Blog Comments and AdSense

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ORU05WlSZzC2P4Rj_rHO3wC-jE8RNZpP9GIOVbdNaKJKutHmhUM2KIeS8lJNPDBxIB-fF6QLj19RI3JPz0ZW2udQEzANZ91QOXSpb4sYjFMf4PwIxedUG6g1CgqJVetcOix34zirAJg/s1600/PaperPenWriting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ORU05WlSZzC2P4Rj_rHO3wC-jE8RNZpP9GIOVbdNaKJKutHmhUM2KIeS8lJNPDBxIB-fF6QLj19RI3JPz0ZW2udQEzANZ91QOXSpb4sYjFMf4PwIxedUG6g1CgqJVetcOix34zirAJg/s1600/PaperPenWriting.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Today's post isn't one I planned to write, in fact, I had planned to update some older posts to reflect some of the recent changes in AdSense, but after finding this comment (you'll see it later in the post) waiting to be published, I realized that it might be wise to remind publishers that the comments they allow to be posted on their blogs matter.<br /><br />You see, with AdSense, everything on your site matters. Whether it's your written contents, or images and videos, or even the comments your visitors leave. Visitor comments are considered "user generated content" and as publishers, we are responsible for contents generated by users of our sites.<br /><br /><b><span style="color: red;">What that means is that as a publisher, if you are using AdSense on your site, then you need to monitor and review all comments that are posted on your articles. Because even those comments can get ad serving disabled on your site.</span></b><br /><a name="more"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisDuqVvq3JusM0yLAJspkVtZI1GEYXjeaZ5QQeXugc2wOkxYn0blVLB4VUc5NAmhWnfiS7brFFGp0oohAUtI7fjWkfJOVDJfF4L3lZw5wAbwjvWxD9Oqzsuw1WBZsTpe0eV8EFP-9Mebo/s1600/QuestionStickGirl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisDuqVvq3JusM0yLAJspkVtZI1GEYXjeaZ5QQeXugc2wOkxYn0blVLB4VUc5NAmhWnfiS7brFFGp0oohAUtI7fjWkfJOVDJfF4L3lZw5wAbwjvWxD9Oqzsuw1WBZsTpe0eV8EFP-9Mebo/s1600/QuestionStickGirl.jpg" width="126" /></a>Comments that contain a lot of profanity, or provide links to prohibited or illegal contents are just as much a policy violation on your site, as that content would be if you posted it yourself. You need to set your comment system up so that you can review and approve comments before they appear on your blog or site, no matter what type of comment system you are using. For Adsense publishers, there isn't really an option - if you allow comments to be posted directly to your site without your review, you are opening yourself up to several kinds of abuse (spam comments is only one issue), and you are placing undue risk on your AdSense account.<br /><br />The type of comments I refuse to publish on my articles are:<br /><br /><ul><li>obvious spam</li><li>comments containing links to spammy websites</li><li>comments with profanity</li><li>comments where it's clear the person hasn't read the article</li><li>bot comments (also considered spam)</li><li>comments containing affiliate links</li><li>comments containing hate speech</li><li>comments containing potentially libelous statements</li></ul>And it's that last bullet point that I consider to be one of the more difficult ones to decide on. At least, it probably is for a lot of ordinary publishers.<br /><br />You see, a libelous statement can be one where false allegations are made, and if you don't know whether an accusation is false or not, you may not even know if the statement is libelous or not. I refuse to publish comments that might contain libel, such as the one I deleted:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3iBPaTGmbmKfWDMBR0hxDiOwkD0zVdOMM4gKGs75DjgN4q-UdTxRkLeG85EL_LurNa7SZ5MXKXOrbf3zwx8-x_4IwMh0amCOOKKUrT0I3nzaZkGmpJpCi08i4wiN4QNphXdABqijl8II/s1600/comments.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3iBPaTGmbmKfWDMBR0hxDiOwkD0zVdOMM4gKGs75DjgN4q-UdTxRkLeG85EL_LurNa7SZ5MXKXOrbf3zwx8-x_4IwMh0amCOOKKUrT0I3nzaZkGmpJpCi08i4wiN4QNphXdABqijl8II/s1600/comments.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Firstly, because the grammar is so bad, I can't really be sure what this person is trying to say exactly. I've blurred some of it out since it actually doesn't make much sense. Secondly, several references are made to AdSense and Google with respect to them not paying "billions of publishers" (adsense only has just over 2 <i><b>million</b></i> publishers, so that statement is a bold lie, since there aren't "billions" of publishers in the first place) and to "sending" fake traffic (Google do not "send" anyone, they provide search results, and AdSense doesn't bring traffic to your site at all). <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOptMfQ7AVZg1d5Kh4bY9Z1B6xaUqCRI9-8YLhYZWkZtBY4w71egiOwP_uNYC6JBlvufsag6l31oC5hiFJvXjJYsnILQzN2vx9K_bB0_UF0XCActIrQ5fEBWp9t1knuOoc_kCJMcJ9WYo/s1600/StickfigureBoy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOptMfQ7AVZg1d5Kh4bY9Z1B6xaUqCRI9-8YLhYZWkZtBY4w71egiOwP_uNYC6JBlvufsag6l31oC5hiFJvXjJYsnILQzN2vx9K_bB0_UF0XCActIrQ5fEBWp9t1knuOoc_kCJMcJ9WYo/s1600/StickfigureBoy.jpg" width="120" /></a></div>Because these statements might be considered libel (and possibly defamation) I refuse to have them published on my blogs. Some people might consider that going a little overboard in terms of safety, but when it comes to AdSense, there it's always better to err on the side of caution (and you'll note, that I don't even have AdSense on this blog).  Today I published part of a screenshot, although I am hesitant to do even that, but publishing this sort of thing as standard textual content in the comments sections meas it is searchable by crawlers, and indexed as well. Not only do I not want to be responsible for publishing libel on my site, I don't think it's fair to publish unfounded statements that come with no proof attached.