
Here's this post, in the individual post page display - without Jump Break. See how it looks, zoomed in various font sizes. Note that here I use a maximised browser window, though some readers will resize the browser window to fit the blog content.
This post (in Preview mode) displayed, at 100% zoom, on an 6" vertical display.
This post (in Preview mode) displayed, at 100% zoom, on an 10" vertical display.
This post (in Preview mode) displayed, at 75% zoom level.
Smaller zoom is more likely to be used by people with better eyesight - using better resolution and more expensive computers, and smaller browser windows.
This post (in Preview mode) displayed, at 125% zoom level.
Larger zoom is more likely to be used by people with marginally worse eyesight. This will frequently involve older people.
Older readers will be more likely to use higher zoom levels.
Reader age is another detail which each blog author may consider, in blog design.
Blogs which attract older readers should be designed for displays which use higher zoom levels - or use larger fonts, to begin. Older readers, with marginal eyesight, will be more likely to surf the web with their browsers zoomed higher.
Multi tasking encourages smaller browser windows - and lower zoom levels.
Younger readers, who like to multi task, will probably use low zoom - and size the browser window smaller, so they can have multiple windows, simultaneously visible in large computer displays. Older readers will be more likely to focus on one task at a time - and will maximise the browser window, with higher zoom.
Blog subject may produce readers of differing age and tech interest.
Each blog, depending upon its content, may be more or less likely to interest readers of a given age and / or and tech interest level. People of different tech interest levels may also be more or less likely to use computers with higher resolution, and may multi task using smaller browser windows.
The bottom line.
Each blog owner will have to consider the various issues mentioned above - for each post published - and decide what screen sizes and zoom levels might be preferred by the target reader audience.
Only a blog owner can decide what reader audience may be more interested in each individual post - and may benefit from a specific zoom level. And this affects the proper sizing of the jump break and title section of each post.
Several details of a #Blogger blog audience affect what post title and jump break section will be more appropriate, for each individual blog. These details, in turn, can affect bounce rate / retention rate.
Some blog owners decide to include music, to accessorise their blogs - and the first thing they ask for is instructions.
Please give me step by step instructions, to add music.
They don't consider that adding music, for any blog, will be their personal choice - and a music player will be personal too.
The choice of music player needs to be based on the music library provided.
You will probably want your music choice to match the blog content.
Some one who wants to provide classical music won't want to add a music player, published by a disco / techno website. Similarly, if you want to decorate your blog with country music, you will not be pleased by a player provided with a jazz website.
Each music website will provide their own player, to accompany their music library - and their own installation instructions, to install their player. You will probably be provided HTML / JavaScript code, by the website - so you will want to add an HTML / JavaScript gadget.
Position the player so it is convenient and visible, to your readers.
You will want the player controls to be visible - so you should position the new gadget, in a convenient and visible location, on the blog.
The one suggestion, that is consistently provided, is that you should choose a player that lets your readers choose whether to listen to the music. Please, don't use any player that only provides "autoplay".
The choice of music will be yours - and some readers will choose to view your blog. But some will choose to not listen to your music - and unless you want to limit reader population to those who can listen as they view, you will want to make the music optional.
Some #Blogger blog owners want to decorate their blogs with music - and they request detailed instructions for adding a music player. Music players are individual to the website providing the music - and the smart blog owner will choose the website, for one offering an appropriate music library.
Much of what we do in life - and what we do when using Blogger - is based upon, and limited by, choice.
Some choices we get to make, for ourselves. Other choices are made for us, by people who make their own choices.
Some blog owners do not want their readers to have to login to Blogger, to comment on their blogs. Other blog owners do not want their readers to have to solve a CAPTCHA, to comment on their blogs.
A few blog owners do not want their readers to have to do either.It seems anyone who wishes to leave a comment, will have to do some form of login, either via Google or a CAPTCHA, to do so! Is there a reason for this, would it not be easier, for anyone to just leave a comment?
And the answer here is simple.It would be easier, if neither were required.
But reality - involving activity by spammers, and activity to counter spammers - leaves some of us with less choices.
Long ago, Blogger allowed anonymous comments, without a CAPTCHA to solve. Spammers benefited from that possibility.
Later, Blogger added the ezCAPTCHA, to be required at the owners decision. Some owners chose to not select the CAPTCHA, because their readers were inconvenienced. Spammers continued to benefit from blogs which allowed anonymous comments, and no CAPTCHA.
Recently, Blogger added the non optional reCAPTCHA. This requires anybody not logged in to have the choice - login, or solve a CAPTCHA.
Unfortunately, the latter change made the third party cookie filter issue more critical. People who are already logged in, but are subject to third party cookie filtering, have to login, or solve a CAPTCHA. This requirement may vary, according to the variant of the commenting form, used by the blog.
Now, a blog owner has 4 choices, to control anonymous comments.- Don't allow anonymous comments, and don't require a CAPTCHA. People who are not logged in will have to login, to comment.
