Don't Try To Number Dynamic Pages

One interesting question, which we see occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger, would be about making the blog easier to read - if the blog were static.

How do I number the pages, in the blog?

This blog owner does not quite understand the concept of dynamic content.

With a static website, and each page linked linearly, one after the other, it might make sense to number the pages.

Blogger blog content is dynamic.

A Blogger blog has dynamic content. Each reader retrieves the posts, in reverse date sequence, in a number of contexts.

• In main page view, one page linked to the next - owner selectable maximum posts / page, auto paginated.
• In individual post view, one post linked to the next - one post / page.
• In an archive retrieval, one page linked to the next - a maximum of 20 posts / page, auto paginated.
• In a label search, one page linked to the next - a maximum of 20 posts / page, auto paginated.

Each label in the blog can generate a different label search, one search / label.

We say that the content is dynamic, because each of the above contexts use blog content, retrieved just when a reader clicks on a link.

Each time content is retrieved, for each reader, it will differ.

Each different retrieval will generate a series of physical pages of display, with a different combination of posts. Each retrieval will be paginated according to amount of content, by auto pagination.

If the posts are summarised using Jump Break, pagination will reflect the visible post content. With other "Read More" solutions, this may or may not be the case.

Dynamic indexes can use any combination of various dynamic accessories.

You can index the posts in a blog, using various dynamic sidebar gadgets.

• An archive index.
• A label index.
• Any number of linklists.
• Any number of feed gadgets.

Again, each index will be dynamic.For truly dynamic indexing, you can provide a single blog search - or a multiple blog search - or even a label combination search.

You can get installable gadgets, and custom templates, from various third party developers. Some gadgets and templates will let you setup an index (whether dynamic, or static), with page numbers. This will be third party code - and carries with it the risks of using third party code.

Non dynamic accessories require post template tweaks.

Non dynamic indexes generally install as code, inserted into the post template. The post template is not a blog component that should be tweaked, without understanding the risks.

Also, if you apply to host AdSense ads on the blog, you'll probably get a refusal, cited as "Difficult navigation". The AdSense crawler can't navigate JavaScript based links - and won't be able to analyse post content, to place ads.

The AdSense crawler can't navigate this blog, with numbered pages.



All of the above details affect how much content may appear on one physical page, and how many pages may be relevant to the retrieval. With these unknowns, it is not productive to identify each post - or set of posts - using page numbers.

How many index listings would you want to keep - especially considering that any one index could change, in the next minute, as a new post is published, or maybe a label is added to, or removed from, one or more posts?

Blogger content is dynamic. Treat it, dynamically.

The Blogger "Contact" Form - What You See Is What You Get

Blog owners add the Blogger supplied Contact Form, then wonder about the details, and what options are available.

The Blogger supplied "Contact Form" gadget provides a very basic form, with few options. There's not a lot to do or see.

With the Blogger "Contact Form" gadget, what you see is what you get.

You add the form to the blog, and you change the Title of the form.

Use is simple. You fill out the form, and Send. The content, once sent, can't be edited.

The reply address is whatever you entered, in the "Email" box.

If you are the owner of the blog, the message goes to you. If the blog has multiple administrators, Send a test message, and have everybody check their Inboxes. Find out who should expect to see Contact messages, and what email addresses are targeted.

If you test the form on your blog, when using a Blogger account based on a non GMail email address, you may not receive the test entry in your Inbox.

If you, as the blog owner, want a form with more options, or the ability to manage form recipients, you use a third party form. You can use Google Docs, and create a simple "Contact Me" form, in 15 minutes. A Google Docs created form can have multiple, designated recipients, and can be edited by the sender. The Docs based form entry goes into an online database, which can be accessible by designated recipients.

You can embed a Google Docs based form in a page or post - and you can create your page or post as a separate tab, in the blog - as I added my Blogger "Contact Me" form or alternately, my Expanded Followers gadget, to this blog.

What you see below is my demonstration Google Docs form, embedded using an IFrame. The IFrame code is provided with the form, which required a brief 10 minutes to create. When you create your form, hit "Send form", then "Embed", to get the code for your form. You can see my improved Contact form, in my page, "Contact Me, Improved".

<iframe src="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1JvoY2yf5aTChnvXlCgGsUerSCtI7RHpRdkq5SPBPm90/viewform?embedded=true" width="700" height="800" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">Loading...</iframe>

There are various third party, non Google "Contact" form suppliers - some free, others not - some reliable and safe, others not. Be careful, if you decide to use a non Google, third party, product.

