Blogger Buster

August 05, 2009

16 Useful Twitter Tools for Blogger

Since it's launch back in 2006, Twitter has become a leading pioneer in the world of social media. Bloggers in particular find this service an invaluable tool for syndication, news stories and community conversation.

For this post, I have rounded up 16 of the most useful tools, tips and free resources to help you get the most out of Twitter through your Blogger powered blog.

Display your Latest Tweets

Visitors to your blog may also enjoy reading your Tweets, particularly if they are of relevance to your blog's niche subject.

Here is a selection of the best tools for displaying Twitter updates in your Blogger layout:

The Official Twitter Badges

Twitter provides an animated "Profile" badge which you can use to display your latest updates as a widget in your blog layout:

You can configure the size, colours and number of updates for your badge in the settings, then grab the code which can be pasted in an HTML/JavaScript widget in your Blogger layout page.

Another alternative is the Twitter "MySpace" gadget, which uses Flash to create a different appearance to the gadget:

We can copy the code generated for this widget and paste into an HTML/JavaScript widget in our blog - it's not limited only to MySpace profiles!

Blogger Widgets and Gadgets

Another way to display your Twitter updates is to install a Blogger widget or gadget in your layout. These can be configured to display as few or many Tweets as you choose, and require only your Twitter username to install:

Simple Twitter Updates Widget
This was the first Twitter application I created for use with Blogger blogs and still remains one of the most popular tools on the site! To install, simply fill out the form and click "Add Widget" to install automatically in your layout.

Twitter Gadget for Blogger (EN)
This gadget works in much the same way as the Twitter Updates widget but is simpler to install and can be reconfigured after installation.

Twitter Updates Gadget (ES)
Daniel Ikeda has made a Spanish translation of my Twitter Gadget for easy installation.

TwitSig - Your Tweets in Pictures

TwitSig is an interesting free service which allows you to display your latest Twitter update as an image. You can add this in your layout as either an HTML/JavaScript widget (using the code generated on the TwitSig homepage) or as an Image gadget using one of the alternative backgrounds.

Here's an example of the default Twitsig badge:

This one uses magnets:

Here's another using a fortune cookie:

Visit TwitSig to generate your own updating Twitter updates image.

Add a "Follow Me" Badge

To encourage your blog readers to follow you on Twitter, try adding a "Follow Me" badge which links to your Twitter profile page.

Here are some useful tools and badges which you can use to add a linked "Follow Me" badge to your Blogger layout:

Twitter Follow Badge by Go2Web"0.com

Here's a new and interesting way to add a non-intrusive "follow me" badge to your site, like this:

The badge can be configured for different colour schemes, height from the top of the page and left/right alignment.

To add the badge to your Blogger blog, visit the TwitterFollowBadge page and fill in the form to your requirements. This will generate some JavaScript code which you should add just before the closing </body> tag in your Blogger template. However, in it's native form this code will not display in Blogger!

Instead, we have two options:

Paste the JavaScript into an HTML/JavaScript widget instead
Replace <-- and --> in the generated code with <-- and --> (this enables the script to function correctly and display the badge in your page)

TwitterButtons.com

TwitterButtons offers several pages of free "follow" buttons to help your blog readers follow you on Twitter:

Simply add your Twitter ID in the space provided and TwitterButtons will generate the code to add the button of your choice as a linked badge in your layout. Paste the code into an HTML/JavaScript gadget in your layout (or directly in your template if preferred!) and you're all set.

Twitter Buttons by Vincentabry.com

This site offers 31 different styles of Twitter buttons which you can add to your blog. Although the site is not in English, the Twitter buttons are.

To add these to Blogger easily, use your favourite image in a Picture gadget in the layout, then link this to your Twitter profile:

Add "Tweet This" Links to your Blog Posts

Twitter is an excellent service for syndicating blog posts and useful or interesting articles. Help your blog readers share their favourite posts on Twitter by providing a "Tweet This" link for each of your blog posts.

Here are three different ways you could do this:

Add a simple "Tweet This" link

The simplest of all Twitter syndication links is a text link which uses the URL and title of your blog post:

There are of course many ways in which this link could be styled, and where it could be positioned. For now I'll explain the most basic method of installation.

Go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard and check the "Expand Widget Templates" box.

Then using your browser search function, locate the following line of code (or similar):

<div class='post-footer'>

Immediately after this line, paste the following section of code:

<a expr:href='"http://twitter.com/home?status=Reading " + data:post.title + " @YOUR-TWITTER-USERNAME " + data:post.url' title='Tweet it on Twitter'>Tweet This</a>

Be sure to replace "YOUR-TWITTER-USERNAME" with your own username!