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div class="vk_ans" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: xx-large !important; font-weight: lighter !important; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span data-dobid="hdw">def·a·ma·tion</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><div class="lr_dct_ent_ph" style="font-size: large;"><span class="lr_dct_ph">ˌdefəˈmāSHən/</span><span class="lr_dct_spkr lr_dct_spkr_off" data-log-string="pronunciation-icon-click" jsaction="dob.p" style="display: inline-block; height: 16px; margin: 0px 2px 4px 5px; opacity: 0.55; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;" title="Listen"><input height="14" src="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAA4AAAAOCAQAAAC1QeVaAAAAi0lEQVQokWNgQAYyQFzGsIJBnwED8DNcBpK+DM8YfjMUokqxMRxg+A9m8TJsBLLSEFKMDCuBAv/hCncxfGWQhUn2gaVAktkMXkBSHmh0OwNU8D9csoHhO4MikN7BcAGb5H+GYiDdCTQYq2QubkkkY/E6CLtXdiJ7BTMQMnAHXxFm6IICvhwY8AYQLgCw2U9d90B8BAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==" type="image" width="14" /></span></div><div><div class="lr_dct_sf_h" style="padding-top: 10px;"><i>noun</i></div><div class="xpdxpnd vk_gy" data-mh="-1" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.3s; color: rgb(135, 135, 135) !important; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;"><b></b><b></b></div><ol class="lr_dct_sf_sens" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.2; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="lr_dct_sf_sen vk_txt" style="font-weight: lighter !important; padding-top: 10px;"><div style="margin-left: 20px;"><div style="margin-left: -20px;"><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;">the action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel.</div><div class="vk_gy" style="color: rgb(135, 135, 135) !important;">"she sued him for defamation"</div><div><table class="vk_tbl vk_gy" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(135, 135, 135) !important;"><tbody><tr><td class="lr_dct_nyms_ttl" style="font-style: italic; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: top; white-space: nowrap;">synonyms:</td><td style="padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+libel&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CB4Q_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">libel</a>, <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+slander&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CB8Q_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">slander</a>, <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+calumny&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCAQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">calumny</a>, <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+character+assassination&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCEQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">character assassination</a>, <a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+vilification&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCIQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true">vilification</a>; <span data-log-string="synonyms-more-click" jsaction="dob.m"><span class="lr_dct_more_btn" style="color: #1122cc; cursor: pointer; padding-left: 4px;">More</span></span><br /><div style="display: inline;"><div style="display: inline;"><div class="lr_dct_more_txt xpdxpnd xpdnoxpnd" data-mh="-1" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.3s; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;"><span data-log-string="synonyms-more-click" jsaction="dob.m"><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+muckraking&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCQQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true"></a><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+abuse&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCUQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true"></a></span></div><div class="lr_dct_more_txt xpdxpnd xpdnoxpnd" data-mh="-1" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.3s; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;"></div><div class="lr_dct_more_txt xpdxpnd xpdnoxpnd" data-mh="-1" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.3s; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;"><span data-log-string="synonyms-more-click" jsaction="dob.m"><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+smear&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCYQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true"></a><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+slur&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCcQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true"></a></span></div><div class="lr_dct_more_txt xpdxpnd xpdnoxpnd" data-mh="-1" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.3s; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;"><span data-log-string="synonyms-more-click" jsaction="dob.m"><i style="padding-right: 4px;"></i><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+mudslinging&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCgQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true"></a><a href="https://www.google.ca/search?rlz=1C1CHFX_enCA562CA562&espv=2&biw=1281&bih=837&q=define+smack+talk&sa=X&ei=_SkgVKWoLJKcyATirICADA&ved=0CCkQ_SowAA" style="color: #660099; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" wotsearchprocessed="true"></a></span></div><div class="_iYd xpdxpnd xpdnoxpnd vk_gy" data-mh="-1" style="-webkit-transition: max-height 0.3s; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s;"></div></div></div><span data-log-string="synonyms-more-click" jsaction="dob.m"></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div></li></ol></div></div></blockquote><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZrRavxvBmPnOo_F8D9VwTsGq5oTKpvMjckF8w8yZYl121XX3EJqTblhjlh8YjIBTDR5Q7HspHEkPW5ASL97IWdtMl9YuzKKKxJfEoOWK54813sYCfovrrLaGw3maO2nqxj3hsjpW-oo/s1600/libel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVZrRavxvBmPnOo_F8D9VwTsGq5oTKpvMjckF8w8yZYl121XX3EJqTblhjlh8YjIBTDR5Q7HspHEkPW5ASL97IWdtMl9YuzKKKxJfEoOWK54813sYCfovrrLaGw3maO2nqxj3hsjpW-oo/s1600/libel.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br />AdWords ads may send traffic if an advertiser has purchased ads, and if that's what this person was referring to, then AdWords actually has recourse for the Advertiser to have their funds return to them. I don't deal with AdWords in this blog, so I won't address that except to say that advertisers can request investigations directly from an AdWords rep - they have direct contact with AdWords staff.<br /><br />So for those of you who do not moderate your comments, you just might want to begin doing so, and go back and review some of the previously published comments on your site.<br /><br />Who wants to lose their account for comments someone else has made? I dunno about you folks, but I sure don't.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><i>posted by J. Gracey Stinson</i></b></span></div></div>

Blog Comments and AdSense

Today's post isn't one I planned to write, in fact, I had planned to update some older posts to reflect some of the recent changes i...

