New Blogger feature: Readers can now track post comments by email

I just noticed a new, or perhaps new to me, Blogger feature. When you post a comment as a reader of a blog, you now have the option to track any future replies to the post via email. This is nice because it can bring back your commenters or the people who are interested in a specific post disucssion. Thank you Blogger for adding it!

Alternately a reader can also subscribe to the RSS feed of all the comments posted on your blog, but that usually is used by hardcore fans of a blog, not the average internet reader who just wants to see if his/her question or comment is answered in a particular blog post.

This on top of the existing option for blog writers/owners to be notified of all comments posted on their own blog(s). To get to his option, logon to your Blogger account, then click on Settings and then Comments for that.

Tip #11: Add a SiteMap to the Google Webmaster Tool for Blogger blogs using Feedburner

This tip is for people who use Feedburner to burn their feeds, Blogger to write their blogs, and Google's Webmaster Tool to check up on their blog's health and status in the Google Search engine.


The Setup
It is common for Blogger users to submit their RSS.xml (or atom) file as a Site Map on Google's Webmaster tool. This works just fine, but when you use Feedburner to burn your feed, and you redirect Blogger's feed to point to Feedburner, then this approach stops working as a SiteMap option for the Google Webmaster tool.


The Solution
Step #1: Logon to the Google Webmaster tool and under Sitemaps, delete the existing rss.xml sitemap

Step #2: After it is deleted, select "Add a Sitemap" as usual, and instead of typing rss.xml, you type rss.xml?redirect=false. This allows the Google Webmaster Tool to access your original Blogger feed, before it gets processed by Feedburner.

Step #3: Follow the usual steps and you are done!


The "feeds/posts/default" approach won't work
Please note that some websites and blogs suggest that you use "feeds/posts/default". This won't work because the Google Webmaster Tool wants you to submit a file at the highest directory level. It will not let you enter this. So if you've already tried this and it didn't work, it's not you, it simply doesn't work :) Instead try the redirect=false approach and you will be fine!

Tip #9: Create AdSense ads on Adsense, use Blogger to get the right color scheme

If you are using a Blogger blog, and you are also using Adsense, this tip is for you!

As things stand right now, you can insert Google Adsense ads on your blog using the new Blogger Page Elements interface. This is easier as you just add the Page Element, select the ad size, and color scheme and you are done. There are two automated color scheme options where you can select to Match or Blend the ad into the blog's existing template. Those are very helpful options, especially for those of us who are color-matching challenged. However, the Blogger Adsense interface does not offer the use of Channels (tracking information). This is a deal killer if you are trying to analyze, optimize and monetize your blog. As it has been repeated by AdSense and many successful AdSensers, tracking is one of the big keys to sucess.

And the only way to add Channel information is if you create the Ads on Google's Adsense page. However, with this approach you have to either manually come up with the color scheme or using one of the default color schemes (palettes) which may be okay for your blog, but it may not likely be as optimum as a matched or blended palette. So what to do?

Bringing them together
Step 1: Start creating the Ad on Google's Adsense Setup page as usual, and add the Channel tracking information.

Step 2: Open Blogger, go to Template, select "Add Page Element", and select "AdSense" from the list. There select the Match or Blend option and see what colors are selected by the computer in the little preview box. Please note that this depends on where the ad will go, which is the top of the column/area that you selected "Add Page Element" from. If the ad will go to another place in the blog that has different formatting and color schemes, then you may have to save the Blogger Adsense ad, save the template, and open the Blogger Adsense ad again at its new location and see what you get in the automated Match and Blend options.

Step 3: Go back to the Google AdSense Setup page, and cut/paste the colors from the Blogger window. For convenience you may want to save this palette in the AdSense Setup page so you can reuse it later on.

This can be used for both AdSense for Content and Link Units, and the same approach can produce colors for the Referral palettes.


Caution!
If you already have the maximum number of AdSense for Content or Adsense Link Units on your blog, be careful not to save an extra one while using the Blogger color matching technique mentioned above.

