At first Adding search form to blogger was difficult but now Blogger Accessories has made it easier. We can add search form to blogger in three method . But in this post I am going to concentrate only on Adding custom search form . Custom search form means you can modify the search form look by adding simple CSS style.
Step 1 : Log in to your blogger template and go to Layout section .
Step 2 : Now click Add Page Element , in the List select Add HTML / JAVASCRIPT and paste the below code thereand save . Now see your blog , there you can see a beautiful search form widget like this ,
I hope you like this hack . you can also add custom search submit buttom , background , etc.
I will tell you How to add Custom CSS to this search Form tomorrow in my next post .
Hello Readers, again we are introducing you to a new dark blogger template. yes another dark template. Please just go to the demo blog here if you are interested to dark theme. Wordpress demo | Blogger / Blogspot demo.
This template is originally created by Xell from Free Ultimate Download | 100% Free Forever for wordpress.org, but thanks to Claudya for ordering this unique theme, so it’s now available on blogger. i have converted it for all you blogger / blogspot maniacs.
To use this template, i suggest you to at least have 4 html/javascript widget, so it will be so much easier for you to edit the design. because like you see on the demo site, it has 4 html/javascript widget. 1 on the right sidebar, and the rest are on the bottom / footer area.
on the center section (left sidebar) you’ll see a recent post list and recent comments list. they are feed widgets actually. you can change it with what ever you want to fill it.
now, if you have been so curious, here is the download links.
The speed at which your blog loads is critical to attracting more readers to your blog. If your blog takes a long time to load, many readers may leave your blog before they have the chance to read it. Here are a few tips and tricks that will help your blog load faster and attract more users:
Posts
Your blog's load time can be affected by the number of posts you display on your main page. You can easily edit the number of posts displayed of the main page from the Settings | Formatting tab. You can then select the number of posts you want to display on the main page. We recommend displaying 10 or fewer posts on the main page.
Third Party JavaScript and Links
For optimal blog load speed, we recommend using Google/Blogger widgets, JavaScript and links. However, if you need to use third party JavaScript and links, your blog will load much faster if you put all JavaScript at the bottom of your blog. If you have third party JavaScript and links in your sidebar, put them in at the bottom of the sidebar.
Images and Media
The more images, videos and other multi-media you have on your blog the longer it will take to load. However, images and other multimedia are important to attracting users to your blog, so it is important to optimize the load speed of your images and media. Here are a few tips to increase the load speed of your media:
Decrease the size of your images or use thumbnails that link to the full-size image.
If you use third party images, consider uploading them to Picasa Web Albums via the Blogger post editor.
If you have a large number of images to display, you can upload all your images (from a vacation or event) to a Picasa Web Album and link to the album in your post or sidebar.
Other suggestions
If you've added any custom CSS to your blog, make sure you put it at the top of the page.
The most important content of your blog that catches readers attention should load the quickest. To help you identify which items are taking the longest to load you can use Stopwatch. To use Stopwatch, enter your blog's URL into the text box and click "Start StopWatch". Stopwatch will then open your blog in a frame and will record the time it takes for everything on your blog to load, including images, videos, widgets, etc. Take note of the items that take the longest to load and modify them appropriately using our suggestions.
Adding some headlines to your web page provides your readers the quick-scan way to know instantly what your recent blog entries are about. It’s also a good way to attract attention and to encourage the reading of recent posts.
Screenshot
Code
To copy, click inside the box then press Ctrl+C
Installation
1. Go to your Blogger Dashboard > your blog’s Layout > Page Element > Add a Gadget > HTML/JavaScript 2. Copy and paste the code into the new HTML/JavaScript. 3. In the code, look for the line…
you can change the number of characters of the post summary (excerpt), or
you can display recent posts as list (post titles only)
show the post dates
See Installation and Other Options below.