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Adsense, Blogger, Gmail and Google - Disabled Accounts

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZb-7I6rjFvYa2Dbt44wkXn3E-GeSP5v2ZFZLZcI3RvdqNaOSCanf2d0DfZnRFxbB2AIRn82MST8a9u3CcvFlyHct2YENyPwYU7cqZNF7Hj1WS8-mP6QTIi9005XTK0emFKPSqkxngCQ/s1600/Stickboy8.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNZb-7I6rjFvYa2Dbt44wkXn3E-GeSP5v2ZFZLZcI3RvdqNaOSCanf2d0DfZnRFxbB2AIRn82MST8a9u3CcvFlyHct2YENyPwYU7cqZNF7Hj1WS8-mP6QTIi9005XTK0emFKPSqkxngCQ/s200/Stickboy8.png" width="150" /></a></div>In recent months we've seen a couple of round of wholesale account removals by Google. Their automatic spam procedures have nuked hundreds (possibly thousands) of accounts; some rightfully so, and some in error.<br /><br />How it works isn't something I'm going to go through in-depth, but if you really want to understand how this happens, <b><a href="http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2009/01/blame-it-on-fuzz.html">read this article by one of Blogger's most prolific Top Contributors</a>.</b> He explains how the spam detection system works, and why some ordinary blogs and/or accounts get caught in the filter. He also explains how to get your account back, but - the final review is...the final review. If your account is still deemed as spam and not restored, it will be because humans have reviewed it manually and still found it meets the qualifications for spam.<br /><br />When you login to your Google, Gmail or Blogger account and see this:"Your account has been disabled" you need to click on the "contact us" link provided. That should <b><a href="http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?answer=40695&hl=en&ctx=ch_ServiceLoginAuth">take you to a page explaining that your Google account has been disabled</a>.</b> Read the information on the page, and follow the instructions - follow the instructions precisely. In other words, review the Terms of Service and be absolutely certain your account(s) follow those terms before you submit any other form. There is a contact form at the end of the page - if your account meets the terms, use the contact form.<br /><br />If you were caught in the spam filter accidentally, there's a pretty good chance you will have your account restored.<br /><br />On the other hand, if your blog contained any of the things Blogger considers outside of their policy, or is seen as spam, you won't get your blog(s) back, and you probably won't get your Google account back either.<br /><br />Some of the things considered to fall outside of the terms of use on Blogger/Google are also some of things Adsense considers to be unsuitable for displaying ads, so if you use Blogger and Adsense, then you need to pay attention to this. <b>If your blog contains the following type of content - you may be caught in the next round of Google nukes.</b><br /><br /><ul><li>Affiliate marketing.</li><li>Content created with scripts and programs, rather than by hand</li><li>Auto-generated contents</li><li>Content or links referencing GPT, PTC, PTS, 'Make money from home', 'Make money fast', or other referral-based activities</li><li>Link Farms</li><li>Content scraped from other sources, duplicate contents</li><li>Copyright Infringement</li><li>Large blogs with multiple, unfocused / unrelated subjects.</li><li>Links to Illegal Downloads / Streaming / Torrents.</li></ul><br />An explanation of Blogger's Content Policy is found here: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/content.g">Blogger Content Policy</a><br /><br />If your blog contains these types of content, you better start cleaning them up now. Sooner or later, Blogger or Adsense, or even Google will remove your accounts if you don't.<br /><br /><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3d85c6;">WHY LOSING YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT CAUSES BIGGER PROBLEMS</span></b><br /><br />Losing a Blogger account usually means...well, you lose your blog. Losing an Adsense account means you can't monetize with Adsense any longer, but you might still have your blog or other Google Services. Losing your Google Account is a much larger problem.<br /><br />A Google Account is like a giant umbrella over all of your other services provided by Google. The Google Account login allows you to login to any Google service you've signed up for - it's much like the key to the filing cabinet. Without it, you can't get any of the filing drawers to open.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBCKNslvgXp7Vw-gAKNmAA48fiV2HxchiK7okizusbQbyZxBz3GlVfN7CjMRp0rgnOIT2FxcQZf_jSgeCbSslhWwUZOQgC5i8oNDLO0vNbZq7t7USgrgjYx9rkdpbQ-2kwYbAknooVMc/s1600/googleumbrella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBCKNslvgXp7Vw-gAKNmAA48fiV2HxchiK7okizusbQbyZxBz3GlVfN7CjMRp0rgnOIT2FxcQZf_jSgeCbSslhWwUZOQgC5i8oNDLO0vNbZq7t7USgrgjYx9rkdpbQ-2kwYbAknooVMc/s400/googleumbrella.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you lose your blogger account, and only your blogger account, you may still have access to your other Google services.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMQMKgDWFrcjNt5g0Owm_NtnPjEUNDA9d8a2tFgKGrM97jsjasn4dAOiamPxNrN8mzEOeAu4kr8FCerrvz5jUs8ZNR7TJHK_4oCa4AzX0RaO4JzXsATgc5Ai4n8hufNUIT1AJ09jvW74/s1600/googleumbrella2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioMQMKgDWFrcjNt5g0Owm_NtnPjEUNDA9d8a2tFgKGrM97jsjasn4dAOiamPxNrN8mzEOeAu4kr8FCerrvz5jUs8ZNR7TJHK_4oCa4AzX0RaO4JzXsATgc5Ai4n8hufNUIT1AJ09jvW74/s400/googleumbrella2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you lose your Google Account, you literally lose access to any other services you had under that umbrella. <b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">This is important - so pay attention. This is not just "when Google disables your account". The same thing occurs if YOU delete your own Google account.</span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We see this frequently in the Adsense forums. Someone decides they want a new Google Account (for whatever reason) - to use a different name, or to only use some of the products, or just to organize their accounts a little better.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The first thing they do is go "delete" their Google Account.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKm8ycD5smRVZ-5juc1qz-DvtXmj007eEG5Ua1fnLTn_Kiak2Jhyjrpxb421nq5R8wHpyYSm2bxH-qc2fMlTnXKzpuQoGIUJfj9k__Ma7JOOAkixT4tou6zaUUjdk6KFkl32P6PWuBS8A/s1600/googleumbrella3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKm8ycD5smRVZ-5juc1qz-DvtXmj007eEG5Ua1fnLTn_Kiak2Jhyjrpxb421nq5R8wHpyYSm2bxH-qc2fMlTnXKzpuQoGIUJfj9k__Ma7JOOAkixT4tou6zaUUjdk6KFkl32P6PWuBS8A/s400/googleumbrella3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then they wonder why they can't access any of their other Google services. They can't, because by deleting the Google Account, they've just thrown away the key to the cabinet. Without the Google account, you now have no access to anything else under that umbrella.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you plan to move your blogs, or gmail or adsense account (or any other Google service) to a new account, you need to request help in the appropriate help forum BEFORE you delete your old Google Account.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><ul><li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense?hl=en"><b>Adsense Help Forum</b></a></li><li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/blogger?hl=en"><b>Blogger Help Forum</b></a></li><li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail?hl=en"><b>Gmail Help Forum</b></a></li><li><a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum?hl=en"><b>All Other Help Forums</b></a></li></ul><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, 'san serif'; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><br /></span></span>

Adsense, Blogger, Gmail and Google - Disabled Accounts

In recent months we've seen a couple of round of wholesale account removals by Google. Their automatic spam procedures have nuked hundre...