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Blogger Magic - A Static Home Page

Every week, somebody asks for such a simple blog feature.

How do I have a single blog post always displayed, for the home page?

There are many things that Blogger has yet to provide, and this is one. A blog, by definition, contains a dynamic home page, with the most current posts displayed.

Today (sorry, too late!), if you view this blog, this post will be displayed, at the very top of the home page. Tomorrow, this post will be displayed, just not at the top of the home page. In a couple weeks, this post will not be displayed on the home page, at all. That is how blogs work. If you want to display anything else, you don't have a blog.

That's the purist position, anyway. A blog is simply a web site with the latest posts displayed on home page (the main page), and hidden older posts (the archives).

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(Update 2012/06/06): The recent "Search preferences" feature allows us to setup a true static home page, with none of the complications below.

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The neat thing about this magic trick is that it's not difficult to make it work. I categorise this trick as a snake, after the old taunt from my mother

If it had been a snake, it would have bitten you.

It's so simple, really.

1. Make the blog not display any posts, for home page.
2. Add a text gadget.
3. Tweak the text gadget to only display, when home page URL is displayed.
4. Use the Pages gadget, and index the rest of the blog. Add links using various label searches, pages, and posts, as you like.

Make The Home Page Not Display Any Posts
If you make the main page not display any posts, you get an empty home page. Settings - "Posts and comments" contains the "Show" setting. Set "Show" to "0 posts", and the blog has an empty home page.

Add A Text Gadget
Add an HTML / Text gadget, positioned just above or below the "Blog Posts" gadget. Setup the new gadget just like the blog post, that you would want permanently displayed. If you want to use the post editor to compose the gadget, do that.

Tweak The Template
This is the one part of this project, that requires any technique. Use the Template Editor, and edit the gadget template, for the gadget that you just added, so the gadget only displays when the home page URL is being displayed.

Use The Pages Gadget, To Index The Rest Of The Blog
Once you have a static home page gadget, just add links to the rest of the blog. You can have links in the new gadget - and you can have an index in the blog header, or in the sidebar. Use your imagination here, it's your blog.

That's it. Really.

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Make A Custom Pages Index For Your Blog

Even before Blogger added static pages as a blog feature, blog owners have been asking how to make hidden or separate pages for their blogs.

When static pages, and the Pages index gadget, were added, people started asking about indexing label searches and external links in the Pages gadget.

There are several solutions to the need to have a Pages gadget that indexes archive / label searches, and external URLs. Each solution has its advantages, and disadvantages.

If you want a Pages gadget for your blog, that indexes more than just static pages, you have two basic choices. Each choice gives you different possibilities.

1. Replace the Pages gadget with a linklist. You can index any URLs that interest you, in a linklist.
2. Use the Pages editor, in the dashboard Layout page, which lets you add URLs of your choice, directly to the Pages gadget.

I've been advising people for several years, how to make a horizontal index bar for the blog.

With most Blogger templates, the Tabs section contains CSS that displays any linklist positioned there, horizontally. This gives you the choice of using "Add a gadget", and creating a linklist as an XML based "Linklist" - or one created as an HTML based "HTML / JavaScript" gadget - and both choices have advantages.

Use an XML based linklist.

If you look at the menu bar on this blog, you'll see how the active menu button "lights up" when selected. The "Selected" feature is a CSS tweak - and requires that you use a linklist that's XML based.

I created the menu bar here, using "Add a gadget", and tweaked the template code. The default Pages gadget is XML based - and does not require the latter tweak.

Use the Blogger supplied Pages gadget.

As an alternate to using a linklist gadget, you could use the Pages gadget.

If you use the Pages Editor, and you position the Pages gadget in the proper position, your blog, when displayed using a dynamic template, will populate the black menu bar with your Pages list. When that happens, the dynamic view menu will be displayed as a drop-down list, at the far left of the menu bar.

Jump Break, Main Page Contents, And Search Engines

The articles in this blog, which discusses production and use of Blogger blogs, are written as posts.

The various posts are combined, using embedded links, in different ways. Each new post appears on the main page, as it is written - and the various posts, appearing together on the main page, create opportunities for confusion, with the readers of the blog.

