Too Clever By Half

If you are frustrated by Blogger feeds that are too short, there is some rescue.

Feeds are broadly useful ways to share your blog posts, and I make use of feeds in some of the tricks in this blog.

Unfortunately, Blogger keeps messing with them.

In 2011, Blogger started paginating its feeds at 500 posts. The entire feed was still available, but in chunks.

You had to hack the url parameters to get the whole feed, one 500-post segment at a time.

Recently, Blogger ratcheted that down to a mingy 150 posts per chunk, a real pain in the neck for some of us who have been cranking out blog posts for a while.

Update: This report is largely obsolete. Online stuff changes from time to time, and for this topic a revision would be impractical.

Read more about archived posts, if you like.

Update: The code snippet I share in this post is revised as of 2025 to reflect changes in Blogger.

The "Followers" sidebar gadget allows your readers to follow your blog on their blog dashboards. (No luck if they don't have dashboards.)

The gadget is worthwhile, but I don't use it.

Sidebar real estate is precious, and the standard gadgets are too big for my taste (and there are other issues).

I use a smaller button and link that I cobbled together myself:

this blog

Here's how to do that, if you like.

Update: Parts of this report are obsolete. Online stuff changes from time to time, and for this topic a revision would be impractical.

The corresponding widget today is "Followers," and I link to an alternative that also still works.

Search for "friend connect" in Blogger's list of gadgets to put a "follow this blog" button in your sidebar.

Here's a great unsung feature of Blogger: Undo.

If only it applied all the time.

Smart bloggers populate their blogs with widgets to connect readers with older blog posts (and with related content on the web).

Three sidebar areas take widgets: Top, side, footer.

Here's a quick appraisal of a half dozen powerful widgets you should know: Profile, Archive, Link List, Pages, HTML/Javascript, and Labels.

Update: This report is largely obsolete. Online stuff changes from time to time, and for this topic a revision would be impractical.

Read more about archived posts, if you like.

The R&D Division here at Too Clever, ever pushing the envelope, has used a Google+ page of a regular Blogger blog to create a second blog.

To be precise:

• a Google+ page identity (not a personal profile)
• that was created for a regular Blogger blog
• in turn created, and now administers, a second blog.

Here is the proof that, when it comes to Blogger, a Google+ page can do everything your blogging account can. Including being anonymous.