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Build & Customize Your Blogger Site Using Template Designer!

Since Blogger has come out with "Blogger in Draft" and their new Blogger Template Designer, I figured it was way past the time when I should update my old "how to build a blog" articles with a new one, focused on the template designer and how to use it. If you haven't yet tried the new blogger template designer and wonder how it works, this post if you.<br /><br />When you login to your blogger dashboard, you'll see a list of all your blogs under your login.<br /><br />To get started, I'll use a blog I began only as a sample to give new bloggers a start on setting up a blog. It uses an old template, and today we'll convert it from the old style blogger template to one of the new ones that you can "redesign" in the blogger Template Designer. Oh don't worry - it's really not difficult.<br /><br />First thing to do is select the blog you want to convert and click the "Design" link for that blog from your dashboard. (If you don't see "Design" in your list, then look for "layout" and click that instead).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZZEjncHnydI5MaBWyrEgkuEKz-Ouhmmt84BwTAqwuIw630EDvf1EoX2DPDvrGyjcq-vKNvaX5RQQgNEKVx4inEaI8oKZXAUAlnL_NX0xCbed8Kim_aQHsOVjrRXbqsWpcPTdaVfRERs/s1600/ClickDesignLink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="93" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZZEjncHnydI5MaBWyrEgkuEKz-Ouhmmt84BwTAqwuIw630EDvf1EoX2DPDvrGyjcq-vKNvaX5RQQgNEKVx4inEaI8oKZXAUAlnL_NX0xCbed8Kim_aQHsOVjrRXbqsWpcPTdaVfRERs/s400/ClickDesignLink.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />When your page loads you'll see your page layouts for your current template. Look at the top and you'll see the link for the template designer. When you click that link you'll get the template designer page, which shows your current blog design in the bottom frame, and the template designer in the top.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkYbH9IaEEVD6ltwpPBZtdcSuYd7k5z_lZSsr53Ri5qxr5lTSp1zg_FWiEByHnG-DxnSquRoPPkMsm4kwWH6GaEB4kbHj4ROdYZH-Wfy8kFGYrmhBISegzEhjg46ZQ0Y88ZlkwcNg2GM/s1600/TempDesignerLink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzkYbH9IaEEVD6ltwpPBZtdcSuYd7k5z_lZSsr53Ri5qxr5lTSp1zg_FWiEByHnG-DxnSquRoPPkMsm4kwWH6GaEB4kbHj4ROdYZH-Wfy8kFGYrmhBISegzEhjg46ZQ0Y88ZlkwcNg2GM/s400/TempDesignerLink.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />If you try to make any changes to an old template, you'll get a notice in the template designer that the changes aren't applicable for this template. Before desiging your own blog layouts in the template designer you need to select one of the new templates.<br /><br />The old templates no longer have the ability to be changed using blogger - the section where you could change the colours and text style of the background, header text and so on no longer exist for these old templates. If you love your old template, then you can still continue to use it - but you can no longer edit it in blogger, except by using the "Edit HTML" function. If you aren't very good with that, you can download the template from blogger (from the edit html page select "download full template") and save it. You should be able to edit it manually if you know how, or use a software like alley code or nvu to edit the codes.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3_iJx43fHaYV9i9_rtR7K0l004Qsarjl1_gzPS7o8ddcPHpAsw1NSXSVx1k-VYBc2fNv6fUfBZ0aq8u9g88DmSy40f3JMK7kDve5dBjPvR_JU0txxdWo2j5WcuNtotkfR3PVywDBZDNo/s1600/NotApplicable.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3_iJx43fHaYV9i9_rtR7K0l004Qsarjl1_gzPS7o8ddcPHpAsw1NSXSVx1k-VYBc2fNv6fUfBZ0aq8u9g88DmSy40f3JMK7kDve5dBjPvR_JU0txxdWo2j5WcuNtotkfR3PVywDBZDNo/s400/NotApplicable.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Okay, lets go back to the template designer. We're going to select one of the new templates so we can make it our own.<br /><br />When you click one of the template designs in the "Templates" tab it will load the template as a preview, showing you what your blog would look like with the basic template design you clicked on. One thing I've run into only recently is when I want to preview a different design, I sometimes have to click the "live on blog" button before it will reload the blog with the new design. If you click through the templates and find they aren't showing the preview in the bottom frame, click "live on blog", then reselect the template you want to preview.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-F_bwQQlLqIHSh4_8MAanu7P4RG_VHMLg32_LjC_-ry3PLgpFGbiz7x-u7g5SWLyT1WVgQtw6cIOxl488aL101BivvkjSLnh7o5SVRkEYqY_a_ABuGW92kB39chaVichSK_D26NRCzQI/s1600/LiveOnBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-F_bwQQlLqIHSh4_8MAanu7P4RG_VHMLg32_LjC_-ry3PLgpFGbiz7x-u7g5SWLyT1WVgQtw6cIOxl488aL101BivvkjSLnh7o5SVRkEYqY_a_ABuGW92kB39chaVichSK_D26NRCzQI/s400/LiveOnBlog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />For now, we're going to stick with the template "Simple" by Josh Peterson. Both Simple and Asesome Inc. by Tina Chen are easy to edit and customize, and I personally tend to use one or the other when editing a blog design. You can select anyone you find suitable. And, of course, there is no reason to edit the design or colours if you LIKE the pre-set template that you select. You can simply leave it as it is and continue blogging with a new design.