Long ago, the task of moderating comments was rather depressing to me, as the focus of many of the comments made me think that nobody was actually reading the articles. Maybe, I would write an interesting post about URL availability; but when moderating comments, I would find questions about posting comments on static pages. Or maybe a post about dynamic template concepts would attract complaints about referer spam.

Why should I publish my advice, if nobody cares enough to read the articles and comment relevantly?

Just previous to this post, I wrote about Stats displays, and the contents of the Posts lists.

In the process of writing the latter article, I discovered one obscure benefit of using "Jump Break" - and how "Jump Break" affects main page view, search engine indexing, and finally, relevance of comments to post subject.

A home page, with a variety of posts, naturally produces un focused comments.

Why the apparent lack of focus, of the comments? One reason is that many different posts, published one after the other, appear in sequence, in the blogs main page.

People will read the posts - and the search engines will index the posts - using main page view. Only after newer posts force the older posts, one by one, from main page view, will the individual posts have any significance - to people or search engines.

Using my example above, and looking at my main page when this post was new, one would have found a post about URL availability, published a week after a post about posting comments on static pages. By the time the search engines indexed the latter post, I would have published the former post. The post about URL availability would be visible in main page view, ahead of the post about posting comments on static pages.

Clicking on the link to my blog, attached to a SERP entry referencing static pages, the reader will read my main page from the top, find the previously visible post about URL availability, and the Comments link following the post. Clicking on the first Comments link found, the reader will post his question about static pages, against my post about URL availability.

Use of Jump Break gives a home page that can be easily read, top to bottom.

So, what effect does the use of "Jump Break" have on this problem? Using "Jump Break" on all main page posts makes it more likely that a potential reader of the blog, following a home page link to the blog, has more chance to see all recent posts, with their summaries.

The reader is more likely to scan down the page, see a summarised relevant post, click on "Read more" - and read the relevant post, on the individual post page, before commenting.

Use of Jump Break gives more weight to the individual posts, as indexed.

Additionally, with the posts summarised in main page view, the search engines will find less content on the main page. The full posts will be indexed as individual post pages, more than as part of the main page. This gives more weight to the individual posts, and less weight to the main page.

When indexed using an automatically generated, robust sitemap (2014), the posts will appear individually in SERP lists, decreasing reader main page confusion. Each SERP entry, pointing to an individual post, will be more relevantly focused - giving it more weight than a SERP entry, pointing to main page view.

Use of Jump Break, consistently, produces a win-win-win scenario.

In summary, careful and consistent use of "Jump Break" leads to:

• Better focus on individual and relevant blog articles, by the search engines.
• Less confusion to the blogs readers, when accessing the blog using SERP hit lists.
• Less frustration for the blog owner, when moderating comments.

It's really a win-win-win, when used consistently. And, it's so simple to apply, on a post by post basis. Check it out, in action.

Static Pages, And A Custom Pages Index - Part 2

There are always details to deal with, and the "Linklist as Pages Index" solution, to provide a "Pages" gadget that indexes non pages, is no exception. As pointed out to me this morning, a "LinkList" gadget, when simply substituted for the "PageList" gadget, doesn't have the right stuff to make the selected tab light up, when the requested page is being displayed. The lit up tab makes the Tabs gadget seem so user friendly, and some folks like that little detail.

Fortunately, this problem is not difficult to correct.

1. First (yes, he's telling us again), backup your template.
2. Next, "Edit HTML" and select "Expand Widget Templates".
3. Look for

   <b:section class='tabs' id='crosscol' maxwidgets='1' showaddelement='yes'>

4. Look a few lines below that for
   

   <li><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a></li>
   

   and replace it with
   

   <b:if cond="data:blog.url == data:link.target">
             <li class='selected'><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a></li>
           <b:else/>
             <li><a expr:href='data:link.target'><data:link.name/></a></li>
           </b:if>
   

5. Save Template.
6. Test.
7. And finally, backup your template,again.

Not terribly complicated. Just another detail.

Static Pages, And A Custom Pages Index

Ever since static pages were released by Blogger, bloggers have been asking how to index non static pages in a static pages (aka "tabs") index. Questions like

How do I publish a label page with my static pages?

and

How do I link to another blog, in my Pages gadget?

and

How do I publish posts in pages?

are asked, fairly regularly.

The typical answer, to the question above, has been

You can't index anything but pages, in the Pages gadget. You have to make a custom index bar.

Posts are dynamic content, and pages are static content. Posts and pages are simply different blog content. And the standard Pages index gadget only indexes static pages.