Get Code
Option A
(With post excerpts)
Option A
RECENT POSTS WIDGET 2.0
To copy, click inside the box then press Ctrl+C
Option B
(Displayed as list)
Option B
RECENT POSTS WIDGET 2.0
To copy, click inside the box then press Ctrl+C
Installation
1. Go to your Blogger Dashboard > your blog’s Layout > Page Element > Add a Gadget > HTML/JavaScript 2. Copy and paste the code into the new HTML/JavaScript. 3. In the code, look for the line…
How to change the Number of Posts To change the number of posts, just look for the number 5 (for Option A) in the code and replace it with the number of posts you want to be displayed. (For Option B, look for the number 10).
Recommend setting for Option A: 5 to 8. Recommend setting for Option B: 5 to 15.
… var numposts = 5;var…
How to change the Number of Characters (Excerpt) This widget is set to display an excerpt of 100 characters of each post. If you want to change that number, just look for the number 100 in the code and replace it with the number of characters you want to be displayed.
Recommended setting: 50 to 100.
… numchars = 100;var…
How to Show Post Date If you want to show the post date, look for the line with the word showpostdate in the code. Then change its value from false to true (shown in color blue below).
… showpostdate = false;var…
That’s it! Please let me know what you think of this widget by leaving a comment below.
Add a Google Translate Mini Flags widget to your blog. Powered by Google Translate, this widget lets your visitors view your pages translated in their own native languages with just a click.
Single Column
Code:
White Background
Code:
Transparent Background
Single Row
Code:
Double Row
Code:
This widget is tested on Blogger, Wordpress and Joomla. It might also work on other platforms.
How to add the Google Translate Mini-Flags Widget to your blog:
Blogger
1. Go to your Dashboard > Layout > Add a Page Element > HTML/JavaScript 2. Paste the code 3. Add a title. Ex: Translate, Translate this page, Google Translate (Optional) 4. Save (or Save Changes).
Wordpress
1. Login to your Admin panel > Presentation tab > Widgets tab 2. Paste the code into the Text Widget. If there’s no Text Widget available, add one. 3. Add a title. Ex: Translate, Translate this page, Google Translate (Optional) 4. Save.
Joomla site
1. Login to your Admin panel > Modules - Site Modules > click New 2. Paste the code into the Custom Output content box 3. Adjust module details and menu item links if necessary 4. Click Apply or Save.
Google Translate is still on its beta phase. Much like with other web page translation services, your readers might find parts of the translation very funny. Google has yet to meet their standards on this.
This widget is distributed freely. Feel free to use it, change it to meet your needs. Just drop me a comment below to let me know it helped out, or if you have questions or problems adding it your blog or site.
Are you struggling to get your blog ranking in Google? Have you been trying every trick in the book but nothing seems to work. If you've been trying to achieve high SEO rankings for you blog without any success maybe you need to take a step back and find a fresh approach. WordPress SEO can be an enjoyable process if you have the right guidance. In this article I'm going to discuss some of the techniques you can use to generate traffic to your blog pronto.
1. Encourage visitors to comment on your blog. The easiest way to get people to do anything is to ask them to do it. Ask your readers for their opinion and tell them how important it is for you. WordPress SEO is originally setup with a default comment that states "No Comments." Try changing this to something more encouraging like "No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome..." Feel the difference?
2. Update Twitter every time you make a blog post. Hopefully you've realised the importance of Twitter in generating traffic to your blog, so make sure you make an update on Twitter every time you make a new post on your blog. Another important technique with Twitter is to set up an auto-reply email for every new person who starts to follow you. You could say "Thanks for the follow, make sure you check out my blog at {LINK}."
3. Image optimization. This is an often overlooked aspect of WordPress SEO. For the images on your blog to rank in the search engines, it pays to write good "alt tags" and have a think about the file name to give the image. There is a WordPress plugin called "SEO Friendly Images" that can take all the hard work out of image optimization. You can download it for free and it will take care of this for you.
4. Create an RSS feed that readers can subscribe to. The larger the RSS button on your blog the better. Get readers to subscribe to your posts by RSS and they will be notified when you have new content on your blog. Readers can then view your posts through an RSS reader.
