Google Blogger FAQ

Here are posts related to migrating, editing and changing Blogger templates, both old Blogger classic templates as well as New Blogger (xml) templates. In the case of old classic Blogger templates, once you save the backup template, putting it back again will put back everything you had before. Not so for the New Blogger xml template. Whenever you change a template, very often, you will get a warning messages about some Page Elements which will be deleted. Thus in addition to backing up xml templates, it is also important to backup any Page Elements that can be backed up, mainly HTML/Javascript and List and Text Page Elements. Not sure about other Page Elements like Picture Page Elements as I hardly use them. Will appreciate your feedback about your experience. Some Page Elements cannot be backup, like Link List, Profile, Labels and Blog Archives. The last 3 need not be backed up as you can add them back again from the LAYOUT, but you will lose the Link List or what bloggers call the blog roll. Once you lose this, you will have to redo from scratch. That is why I prefer to use HTML hyperlink tags for creating Link List as they can be backed up and you can easily make the links open in new tabs or windows if you want. Plan to publish 2 posts about this, and if I am late and you need it, do remind me by leaving a comment.

Here are the lists of posts related to migrating, editing, changing and backing up templates, including Page Elements. If you find anything missing, leave a comment to alert me:

How to migrate a classic template to a New Blogger template

Changing template

Backing up and changing New Blogger Template

How to backup New Blogger template and edit the template

Backup Page Elements

This (expandable post summary) is a popular request although often not asked for in name. There is also a section on expandable post summary and search engines at the bottom of the post.

Expandable post summary for blogs using New Blogger (xml) templates

Please refer to

Expandable post summary for New Blogger

This post has received many favorable comments including many saying they got frustrated with the one in Google Blogger Help pages itself and found the above easy to follow and understand. One in fact said he tried using the instructions there a few times, and failed. He followed the above and was successful the first time. Hope your path will be as smooth.

Expandable post summary for blogs using old classic Blogger template

While the real old classic Blogger is dead, buried, but is not forgotten. Some may be very attached to their old classic Blogger template. Some may like certain themes like for example, Furniture and stuff for the home, which uses an old classic template. Some may have chose to host the blog on their own in which case they will be forced to use the old classic template.

For those still using the old classic template for their blog and want the expandable post summary, please refer to

Expandable post summary for old classic Blogger.

Expandable post summary and search engines

I have done some tests on how search engines see posts with expandable post summaries and the result is at

Expandable post summary and search engines

Signing up for a Google AdSense account

Please refer to All about AdSense.

Generating scripts for Google AdSense products

Please refer to
Generating scripts for AdSense for Content ad units

Generating scripts for AdSense products

Blending colors of ads with colors of the blog or website

Please refer to
Blending colors of your ads with the colors of the web page

Blending colors of your ads to the colors of the house

Questions about why a newly created blog or website cannot be found by search engines are very common. Before your blog or website can be found, they must first be indexed by the search engines. Nowadays, nearly all blogs and websites, given time, will eventually be indexed by search engines if you are patient, but you may want to try to hurry it up. However, even after it had been indexed, it should also be ranked highly by the search engines, otherwise, even though your blog or website is in the SERP (search engine result page, it may be in the 800th page, and you will have to click on "Next" 799 times to get to see your blog or website.

The way to increase search engine visibility is to get more inbound links (links pointing to your blog or website) from other blogs or websites, especially those with high PageRank, leave relevant comments (DON'T SPAM) in blogs which has the "nofollow" attribute for comments deleted, submit your blog or website to directories, especially DMOZ (Open Directory Project) which Google uses to make its own identical Google Directory. (Hint: the "nofollow" attribute had been deleted from my major blogs)

Here are posts on how to find out if your blog or website had indexed by search engines, how to submit your blog or website to search engines, how to improve link popularity and PageRank and increase search engine visibility, etc.:

Is my blog indexed. If not, how to get it indexed quickly

How to get indexed by Google and other search engines

Fastest way to get indexed by search engines

How to get high PageRank

DMOZ or Google Directory, the most important directory

There are lots of directories and also directories focused on specific areas such as blog directories, and if you have the time, you should submit your blog to blog directories. I plan to make a post on how to submit blogs to blog directories and a listing of blog directories, and if you are in a hurry, bug me to do it quickly. However, one very easy way to get your blog into a blog directory is described in a post in the link below where not only can you get your blog listed in MyBlogDirectory without any difficulty, you can even have your own blog directory to put in your blog:

How to make a blog directory for you blog

Somewhere above, mention had been made about leaving comments with link to your blog or individual post page (permalink) in blogs in which the "nofollow" attribute had been deleted. You can also do the same for your own blog and leave relevant comments with active (clickable) links to your own individual post page (permalink).