Fortunately, a horizontal menu bar, to replace the Pages index gadget, isn't difficult to make. You can see one right now, in my home blog, Nitecruzr Dot Net.

If your blog has a new Designer Template, you may wish to go a bit further, and make a custom Pages Index. With a Designer Template, we simply position a linklist in the Pages Tab Index space, and we get a horizontal menu bar / tabs index with the look and feel of a Pages gadget.

1. First (should you ask?), backup your template.
2. Go to "Page Elements", and look below the page header space, in the Tabs section. If you do not see a space just below the page header, upgrade your template. The picture below shows what you will want to see. If you have an old blog, with a template created before static pages were released, you'll want to use the Template Designer, and give the blog a nice Designer Template.
3. If you have a Pages Index gadget already installed in the template, delete it.
4. Create a linklist, and put some links into it. You can add or change any links that you put into your new linklist, whenever you feel the need. If you want to index posts, use labels, and index label searches. In some cases, you may be better off creating an HTML based linklist, using raw linklist code copied into an HTML / JavaScript gadget.
5. Position your new linklist where the Pages gadget was (or would be).
6. Save.
7. Backup the template, again (yes, do it again)!
8. Test.
9. Add more links to the linklist, when you feel the need. It's a linklist, and you hopefully know how to add links to a linklist.

See the "Add a Gadget" space below the header ("Nitecruzr Designer Template")? If you don't see that space there, you need to get an updated template.



You can see my demonstration in Nitecruzr Buzz. I just took the linklist out of the sidebar, repositioned it as I discuss above, and voila. It took me 2 minutes.

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Of course, there are details which should be attended to, any time you tweak a new Blogger feature.

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For more detail, see Roberto's Report: New Designer Template and the Tabs Index.

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(Update 2011/08): The pages editor, in the New Blogger GUI (2011), now provides us with this option.

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Putting A Post At The Top (A "Welcome" Post) - Part 2

Many people have asked how they can have a Welcome or Index message in their blog.

I have a Welcome message, at the top of Nitecruzr Buzz, or on this blog, for instance.

This blog uses a text gadget, positioned above the post gadget, which leaves a gadget that shows up on every page. On Nitecruzr Buzz, I used a future dated post, so my "Welcome" showed up only on the "Home" page. Neither solution was optimal.

• A true "Welcome" message should show up only on the "Home" (first) page. A text gadget shows up on every page.
• A future dated post shows up only on the "Home" page, but it shows up in the Archive index with a future date.

Today, I fixed my Buzz Welcome message, so it only shows up on the "Home" page, and it does not show up as a post, in an archive index.

What I now have is a Text gadget, that only displays on the "Home" page. Here's how you do that.

First, (you should have to ask?) backup the template. Then add a Text gadget to the page, and position the gadget just above the post gadget. Give it a snappy title, "Welcome To My Blog!".

Then tweak the new gadget.

1. Identify the gadget to be tweaked.
2. Add the Conditional Gadget CSS rule, using the Template Designer "Add CSS" wizard.

 
<b:if cond='data:blog.canonicalUrl != data:blog.homepageUrl'>
<style>
#Text1 {display: none !important;}
</style>
</b:if>

Remember to add a blank line, above or below the code block being added, if there is already code visible in "Add CSS".

Save the change. Edit the text gadget as displayed on the blog, and remove the "WelcomeMessage" title. And of course, backup the template, again. And, it's done.

Now, if you want a dynamic "Welcome" page - maybe one based on posts published to a given label, you can do that too, with just a bit more work. And there are several variations on the "if" statement, that will let you selectively display (or not display) your gadget on other specific pages.

An easy alternative solution for this need, more recently offered, would be to use a static page, and a redirected Home page.

The choices are multiple. Just consider your needs, and how easy the various alternatives may be.

Static Pages And The Pages Index

As more people are adding static pages to their blogs, the questions about the possibilities have started coming.

How do I add a label search to my pages index?

or

How do I add a post to my labels index?

or even

How do I add a link to another blog as a page index entry?

And right now, you can't do any of these things, to a standard pages index.

A Pages Index gadget indexes the static pages in your blog. Period.

But as I've written before, a pages index is nothing more than a linklist (in the sidebar), or a horizontal menu bar (under the blog header), with the links to the pages enumerated in the linklist or menu bar.

