Successful Blogging.com

10 Ways to Take Your Blog Up a Notch

Have you noticed that there are two kinds of blogs?
There are the average blogs- written by people who are mainly concerned with keeping an online journal. And then there are the blogs with the bells and whistles. They resemble websites at times. If you are ready to take your 'average' blog up a notch, here are ten steps to get you started.

Ten great ways to take your blog up a notch. There are many more ways that I'll cover in future postings. But, here are ten good ideas for you. Many of them have links to more posts that I have done on the topic.

1. Do a Google search for FREE blogger templates. There are those you can pay for and there are those that you don't have to pay for. Find the template that best matches your theme. Before installing it, be sure to back-up what you already have. You can do this by going into your layouts tab and hitting the "html" link. At the top of the page there is a link to download your current blog. Also, if you have any active widgets or feeds, individually back those up as often a new template will discard these and you'll have to re do them.

2. Figure out what you will do for a header. There are sites where you can build one if you do not have the software to do so. I Googled "free header" and got over 5,000,000 results. The header is the first thing visitors see and it tells them what level you are blogging from.

3. Promote your feeds. At minimum, go to blogger in draft, layout, new page element, click on feed.

4. Post daily. When people subscribe to your feeds, they will be kept interested with your daily posts.

5. After you post, visit at least 5 other blogs (click "next blog" on the menu bar) and leave comments complementing the blogger. It's a nice way to make friends if anything. Be patient though, chances are 5 out of 10 will be in languages other than your own.

6. Start a newsletter. This is easy to do. Check out this post

7. Get a domain name. You can do so easily through GoDaddy. They'll take you through the process of pointing it to your blog.

8. Sign-up for Adsense. You might as well make a few cents.

9. Join a community. It's the latest thing in blogging- or one of the latest.

10. Check out the Blogger in Draft Gadgets. You can post a feed of your blog roll, links lists, feeds, polls and so much more!

The New Acrobat 9

Adobe Systems Inc. is launching a new version of its document sharing software Acrobat on Monday, and this time it can package videos. Acrobat 9 comes with Adobe's video-enabling software Flash. Users can include Flash-based videos when they create and share documents with the portable document format, commonly known as PDF.

Acrobat allows users to package documents so they can be read across different hardware and operating systems. This is nice for website designers as they no longer need to package fonts, images and other large file additions when they deal with clients.

With a professional version of Acrobat 9 users could package a Power Point presentation with images and audio.

Adobe also launched Acrobat.com, which will host Web-based software services to support document creation and sharing.

Adobe purchased Macromedia Inc.,the creator of Flash software, in 2005 Since then Adobe hasn't launched a new version of Acrobat since November 2006. Using Flash technology, Acrobat can become even more useful.
The components of this new software include;
Flash-based word processor which covers the formatting, tables and image importing.
Share – a feature which will be used for online file sharing, allowing the share – receive option for all files, even in non-Adobe formats.
A free PDF file format converter
ConnectNow , a personal Web conferencing tool which supports up to three conference participants and also permits sharing the computer desktop in order to collaborate on a certain document in real time.

Color Chart

Updated color chart from Webmonkey.
There are so many blogger hacks out there that allow you to change the color of something,such as a gadget. To do so, you'll need to use what's called the hex code . Choose a color from the list below and look to its left to get the hex code. If we wanted our background to be red, for example, we'd type bgcolor="#FF0000". Try it out!

Hex Code	Color
#FFFFFF
#FFFFCC
#FFFF99
#FFFF66
#FFFF33
#FFFF00
#FFCCFF
#FFCCCC
#FFCC99
#FFCC66
#FFCC33
#FFCC00
#FF99FF
#FF99CC
#FF9999
#FF9966
#FF9933
#FF9900
#FF66FF
#FF66CC
#FF66CC
#FF6666
#FF6633
#FF6600
#FF33FF
#FF33CC
#FF3399
#FF3399
#FF3333
#FF3300
#FF00FF
#FF00CC
#FF0099
#FF0066
#FF0033
#FF0000