For example if you already have three AdSense for Content units live on your blog, and zero Link Units, and you want to save a temporary one on Blogger (in order to get better color matching from the actual location), select the Link Units for your temporary Blogger experiment instead of the Adsense for Content. And vice versa.

AdSense News: Changing ads from the AdSense Setup page (coming soon)

The latest post in the official Inside AdSense blog, has some very promising news for Adsense users: Coming soon: Make ad changes without replacing code.

Those familiar with AdSense know that if you want to make any adjustments to your AdSense code you have to edit your blog or website manually.

As things are right now, before the new changes take place, those using Blogger have it a little bit better since they can currently add/edit/delete Google Ads using the new Blogger's Page Elements interface. However, the Blogger Adsense code does not have an option for using Channels (tracking information), so it's not helpful if you are trying to analyze and optimize your blog. But the Blogger Adsense has the benefit of computer-suggested Blend and Match Template color-matching schemes, particularly helpful to those of us who lack the ...ad ...sense to get them right manually :-) As you can there are some pros/cons either way.

It will also be interesting to see whether these new changes will affect in any way the Blogger-created AdSense ads. Of interest to me as well since I am using Blogger :-)

Tip #1: Use Labels to showcase only your latest post per category

The principle behind this tip applies to all types of blogging services, but the syntax given here will be for Blogger blogger.

Background
Since we moved to the new version of Blogger, Labels were added. Labels, also known as tags, are a great way to organize (or at least mark) your content and make it easier for people to find what interests them.


The problem
A number of bloggers have weekly or monthly features, for example "Tuesday Tips" or "Monday Gossip" or "the week in review", or "favorite things on tv this week", etc, that they tag appropriately with the label. The problem with clicking on the label is that it loads and shows a number of posts. So if your blog has been around for a while, the reader will be loading stuff they already read.


The solution
The solution is using Labels to create HTML links that limit the number of results you get from a Label. For example, you want your readers to only read this week's tv listings, since the previous week's are gone already. So you create a link at the top of your blog that says "This week's TV listings" or "This week's review" or "This week's Gossip". Sure, you can do this manually by editing the HTML every week. But why do it manually when you can have Labels and HTML do it for you automatically every time?

The trick is to append max-results to the Label. The syntax is ?max-results=1, where 1 is the any number, eg pick one if you only want the latest item to be displayed.


How to do it?
0. You need a basic understanding of creating an HTML link to do this.
1. Open a browser window and visit your blog, for this example, let's say this one.
2. Locate the Labels and find the label of your choice. Let's say "blogger" in our case.
3. Move the mouse over the "Blogger" tag and "Copy Link Location" (or "Copy Link Address" or "Copy Shortcut") depending on what browser your are using. You are basically copying the link.
4. This will result in the link being copied to your cut/paste buffer: http://1001blogtips.blogspot.com/search/label/blogger
5. Go to the desired location in your Blog Post or Blog Template and create a standard HTML link.
6. Paste what we copied in #3 in between the quotes after href. This will result in this: My Blogger Columns. As it is now, it will show all entries you have on the label blogger.
7. And here comes the magic, we append the max-results=1 to the Label link, producing this: http://1001blogtips.blogspot.com/search/label/blogger?max-results=1. What you add is shown in BOLD. Be sure not to forget the question mark because it is part of the correct syntax. The resulting link will look like this: My Latest Blogger Column
8. If you want to showcase your last two posts on the topic, change the number to 2, if you want to show your last 3, change it to three.

Welcome to 1001 Tips!

After spending a few years writing blogs, mostly on blogger, I have decided that it is about time to start a blog about blogging, where I write about the tips and tricks I find, along with the tools, utilities, best practices, strategies and ideas on blogging. I am by no means an expert, but I have spent enough blog-hours to share what I have found so far.

Most of the how-to stuff will be focuses on Blogger, but the ideas and principles can translate to other blogging services as well. The other stuff, such as ideas, practices, strategies should apply to all blogging services.

If you have any suggestions, recommendations and feedback please feel free to leave them! Thanks :-)