A linklist is easy enough to make - that's just a simple gadget, in "Page Elements". A horizontal menu bar isn't all that much harder to make.

Just find the Pages List for the blog, and for each page, extract the page title, and the page URL. Each page title combined with the page URL becomes one clickable link in the linklist or horizontal index. When you want to add non pages to the pages index, those are simply more entries - a caption / title + a URL becomes yet one more clickable link in the linklist or index.

Then style the linklist or index, as you like.

The one thing that you won't get is a cute gadget, that morphs between a horizontal tab bar and a linklist, as you re position it below the header, or in the sidebar. You have to plan where you want your index, and style it accordingly. Other than that, it's a 30 minute task to make one or the other.

If you like the look of the Static Pages Tabs Index gadget, particularly in a Designer Template - but you want to index labels and / or post pages, you will need to use a linklist in place of the Pages gadget.

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What Pages Are - And What Pages Are Not

For years - almost as long as Layout Blogger has been out - bloggers have wanted the option to create static pages - pages that do not change - as part of their blogs.

We've suggested a workaround, created from backdated posts, with some success. In January 2010, Blogger gave us true static pages for our blogs.

Even as people started adding static pages to their blogs, the confusion about what those pages are, and what we can do with them, surfaced.

How do I add a date to a page?

How do I link to a page using a label?

How do I publish multiple posts on a page?

A static page consists of a title, and a single article. The article is created using a wizard extremely similar to the posts editor - but a wizard without an option to set a date, labels, or jump break.

By default, a static page is indexed through a pages index.

If you wish, you may add a page to any linklist which you setup. A page is not associated with a date, or a label, and it does not appear in an archive index, an archive retrieval, a label index, or a label retrieval. A page does not contain any posts, just static text.

If you want multiple articles of content on a page, simply edit the page and add multiple articles, separated by section headers - larger type. If you wish, you can add links to the section headers, and / or link to the section headers using anchor links.

If you want to index an article using only a static link in a post, a linklist, or a tab bar, you can publish a page. If you want to index or reference an article in your blog using a date or label, or from the main page, you can publish a post.

A Pages index, setup using the Pages gadget, will index both dynamic and static Pages>, and help you publish your posts to your pages. If you wish, you can make a custom tabs index and substitute that for the Pages index. You can examine a custom Designer tabs index above (just below the blog title), and a custom Layout tabs index in my home blog, "Nitecruzr Dot Net".

And there's a final limitation to static pages. Static pages are accessed only from links. The home page of the blog is still the main page of posts - there is no option to designate a static page as the home page - though you can substitute a static HTML / Text gadget, in place of the home page posts. And you can, similarly, make other gadgets appear only with specific static pages.

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The New Post Editor With Static Pages

For many months, bloggers have been asking for the ability to add static pages - pages that do not contain dated posts, and that do not show up in the archive index, or in the main page display - to their blog. Before this year, only the latter possibility existed - posts that would not show up on the main page could be created by publishing posts back dated to appear before the earliest post on the main page. This created "static" pages that still appeared in the archives index - a messy workaround.

In January 2010, as a belated Christmas present, true static pages were added to the new post editor. In June 2010, the new post editor was moved into Production Blogger.

It's not difficult to make a static page. In the Classic Blogger GUI, dynamic pages (aka "posts") are accessible in the post editor under two tabs - "New Post" and "Edit Posts". Static pages are accessible under one tab - "Edit Pages". On "Edit Pages", you start with the "New Page" button. This simply takes you to a replica of the (new) post editor page, but a replica lacking fields for Labels, or Post Date. You then create, and publish, a page. Your new static page looks just like a post, except it lacks dates and labels, and it has a slightly different URL form.

With the New Blogger GUI (2011), Posts and Pages are separate menu items, along with Settings and other selections. When you're in the Pages editor, select "New page". From the pulldown list, select "Blank page" to create a new page. You can alternately select "Web address", if you wish to create a Pages entry that redirects the reader to any existing URL within or outside the blog.

Since static pages have neither dates nor labels, they won't show up in an archives or labels index. Pages have their own index - the Pages index. After you publish one static page, you have 3 choices how to index your static pages.

1. In a sidebar linklist, provided by Blogger.
2. In a horizontal tab index / vertical linklist not in the sidebar, provided by Blogger.
3. In an index of your own design.

You get to make this choice after you create the first static page - but as indicated below, you can change you mind any time you wish.

