CSS is short for Cascading Style

CSS is short for Cascading Style Sheets and is used for controlling the presentation (fonts, colors and layout) of documents written in Markup Languages like HTML, XHTML and XML such as blogs. CSS can be written in a separate document called from the template, written in the template itself or written within this post itself (inline CSS).

For example, the HTML tag for a paragraph is

. Now suppose we want the paragraph below to stand out from the rest of this post by adding background color, we can do that by using inline CSS.


The hexadecimal color code for the background color of this paragraph is #FFD4FF. I obtained this hexadecimal color code by using a free tool ColorPic. I set the color of this paragraph to have a different background color by surrounding the text I am now typing with the a pair of HTML tag for paragraph

and

. To make this clearer, I will display what I am now typing by making this into a graphic and upload it as an image below for you to study:





Well, the text in the above image is a bit small. To make it clearer, I will redo the graphic below so the text is larger and clearer:

make images clickable

Sometimes I get funny requests, but more than a few times I have been asked this question - how to make images clickable. This is something I don't like to do, to use Blogger's post editor COMPOSE mode as I prefer to work in the post editor EDIT HTML mode for very good reasons and hope all you bloggers who are not familiar with that to start learning. It is not difficult and if you read the posts in my blogs, eventually you can pick up sufficient HTML to do lots of things.

Back to the subject. After uploading the image while in the COMPOSE, grab (left-click) the photo with your mouse, hold it down and drag it around the post editor window. Then publish your post and test clicking on the image to see if it enlarge. Try it and please do let me know your results.

Why switch to WordPress.com?

The list of features in which WordPress.com outshines Blogger is quite long. They are summarized in this table: WordPress vs. BlogSpot. There are even more plus points for WordPress.com:

Quite a few Blogger widgets added after 2006 depend on JavaScript. They won’t show up in many types of mobile device or browsers in which JavaScript is disabled. Google services rely heavily on client-side scripts which add significantly to download times. Outside towns and cities in America, Europe, and wealthy countries in South East Asia, broadband penetration has been minimal. Elsewhere, it’s confined to major cities. A 2007 article in PC World magazine noted that Rural America is doomed to Dial-Up. It looks like Google Inc. only cares about catering to city slickers in prosperous nations.

Since before Blogger-in-Beta was launched Google has ignored some quite basic features requested by users in the “Features and Suggestions Wish List”. No static pages, no post excerpts and no ‘import’ feature, except from another BlogSpot blog. But the development team have spent a lot of time on script-dependent widgets and gadgets for the sidebar. Someone should remind them that content is king, not gimmicks. Widgets are nice, but it it looks like they’ve got their priorities wrong.
http://help.blogger.com/?page=wishlist

Photo bloggers get a better deal with WordPress.com. In posts, you can add a photo gallery with a single tag, and a Photoblogger Theme was added in April 2008. The Blogger alternative is to add a Slideshow widget to display thumbnails from Picasa Web Albums, which are unusable without JavaScript in any case.
Disadvantages:

I got fed up with a constant stream of spam comments for deletion in my WordPress dashboard. Especially as there were very few genuine comments for moderation. It’s true that if you ignore the Akismet spam queue they’ll be deleted automatically after a while, but it’s difficult to ignore them as a few might have been falsely tagged as spam.

Blogger makes it easy to change fonts and colors in themes. At WordPress.com you have to pay for an upgrade before you can do that.

It has been said elsewhere, but the dashboard Blog Stats really don’t compare to the free tracker scripts available from SiteMeter and StatCounter. The graph looks nice, but it’s done with Flash® so you can’t right-click to save it. The SiteMeter PNG-format bar chart looks great and includes a table of visits and page views for each day of the month. WordPress doesn’t identify the search engines which sent visitors and Search Engine Terms are cropped at 40 characters. I understand that unrestricted third-party scripts could be a security risk, but it should be possible to allow users to enter account parameters and generate safe code on the server. The StatCounter team would love to cooperate. They wrote about it on their blog:
For security reasons wordpress don’t allow you to install javascript code on blogs hosted by them i.e. wordpress.com blogs. We’re sure though that, if enough of you request the full StatCounter code on your wordpress.com blogs, then Matt & Co would be happy to oblige! We would certainly be happy to work with wordpress on this.

Blogger for Dummies

When this blog was first created in January 2006, it was intended to be a blog with easy to follow instructions for bloggers using the Blogger platform and the original blog title of this blog is Blogger for Dummies. That was until I found out "for Dummies" was a trademark of Wiley Publishing Inc. I thus created another blog dummies-guide-to-google-blogger.blogspot.com as an online book for bloggers, but because of various factors, that "online book" is still only a work in progress. However, you need not wait any longer for Susan Gunelius has beaten me to the task and now her book Google Blogger for Dummies is available from Amazon for less than $20.

