Blogger Tips!! =^.^=

Hey guys, Rocky here!  I'm not super experienced in the art of blogging, but I have picked up a few things during my time of AJR.  From blogging basics to gaining readers, read below to find info you never knew you wanted to know. XD

Basics
Tip #1. Comments.  They're the way to get readers involved with your site!  So unless you're having a lot of issues with spamming, it's good to take off word verification and keep comment moderation off. (Comment moderation is where the comments go to a holding box before you approve them and publish them.  Word verification are the letters and numbers you have to type to "prove you're not a robot.") So in Posts and Comments under Settings....

Chose comment moderation to "Never", who can comment to "Anyone" and show word verification "No."

*Note- Comment Moderation and Word Verification never occur to yourself.  So just because it's not happening to you doesn't mean it's not happening to everyone else XD*
Tip #2. Pages!  They're a good to way to expand your site from just posts.  The default is that any page you make will not show.  You can change this pretty easily.  Where your list of pages are displayed...

Click show pages as "Top Tabs" or "Side Links" depending on what you prefer.

Of course you can also "Manually link" as it says.  You would do this by adding a picture on your side bar and adding a link that would activate once someone clicked the picture.  (Like Meloetta385 used to do on Animal Jam Flash) Some ideas for pages:
-Codes (of course)
- More Blogs (People really appreciate it when you add this page. Believe me.)
- Journey book/Adventure guides
- Funny pics/cool things to do on AJ
- Ask me page (Well not me. YOU. XD)
 Tip #3. Posts. Very important indeed.  This is what will keep your readers coming back each day.  Do you VERY BEST to post most every day (if it's an update kind of blog.)  Of course we all have our times where we're too busy, too tired, or just too lazy.  But do your best. :D
To change the amount of posts people see at one time on your blog....go to Settings-Posts and Comments. (again.)

Beside the words "Show at most.." change the number to whatever number you'd like. (4's pretty good.)

Actually making a post is pretty straight forward.  All I'll say is that if you want to show the different colors of items and stuff like that, my method is using Screen Cast-o-matic.  And then save your video as a GIF file.  Then add it in the post as a regular picture, and the video will play automatically.  To save as a GIF, the video must be pretty short (below 15 seconds or so.)
4. Adding Authors.  Once you get busier, and your blog is starting to pick up viewers, authors are a pretty awesome thing!  You know what makes it even more awesome?  If they're one of your great buddies!  (Lemo, thank you!!  And andreww too!) Make sure you completely trust the authors before you invite them to your blog!  In Settings-Basics, you'll see this little "Permissions" Box.

Click add authors and type the person's gmail to send them the invite letter.  "Author" lets the person make posts.  "Admin" lets the person have full access to your blog layout and such.  (Usually that's not necessary.)
Gadgets 
These are all the things on people's sidebars.  From words, to text, to the list of followers.  Here's how to add them.  Under Layout this time...

Click "Add a Gadget" The ones that appear are some basic ones.

Some good ones to add are "Blog stats" (number of pageviews), "Text," "Images," "Poll," and "Profile," (your blogger profile intro.)  Once you have your gadget, move it around to where you want it under layout.  It's also nice to add the Followers Gadget which isn't listed under "Basics."  Well the Google+ one is, but that one is less common.  Go under "More Gadgets" and scroll to the bottom of the page.

There we go!  Sometimes you'll want to add HTML codes which are all the special gadgets Blogger doesn't offer.  For example..

That's an HTML.  To add codes like this go back to the "Basic" gadgets tab and find the "Html/JavaScript" gadget.

Click on it and paste whatever code you have under content.  Here are codes and links to codes you might find helpful!
-Swimming Fish/Turtles Website
-Adding the Scrolling Bar of Text at the top of your page (make sure you move this gadget under your blog header is that's where you want it to be.)
- Adopt a pet and display it on your blog
-Find a new cursor for your blog
-Animated Objects
-Falling Snow (This was given to me by Etherealcomet. Thanks!)
Also under the Layouts tab, you can add your header!  There's an option for you to add a blog description.  If you don't want it, you can click "add in place of description" for just the header.

Yet another thing you can do in "Layout" is change your Favicon Picture! (I didn't figure this out till waaay late.)

Customizing and Templates
Layout is where you move and add gadgets.  Template is where you customize your blog!  (Fonts, colors, and much much more.)
The four templates I would recommend for AJ blogging are Picture Window, Awesome Inc, Watermark, and Ethereal.  Don't worry if the template isn't exactly what you want.  Click "Adjust Widths" and "Layout" to set the sidebars up as you like.

The "Background" tab is where you would go to change your background, of course.  I usually like to pick non-busy backgrounds so they don't take away from the blog.  You can choose from blogger's selection, or upload your own.(Warning: images must be 1800x1600 to work properly.)  To keep your image from tiling, click "Don't Tile" in the dropdown box.  To keep your image from repeating itself as your scroll down uncheck the other lil' box.

"Advanced" let's you work with fonts and colors.  I'd try to keep fonts the same throughout gadgets and posts.  (Although having a different font for your tabs and post title works nicely too.) I would also recommend sticking with a certain color scheme.  You don't have to use exactly what the default theme is, but you don't want your blog to look too over the top.
Good color schemes:
- Pinks, purples, light blues.
-Light Greens, light+dark blues
-Green and white
-Orange, blue/violet
-Vivid Red (but not TOO vivid), tan
-Gray+any vivid color
(Notice how I didn't do yellows.  Sorry, they just aren't ideal.)
Finally, something else that might be helpful is changing your sidebar backgrounds transparent.

And wallah.
Gaining Popularity
It's not an easy thing. XD  It's not like AJR's super popular to begin with, lol.  But here a few things that I always try to do.
1. Stay true to yourself.  It sounds sappy, but it's the truth.  Nobody likes an impersonator.  Believe me, people will notice if you're trying to mimic another's writing.  (And *cough* I may have mimicked when I first started.) But just be original.  And if someone doesn't like your originality, well....they can just get over it.
2. Involve your readers!  Comment questions are good!  Also, it never hurts to respond to comments and listen to suggestions.  The more involved you are, the more involved others will want to be.
3. Be entertaining.  People like to be entertained.  Post informative stuff, but also post entertaining stuff.  It doesn't even have to make that much sense. :p
4. Comment, comment, comment on other blogs!   Find More Blogs pages and ask to have your blog up there.  Seriously, go comment crazy.  There was one day I made like 40 different comments on different blogs.  And if you have a "More Blogs" page yourself (see?  I told you people like them) people will most likely have yet another reason to spend time on your blog! 
4.  Finally, and most importantly, NEVER GIVE UP.  ("Wow Rocky, I could have told you that.")  Yeah yeah, but I'm serious.  There are some days where you just want to throw your blog off the side of a cliff.  There are some days where you WON'T get any comments and you'll hardly get any views. (Specially toward the beginning of your blogging career.)  But you know why you should keep going?  For the enjoyment of it.  And there will be one day, later on in the future, when you'll look back and say "Thank Zios I kept trying."

~Rocky