Then save your template. This will add a "Tweet This" link in the post-footer section beneath each blog post. Readers can click this link to post a pre-filled template "Tweet" like this:

Image based "Tweet This" Link

If you'd prefer to use a stylish button or larger image link, you can simply replace the text from the previous example with an image tag, like this:

<a expr:href='"http://twitter.com/home?status=Reading " + data:post.title + " @YOUR-TWITTER-USERNAME " + data:post.url' title='Tweet it on Twitter'><img src="http://image-host.com/your-image-link.jpg" alt="Tweet This" /></a>

Here's a great example of this effect on PSDrecipes:

Using Short URLs in "Tweet This" Links

Many of us use lengthy domain names which take up much of Twitter's 140 character limit for the tweeting of posts.

A while ago I posted a tutorial explaining how to enable short URLs for "Tweet This" links using Bit.ly. This explains how to add a similar text/button/combination link for each of your Blogger posts which adds a shortnened URL to the Twitter post template instead of the regular, lengthier one.

Enable "Tweetbacks" in your template

Our Blogger templates already support "Backlinks" (known as "Links to this post" in Blogger). However, these backlinks don't display links generated on Twitter which usually include shortened URLs.

Dan Zarella's original "Tweetbacks" script is JavaScript based and can be used in Blogger templates to display tweets about your post. It is very easy to install and requires no customization (unless you wish to style how the tweetbacks are displayed).

To add "Tweetbacks" to your Blogger blog, simply copy the code below and paste this in your template where you would like the Tweetbacks to appear:

<script src="http://danzarrella.com/tb.js"></script>

The simplest installation is to paste this code into an HTML/JavaScript widget in your Blogger layout. This will display Tweetbacks on every page of your blog, and will show the Tweetbacks attributed to each individual page.

Another possibility is to add Tweetbacks beneath the "Links to this post" section of your template, effectively grouping these tweets with backlinks to each individual post.

To achieve this, go to Layout>Edit HTML and check the "Expand widget templates" box. Then search for the following line in your template:

<b:includable id='backlinks' var='post'>

Immediately after this line, paste the following section of code:

<h4>Tweetbacks<h4> <script src="http://danzarrella.com/tb.js"></script>

This will add Tweetbacks with the appropriate title just above the "Links to this post" section of your layout.

Note: you must configure "Backlinks" to "Show" in the Settings>Comments section of your dashboard to enable this method to work.

Add TwitPic Updates to your Sidebar

TwitPic enables us to share images to Twitter, which can be posted by phone, using the TwitPic API or directly from the TwitPic site.

I've developed a gadget which you can use to display your recent TwitPic updates in your Blogger layout which is easy to install and can be configured to your needs:

Use this link to add TwitPic Updates to your Blogger blog.

Add "Real Time" Twitter Updates

Being a fast, virtually instantaneous stream of updates on any given subject, many of us like to keep up with references, news and re-tweets in real-time, rather than having to update or revisit Twitter search at periodic intervals.

Here are two highly useful gadgets for blogger which can be used to display real-time updates in your actual blog layout:

Twitter Search

Developed by 32Hours.com, this gadget offers a stream of updates for a given search term, hash tag or username.

Simply add the gadget to your blog and change the terms for search after installation (your readers can use this too!):

Visit this page on 32Hours.com to learn more about this gadget and install in your Blogger layout.

Juitter Gadget - real time updates with configurable search terms

Based on the excellent Juitter JQuery plugin by Rodrigo Fante, this gadget enables real-time Twitter updates based on the search terms you specify on installation. You can choose to display tweetbacks referencing your Twitter username, a particular search term and even combinations of terms:

This gadget does not contain ads or added links, and can be configured to display exactly as you want.

Click here to add this Juitter gadget to your blog.

Have I missed anything out?

I hope I've provided a good round-up of Twitter tools which you can use to "Twitterize" your Blogger powered blog. If you feel I've missed out any Blogger-enabled tools, please feel free to let me know about these in the comments below.

August 04, 2009

Free HTML and CSS Tutorials at BeepTheGeek.com

Many of my tutorials here on Blogger Buster help Blogger users learn how to customize their Blogger templates by manipulating the template code. When customizing our Blogger templates, we need to use a combination of HTML tags and CSS in addition to Blogger template tags.

While I try to make my tutorials easy to follow, I understand these are also contextually aimed at a specific task, and that many of you would like to learn more about HTML and CSS in general in order to make your own unique customizations and templates.