5. Find related blogs and post comments, leaving links back to your own blog. Search for related blogs in your niche that are getting loads of traffic and continually comment on their blog posts leaving a link back to your blog. If you continually keep doing this for an extended period of time, you'll also start to develop a relationship with the blogger that you might be able to benefit from later on.
Installing a new Blogger Template is an easy task and it can be done in just a few minutes.
Blogger templates are in XML format and unlike Wordpress Themes that are in PHP. A Blogger template is an XML file in contrast to a Wordpress theme which can consist of image folders, function folders and numerous PHP files.
You don't need an FTP or Cpanel to transfer the XML file because you will do the transfer in your Blogger Dashboard.
To install a new template log in your Blogger account at blogger.com.
There are two options on the Edit HTML page to install your new template. You can either upload from a location on your computer or simply copy the XML code and paste in the Edit HTML box. The upload option is recommended.
Backup your active template before proceeding by clicking on Download Template. Incase if anything goes wrong with your new template installation you can easily retrieve your previous template.
Click on browse in and find the saved new template then upload. Blogger may prompt you that one or more widgets may be lost if you proceed with the installation. Proceed anyway. Click on save at the end of the Edit HTML box or Preview to preview the template before completing installation. Then the new blogger theme will replace the former template and it can be viewed on your blog immediately.
To edit the template and add new widgets or gadgets go to Layout=>Page Elements.
For those who don't already know, FAP Turbo is an automated forex trading system or EA, that runs on the Metatrader 4 platform.
Who's it for?
Well, I'd say absolutely anyone who can spare a little cash and who is sensible with money management. I would very much include here, beginners. FAP Turbo is extremely conservative out of the box and can be tweaked to make great returns, but that's a whole new topic in itself. The EA does not expect you to know anything about forex, but it's in your best interest to learn a little and there are plenty of great resources on the internet for this.
How it works?
FAP Turbo has a short and long term strategy and currently trades on 5 currency pairs.
The short term strategy or scalping strategy trades the EURGBP (excellent track record), EURCHF (not a bad record), USDCAD (not been great for me) and GBPCHF (spread has always been too high) currency pairs. It attempts to make a profit of 7 pips each trade.
The long term strategy trades the EURUSD. There are many settings that can be tweaked here depending on what you want. I wouldn't recommend this strategy straight out the box. So test it on you demo account first.
The method for deploying the EA is simple. You simply drag & drop the advisor onto the chart you want to trade and off it goes.
Cutting to the chase
Now to get stuck in, if you really want to benefit from this EA, you don't have to just sit back and watch it do its thing. You can be a little bit more pro-active and hands on. The Tip & Trick to follow have only been tested on the short term scalper strategy. Now I understand many of you won't have the time to do what I'm about to talk about, but many of you might.
Tip
This is the easy and relatively safe option if you are confident with placing orders in Metatrader 4. All you need to do is:
Wait for an order to be placed, i would generally only choose EURGBP for this and then wait a moment to see if it goes against you further.
Then place a similar stop loss and profit take as the original FAP Turbo trade.
You can make more than the FAP Turbo trade itself by doing this. Now the win ratio on EURGBP is excellent only 3 trades went bad last month out of 34. So the odds are you will succeed. Start out small at first to build confidence.
Trick (only for trades that have gone against you for several hours+)
Now this is where I need a disclaimer. I don't want you blaming me for this one! It's probably not seen as very clever, so be careful. If you've done the necessary research and are confident that the trade is going in a particular direction and that the trade has gone against you for several hours, you can do the following:
As the chart reaches your take profit line(green), turn off the EA (but remember to save all your EA settings so you can load it quickly again).
Keep monitoring as FAP Turbo will no longer monitor the trade for you.
When the trade goes past the take profit line load up the EA and it may close the trade for you, if not you can close it out manually.
This scenario will not happen very often. However, whenever a trade goes against you for a long period, lets say a few hours (long period in scalper time). The scalper will just look to get out with minimal loss and you will nearly always take a small hit.
