You can add other items to your blog to give it a more personal feel and to increase the interactivity with readers. These additional features are called Gadgets. They include slide shows of photographs, reader polls, advertisements, records of followers, and newslinks. The one downside of the Gadget feature is that in most cases the template sets where in your blog Gadgets can be placed - you don't have the freedom to put Gadgets anywhere.
Another aspect of the Gadgets which is somewhat limited is related to the formatting. You can change the font color and style of the text in your Gadgets, but the change flows to all of your Gadgets. For example, on our blog, we changed the font color in the title of the poll to red, and this changed the font color in the slideshow as well.
How can you add a slideshow of your photographs?
To add a slideshow of your photographs, go to your blog's Dashboard. Click on the Layout icon in the sidebar.
This brings you to the template. There are links on the template that say Add A Gadget.
Click on one of these Add A Gadget links, in the place where you would like your slideshow to appear. You will get a series of choices.
Scroll down through the options. One of the choices is Slideshow.
Click on the Slideshow option. The Slideshow will allow you to pull images from Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket or another program you specify.
You can also set the speed of the slideshow to slow, medium or fast. Once the images are in the window, hit Preview to see how the slideshow will look. Then hit Save which is below Preview. The screen will revert to the layout page, but several choices will appear in the upper right-hand corner: Save; Preview; Clear. If you hit Save the slideshow will be added to your blog.
This brings you to the template. There are links on the template that say Add A Gadget.
Click on one of these Add A Gadget links, in the place where you would like your slideshow to appear. You will get a series of choices.
Scroll down through the options. One of the choices is Slideshow.
Click on the Slideshow option. The Slideshow will allow you to pull images from Picasa, Flickr, Photobucket or another program you specify.
You can also set the speed of the slideshow to slow, medium or fast. Once the images are in the window, hit Preview to see how the slideshow will look. Then hit Save which is below Preview. The screen will revert to the layout page, but several choices will appear in the upper right-hand corner: Save; Preview; Clear. If you hit Save the slideshow will be added to your blog.
We added a slideshow of sunset photographs from the Picasa standard album. We put the slideshow at the top of the blog and on the sidebar to demonstrate that you can put it in different places.
Once your slideshow is incorporated, you can edit it further or delete it by clicking on the toolbar icon that appears near it.
A slideshow might be especially useful for someone keeping a blog about a vacation or with family photographs.
How can you incorporate user polls?
You might want to include poll questions so your readers can tell you what they liked/didn't like about your blog.
To set up a poll, go to your blog's Dashboard. Click on the Layout icon in the sidebar (just like you did to add a slideshow). A template of your blog will appear. There are links on the template that say Add A Gadget. Click on one of these, in the place where you would like your poll to appear (just like you did when adding a slideshow). You will get a series of choices. One of the choices is Poll. Click on Poll, and a new window will appear asking you to formulate your question and the series of answers which voters will be able to choose from.
If you want voters to be able to give more than one answer, check the box that says multiple answers are permitted. Although the standard template provides for four answers, you can manually add as many possible answers as you wish by clicking on Add Another Answer.
The default duration for a poll is one week - after one week the poll will not take additional answers. But you can change the duration by entering a different date in the settings.
When you have set up your question, possible answers, and poll duration, hit Submit and the poll will appear.
The poll will keep a public tally of the votes. To check the results, simply click on the Show Results button, which is a publicly available feature and does not require you to go "behind the scenes" to the editing aspect of your blog.
If you want voters to be able to give more than one answer, check the box that says multiple answers are permitted. Although the standard template provides for four answers, you can manually add as many possible answers as you wish by clicking on Add Another Answer.
The default duration for a poll is one week - after one week the poll will not take additional answers. But you can change the duration by entering a different date in the settings.
When you have set up your question, possible answers, and poll duration, hit Submit and the poll will appear.
The poll will keep a public tally of the votes. To check the results, simply click on the Show Results button, which is a publicly available feature and does not require you to go "behind the scenes" to the editing aspect of your blog.
You can place a poll within an actual post and not within one of the spots designated for Gadgets by manually copying the code related to the poll and pasting it into your post. Here is an excellent tutorial on the process:
How can you solicit advertisements in your blog?
Some bloggers are using their blogs to make money, by permitting advertisements. To allow advertisements, you must sign up with Google's AdSense, which is a content-targeted advertising system. In other words, the content in your blog determines the types of advertisements Google will deem suitable. For example, if your blog is about yoga, Google might select health food, healthy living, and spiritual advertisements. If your blog is about surfing, Google might select advertisements for surfing merchandise and beach clothes.
Please note that if you choose to partner with AdSense, Google will choose the advertisements that it believes are most appropriate for the content of your blog. You can manipulate the settings to suggest the types of advertisements you want to appear, but you have relinquished a degree of control over your blog.
Also, by partnering with AdSense, you are giving Google the right to directly place ad code on your blog.
To enable AdSense, you must create a separate AdSense account. On your Dashboard scroll through the drop-down menu until you reach the Earnings Tab.
Click on the Earnings Tab. This brings up the AdSense overview page.
Click Get Started.
This brings up another page. On this page, click on Create a new AdSense Account.
Click on the Earnings Tab. This brings up the AdSense overview page.
Click Get Started.
This brings up another page. On this page, click on Create a new AdSense Account.
You must then complete the application form and agree to the AdSense boilerplate terms and conditions.
Please note that your application must be approved.
Once you are approved by AdSense, you can then adjust the way advertisements appear on your blog. Again go to the dashboard and click on the Earnings Tab. The settings allow you to choose where on your blog advertisements will appear. However, please note that if you are using the Traditional Templates Dynamic Views, Google has already selected the "optimal" places for advertisements to appear.
Regardless of the template you are using, you have to manually permit advertisements to appear within individual posts.
How can you display who regularly reads your blog?
The following feature both increases the interactiveness of your blog and also might attract new followers and advertisers by displaying how many people are following your blog. Readers who have a Google account can publicly follow a blog. You can "piggyback" on this by adding a feature that displays your blog's followers on your blog. This is accomplished through the Followers gadget.
Go to your blog's Dashboard (as you did to add a slideshow or a poll). Click on the Layout icon in the sidebar (as you did to add a slideshow or a poll). This brings you to the template. There are links on the template that say Add A Gadget (as you did to add a slideshow or a poll). Click on the link in the spot where you would like to add a list of your blog's followers, and the list of Gadget choices will appear. Scroll through the options until you find the Followers icon.
Click on the Followers option. This brings up a new page that says Followers. Click Save to set up the function.
How can you add breaking news to your blog?
You can include a self-updating news feed to your blog on any topic you choose.
To set up your custom news feed, go to your blog's Dashboard. Click on the Layout icon in the sidebar. This brings you to the template. There are links on the template that say Add A Gadget. Click on the link where you would like your news feed to appear, and the list of Gadget choices will appear. Scroll through until you find the Newsreel option.
Click on the Newsreel option. This brings up a new window.
In the new window there are two boxes which you must fill in. The top box asks you to choose the title of your newsreel. In the box below it, type in the news subject you wish your blog to display.
Hit Enter and a sample of the current news items will appear. If this is satisfactory, hit Submit. The newsreel will now appear.
We have added a newsreel to our sidebar. The topic is "Rescue Dogs".
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