Over the weekend, Gagan of BeepTheGeek.com let me know about a new course he has started to help bloggers learn the basics of HTML and CSS: HTML Tutorials. This is a weekly course specifically designed for those who want to learn the basics of web design which is just as important for customizing Blogger templates as designing stand-alone web pages.

Beginning with an introduction to HTML tags, Gagan hopes this free online course will enable everyone to understand the basic concepts of HTML and how this may be applied to blog template design:

The series will include all HTML concepts and will teach you everything about HTML along with CSS tips and tricks for fast and easy designing. I’ll start from the basics so that each and every concept is clear to you. By the end of the series you will be able to edit your templates.

At the end of the course, Gagan will publish the entire series of tutorials in an eBook for easy reference.

I hope this free course will be of interest to those of you wishing to learn more about Blogger template design. Pop over to BeepTheGeek.com to take a look at the course and let us know what you think.

Image credit: eelke dekker

July 23, 2009

About LinkWithin

LinkWithin is a free service offered by a small team based in New York. This free service enables us to display related posts with thumbnails below our blog posts (the thumbnail is taken from an image within the post it links to).

We retrieve and index all stories from your blog archive, not just recent stories, making them accessible to new or casual readers of your blog who would not otherwise encounter them.

The posts chosen to appear as related posts are based on several factors including:

Relevance
Popularity
Recency

At present, LinkWithin is not ad-supported and is completely free to use. As explained on the FAQ page:

We plan to introduce revenue-sharing features in the future, but they will be optional.

At present, there is little documentation for us to be certain of these factors, though after testing LinkWithin in a few different sites, I'm pretty impressed by the choices generated for each post!

Here is an example of how LinkWithin functions for WeLoveBlogger.com:

Why LinkWithin may be a more ideal solution than other related posts solutions for Blogger

The "related posts" solutions for Blogger which I've used until now have all relied on label feeds. That is, the recent posts generated by such scripts collect recent posts from the same label (category). This often means that posts deeper within our archives are generally ignored, even when they may be far more relevant than the more recent posts displayed.

LinkWithin parses all posts from our blogs, and chooses the posts to be displayed using more complex and relevant factors. This ensures far greater relevancy which is better for our readers and also ensures that older posts are included in the display.

How to add LinkWithin Related Posts to Your Blogger Blog

If you're using a standard, uncustomized Blogger template, the method for installing LinkWithin is fairly straightforward. Simply visit the LinkWithin website, fill in the form on the right-hand side (choosing Blogger as your platform) and follow the instructions provided.

This will install the related posts in your template as a gadget beneath the main posts section, though you'll find the "You may like these related stories" section will be displayed beneath each of your blog posts (before the post-footer section). It will also display on each and every page of your blog, including the main, archive and search pages.

Custom Installation of LinkWithin for Blogger templates

If you prefer to display your related posts only on item pages or have a customized, non-standard Blogger template, here is how you can install LinkWithin:

Visit the LinkWithin website and fill in the form on the right-hand side. For the "platform" be sure to choose "Other":
On the next page, you will find a script like this is generated. From this code, you need to write down your unique "site ID" for later use (or copy this to your favourite text editor):
Once you have a note of your Site ID, go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard and ensure you have checked the "Expand widget templates" box.
Using your browser's search function, locate this tag (or similar) in your Blogger template code: <div class='post-footer'>

Depending on the template you are using, this tag may vary slightly though you should usually be able to locate 'post-footer' in your template code.
Immediately before this line, paste the following section of code, replacing "YOUR_SITE_ID" with the ID number you have noted down for your site:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<script>
var linkwithin_site_id = YOUR_SITE_ID;
(function () {
var elem = document.createElement('script');
elem.type = 'text/javascript';
elem.src = 'http://www.linkwithin.com/widget.js?rand=' + Math.random();
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(elem);
})();
</script>
<a href="http://www.linkwithin.com/"><img src="http://www.linkwithin.com/pixel.png" alt="Blog Widget by LinkWithin" style="border: 0" /></a>
</b:if>
Preview the changes you have made before saving your template. The LinkWithin gadget should not display in the preview; furthermore, if there are any errors in the installation you will be able to see before attempting to save.
If all is well, save your template and visit an item page in your blog: you should be able to see related posts showing up beneath your blog posts.

Support for LinkWithin's related posts

While I can help with installation for LinkWithin in Blogger templates, I'm not able to help with specific problems with the script.

Luckily, the LinkWithin team offer a good support service via email:

If your blog uses a non-standard custom template/theme, we will need to add support for your blog manually, and we can do this only if the widget remains installed on your blog. Please email us at support AT linkwithin DOT com, and we will fix the problem, usually within 1-2 days. Thank you for your patience!