Blogger navbar is the *navbar* you see at the top of your blog, and which allows users to move to a next random blog. It allows user to search your blog and also to mark any blog as spam.
So why should I remove it?
It depends on your perception. I find it unprofessional, because it sometimes spoils the look of your blog. If you have a subtle layout, they might get too obvious.
Are there any problems if I remove it?
Some of your viewers might be accustomed to a navbar and may miss it. Blogger calls navbar the bloggers equivalent of remote, as it allows bloggers to switch from one blog to other.
Ok how do I remove it?
If you are using Blogger for any length of time, you must be knowing how to edit the templates. So in your template find a >style type="text/css"> tag. Just after that insert
#b-navbar {
height:0px;
visibility:hidden;
display:none
}
That’s it. Save and republish. Your navbar should be gone.
This trick was first published at blogger-templates.blogspot.com
But does this not violate my Blogger TOS?
Blogger makes no explicit term that you may not remove it. But they do not also say if you can remove it. Also this is a pretty standard trick. So doing this should be no problem.
If you've added a search widget to your blog, you may be wondering how it could look a bit more stylish! After all, the default gray button isn't the most desirable button in the world.
Styling a search widget isn't difficult at all. You can customize the button using CSS or replace this with an image instead. Another customization option is to add some informative text inside the search box and remove the search button altogether.
In this post, we're going to look at some options and methods of customizing the search widget, so you can choose the method which works best for you and style your search box to match the overall design of your own customized blog.
Search widgets are a type of form, constructed of a text box (the area where you type the search terms), a submit button, and some hidden elements which send information to the server about the search which is being performed.
If you're using a simple Blogger search widget, the code for your search widget will look something like this:
The elements which we can style are highlighted in red. The "search-box" element is the box which contains the search text, while the "search-btn" is the button keyed to submit the search query to the server.
By default, this simple search widget will appear like this in your template:
But using some simple techniques, we can make this look a whole lot prettier!
Using CSS to style the search widget
The easiest customizations can be achieved using only "inline CSS": this means that the search box and button can be styled within the code used for the search box.
For example, let's say we wanted the search box to have a pale blue background and a dark blue border. To achieve this, we simply add some style declarations to the "search-box" element, like this:
By adding these style declarations, we can create a search form which looks like this:
We can add style to the search button in the same way. This time, the background will be dark blue with a red border, while the text is white and bold:
Note that in this example, I used "outset" rather than "solid" for the border property; this ensures the button looks raised rather than flat, and helps readers understand that it is a button which can be clicked.
Here is the resulting form:
You can experiment with different colors ans styles for your own search form to create a unique design.
Changing the visible text within the form
You could add some text within the search box as a guide for your readers (eg: Search this blog!).
This is achieved by adding a "value" to the search box, like this:
This will appear like this:
To change the text on the search button, we only need to change the value to our preferred term:
value="Search" type="submit"/>
If you prefer the button to say "Go!", you could simply replace the value of "Search" with "Go!" instead:
value="Go!" type="submit"/>
Using an image instead of a button
Using an image instead of a button isn't as complicated as you may think! For this, we simply need to change the input type from "Submit" to Image" and specify a URL for the image.
First of all, you will need to find the image you would like to use, and upload this to an external hosting account.
It is advisable to use a small image or icon for this (16x16px or slightly larger would be a perfect size for a search form). There are many free search icons available from Iconlet, or you could download an icon pack and choose a suitable image instead.
For this example, I'm going to use this icon from Iconlet:
To use this icon instead of the button for my search form, this is the code I will use:
Notice that I have changed the type of the input in this form from "submit" to "image", and have added the URL of my image afterwards. The style declarations align the image against the search box, adding some space to the left, and ensuring this doesn't float above the search box.
This is what the image will look like in the search form:
When using your own image instead of the submit button, be sure to reference the correct URL of your image.
You may also need to adjust the margins slightly for images of a different size to the one used in this example.