Having created and published your first static page, and selected an indexing option, you may create additional static pages, view and edit existing static pages, or create and edit posts. Once the first static page has been published, and the indexing option selected, you edit the static page index as a normal page element, depending upon what indexing option you have selected.

If you wish to change your post page indexing between the first two options, you can drag and drop to reposition the gadget, using Page Elements. Here, you have 5 positioning options, which give you 2 different formats depending upon positioning.

• Below the header, as a horizontal linklist, spanning the entire width of the header.
• Above the pages / posts container, as a vertical linklist, spanning the width of the pages / posts container.
• In the sidebar, as a vertical linklist.
• Below the pages / posts container, as a vertical linklist, spanning the width of the pages / posts container.
• In the footer, as a horizontal linklist, spanning the entire width of the footer.

You can drag and drop the pages index, and it will position and resize itself - try it and see.

If you decided to make your own Pages index (#3, above), you can go to "Page Elements", and "Add a Gadget", and select "Pages" for a Pages index, with the above choices. If you selected #1 or #2 above, you can use "Page Elements" and delete the Pages index, and create your own.

Once you have published a set of static pages, you can go to the "List of Pages". For each page, you'll find a "View" link and a page title. From each "View" link, you can extract the URL of the page. If you selected the custom index option, you'll need the page titles and URLs to use them in your own custom index, that you create separately.

This isn't a complicated option. If you are able to use the new post editor, try it and see what you think.

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Creating And Hosting Your Website

There are many services available on the Internet, for creating and publishing a website. Blogger provides some services so transparently, that people get confused, occasionally, about what Blogger can reliably provide. Blogger provides some equivalents of some of the services available - with others, you may be on your own, or at the mercy of the support staff for other hosting services.

1. Blog content created on Blogger, hosted on BlogSpot.
2. Blog content created on Blogger, hosted outside BlogSpot.
3. Blog content created outside Blogger, hosted on BlogSpot.
4. Blog content created outside Blogger, hosted outside BlogSpot.

Blog Content Created On Blogger, Hosted On Blogspot
This is the most popular content / hosting option. Simply use "Create a blog", pick an available BlogSpot name, choose a template, and start posting. Blogger One Button Publishing is so easy to use, many bloggers have no idea how many services are involved, here.

Blog Content Created On Blogger, Hosted Outside Blogspot
Here, after a Blogger blog is created, and hosted on BlogSpot, you had (some time ago) the option to re publish your blog to a Google server outside BlogSpot, or to a non Google server altogether. Both options had strong points and weak points. Note that the latter option, aka FTP Publishing, ended in May 2010.

Blog Content Created Outside Blogger, Hosted On Blogspot
Occasionally, someone wants to setup a blog using a desktop publishing product, then use FTP to load the blog to BlogSpot. This is, however, not an option in Blogger.

Blog Content Created Outside Blogger, Hosted Outside Blogspot
We also occasionally see requests for advice how to do this. Unfortunately, websites produced and hosted outside Blogger / BlogSpot are subject to the options and requirements of the publishing and hosting platform in use. Blogger is not involved here, at all. The nature of third party hosting services requires that you get any necessary assistance from the content and hosting service in question.

Just understand your options, and choose what's right for you.

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Make A Static Page For Your Blog

A static page is one of the simplest accessories that you can add to your blog. It's simply a post that has been archived, and will never display in main page view.

It's astonishingly simple to make a static page.

• Publish enough non static posts, to populate your main page. If you're simply making a web site, set main page size to 1 post, and publish one post.
• Publish additional posts, and back date additional posts before the oldest non static post.
• The additional posts, back dated, become static pages.
• Wasn't that simple?

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(Update 2010/01): As a belated Christmas present, Blogger now provides us, as a new post editor option, with the ability to create true static pages for our blogs.

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Adding A Forum To Your Blog

Once we get our blog working, with lots of steady reader traffic, we want interactions with our readers.

Eventually, we get tired of native Blogger commenting, and its inability to use comments to conduct casual and meaningful conversations with our readers. Sometimes, our thoughts turn to having a forum, where we and our readers can chat with each other.

One very light weight forum can be embedded in the sidebar.

CBox and Meebo are chat rooms embedded in HTML / JavaScript, and an IFrame. It's very easy to setup CBox or Meebo on your web site - just register and get the code for either, and add it to an HTML / JavaScript page element. You can see Cbox in action on my home blog, and Meebo on my Layout Test blog. ShoutMix is a similar, alternative product.