- Don't allow anonymous comments, but require a CAPTCHA. People who have not logged in will have to login, and solve a CAPTCHA.
- Allow anonymous comments, and don't require a CAPTCHA. People who have not logged in will have to either login, or solve a CAPTCHA.
- Allow anonymous comments, and require a CAPTCHA. People who are not logged in will have to solve a CAPTCHA.
Some people will have to either login, or solve a CAPTCHA, to comment. Depending upon what choices are made by the blog owner, the readers may have any 2 of 3 choices.- Solve a non owner optional reCAPTCHA.
- Solve an owner optional ezCAPTCHA.
- Login.
You'll like the ezCAPTCHA a lot more than the reCAPTCHA.
People who are logged in to Blogger / Google, and are not subject to third party cookie filters, may not see a CAPTCHA - and will not have to login to comment. People who are logged in, but are subject to third party cookie filters, will have to either login, or solve a CAPTCHA.
Owners of blogs which attract readers, who choose to maintain their cookie filters, will benefit more from the new CAPTCHA, than owners of blogs which attract readers who do not choose - or do not care - to maintain their cookie filters.
To make the choices easier to understand, Blogger would have to make "Require CAPTCHA" a binary option, for at least 3 comment authentication levels.- Anonymous.
- Require CAPTCHA.
- Don't require CAPTCHA.
- OpenID.
- Require CAPTCHA.
- Don't require CAPTCHA.
- Google account.
- Require CAPTCHA.
- Don't require CAPTCHA.
- Members.
- Require CAPTCHA.
- Don't require CAPTCHA.
If Blogger were to offer this binary option, too many owners would select "Anonymous" / "Don't require CAPTCHA" - and spammers would continue to flood the spam filters - as they were, before the latest update.
As long as spammers choose to do business - and choose to target our blogs, in their business - our choices, as blog owners and readers, will be limited.
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When the Blogger dynamic templates were first introduced, back in 2011, they provided choices.
Besides letting the reader choose, on the fly, which dynamic view to use, it was possible to let the reader choose whether to view the blog using a dynamic view - or a non dynamic view.
When dynamic templates were first introduced, they offered a dynamic view of the blog posts - and little else. Popular features like static pages were added later, and in pieces.
As the various pieces of the dynamic views became better defined, the need to switch between dynamic and non dynamic views became less essential - and eventually, some choices were eliminated.
If you look at the menu bar for this blog, you'll see a selection "DYNAMIC".
If you click on the "DYNAMIC" menu selection, you'll get a link to the "sidebar" dynamic view of this blog. At one time, this would have actually shown you this blog, using a dynamic template. Now, it leads you to a blank screen.
We asked Blogger Support recently, about the recently discovered inability to allow the reader to switch from a non dynamic view to a dynamic view, and were told that option had been discontinued, for "privacy reasons".
Apparently, some portions of the posts, when removed using the "Configure Blog Posts" wizard, were still displayed when a dynamic view was used. This caused problems for some blog owners, who had intentionally used a non dynamic view with personal details like author name removed from the posts. When they viewed the blog in a dynamic view, they found their name displayed, for all to see.
If anonymity is your concern, there are other techniques, which you may consider.
Another possible problem involved the blogs being simultaneously published using a dynamic template, and a non dynamic template. Last year, many blog owners reported various problems encountered, when their blogs were viewed using a dynamic template. It's possible that solution of the various problems involved simplification of code - including the ability to use either a dynamic or non dynamic view, at will.
Whatever the details, it appears that dynamic templates, and non dynamic templates, are completely separate options now. And as Blogger improves the dynamic templates in general, this should be good for all blogs.
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Ever since Blogger installed auto pagination. Blogger blog owners have been askingHow do I disable auto pagination?
andWhy can't I display my blog on the main page, without my readers having to use "Older Posts?
The response, up to this year, has been simple.You cannot disable auto pagination. You have to allow sharing of network resources.
Though technically correct, the latter response has not always been met with appreciation.
The solution, for avoiding auto pagination, is now simple. Install a dynamic template, on your blog.
With a dynamic display, an entire blog is presented in main page view, with no archiving needed.
A dynamic view presents one page at a time - just without requiring clicking.
You get one display page at a time - either the index, or blog content, depending upon which view you select. To see earlier content, you simply scroll downwards, and wait a few seconds while the display refreshes.
The display is still segmented - the segments are simply selected fluidly. When the display is scrolled to the bottom, the dynamic display code (running on the personal computer of the reader) simply requests another page of content, from the Blogger server.
The readers using a non dynamic blog view are not affected.
Since the content is coming from the blog feed, your other readers, using a non dynamic view of the blog, are not affected.
The average reader, who cannot see any more than one page of content at a time anyway (current monitor technology provides limited sized displays) never knows, or cares (subject to bandwidth and processor limitations) that the entire blog is not downloaded to the local computer, immediately.