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlvBbTCMgLYEMgZaH_jSlXBIjr7TYm5IV7wOzKiIH5XLa31XnaKz-XunSqtqYKsWQbAeXbWCi80VXHyaokg0D9iGolWZ9WCwVrVmcFYh2BJsFtYADHer-UO602mkTgZwLU_geJsMRtu8/s1600/selectnewtemplate1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrlvBbTCMgLYEMgZaH_jSlXBIjr7TYm5IV7wOzKiIH5XLa31XnaKz-XunSqtqYKsWQbAeXbWCi80VXHyaokg0D9iGolWZ9WCwVrVmcFYh2BJsFtYADHer-UO602mkTgZwLU_geJsMRtu8/s400/selectnewtemplate1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />If you want to edit the template for your blog, read on. Once you've selected a template, the next step is to edit the background. Click on the background tab in the template designer. Here you'll be presented with a set of colour co-ordinated theme colour choices. If you like any of them, you can select one of those.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgoJNBc7RpZbi8K3nml2r-RWk7nz4TqV6QJlaVFsEgRRcFyyMWgxxv_9gYO0t_oAKUT-joG77ANmyeaBhlmm8q769cY2Z3GSCEpincN9Du-SSvbL6aiFmZZuUvAqdY8I2loNfTHW1GJc/s1600/ThemeColours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="328" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgoJNBc7RpZbi8K3nml2r-RWk7nz4TqV6QJlaVFsEgRRcFyyMWgxxv_9gYO0t_oAKUT-joG77ANmyeaBhlmm8q769cY2Z3GSCEpincN9Du-SSvbL6aiFmZZuUvAqdY8I2loNfTHW1GJc/s400/ThemeColours.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> But you aren't limited to these, and can make individual choics in the Advanced tab. Also in this background tab you'll see an area titled "Background Image". Click the little arrow and you'll be presented with some choices for your background image. You can look through all the categories, click on images and see them on the background of your blog.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXh08IbYkqsdyL7XCuDo6gGbwYxeSe7TY_Tvb8q6ds85zb5cyjHpLbH9wCNKd6te0o4SS9QDrf9-ovvC1gxfZhXjatTTFSoTywUd-lSptN87inKzPF6d-zvK6kmPmO8Pu0aS0d5RxD6-8/s1600/ChangeBackgroundImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXh08IbYkqsdyL7XCuDo6gGbwYxeSe7TY_Tvb8q6ds85zb5cyjHpLbH9wCNKd6te0o4SS9QDrf9-ovvC1gxfZhXjatTTFSoTywUd-lSptN87inKzPF6d-zvK6kmPmO8Pu0aS0d5RxD6-8/s400/ChangeBackgroundImage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDYRjXi9gOa0592di1K55pZsqanCwkR9W2he_k_3LQ9qQw-N_5BWLqCUYEGfLj72LmleJBFBlbqfxNt9UFk6-pnz5a71QxSEJVeJFZaafjgz15mcUOJ6hPaeqlpE7cs4qDTyJPXRCK4ro/s1600/BackgroundHearts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDYRjXi9gOa0592di1K55pZsqanCwkR9W2he_k_3LQ9qQw-N_5BWLqCUYEGfLj72LmleJBFBlbqfxNt9UFk6-pnz5a71QxSEJVeJFZaafjgz15mcUOJ6hPaeqlpE7cs4qDTyJPXRCK4ro/s400/BackgroundHearts.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />I generally select the option "no background" because I prefer simplicity on the backgrounds and prefer to let my blog contents be the focus of my pages, but for this sample blog, I'm going to upload one of my own free abstract background textures. To upload your own photo, click the "upload image" button. Images should be a minimum of 1800 X 1600, and can be larger. Click the browse button and find the image on your computer. Select it and wait for blogger to load your image.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbglQBBeIGQze5y60Ffpm2wnsDzafkG3lCvhVzkZNyuZW_HSvwCdu23tGJcefQYdAkgO-sUmnjdFM9fSg6UMvG8ZfuaX0I5eF6i7AJWXM1Z-lkiXxN_0A-lVdIEeQgW6LmSyL7Pj3Lm5w/s1600/ImageLoading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbglQBBeIGQze5y60Ffpm2wnsDzafkG3lCvhVzkZNyuZW_HSvwCdu23tGJcefQYdAkgO-sUmnjdFM9fSg6UMvG8ZfuaX0I5eF6i7AJWXM1Z-lkiXxN_0A-lVdIEeQgW6LmSyL7Pj3Lm5w/s400/ImageLoading.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrG6bIhHXHmKELhMkLFx9IH1gU5beA2nXT3Q9Lrz-_zKvIN6S5typ1oZwwuPRmVevObTU-MajANOXkawM847uhbciaczlE7EBCyoHNtIs6WSnq6Bovq-lznv2yh8N7NX98aZG0fzdjKo/s1600/ImageLoaded.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLrG6bIhHXHmKELhMkLFx9IH1gU5beA2nXT3Q9Lrz-_zKvIN6S5typ1oZwwuPRmVevObTU-MajANOXkawM847uhbciaczlE7EBCyoHNtIs6WSnq6Bovq-lznv2yh8N7NX98aZG0fzdjKo/s400/ImageLoaded.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />If you're happy with your upload (or any image you find in the list) click "done". Once your back in the template designer, you can change the alignment of your image, or select tile or don't tile, or have the image stationery, or scroll with the page.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcDjePB5MHJ0r4dsqbjogD511k3RYprbc_LV84uTk4Bpa_-ENPooUNCMgct0PofJd_MpyAOPLQda4H5kBnrD77iQPYXWtLxCIDnRIKd1G5sZRJzbAKdKg6fWtMNcNcyeNrP7g8T-iHySw/s1600/AlignmentTile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcDjePB5MHJ0r4dsqbjogD511k3RYprbc_LV84uTk4Bpa_-ENPooUNCMgct0PofJd_MpyAOPLQda4H5kBnrD77iQPYXWtLxCIDnRIKd1G5sZRJzbAKdKg6fWtMNcNcyeNrP7g8T-iHySw/s400/AlignmentTile.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Because the images are often not as long as a full page, when you select the tiling method you'll see the demarcation line between the bottom of the image and the top were it begins again. The same will happen horizontally if your images aren't large enough. If you can upload a "seamless tile" image for your background, you'll avoid this.