Dear all, welcome to our first video tutorial dedicated to Blogger 2021,
one of the best online platforms to realize your custom blog! In just
12 minutes we will see everything you need to know to create and
edit your blog on Blogger.
Blogger is the best option in case you want to build post and pages
without learning coding and it is also much easier than Wordpress.
To start with Blogger just visit its main page and click on Create Your
Blog. Perform the login with your Google account and define the main name
(or title) for your blog. Choose a custom URL that will take .blogspot as
main domain by default - we will see how to insert a custom domain at the
end of this video. Then define a Display Name (your profile name) and
you are done.
At this point you enter into your main blog panel, called Dashboard. A
GDPR notice informs you that cookies are added on your blog automatically
in order to be compliant with the privacy regulations.
To get a live preview click on View Blog in the bottom left corner. By
default this has a very simple design with the main title on top, the
post list at the bottom and your profile information on the left.
Let's see how to realize posts. You can start writing one by going to
New Post. On top define the post name (or title) and then type the body
content at the bottom. You can also copy-paste any piece of text.
On top you get several buttons to build your post such as the undo and
redo buttons, Font type to change the font family and Font size to
adjust its size. Make sure to select any text first.
You can also apply different formats including Paragraph (or p HTML tag)
and the several Headings (h1, h2 tags and so on). Next to it you can
change the text style, its fill color or its background color.
With the link button you can also include hyperlinks, specifying the
piece of text to insert, the destination address and the option to open
the link on a new browser window.
Click on Insert Image to browse for any image from your computer or any
URL, adjusting alignment, size, captions and ALT attributes. Whereas with
Insert video you can include any video from your computer or directly
from YouTube, resizing it if you need.
Moreover you can include emojis, adjust any paragraph alignment or add
bulleted or numbered lists. You can also drop quotes, horizontal
separators and use Input Tools to define the correct language of your
post. If you are ready click on Publish on the right to apply all and
make your post live.
The editor just seen is the most simple and intuitive one called Compose
view. You can also switch to HTML view to check or even write the direct
HTML code used to realize your post. This also gets updated when working
with the Compose view.
On the right side you have the Post settings. Here you can add labels
(or tags) to find your post on your blog or on the internet, change the
post publication date or get the post Permalink, used to share the post
anywhere. On Location insert any interested place and open Options to
manage the comments permissions on such post. Use Update to apply and
save all.
As you save and publish posts, these will all appear under the Posts
section and get listed on your Home Page according to the layout of your
blog. This shows a bigger Featured Post (the latest article) and all the
other posts at the bottom, composing the Page Body. This is the default
layout but you can fully change and customize it by opening the Layout
section.
Each layout is made by several elements, each containing one or more
Gadgets. For example you can take the Sidebar on the left and hide your
blogger profile from it or change the Gadget orders. Make sure to save to
get a quick preview of it.
You can also add a new Gadget to include AdSense banners, custom HTML
codes or search bars.
In the same way you can hide or show the Header on top, specify any Title
or Description or add any image as background. You can also change the
Featured Post appearance by showing or hiding title, abstract or
thumbnail from it.
On Page Body set the number of posts and comments to show. At the bottom
you can adjust the blog Footer to add attributions and Copyright notices.
Moreover you can open the Pages section to realize other blog pages
besides the default Home. You can go to New Page and then to the Compose
or the HTML view as seen for the posts. Then use Publish to save and apply
all.
This page is added and shown on your Dashboard but it does not appear on
your blog automatically like the posts. It remains unreachable unless you
share its permalink on your blog or on the internet. One of the best ways
to do so is to add this link on a dedicated Menu.
To add a Menu go to Layout and then to Page List, adding all interested
pages and adjusting their order.
Now let's see how to customize the blog appearance! This is defined by a
ready template called Theme. Up to now we have shown this one on top but
there are loads of others available on Blogger that you can select, check
and Apply live. These Themes can change not just the basic appearance and
color but also the overall layout of your blog.
On top you can go to Customize to edit your current theme in detail. From
the left click under Background image to browse for any image to use as
main background. You can also change the Main color theme on some pieces
of text, menus and buttons, according to the options provided by the
theme. If you need to customize more you have to include HTML codes as we
will see shortly.
Under Advanced you find other options to edit the elements you have such
as background color, font style and color and also the colors on links,
visited links and hover links. All these options change according to the
element chosen. Whereas under Gadgets you can edit all the gadgets
present.
To save and publish all use the Save button in the bottom right corner.
Next to the Customize button you can make a Backup of the current theme or
Restore it to restart from its original version. You can also switch to an
older generation theme and Edit the HTML code to apply modifications not
possible with the simple theme interface just seen.
In the Comments section you can check and manage all comments left by
hiding, flagging or removing any. Whereas on Stats you can check how your
website is performing and on Earnings you can connect and check your
AdSense account stats, if you have any linked.
Inside Settings you can adjust several blog options such as title,
description or the blog language. You can also add warnings in case you
treat adult content and add any Google Analytics ID to get details on
your traffic and performance.
Moreover you can click on Favicon to customize the icon of the browser
tab that opens your blog. Make sure to clear your cache if you do not see
it applied.
Below you get other options such as showing or hiding your blog from
web searches, applying an HTTPS protocol - that we recommend for safety -
and managing permissions. Also set the number of posts to be listed and
include any CSS file to use as template.
Under Formatting adjust the time zone and the data format and on Meta
tags add all the keywords to improve your blog indexing on search engines,
separated by commas. Below you can edit the display messages in case of
non-existing pages (404 error) and apply redirects.
Under Monetization include your ads.txt file if you want to link any
Google AdSense account and under Manage Blog make a backup of your whole
blog or delete it if you want.
In addition, under Publishing, you have the option to use a Custom Domain.
You can buy any from Google or use the one you already have. In this case
Blogger will give you two CNAME records to add on your domain panel.
Once you log in on your domain remove any A record and insert the two
requested CNAME records with correct name and description. After this,
wait at least 24 hours and add your own domain, enabling redirects to
make it effective.
Check our link in the video description to get help at linking your own
domain!
Thank you very much for watching this super fast tutorial! Make sure to
catch our next free guides on our YouTube channel to learn more!