At the moment, it appears we can only display three related posts. Hopefully LinkWithin will offer the option to display more (or less) items in a future version of the script.

Why I'm not using LinkWithin yet...

LinkWithin is a very useful solution for Blogger users wishing to display links to related posts in their blog. I recommend this service and will be using this in a future release of Blogger Buster.

My current template is highly complex and has served me well for many months. However, there are several new (and upcoming) customizations and new features for Blogger which may not work so well in this design. I'll explain more about this in a future post when the site changes are closer to completion.

Are you using LinkWithin? What do you think about this service?

If you're already using LinkWithin (or plan to use this soon), please let us know your opinions of this free service, and how well you think this adapts to displaying posts in your blog by leaving your comments below.

July 21, 2009

Known Bugs

As the API is still rather new, there are a few minor bugs with my gadgets. These are the issues I'm currently aware of, which will be updated with new information once it's available:

Need to press "Update" to ensure preferences are configured
This is an issue with all gadgets which should be resolved quite soon.

Some gadgets don't display in Chrome
Several people have emailed me about this, and to be honest I don't know why this is happening. I'm pretty certain the Blogger team are aware of this issue and hope for a fix soon.

Gadgets may "spill over" in customized templates
The width of gadgets is determined by the width of the sidebar, and sometimes ignores any padding/margins applied to the "widget content" section. I've tried many ways to fix this, but so far my only solution would be to apply margins within the gadget, making it narrower (and unsightly) for those who use regular templates.

Any bugs/other issues?

Please let me know if you have any other problems with my gadgets by leaving your comments below.

July 18, 2009

New Gadgets for Blogger

Over the past few weeks, I've been working with Bloggers improved API for Gadgets and have now completed work on several useful gadgets which can be installed with just a few clicks.

I've found that the Gadget API offers a much better interface to the end-user than HTML/Javascript widgets (although it takes me far longer to create Gadgets than widgets!). While they are a little more difficult to create, I think the end-product is worth the effort:

Gadgets can be added from within the Blogger dashboard (so we don't need to use search engines, or visit the owner's site to install).
Gadgets are easily customized, and can be easily reconfigured after installation
The new API includes the ability to include Blogger post and comment feeds for the blog in which they are installed.
Developers can ensure gadgets blend with the theme in which they are installed using "Skins" parameters.

How to install Gadgets in your Blogger blog

Gadgets are as easy to install as Blogger's default widgets. Simply go to Layout>Page Elements in your Blogger dashboard and click the "Add a Gadget" link in the area where you want to install your gadget.

A pop-up screen like this will appear:

From here, you can browse gadgets in the directory, search for gadgets of interest, or add a gadget using the URL where it is hosted.

Once you have chosen a gadget to add, you should be presented with a configuration screen like this:

There will be different options here, depending on the gadget you have chosen to install. This example shows the configuration options for my Twitter Updates gadget.

At the very least, you should be able to alter the title of the gadget, however most gadgets have other configuration options available. A preview of how the gadget will look in your blog will appear below these options (do bear in mind that the width of the gadget may be wider when displayed in your blog if the area in which it is added has larger dimensions than the preview screen).

Once you've changed any settings, be sure to click the "Update" link in order to see the changes appear before you save. The gadget will then appear in your blog, and it's position can be changed in the Page Elements section of your dashboard.

Blogger's Featured Gadgets

The Blogger team have created The Featured Gadgets blog which details gadgets of particular interest. Some of these gadgets are also included in the Featured Gadgets section of the Gadget directory (available when you choose to add a new gadget through your dashboard).

I'm thrilled to find four of my own gadgets are "featured": Recent Posts, Recent Comments, Picasa Photostream and Twitter Updates, and look forward to seeing the efforts of other Blogger developers in the future.

Developing Blogger Gadgets

The Blogger team have created extensive documentation for those hoping to develop gadgets for use with Blogger in addition to the extensive resources for creating Google gadgets.

I've also begun a three-part series for creating Blogger gadgets over at Blogging Tips to explain the basics including how to utilize Blogger feeds in our gadgets, use skinning parameters and user preferences for customizable gadget utilities.

Once you've created a Blogger gadget, you can add it to the Blogger Gadget directory using this link. Your gadget should appear in the public directory within about 30 minutes of successful submission and the best gadgets will be featured in the Featured Gadgets blog.

