Crowdsourcing the "New Blogger"

Our chance to influence what Blogger is like

Did you get what you wanted this year?

I didn't, but check out the new user interface at blogger.com, now under development.

Now is our chance to influence the user interface we will be using for years to come.

What kind of blogger will you be?

Catalogs, journeys, civic blogs, and more

What kind of blog do you want? Consider these five types.

Catalog blogs Rating and sharing	Tutorial blogs Teaching and showing
Journey blogs A story in time	Civic blogs Engaging in an issue
Aggregator blogs A focused news beat

There are other possibilities, of course.

News aggregator blogs

Types of Blogs

Imagine getting a carefully curated set of links to recent news about a topic that interests you, every week.

This type of blog benefits from a tight focus, knowledge of the subject, and regular periodic publication.

Tutorial blogs

Types of blogs

Photos, video, sound, screen capture, and links make blogs great platforms for collections of "how to" posts on a given subject.

(Notice I said collections, plural.)

If you have expertise to share, a blog can be the ideal hub.

Civic blogs

Types of Blogs

Some blogs exist to promote civic engagement around an issue of concern.

Many shed light on local issues that would otherwise fall through the cracks.

They stimulate and enrich public discussions about everything from the tax rate to bike lanes.

Managing labels

Labels group posts together on pages by category.

They are a great way to organize your blog.

But how can you manage them?

Journey blogs

Types of Blogs

A journey can be a trip, a year at school, a diet, a divorce, a struggle with cancer.

You are bound for a different place than where you started, and the blog tells the story of how.

Like the catalog, it is deceptively simple. You just put one foot in front of the other and at some point you have created a body of work.

The journey, in installments, is the original form of blogging. It is the "log" in "blog."

Catalog blogs

Types of Blogs

Say you live in a great pizza town. You could try a slice of every pie in town and write a blog post about each.

Compare! Rate! Criticize! Rave!

Several months and many meals later, you've got a blog. And maybe a following—people are passionate about pizza.

Easy peasy.

Back. Up. Your. Blog.

One click.

One click will save to your hard drive all the posts and pages on your blog, published and in draft. Comments, too.

Another click will save your blog's theme.

Do I need to say it?

Never delete a Google account

Well, hardly ever.

So, you are done with Google!—or at least with your account, and are ready to erase it from your digital life.

Not so fast.

Also too clever

The name of this blog is a nod to a project that, for a few months in 2010, was arguably the state of the art method for showing your blog in chronological order, oldest first.

The incredible shrinking feeds

The list of my posts related to blog feeds, below, is generated automatically. It updates itself whenever I add another blog post to the "feeds" category.

Q: How did I do that?

A: I used a feed.

But there has been a change.

Adding images to Blogger

Blogger editor > toolbar > Insert Image > options

Maybe a picture is worth a thousand words. A photo or graphic can attract the eye, set the tone, explain, demonstrate, or illustrate.

Every blogger should know all the ways to add an image to a blog post or page.

Four choices when you click the Insert Image tool

Here's a guide.

Dragging images into your blog

Update: Until further notice, I recommend that you should not drag images into your blog posts.

You can drag photos into your blog, from your desktop or the web.

Drag, drop, wait, format, and done!

This feature is not new, but for a long time (some say a very long time) it was buggy and produced blog posts that screwed up the way blogs and feeds worked.

Add an image "by URL"

toolbar > Insert image > By URL

A URL (Universal Resource Locator) is the unique address of a file on the Word Wide Web.

If you know the URL of an image file, and if that file is public, you can post it directly into your blog at Insert image > By URL.

Use "by URL" to insert an image that is on the web.

Add images "from your webcam"

toolbar > insert image > Add Images > From your webcam

Update: This option has been discontinued. My guess is no one will miss it.

Not everyone has a webcam, but if you do you can insert a photo from it into your blog (and your blogs's album in the Archive).

It's one of six options in "Add images," the pop-up you get when you click the Insert Image icon on the toobar in Blogger's editing window.

Time runs out on Google+ comments

February 4 is the last day to save your blog's Google+ comments

If you are reading this on February 5 or later, I am sorry. Google did a terrible job of warning affected bloggers that their comments were at immanent risk.

If you are reading this in time, here's what you can do.

The writing on the wall for Google+ comments

Bad news for anyone who ever used Google+ comments on their blog.

Mene, mene, tekel upharsin

Google will start deleting them on April 2 Update: or maybe February 4!. 

it will be impossible to leave a new Google+ comment after February 4—next Monday.

Adding images from "Photos": Google Photos, that is

toolbar > Insert image > Photos

The "Photos" option provides direct access to all the photos in Google Photos, for the blogging account you are using.

The Photos option lets you insert images from the linked Photos albums.

That's an important distinction if you have more than one Google account (I have three). You won't see photos that you took or uploaded using another account, even if you share them.

Adding images "from Google Album Archive"

toolbar > insert image > Add Images > From Google Album Archive

Partial view. Each box is an album. Click to enlarge.

"From Google Album Archive" is one of six ways to add images to your blog from "Add Images." (You get "Add images" when you click the Insert Image tool in Blogger's editing window.)

Update: The user interface has changed, so my screen shots and step-by-steps are no longer 100% valid. This option is now a sub option under "Blogger."

The top row in this view shows four of the albums in my album archive, including one for this blog.

Adding images from "Blogger"

new post > toolbar > Insert image > Blogger

Adding an image from "Blogger" lets you insert images you've previously added to your blog, or any other blog where your account has author privileges.

"Blogger" lets you reuse any image you've already added to Blogger.

It's one of four options you'll see once you click the Insert Image tool in Blogger's editing window.

Upload photos into Blogger

new post > toolbar > Insert image > Add images > Browse

Picture are great, and you can add them right into your blog from Blogger's edit window.

"Upload" lets you import an image from your computer or other device.

Use Upload to get an image into your blog from your device.

"Upload" is one of four image-inserting options available when you click the Insert Image tool in Blogger's editing window.