Improve link popularity and PageRank by removing "nofollow" attribute for comments

The post below may not improve the PageRank of your blog, only that of your Profile, but if you make the links to your blogs, it will help bring more traffic to your blogs if you have made them visible in the Profile (I think it is also a good idea to make visible as a Profile is another website, and any active (clickable) links in that website (Profile) add more links to your blogs for search engines to count and follow:

Profile directory - increase traffic

Questions about why a newly created blog or website cannot be found by search engines are very common. Before your blog or website can be found, they must first be indexed by the search engines. Nowadays, nearly all blogs and websites, given time, will eventually be indexed by search engines if you are patient, but you may want to try to hurry it up. However, even after it had been indexed, it should also be ranked highly by the search engines, otherwise, even though your blog or website is in the SERP (search engine result page, it may be in the 800th page, and you will have to click on "Next" 799 times to get to see your blog or website.

The way to increase search engine visibility is to get more inbound links (links pointing to your blog or website) from other blogs or websites, especially those with high PageRank, leave relevant comments (DON'T SPAM) in blogs which has the "nofollow" attribute for comments deleted, submit your blog or website to directories, especially DMOZ (Open Directory Project) which Google uses to make its own identical Google Directory. (Hint: the "nofollow" attribute had been deleted from my major blogs)

Here are posts on how to find out if your blog or website had indexed by search engines, how to submit your blog or website to search engines, how to improve link popularity and PageRank and increase search engine visibility, etc.:

Is my blog indexed. If not, how to get it indexed quickly

How to get indexed by Google and other search engines

Fastest way to get indexed by search engines

How to get high PageRank

DMOZ or Google Directory, the most important directory

There are lots of directories and also directories focused on specific areas such as blog directories, and if you have the time, you should submit your blog to blog directories. I plan to make a post on how to submit blogs to blog directories and a listing of blog directories, and if you are in a hurry, bug me to do it quickly. However, one very easy way to get your blog into a blog directory is described in a post in the link below where not only can you get your blog listed in MyBlogDirectory without any difficulty, you can even have your own blog directory to put in your blog:

How to make a blog directory for you blog

Somewhere above, mention had been made about leaving comments with link to your blog or individual post page (permalink) in blogs in which the "nofollow" attribute had been deleted. You can also do the same for your own blog and leave relevant comments with active (clickable) links to your own individual post page (permalink).

Improve link popularity and PageRank by removing "nofollow" attribute for comments

The post below may not improve the PageRank of your blog, only that of your Profile, but if you make the links to your blogs, it will help bring more traffic to your blogs if you have made them visible in the Profile (I think it is also a good idea to make visible as a Profile is another website, and any active (clickable) links in that website (Profile) add more links to your blogs for search engines to count and follow:

Profile directory - increase traffic

These are all the posts I can find related to video. I have to time to check. Will appreciate your feedback by leaving a comment:

Testing embedding a video in Blogger (youtube)

testing uploading of video to google video and embedding it into a post

Testing embeding video (Google Video) Part 3

Testing embedding video (Youtube) Part 4 autostart don't work

Music and video for you blog: Another easy way

Video chat for your blog

Video direct upload is now out of beta (Blogger in Draft)

Video Direct out of beta (Blogger in Draft)

How to embed LiveVideo in a post or sidebar
(This post will show how to edit a script for embedding a post to fit into any part of a blog as long as you know what width is that part, is such a way that the video remains undistorted. This will be for blogs with fixed width templates. For blogs with fluid width, that is more difficult as width are in percentage, not pixels, and one would normally want to set the width to the lowest denominator which in most cases, are for visitors with small screen or screen resolution of 800x600).

For Youtube video, there are 2 widths and 2 heights to be edited and is described in one of the post above. I have no time to check, and if you happen to chance upon that post, please alert me by leaving a comment so I can add that information in this post

These are posts related to music:

Add music to your blog

Add music to your blog an easy way

eSnip music player in sidebar

Invisible background music player for your blog

Install invisible music player in your blog: Why I advice against it

Embedding Imeen Playlist into your blog

Embeding music player in your blog with Imeen

Install Apple Quicktime may make a MP3 music player work again

I am very short on time and have no time to check the above post. If you have any feedback, will greatly you leaving a comment in the post.

Here are all video related posts I could find:

Video chat for your blog

Video direct upload is now out of beta (Blogger in Draft)

Music and video for you blog: Another easy way

Testing embedding a video in Blogger (youtube)

testing uploading of video to google video and embedding it into a post

Testing embeding video (Google Video) Part 3

Testing embedding video (Youtube) Part 4 autostart don't work

Video Direct out of beta (Blogger in Draft)

Now Peter Chen is really short of time and have not checked all the posts above. If you read any of the above posts and find something lacking, not relevant or have problems, alert me by leaving a comment in the post.