Gadgets I'm working on now

In addition to the four gadgets mentioned above, I have a further three gadgets which are almost ready for public release: a Flickr Photostream Gadget (install with your Flickr username, not the URL of your feed); a TwitPic gadget (to display your recent TwitPic updates) and a Juitter gadget, for real-time updates which mention your username or other search terms.

Over the next few days, I'll update with posts for all my gadgets with full details of functions and installation so you can add and enjoy these gadgets in your Blogger powered blogs.

Your thoughts?

I hope you will enjoy using Blogger gadgets which use this improved API and look forward to seeing gadgets which other developers create.

If you've created a gadget for Blogger or if there's a particular gadget you'd like me to create, please let me know by leaving your comments below.

July 02, 2009

Housekeeping - Updates, Issues and Forthcoming Features

I realize my posts have been rather scarce lately, mostly because I've been so busy with work and other commitments which have left me so little time to write posts for this blog.

So let me explain what's happening with Blogger Buster at the moment, along with a few hints about what you can expect in the forthcoming weeks.

Problems with my file hosts

Many of you have reported problems downloading templates and other files which are hosted on http://bloggerbuster.com.

This is because my hosting service has been completely overpowered by the sheer number of requests for files and has been temporarily suspended. I need to transfer all of my files over to a new (enhanced) hosting account which can cope with this level of bandwidth, but I'm afraid it's taking a little longer than expected due to some issues I'm having with FTP.

I may well need to move all these files to a completely different location, and if so, I will of course update with the new URLs you'll need to download these files. My main concern is to find a reliable file host for all our file-hosting needs, and which won't impact too much on the running of this site. Please bear with me while I make new arrangements for these files.

What I'm working on now

There have been several developments for Blogger (and perhaps more planned for coming months), so as you may imagine I've been working on these developments to create useful resources and tutorials for you all.

In particular, I've been learning a lot about the Gadget API for Blogger. This enables us to create interesting, useful and interactive gadgets for Blogger using a system which (I feel) is a great improvement to using widget installers.

I've created a few Gadgets for Blogger now which I'll post about over the coming days (though you may already be able to find some if you search for "Blogger Buster" when adding a gadget to your layout).

Update #1
I've just managed to get a new laptop, and have spent the past few days transferring over my files and settings. Finally, all is fixed so I'll have a new post (or two) up this weekend :)

Blogger is still looking for web designers and artists!

A couple of weeks ago, the Blogger team tweeted a request for web designers and artists who are interested in designing templates for Blogger.com.

If you're a web/blog designer or artist, this is something you may well want to check out. You can find out more and register your interest in participating on this page.

Requests for tutorials and gadgets

If you have any particular requests for tutorials or Blogger gadgets, please let me know about these by leaving your suggestions in the comments.

While I can't promise to fulfil every request, I'll try to do the most popular ones over the coming weeks.

There's so much happening at the moment and many more updates in progress which I really look forward to showing you in the future.

Thank you all for visiting, subscribing and sticking around!

June 09, 2009

Blogger Read More/Post Summaries - The Best News Yet!

One of the functions most voted for in Blogger's recent Product Ideas forum was the ability to summarize blog posts on non-item pages.

I've written about a few different approaches to this, but these methods were never so easy to implement.

Luckily I came across this tutorial from Quite Random which offers the simplest - and most useful - method of displaying post summaries automatically for our Blogger posts, complete with a thumbnail from images used in our posts.

This customization is very easy to implement (there are literally only two steps) with very little editing of the template required. I installed with immediate success on several templates to test it out, and with only a little tweaking on one of my most customized designs.

In short, this is a fabulous implementation of post summaries for Blogger. Be sure to pop over to Quite Random to check out this post and learn how to install this hack for your own Blogger blogs.

However... This is not my only source of good news regarding post summaries for Blogger!

The Blogger team are in the process of implementing this function in Blogger! Or at least, I'm pretty certain they are.

Take a look at this screenshot which was taken from a clean installation of Minima (a default Blogger template) on a new blog (click the image for a larger version):

These tags look suspiciously like tags which could be used for implementation of post summaries. What's more, it seems we can choose whether or not to summarize our posts, and also the text used for the link to read the full article.

I can't say for sure when this implementation will become available, though I believe this will first be rolled out into Blogger in Draft so any issues can be resolved before the summaries become available to us all.

There's not yet been any mention about this on the Blogger in Draft blog, Blogger Buzz or even by the team on Twitter, but since this code is now appearing in new templates I'd guess this will become available in the very near future.

Stay tuned, I'll get more news about this as it happens and will (of course) explain how to use summaries in customized templates too.

This is a feature I'm very excited to know is in progress, so if anyone does have any news to share, please let me know!