If you want a full featured forum, Google Groups lets you setup a forum - and then embed it into your blog - as easily as you can setup a blog. Or any other forum will do just as well. It all depends upon what you want.

A full featured forum, using industry standard software, will involve hosting a phpBB based forum.

• Load the phpBB software onto a suitably setup server.
• Configure the software to provide your forum, as fits your personal vision of your forum.

Having setup the forum which pleases you, it's now a matter of combining your new forum and your blog, just like any two web sites - using blog feeds, iframes, and / or links - and your imagination.

Make A Blogger Blog Cluster

If you're like me, and have a blog, maybe what you write about in your blog isn't all of what you are.

Most of us are more than one person. I'm a blogger, I work with Windows Networking, plus I have a private life. Really. I enjoy cooking, some miscellaneous humour and philosophy, and various other pursuits too.

If you're going to blog about your non-technical abilities too, would you put the non-technical stuff in the same blog as your technical stuff?

If you have different areas of your home, maybe different blogs make sense.

Do you park your car in your kitchen, or sleep in your garage? Hopefully not - you have separate areas of your house, each one for a different purpose. Maybe you should with your blog, too.

If you have one blog, with multiple topics, you can separate and index the various posts by using labels. But maybe you would like something different for each topic - maybe a topic relevant blogroll for each.

Different friends / readers deserve different blogs to read.

I have many friends with their own web sites. Some, I met through blogging. Others are experts in Windows Networking. And I know some folks with cooking blogs. It would be stupid to put a cooking blogroll on a web site about Windows Networking, though.

Some folks will tell you to use conditionally displayed widgets, so you can display one blogroll when a certain label search is active. If you want to hack the HTML Template code, you can learn how to do this. But, there's an easier solution.

You can publish as many blogs as you like.

Blogs are free - you can have as many as you can setup. I have a BlogSpot based cluster. Here's 3 of the blogs, in the cluster.

• Chuck's Kitchen (nitecruzrrecipes.blogspot.com)
• PChuck's Network (nitecruzr.blogspot.com)
• The Real Blogger Status (bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com)

Had I planned my blogging activity when I started, I could have made a more organised cluster.

• Nitecruzr - Blogging (nitecruzr-blogging.blogspot.com)
• Nitecruzr - Kitchen (nitecruzr-recipes.blogspot.com)
• Nitecruzr - Networking (nitecruzr-networking.blogspot.com)

You can publish each blog to a non BlogSpot URL.

For a small fee - just $10 USD / year, for domain registration / DNS hosting, you can even have a non BlogSpot based cluster, published as a Google Custom Domain. You can host as many blogs as you wish in the domain, for that single $10 USD. If you already have a (non Blogger) web site, you don't even pay that - there's your domain, already setup.

Once you have a domain, just add one or more virtual hosts to your domain. Publish your blogs to the virtual hosts in your domain, one blog / virtual host pair.

• Chuck's Kitchen (recipes.nitecruzr.net)
• PChuck's Network (networking.nitecruzr.net)
• The Real Blogger Status (blogging.nitecruzr.net)

Just a single "CNAME", to define each one.

blogging.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
networking.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
recipes.nitecruzr.net. 3600 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.

If you already have a domain, with a web site, there's the start of your blog cluster. If you just setup your domain, you may wish to setup a home blog, similar to my Nitecruzr Dot Net. A home blog is an option, not a necessity. I could alternately use my Buzz blog as a home blog.

If you keep your domain registration active, your blog will last.

Either way - with a BlogSpot or non BlogSpot based cluster - what you setup will be yours forever (at least, as long as you pay the yearly fee).

So, I setup Nitecruzr Dot Net, my collection of Blogger blogs all in one domain - my own domain - not a part of "BlogSpot.Com". Each blog will be part of the whole, yet as unique as I like to make it. Setting the domain up took 30 minutes, and writing about doing it, another hour or so (not that I'm done writing).

And once you setup your blog collection, you can merge them.

Once you've setup a collection of blogs, there are a variety of possible ways to dynamically merge them, in relevant ways that your readers should appreciate. And there are variations of this setup - some righteous, others spurious - that you need to consider, carefully.

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Separate Your Blogs, Yet Keep Them Together
http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2008/04/separate-your-blogs-yet-keep-them.html
Make A Blogger Blog Cluster