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNqjwrBzqfUoWTyE8tMzFS8W7DQ7jYF3ZHeXFh4fAja6tB1hTysDWdJkA0hTzHcvzad93U0CEPuePNwiZLqoNbRfR14NQ_o0ixgyPYsZteTXT7FMx8UnXP8LXVYom058yf4HEVeafKGc/s1600/demarcationline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyNqjwrBzqfUoWTyE8tMzFS8W7DQ7jYF3ZHeXFh4fAja6tB1hTysDWdJkA0hTzHcvzad93U0CEPuePNwiZLqoNbRfR14NQ_o0ixgyPYsZteTXT7FMx8UnXP8LXVYom058yf4HEVeafKGc/s320/demarcationline.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />For now, I'll leave my background image this way so we can move on with the design.<br /><br />The next step is to decide on the layout you want for your main post, widgets and footer. Click the layout tab and you'll see three options to the right - "Body Layout", "Footer Layout" and "Adjust Width". We'll start with Body Layout.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwh39ilXOehNXIC8mgt_1ZNl77TU7ziyfBwzTDbknFTph7PYfgikejOHlOZFIcBReJ9u_Is9jUIug1-0tiZe4A7b0k1TlbfnHyGx-3r1hKb3ZXb1WK_MGup0xwtp-6-tM4Enw7LMrt0kE/s1600/Layout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwh39ilXOehNXIC8mgt_1ZNl77TU7ziyfBwzTDbknFTph7PYfgikejOHlOZFIcBReJ9u_Is9jUIug1-0tiZe4A7b0k1TlbfnHyGx-3r1hKb3ZXb1WK_MGup0xwtp-6-tM4Enw7LMrt0kE/s400/Layout.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />  Looking at the sample layouts you'll note the one that currently on the blog (that one came with the Simple template we selected), and options for changing to a "no sidebar" layout to different layouts for multiple sidebars. On the whole, I prefer a simple layout with one main panel for posting and a right or left sidebar. For this blog, I'll select the fifth option with a center pane for posts and a single sidebar on either side.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ChyphenhyphenIs-HD_x2of9t1AygWmT-6Be_ei0BsY1TnxF4Eae14jlJ-dq2wASsFQ27aW8ocPEqqh6fg-ZqBHt353_Z5RcdH2a62kBqxDyyyfXO55hbh6pQUjWJcJhXgk6zPlM6o_Y_8rZ2XEbo/s1600/LayoutChangeOnBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2ChyphenhyphenIs-HD_x2of9t1AygWmT-6Be_ei0BsY1TnxF4Eae14jlJ-dq2wASsFQ27aW8ocPEqqh6fg-ZqBHt353_Z5RcdH2a62kBqxDyyyfXO55hbh6pQUjWJcJhXgk6zPlM6o_Y_8rZ2XEbo/s400/LayoutChangeOnBlog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />When you select one of the layouts, you'll notice that this will show in your blog preview pane with your widgets set into the various spots. You can arrange these widgets when you are back in the blogger design page.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgteD45zeuvv_4iFs23V1akgmcapo8mWWzpc5WCl-HfzOaVB1vYYFeD_RnrEBvGN5tA5inf7hjPRq5ZrT1bX_MIAd5e2olcChiD5etXHh61XAhOYLf0FaHeruzkVFCkcVQE7OkJFX4f8-U/s1600/footerlayout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgteD45zeuvv_4iFs23V1akgmcapo8mWWzpc5WCl-HfzOaVB1vYYFeD_RnrEBvGN5tA5inf7hjPRq5ZrT1bX_MIAd5e2olcChiD5etXHh61XAhOYLf0FaHeruzkVFCkcVQE7OkJFX4f8-U/s400/footerlayout.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Now, select your footer choices. Click the footer layout tab and choose one of the footer options (single, double or triple footer where you can place gadgets like text or images or whatever else you can get with a gadget).<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7AMYkfdnnwORmQ9IAe1z8Lkg4JX6z6iOmMq9A6lGX4keMaxdvbh4oAzQ5wpA-qoOa9TZfKQbWCiDyOrQXajUmgpRj11aIGv8W4RaauUYFv6_0jqbjN8ZjtYqFLy7E5QNv_pIj5nS1bg/s1600/widthadjustment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz7AMYkfdnnwORmQ9IAe1z8Lkg4JX6z6iOmMq9A6lGX4keMaxdvbh4oAzQ5wpA-qoOa9TZfKQbWCiDyOrQXajUmgpRj11aIGv8W4RaauUYFv6_0jqbjN8ZjtYqFLy7E5QNv_pIj5nS1bg/s400/widthadjustment.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Next, select the "Adjust width" option. Here you can select the width of your post template area, and the width of the sidebars.Play with those adjustments until you like the layout. Now we're ready to move on to the Advanced Tab.<br /><br />When you select Advanced you'll see a list of options where you can make changes to your blog design, like the page text, and backgrounds of various sections, you can create "tabs" for your "pages", adjust the text and text colours. Ready?<br /><br />Okay first section is the page text, but I have a tendency to start with "Backgrounds" because once I've selected background colours for areas, then it's easier to decide what colour text works best. So let's ignore the Page Text for the moment and click on backgrounds. You have three choices - outer background (this is where we uploaded our image, so if you have an image, you'll want to leave that alone). If you didn't set a background image, you select a solid colour background here - white, blue, black - pretty much any colour your heart desires. Only select this if you don't have a background image, or if you have chosen a transparent background image, or if you selected a colour these set and want to change it.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud-a4QSH0HHYmP4Ws3K8H5lPYdgVdBv5S34Gk6JJkzD9O_Ssiu3chVmV8zYgmq0O7_j_sHyYCbnKUDegMpHi-11CqpgiseBhVm0XWPbRE4Txj2mv5TfRYRTyp9filsjyUjFE-dfhX67I/s1600/SettingMainBackgroundTransparent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjud-a4QSH0HHYmP4Ws3K8H5lPYdgVdBv5S34Gk6JJkzD9O_Ssiu3chVmV8zYgmq0O7_j_sHyYCbnKUDegMpHi-11CqpgiseBhVm0XWPbRE4Txj2mv5TfRYRTyp9filsjyUjFE-dfhX67I/s400/SettingMainBackgroundTransparent.