Within limits, you can combine dynamic and non dynamic views in one blog.
If you want to let your readers use a dynamic view (non paginated), or a non dynamic view (paginated), depending upon personal preference, you can link the dynamic and non dynamic views.
The dynamic templates have been available for just over 3 months, and for all their usefulness, there are a number of identified deficiencies. We see, every week, naive questions about one well known deficiency.How do I add a bloglist (Followers gadget, labels index, popular posts, what have you...) gadget to my blog, with it using a dynamic template?
Adding gadgets to a dynamic template display just won't be a simple project. Not to be facetious, but there is really no space on the screen, for an accessory bar (also known as a sidebar). The dynamic views dynamically fill all horizontal space.
Lack of popular gadgets, like Followers, are a major shortcoming for many blog owners, who are considering using a dynamic template for their blog. Many blog owners like the Followers gadget - and can't bear the idea of having their blog without its ability to build their reader community. Other gadgets, similarly unavailable, cause disappointment also.
It's possible that Blogger is hard at work redesigning the dynamic template display, and creating a space for an accessory bar. Until they do that, though, you may be able to have gadgets like Followers - if not on the first page of a dynamic template, possibly on a Pages link.
If you create a Pages gadget, using the New GUI Pages editor, you can add a link to any URL in the blog, in the Pages gadget. If you can do that, you can add a pair of links to the home page - one explicitly targeting the non dynamic URL, a second targeting a dynamic URL (your chosen default view). The first links your blog, using a dynamic view, to a page containing all of your missing gadgets; the second links back to the dynamic view.
The Layout menu entry is not available, when the blog is published to a dynamic template. If not already present, you'll have to add the Pages gadget, with the blog published to a non dynamic template.
As an alternate to the two links, you can force a new tab / window, for the non dynamic link. With the non dynamic view opening in a new tab / window, there's no need to link back - so you need only one link.
Here's a link to my test blog.http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com
Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, non dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.Home (Non Dynamic)
Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.Home (Dynamic)
Here's how the latter two links were constructed.
Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, non dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/?v=0
Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, dynamic, added to the Pages gadget.http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/view/sidebar
Here's a link to the home page of my test blog, non dynamic, opening in a new tab / window, added to the Pages gadget.http://nitecruzrtestnew.blogspot.com/?v=0 target="_blank"
Click on any of the links, and see what you get. It was simpler to do it, than to write about it.
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Last week, I issued my annual reminder to blog owners, to consider their blog holiday decorations with care. That reminder mainly focuses on the more controversial issue of blog hijacks, and computer hacking. Besides the long term and subtle computer hacking, your readers, visiting your blog decorated with the latest animation, will have a more immediate and obvious problem to consider - browser freezes and other computer overload problems.
Besides the blatant blog hijack threat, there's another challenge from the animation, for you to consider. The animation - falling hearts / leaves / snow - requires intense processor activity. Every time one heart / leaf / snowflake changes position on the screen (ie, "falls"), the processor has to redraw the screen, with the heart / leaf / snowflake in the new location. Similar to one Designer Templates problem, many computers will run a bit slower when displaying a blog with decorative animation.
People who publish blogs, that are appropriate for these decorations, tend to have readers who may not have purchased a new computer for a couple years. Older computers tend to be marginally able to deal with the load generated by the latest browser updates and other newer software - and adding animation on your blog may be just too much extra load.
Similar to the effect from blog owners who install automatically playing background music, your visitors may decide that reading your blog makes just too much trouble for them.
If people stop visiting your blog, because their browsers freeze up, you'll need to revisit your decorative decision. Maybe, thinking about it now is a better idea.
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One odd feature of the dynamic templates - giving your readers the choice how they want to view your blog - is a detail that not everybody seems to get.
In the ongoing discussion What do you think of Dynamic Views?, we see some dissenting opinions.I don't like the fact that readers can change the way they view my blog. I want things to be viewed the way I set them up, and not have them be changeable by the viewer.
Personally, as long as each view lets some people view my blog, I'm happy to let anybody select the template that lets them view the blog, as it pleases them.
As a blog publisher, my goal is to provide content, that's interesting and useful to my readers.
If all of the Dynamic Templates display the blog posts so my readers can read the posts, why should I care what format they select, to display the posts?
I chose to show my test blog - Musings, using the Magazine view, as the default. If some people choose to continue to read the content using Magazine, that's OK. If others decide that Timeslide is more their preference, that's fine too. The people using Timeslide to view the blog are still reading the blog - and maybe some people using Timeslide are people who might not choose to stay, if Magazine is the only choice.
You can't display this blog, using a dynamic template, any more. You may wish to evaluate dynamic views, for your blog, very carefully.
Personally, I'll let my readers decide. Their computers, their decision. But, it's your blog - and in the end, it's your choice.
