Blog Post #11 - One More to Go!

Hello everyone!

You still have one more entry to do! (if you have already done ten of the prompts, you're exempt but you can still write one!)

We've covered a lot of the basics of Blogspot (polls, videos, images). So, for the final entry, I want you to take a look back at one of your other prompts and choose to use one of those. Video, image, it doesn't matter, and you can pick more than one if you want.

Thank you guys for a great semester! Your blogs have been a pleasure to read, and I hope you all consider updating every now and then!

Blog Post #10 - A Crazy Cacophony of Creative Titles

In class, we discussed ways to produce creative titles for your papers. (Hint: "Spiritual Geography" is NOT a creative title for your spiritual geography essay.)

So, for this week's post and all subsequent posts, be conscious of your titles. Make titles that grab our attention, use alliteration, or reverse a commonly understood adage. You may write about anything regarding your blog's theme as long as you include a catchy title.

Creative titles! To infinity, and beyond!

creativetorbay.com

Blog Post #9 - Shout Outs!

One of the benefits to blogging is creating a network of like-minded bloggers. Remember that there really are people reading your blog and that there are folks out there who are blogging on similar topics that might be beneficial to you.

For this week, write your own blog post as usual, but also give a "shout out" to at least one other blogger this week, perhaps by posting a link to their blog and definitely by explaining what you like about their blog and how it relates to yours.

For example, I might give a shout out to Rojo the Llama's blog. He's one of the best therapy llamas in the country, and you can read about him and his friends' adventures here. Do I even need to explain how this relates to our class blog? I think not.

You can link to someone's blog in the class, or another blog on the internet.  Just make sure that you reference another blog, in particular, not just a website.

Blog Post #8 - Polls

Time to poll your faithful readers by adding a quiz to your blog! Here's what Blogger's Help Center has to say:

Do you ever wonder about your visitors' opinions? Maybe you'd like to find out what your readers think about controversial subjects, or perhaps you just want a vote on whether your should change your blog's font to Verdana. Either way, it's simple to do by adding a poll to your blog.

Step 1: You'll start by going to the Layout tab from "Design" like last time.

Step 2: Click the "Add a Gadget" link that appears in the sidebar for your layout. Refer to Blog Post #7 if you forgot how to do this.

Step 3: Scroll down. The "Poll" gadget is right above the "Blog List" gadget that you had to use last week. Click on the (+) next to the gadget.

The poll settings let you enter the question you want to ask, and the possible answers you want to allow. You can enter as few or as many possible answers as you like; if you need more than are shown, just click the "add another answer" link.

By default, polls are set to run for a week before they stop accepting new votes, but you can change this time frame by entering a new date in the settings. You can also check the option to allow people to vote for multiple answers, if appropriate.

Once you've saved your poll, it will appear on your blog. The "Vote" button will cast a vote for whatever option is selected, and will display the current tally of all votes.

You can also click "Show Results" to see what votes have already been cast without making a vote of your own.

PLEASE VISIT ONE ANOTHER'S BLOGS AND VOTE! MAKE SURE THAT EVERYONE IN THE CLASS HAS A FEW VOTES.

Blog Post #7 - Blog List

Write your weekly post as usual, but also, now that you're familiar with the blogosphere, it's time for you to create your very own blogroll. A blogroll is a list of blogs that you like. Perhaps they have to do with your blog's theme, or perhaps you simply enjoy reading them. My blogroll includes all of my classes' blogs on the righthand side. I also have a blogroll of favorite blogs from previous semesters. Now it's your turn. Here's how:

Step 1: click Design on the upper right hand corner of your blog. On the left in the new page, you will see Layout (three from the bottom).

Step 2: On the right side, select "add a gadget".

Step 3: Choose "Blog List" it is the 17th down.

Step 4:  With this gadget, you will be able to paste in URLs of your favorite blogs so that anyone can see them. Consider having fun with other gadgets as well, there are plenty of options! Enjoy!

IMPORTANT: Remember to write a full paragraph along with posting the gadget

Blog Post #6 - YOUR CHOICE WEEK!!

Because you have been working so hard on your problem solving essay over the past few weeks, I would like to gift you with a "your choice post." You may include anything in this week's blog (as long as it relates to your theme). Just a simple post will do, but try to be creative! :D

www.pinterest.com

Blog Post #5 - Labels

When composing a new blog post, there is a section to the right, under "Post Settings", called "Labels." In some blog programs, these are called tags.

Labels like this are important because they help your readers find your posts by categories. By typing in a word, say, "Eastern University," as I have here, Blogger automatically creates a new category. When I publish this post, Blogger simultaneously files this post both on the main page chronologically, like it did every time before, but it also now files it under the new Eastern University category.

You can add multiple labels to the same post. I have added the word "labels," "Eastern University" and "St. Davids." The first two are self-explanatory. I added St. Davids because it's good to label a post with a location, either where I'm writing from, or what I'm writing about. This helps readers, as well as Google, know more about you.

Having categories is important for your regular readers. It also helps you find old posts if you need to reference them in the future.

Categories are also important because they're a piece of puzzle Google uses to find your blog. Now that I have added an Eastern University category, Google will rank my blog higher on the search list when someone searches for Eastern University. However, don't think by adding the label Eastern University, your blog will reach the first page of Google.

When I do a search for Eastern University, 41 million searches come back. I'm just saying that instead of being at the 40 million mark, Google might move me up to 20 million simply by adding a category with the same search term. Google does, however, push your blog higher on the search results page if you were to add Eastern University to every blog post, as you add more posts in the Eastern University category, and after getting many more hits and more traffic to your blog.

Your task for this week? Create a post about anything related to your theme. Then, in the labels section to the right of your new post screen (directly to the right under "post settings"), add a label or labels for this post. You may also want to go back through your past posts and add labels to those too (as I have done). If you want these labels to appear on the side of your blog's screen, you need to go into your "Layout" menu, and add a Gadget on the  side of your blog page. Then scroll down to "Labels" and click on the plus sign.