Below is the Table of Content:


Contents at a Glance (more detailed content at bottom of post)
Introduction
Part I: Introducing Google Blogger
Chapter 1: Choosing Blogger as Your Blogging Software
Chapter 2: Welcome to the Blogosphere
Chapter 3: Blogging Basics and Buzzwords
Part II: Using Google Blogger
Chapter 4: Getting Started with Blogger
Chapter 5: Setting Up Your Blog
Chapter 6: Writing and Publishing Blog Posts
Chapter 7: Enhancing Your Blog with Templates
Chapter 8: Adding Features and Functionality with Elements and Gadgets
Chapter 9: Managing Your Blog
Part III: Making Money with Blogger
Chapter 10: The Business of Blogging
Chapter 11: Maximizing Revenue with Google AdSense
Part IV: Growing Your Audience
Chapter 12: The Power of Networking and Relationship Building
Chapter 13: Boosting Your Search Engine Ranking
Part V: Extending Your Blog
Chapter 14: Growing or Downsizing Your Blog
Chapter 15: Blogging from Different Media
Chapter 16: Moving Beyond Blogger 7
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Chapter 17: Ten Useful Social Networking and Social Bookmarking Sites
Chapter 18: Ten Common Blogger Problems and Possible Solutions
Chapter 19: Ten Places to Find Free Blogger Themes and Templates
Glossary
Index


Table of Contents

Introduction
About Google Blogger For Dummies
Foolish Assumptions
Conventions Used in This Book
What You Don’t Have to Read
How This Book Is Organized
Part I: Introducing Google Blogger
Part II: Using Google Blogger
Part III: Making Money with Blogger
Part IV: Growing Your Audience
Part V: Extending Your Blog
Part VI: The Part of Tens
Glossary
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here

Part I: Introducing Google Blogger

Chapter 1: Choosing Blogger as Your Blogging Software
Introducing Blogger
Understanding the Google Connection
Debunking Blogger Myths
Discovering the Benefi ts of Blogger
It’s free!
It’s easy to use
It has loads of features
It’s versatile
It’s fl exible
It can help you make money
It exposes you to the spirit of community
Comparing Blogger to Other Blogging Software Options
Blogging with Blogger
The first steps
The right tools

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Blogosphere
Starting a Blog
Joining the blogosphere
Knowing why people blog
Understanding the pros and cons of blogging
Establishing Goals for Your Blog
Choosing a Topic
Finding Blogs
Growing Your Blog
Making Money from Your Blog
The Secrets to Blogging Success

Chapter 3: Blogging Basics and Buzzwords
Picking a Template
Making a Home Page
Creating a Profile
Filling the Sidebar
Posting Content
Interacting with Comments
Publishing Backlinks
Using Labels
Adding a Footer
Archiving Content
Building Relationships with Links
Including Subscriptions and Feeds

Part II: Using Google Blogger

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Blogger
Taking Your First Steps into the Blogosphere
Creating a Google account
Choosing a domain name
Selecting a basic template
Joining the blogosphere
Getting Familiar with Blogger
Signing in to Blogger
Introducing the Blogger dashboard
Entering and publishing posts
Changing Blogger settings
Customizing your blog
Signing out of Blogger

Chapter 5: Setting Up Your Blog
Creating Your Profile
Adding information to your profile
Designing Your Home Page
Customizing Your Blog
Publishing, confi guring privacy, editing, and composing
Formatting posts, times, dates, and languages
Enabling comments and backlinks
Setting up archiving
Assigning permissions

Chapter 6: Writing and Publishing Blog Posts
Thinking Things Through
Coming up with titles
Considering search engine optimization
Creating a Blog Post
Saving with Auto Save
Creating a draft post
Adding Visual Interest
Formatting text and layout
Adding links to blog posts
Adding images
Administering Your Blog Posts
Allowing comments
Adding labels
Using the post date-and-time feature
Revisiting Old Posts
Finding an archived post
Editing a post
Deleting a post

Chapter 7: Enhancing Your Blog with Templates
Reviewing Blogger Layouts
Choosing a Template
Templates versus headers
Personality
Color
Font
Columns and layout
Sidebar capacity and placement
Future blogging goals
Finding templates
Considering Types of Templates
Templates from Blogger
Free templates from third parties
Premium templates from third parties
Custom templates from third parties
Changing a Template
Choosing a different Blogger template
Modifying the fonts and colors in your template
Switching to a custom template
Knowing what to do after you apply a third-party template

Chapter 8: Adding Features and Functionality
with Elements and Gadgets
Editing Basic Page Elements
Including a header
Modifying blog posts
Editing the About Me box
Choosing Gadgets
Providing a blog list
Inviting followers
Presenting a slideshow
Offering subscription links
Taking a Poll
Adding a List
Including a Link List
Adding a picture
Using AdSense
Including text
Using HTML/JavaScript
Setting up a feed
Listing labels
Setting up a newsreel
Sharing videos
Including the Blogger logo
Adding Third-Party Gadgets
Arranging Elements and Gadgets