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> The main background in this template is set to white, but I've decided to set this to transparent. Not so much because I like it, but I want to show you how to get a transparent background if that's what you want. This works best for fairly plain backgrounds and very simple background images - not so good with the background I've chosen. To get it, select "Main Background" and in the little coloured box next to the current colour choice (white/fffff) select the small arrow and you have the ability to decide on exactly the colour you want with the colour editor, or you can select transparent from the bottom of the colour editor.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL5ot800uwIsiwwj-azla4tzWtCeonLk6RChaRh4Mqg4XGcKHOwu8wddI1xTIVIRznmbz_uYwoY6Na-9e0Xdnw2Jz-K-e8VoZLONTzQks7yClDzbOmEoaZGmycWpNKPo070XelOcPASqQ/s1600/PageTextChoices.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL5ot800uwIsiwwj-azla4tzWtCeonLk6RChaRh4Mqg4XGcKHOwu8wddI1xTIVIRznmbz_uYwoY6Na-9e0Xdnw2Jz-K-e8VoZLONTzQks7yClDzbOmEoaZGmycWpNKPo070XelOcPASqQ/s400/PageTextChoices.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Now that I've decided on the background colour (or no colour), I'll go back up to the Page Text and set that. You can choose your font (this is for the main text of the blog), the size, whether it's all bold or all italics, and you can also select the colour. Find something you like and set it. Move on to the Links tab and set your link colours for the link, the visited link and the colour you when you hover over a link.<br /><br />By now you should be growing familiar with these settings. Along with the ability to choose your exact colour, you can also choose from the list of suggested colours below each option. So go ahead and set your blog title text and colours.<br /><br />Now we move on to the Tabs Text. The "tabs" are part of the "pages" function on blogger. These tabs appear as a menu, either under your header, or in your sidebar. Depending on the colours you choose, this menu can resemble a simple menu from a website. Select your font and font size, and select the text and text colour. Then move down to the Tabs Background. Here you can decide what colour the menu "buttons" are, and what colour they are when you hover over them.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicDZ-gfMYUuh7mEWuc5O2be0i9fItmmsUgzKyLvTyOT3cJClIihKBafPqNXxeMgb8EDNfO0Q2Jv0Cfiy4B30uueBoZdVKfEW3A1MvKSF3c0EwAr2Z-_RdrYZe4QC6FUxBRQ9CU58oGy-M/s1600/changeposttitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicDZ-gfMYUuh7mEWuc5O2be0i9fItmmsUgzKyLvTyOT3cJClIihKBafPqNXxeMgb8EDNfO0Q2Jv0Cfiy4B30uueBoZdVKfEW3A1MvKSF3c0EwAr2Z-_RdrYZe4QC6FUxBRQ9CU58oGy-M/s400/changeposttitle.jpg" width="377" /></a></div><br />You may have noticed as we click through the advanced options that there are dotted lines around some sections. These dotted lines outline the area you are selecting options and colours for. Click on the "Post Title" tab and you'll see that the outline only goes around the posting section - because what we are setting options for here is the post title - the font and the font size. Complete the choices for your Post title and post footer sections and then click on the Gadgets tab.<br /><br />You'll notice all the gadgets these options include will be surrounded with the dotted lines. You can select the title colour for the gadgets.<br /><br />Almost finished with the layouts - for images, unless you really want some sort of colour in the background and as a border, you can select transparent as the background and border colours, the same way as we chose a transparent background above. Otherwise, set the background and border colours to your taste, as well as the colour used for the image captions.<br /><br />The last thing we'll do is set the accent colors - the accents are those thin narrow lines that separate your sidebar areas from your post area. You can set these to one of the colours in your blog, or you can make them transparent if you prefer a clean look.<br /><br />And, unless you are comfortable with CSS changes, for the moment we'll leave the very last section alone. That's where you can your own CSS styles to make your style changes to the CSS.<br /><br />At this point, you are basically done with your design. You can go back and change anything you like before you apply this design to your blog.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMTd2tF70EK2SP1wTHp8_NUghDBWtGp7clhoeGUypRTKlXufYJAivS4zZ7tKHFdti-1drTdyA3d0D2aBq6o3Jz-eQo6reZWgwSCvJNFBrYURrjNF2mhjrJvT5-3zIaGQwcPfSP4BDo1s/s1600/applytoblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbMTd2tF70EK2SP1wTHp8_NUghDBWtGp7clhoeGUypRTKlXufYJAivS4zZ7tKHFdti-1drTdyA3d0D2aBq6o3Jz-eQo6reZWgwSCvJNFBrYURrjNF2mhjrJvT5-3zIaGQwcPfSP4BDo1s/s400/applytoblog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />If you're ready, click "apply to blog" in upper right corner of the template designer. In a few seconds you'll see a short notice at the top of the page that your changes have been applied to your blog. Now click "back to blogger" at the upper right.