Hex Code	Color
#66FFFF
#66FFCC
#66FF99
#66FF66
#66FF33
#66FF00
#66CCFF
#66CCCC
#66CC99
#66CC66
#66CC33
#66CC00
#6699FF
#6699CC
#669999
#669966
#669933
#669900
#6666FF
#6666CC
#666699
#666666
#666633
#666600
#6633FF
#6633CC
#663399
#663366
#663333
#663300
#6600FF
#6600CC
#660099
#660066
#660033
#660000

Hex Code	Color
#CCFFFF
#CCFFCC
#CCFF99
#CCFF66
#CCFF33
#CCFF00
#CCCCFF
#CCCCCC
#CCCC99
#CCCC66
#CCCC33
#CCCC00
#CC99FF
#CC99CC
#CC9999
#CC9966
#CC9933
#CC9900
#CC66FF
#CC66CC
#CC6699
#CC6666
#CC6633
#CC6600
#CC33FF
#CC33CC
#CC3399
#CC3366
#CC3333
#CC3300
#CC00FF
#CC00CC
#CC0099
#CC0066
#CC0033
#CC0000

Hex Code	Color
#33FFFF
#33FFCC
#33FF99
#33FF66
#33FF33
#33FF00
#33CCFF
#33CCCC
#33CC99
#33CC66
#33CC33
#33CC00
#3399FF
#3399CC
#339999
#339966
#339933
#339900
#3366FF
#3366CC
#336699
#336666
#336633
#336600
#3333FF
#3333CC
#333399
#333366
#333333
#333300
#3300FF
#3300CC
#330099
#330066
#330033
#330000

Hex Code	Color
#99FFFF
#99FFCC
#99FF99
#99FF66
#99FF33
#99FF00
#99CCFF
#99CCCC
#99CC99
#99CC66
#99CC33
#99CC00
#9999FF
#9999CC
#999999
#999966
#999933
#999900
#9966FF
#9966CC
#996699
#996666
#996633
#996600
#9933FF
#9933CC
#993399
#993366
#993333
#993300
#9900FF
#9900CC
#990099
#990066
#990033
#990000

Hex Code	Color
#00FFFF
#00FFCC
#00FF99
#00FF66
#00FF33
#00FF00
#00CCFF
#00CCCC
#00CC99
#00CC66
#00CC33
#00CC00
#0099FF
#0099CC
#009999
#009966
#009933
#009900
#0066FF
#0066CC
#006699
#006666
#006633
#006600
#0033FF
#0033CC
#003399
#003366
#003333
#003300
#0000FF
#0000CC
#000099
#000066
#000033
#000000

Cool Blogger Gadgets

Blogger in Draft offers a plethora of gadgets to spice up your blog. This feature lets you add pretty much any Google Gadget to your blog’s sidebar.

The Gadget directory is the same one used on iGoogle, which means there are thousands of Gadgets available for you to try. (Note: since most Google Gadgets were designed for iGoogle, they won’t all make sense for display on a blog.)

The Gadget directory is available directly in Blogger Layouts, in the Template | Page Elements | Add a Page Element popup:

Here are a few that I thought were pretty nice.

TechBlogs

TechBlogs - Stay tuned with all top blog feeds in one convenient gadget! get all the latest news from TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Slashdot and Engadget
By LabPixies

What's That Site Running?

Find out all about a website, where it is hosted, what it's running, and what its uptime is
By Netcraft Ltd

Freeware Downloads

Freeware and free software downloads, reviews, blog and feeds
By Freeware Network

Document to PDF

Easily convert documents to PDF. A list of supported document formats you can find under www.pdf24.org.
By Stefan Ziegler

Digg 1.0

View the latest top stories as voted on by the Digg community, from the social news website Digg.com. Back by popular demand, the original version of the Digg Gadget. Let us know what you think at feedback@digg.com
By Digg.com Inc.

My advice is to try one or two at a time. Often when there are too many gadgets the page load can get slowed down. That's a big reason for a visitor to leave.