Blogging 101

I'm not sure if I'm qualified to write this post seeing as I've only been blogging for two days, but I will do my best!  I have been working on customizing my blog, which is quite a challenge when you have no idea what you're doing...  But there are a ton of great tutorials about customizing your blog, so I thought I would highlight the ones I have used so far in hopes of helping someone else!

1)  Header:  The first thing I created was my header.  Unfortunately, I did not use a tutorial for this one... I just used trial and error!  I built my header in PowerPoint... ohmyword... I should have listened to you all long ago about switching to PowerPoint!  I have been making my files for years using Word and have now officially discovered that PowerPoint is soooo much easier!  {more on that later}  Next, I did a screen capture and pasted my image into Paint (on a PC, you can click "prnt scrn" on your keyboard for a quick screen capture).  Then, I cropped my image, saved it as a jpeg, and uploaded it to this site.  I had to experiment with a few different sizes, but eventually, it looked the way I was hoping for!

2) Signature: I followed the same steps as above for creating and saving my image.  Next, I used {this} tutorial from Kevin and Amanda {great site if you haven't seen it!} to add my signature to each blog post (once it has been added, you don't have to do it again!)

3) Threaded Comments:  The next thing I worked on was making sure I had threaded comments.  Threaded comments are where you can reply directly to someone's comment (see above).  In other words, instead of having your response appear at the very bottom of everyone's comments, it goes right below the comment you're responding to.  Apparently, this is a feature that you used to have to add through html, but now Blogger has added it as a feature {as long as you turn on the right settings}.  {Here} is the tutorial I used to make sure I had all of the correct settings on!

Soooo while we're are talking about comments, let me just take a moment to say that captcha's are NOT my friend!  In case you don't know, a captcha the little box of random letters and numbers that you have to retype to prove that you are not a computer.  {Oh, I'm sorry... they are not words and letters, they are a random mishmush of symbols THAT I CANNOT READ!}   Am I the only one who who leans in incredibly close to my computer in order to decipher the mishmush... only to get the not-so-friendly message about typing the wrong thing?!  Ok, I'll stop ranting.  Anyways, I turned the captcha feature off on my blog, but now I've noticed that many of you have it turned on... was it a bad move for me to turn it off??

Ok, next tutorial...


4) Bold and Italic Direct Comment Link:  I'm hoping you all know about Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files.    If not, stop reading my blog and go check her blog out because it is an incredible resource!  She has terrific how-to videos, which is where I found my next tip.  When you comment on someone's blog, a great feature is having your own blog address stand out so that the blogger can hop back to your site quickly.  {This} video from Kristen will show you how to leave behind a bold and italic direct link.  It will involve some tweaking of your html code, which won't be so scary if you watch the video three times like I did :)

5) Pinterest Button: Here is a quick tip!  It is very easy to add a button for your friends to follow stalk you on Pinterest.  Just log into your account and click on the "About" button.  Next, click "Goodies" and scroll down to where it says "Follow Buttons for Websites."  Click on the type of button you want to add to your site, which will copy the code for you.  Then, go into your Layout page on blogger, add an html/javascript gadget, and paste your Pinterest code in!  Tip:  You can go to my {Blogging 101} board to find a TON of great resources for customizing your blog!

Ok, that's all for now!  I will leave you with a question.  The one thing I haven't figured out is how to correctly add a background image!  When I envisioned my blog, I wanted to have yellow chevron {surprise, surprise} as a background for my page.  I found an incredible amount of cute backgrounds from Melstampz {here}, but for the life of me, I cannot get the background image to be the correct size.  When I save and upload it, it says the image is way too big, and when I try to re-size it, the image gets all pixelated and looks bad!  Any tips???  In the meantime, I added this background directly from Blogger so my page wouldn't be naked and it is starting to grow on me.  Perhaps I should just keep it?  I would love your feedback :)