Blogspot tutorial - the most important basics
In this blogspot tutorial we show you the basics for the popular Google service "Blogger". With our tips you get the best out of your blog without any prior knowledge.
Tutorial: Create a new blog with Blogspot
First of all, of course, you have to create a blog. If you have already done so, you can skip to the next section.
- Sign in to Google or create a new account. Then you have to open Blogger.
- There you create a new website via "New Blog", for which you still have to select a background and a layout. However, you can change both later.
- Enter another blog name and click on "Create Blog".
The Blogspot Basics: The Dashboard
On the "Home page", your dashboard, you will find all important functions in the left menu bar:
- The first point "New Post" leads you directly to the text field for a new blog entry. More on this in the next paragraph.
- Posts: Here you will find all blog entries in a list and can edit, delete and remove older posts from the website or view the number of hits of the individual articles.
- Pages: Insert different "pages", you can divide your blog into sections. The difference between "page" and "posts" is only in the arrangement: namely, pages are pinned (depending on the layout) in the left or top menu.
- Comments: Individual blog entries can be commented by users. You have to activate the comments here.
- Google+: Your blog is linked to your Google Plus account. All new posts are posted there automatically, but you can also deactivate this here.
- Statistics: Who viewed your blog from where and with which device? You can find out under "Statistics". If the blog is viewed almost exclusively by smartphones, you should also optimize the content for mobile viewing.
- Earnings: Good blogs are a small source of money, at least when you advertise. You can read how to do this here.
- Layout: You can change menus, the header and many gadgets for your blog here. We will introduce you to great features from Facebook, twitter and the like in the next few paragraphs.
- Template: You could already select the template when creating the blog - now you can change it again and go into detail. You change the font, colors, background and also the HTML script of the blog in this section.
- Settings: You can change a typo in the name here as easily as the blog description and the blog URL. In addition, you can determine the number of posts on the homepage, make settings for the comments and enter the blog description for Google.
Publish a blogspot post
- Click on "New Post" and enter a heading.
- Menu (right): In the right menu bar, under "Labels" you can enter various keywords that users can use to find other articles on the same topic on your blog. You can also specify the time of publication and a description for search engines. The comment function for this blog entry can be deactivated under "Options".
- Font: Use the "F" button to change the font of a selected text, and "T" to change the font size. All other symbols (U, I, ...) are identical to the common word processing symbols.
- Insert images: Click the photo button to upload an image to the post. This can be from your computer, from a previous blog entry, from the webcam or a picture from the Internet.
- Insert videos: For an exact integration, you should copy the embed code from the video on YouTube, MyVideo or Vimeo and paste it in the HTML view. You can switch to this by clicking on the even button in the menu bar. Simply upload videos from the computer using the video button.
- Insert "Read more ...": To prevent articles from appearing on the start page for too long, you can insert a jump label. You will find this "jump break" next to the video symbol. You can change the standard text via "Layout"> "Edit" (in the Blogpost field, see picture).
- Finally, you can activate the blog entry by clicking on "Publish" or save it as a draft with "Save".
Layout and gadgets: customize blog
In the "Layout" tab you can fine-tune your blog - especially when it comes to "social media" you can excel here. You should get the following features:
- An imprint at Blogspot is mandatory for every blog.
- Twitter widget with your tweets and Twitter's well-known follow button quickly increase the range of your tweets.
- You can also integrate a Facebook widget and a Like button on your page.
- In addition to photo streams, the Instagram widget even offers slide shows for your blog.
- If required, a menu can also be created under "Layout".
If Blogspot has not convinced you after the first steps, we will show you three good blog alternatives.