Starting a blog on blogger

I am sure the better platform to start a blog is blogger. Go to blogger.com and sign in with your gmail account.
Assuming that you have decided on a template for your blog. Which can be the one of the most difficult decisions to make. Blogger templates are 2 column ones, but as you start blogging you feel a lot of space is blank on the screen and can be put to better use, with the addition of another column.

1. Switch to a 3 column template. Many templates are available on the net my favourite is Ashwini Khare's modifications of blogger templates. There are other sites which are offering blogger templates for free, they are worth checking out for the three columns.
   
2. Hide the Navbar.
   
3. Burn a feed. Its easy now just go to feedburner.com and you can burn a feed. Then goto site feed in settings and put in your feed address in postfeed redirect URL all your feeds would be directed to your feedburner feed.
   
4. Insert a Subscribe by email easily done through feedburner using the html code in the layout.
5. Add this.
   This button at the end of each post makes it easy for the reader to share your post through the various popular social networks.
   
6. Yahoo media player.
7. Insert any webpage with iframe.
8. Embed high quality youtube videos. To embed a high resolution version of YouTube clip in your web pages, first make sure that “Watch in High Quality” or “Watch in HD” link exists next to the YouTube player as most videos are only available in standard format.Next copy the YouTube embed code and append &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 (for high quality) or &ap=%2526fmt%3D22 (for 720p High Definition) to the URL value of the movie parameter in both instances.
9. Add Link Within to show related posts at the end of your post.
10. Add the sharecount button for facebook
    

             <script src="http://widgets.fbshare.me/files/fbshare.js"></script>



      

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Blogger vs Wordpress

The idea to start another blog came to me on 3rd March o9, on my birthday despite having a travel blog and a medical blog I still felt the need to share certain things which fell in neither categories. So I decided to start another one. I would call it a personal blog. When Shaleen saw me starting another one last night his instant reaction was- oh my god another one!

It took me all this while to form a picture in my mind regarding the shape it would take. I decided to use another platform than the Blogger for this. I have been curious about Word press for a long time now. Though I started with a wordpress blog I decided to revert to Blogger. My familarity with its platform is the main reason.

The differences between blogger and wordpress are

1. Wordpress has 3 column blog templates as its templates in Dashboard. I had to really struggle so hard to convert my blogger ones to 3 column templates with the help of Ashwini Khare , I managed to do it only this March.
2. Wordpress has an option for including music, in all posts which I could not find in Blogger. In the main template there is an option to put in an audio link.
3. I just hope there is no limit to the capacity of the blog space at Wordpress. I just saw that I had used some part of the 3GB space allotted to me. i hope it is on a monthly basis. With blogger space is no problem at all
   
4. A poll can be added very easily in wordpress I could see no such option in Blogger. There is may be a widget for it.
5. I adore the add and arrange page elements feature of blogger too much. I think I'll stick to blogger
6. Starting a blog is definitely much more easier in Blogger for a non geeky person than in Wordpress.
7. Putting in google adsense is easier in a Blogger blog.
   

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