Chapter 9: Managing Your Blog
Increasing Visibility and Accessibility
Inviting comments
Moderating comments
Pinging
Managing feeds and subscriptions
Adding More Features to Your Blog
Instant blogging with BlogThis!
Sending posts with BlogSend
Publishing posts with Mail-to-Blogger
Understanding basic HTML
Managing Performance
Tracking your stats
Choosing a statistic tracker
Deciding what to track
Part III: Making Money with Blogger

Chapter 10: The Business of Blogging
Making Money from Your Blog
Understanding monetization options
Examining the pros and cons of monetization options
Knowing what to look for in a monetization option
Choosing Blogger Monetization Options
Contextual link ads5
Text link ads
Impression-based ads
Affi liate ads
Merchandising and mini-malls
Feed ads
Direct ads
Sponsored reviews
Other monetization options

Chapter 11: Maximizing Revenue with Google AdSense
Making Sense of AdSense
Exploring the available ads
Finding your way around Google AdSense
Understanding Google AdSense policies
Getting help
Registering with AdSense
Setting Up AdSense on Your Blog
Choosing an ad format
Choosing the appropriate ad size
Placing AdSense ads on your blog
Adding AdSense ads between blog posts
Confi guring AdSense for Feeds
Getting Paid
Tracking Your Success
Part IV: Growing Your Audience

Chapter 12: The Power of Networking and Relationship Building
Submitting Your Blog to Search Engines
Google
Yahoo!
MSN Live Search
Technorati
Navigating the Social Web
Building a blog community
Commenting on other blogs
Tracking back
Introducing Social Networking
Promoting your blog by using social networking
Checking out popular social networking sites
Understanding Social Bookmarking
Promoting your blog by using social bookmarking
Following the rules
Getting to know the popular social bookmarking sites
Microblogging for Blog Traffic
Twitter
Plurk

Chapter 13: Boosting Your Search Engine Ranking
Understanding Search Engine Optimization
Driving traffi c to your blog
Using keyword analysis
Boosting popularity by using links
Using SEO to Increase Your Search Engine Ranking
Using SEO tips and tricks
Hurting your ranking by making simple mistakes
Checking Your Page Rank and Links
Part V: Extending Your Blog

Chapter 14: Growing or Downsizing Your Blog
Adding and Deleting Blogs
Adding a blog
Deleting a blog
Canceling a Blogger account
Setting Up Multiuser Team Blogs
Adding team members
Establishing the blog administrator and permissions
Joining and leaving team blogs

Chapter 15: Blogging from Different Media
Blogging on the Go: Mobile Blogging
Podcasting with Audio
Making the case for podcasts
Ensuring that you have the right podcasting tools
Creating and publishing a podcast
Podcasting with Video
Using vlogging equipment
Creating a vlog with Blogger

Chapter 16: Moving Beyond Blogger
Using Your Own Domain
Obtaining a domain from Blogger
Buying a domain from a third party
Using a Third-Party Host
Publishing via FTP
Getting Help
Blogger Help
Blogger Buzz
Blogger Help Group
BloggerHelp channel on YouTube
Blogger Buster
Part VI: The Part of Tens

Chapter 17: Ten Useful Social Networking and Social Bookmarking Sites
Friendster
BlogHer
Orkut
Reddit
Furl
Slashdot
Newsvine
Magnolia
Kirtsy
Propeller

Chapter 18: Ten Common Blogger Problems and Possible Solutions
You Have Trouble Signing In to Your Blogger Account
Username problems
Password problems
Browser problems
You Cannot Access Your Blogger Account
You Discover the Case of the Disappearing Blog
Your Blog Is Identifi ed As Spam
You Don’t’ Know Why Changes Aren’t Being Published
You Have Profi le Problems
Your Text Formatting Buttons Are Missing
Your Post Labels Are Missing
You See Strange Characters, Blank Pages, or Undecipherable Code
You Have a Floating Sidebar

Chapter 19: Ten Places to Find Free Blogger Themes and Templates
eBlogTemplates
BTemplates
BlogFlux
BloggerBuster
Pyzam
All Blog Tools
Blogger-Templates.Blogspot
JackBook
BlogCrowds
BloggerBlogTemplates

That is a frequent question from new bloggers

That is a frequent question from new bloggers. New bloggers who just started are understandably impatient to find their blogs in search engines. However, search engines take time to index new blogs. The first thing bloggers should do is to check if their blogs had been indexed. This is simply done by typing
site:URL of blog
into the search box and search. For example, to check if this blog is indexed, I would type
site:bloggerfordummies.blogspot.com
and see if it results in anything. If nothing turns up, it means it had not been indexed yet. If it had been index, there would be at the minimum 1 result.

Even after a blog is index, searches for the blog may result in a link at perhaps the 1001th page of the SERP (search engine result page) which obviously would be very hard to find.

So what more can we say except, please be patient.