<br /><br />Anyone who has used an image in their header will probably need to replace the header image because most often the size will be a little different. You upload your new header image the same way you did with the old templates - click the edit link on the header gadget to remove the old image and upload your new one.<br /><br />Now you've converted your blog to the "blogger in draft" Template Designer templates, but it sure doesn't look like the "Simple Template" we began with - it's entirely your own!<br /><br />Here's the old blog converted using the Blogger Template Designer (<a href="http://buildingablogwithblogger.blogspot.com/">you can visit the page to see it action here on blogger</a>):<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQDwiyvVsG3Sa2VQ1L0Ki2PkJR83DMn_NnWQ3MxuGKWdbfnB9pIEn7iSh86Np5CQiv4cHsvlaCB2Dew0vHcFHJBmyzV4nLtj-1o425Q1Zj2V2RY72twjBFaWYYw65So9mNCfWZfMf3xM/s1600/FinishedBlog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpQDwiyvVsG3Sa2VQ1L0Ki2PkJR83DMn_NnWQ3MxuGKWdbfnB9pIEn7iSh86Np5CQiv4cHsvlaCB2Dew0vHcFHJBmyzV4nLtj-1o425Q1Zj2V2RY72twjBFaWYYw65So9mNCfWZfMf3xM/s400/FinishedBlog.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Any questions? Post a comment with your question and I'll do my best to answer it.

Build & Customize Your Blogger Site Using Template Designer!

Since Blogger has come out with "Blogger in Draft" and their new Blogger Template Designer, I figured it was way past the time whe...

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How to Start a Blog Using Blogger

<p></p><div><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=gracey"><img alt="Bookmark and Share" height="16" src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" style="border: 0pt none ;" width="125" /></a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gracey"></script></div><br />Since I've had a number of requests for help getting started with blogger, I'm going to do a "step-by-step" with pictures and text for those who have never ever even looked at or know what a blog is.<br /><br />Before you start a blog, you need to decide what your subject will be - what you are going write about and put in your blog. What it shouldn't be is something you have no clue about: if you aren't doctor or nurse or paramedic, don't write about medical stuff. If you've never earned a penny doing something online, then don't write about earning money online. Select a subject you have some knowledge about, or something you enjoy. If you have a hobby, like diecast toys or antiques, then write about that. If you are simply a mom whose kids have given her tons of hilarious things to write about (like Erma Bombeck), then write about that. Whatever it is you choose, you have to be able to write from knowledge and experience. Don't think you can start a blog and copy stuff from all over the internet. That just won't fly for AdSense.<br /><br />So, now that you've picked a subject you have to decide on a name for your blog. Think of a couple that match your subject matter, mainly because someone else may already have a blog with the name you pick, so you want to be ready with a second choice. Or, you can simply use your name, like "Gracey's" or "What Gracey Thinks".<br /><br />To begin you have to sign up so you type www.blogger.com into your search bar and find the home/sign up page. Then, you sign up for a free account, and when your registration is complete you'll be presented with a "blogger dashboard" (click the images to see a larger view).<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_zklEkrMUmQiLSxsfR4qYasC7syObDMie7J0JUIPY8MGWCX-Io_vN8EIBIifLyDVML1LisWDPDKY-dZySOxpLlUyVAtNUcAYyLqOu3JS0bOpJDQ4KeUUidP9lpv0Hn4XmbyGXz58wIA/s1600/dashboard.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="dashboard view in blogger" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407635292229187122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF_zklEkrMUmQiLSxsfR4qYasC7syObDMie7J0JUIPY8MGWCX-Io_vN8EIBIifLyDVML1LisWDPDKY-dZySOxpLlUyVAtNUcAYyLqOu3JS0bOpJDQ4KeUUidP9lpv0Hn4XmbyGXz58wIA/s400/dashboard.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 99px;" /></a>On the dashboard, you can select your language, and click the "create a blog link".<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8tnEQljHhJ95cRNj_w5XDqnkqF8OxNUURTFQXxgYzqRByLxaEuJcWWWkxj6LkO9l40SD0t9jXgEGIltePwaKmPUbPWSruSGxuQibMG_PzxHqa3E06WmXoK1KyYDmD54ZdkGmK2idxf4/s1600/namingblog.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="giving your blog a name" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407636054536419698" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY8tnEQljHhJ95cRNj_w5XDqnkqF8OxNUURTFQXxgYzqRByLxaEuJcWWWkxj6LkO9l40SD0t9jXgEGIltePwaKmPUbPWSruSGxuQibMG_PzxHqa3E06WmXoK1KyYDmD54ZdkGmK2idxf4/s400/namingblog.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 339px;" /></a><br /><br />Next you'll be presented with a page where you name your blog, and select the URL (blog address or web address) that you'll use for your new blog. When you type in the blog name and URL (the url can be the same as your blog name if nobody is using it) click the link to check if it's available. If so, you can continue and fill in the captcha letters. If someone else is using it, you have to pick a new one and try again.<br /><br />Once you click the "continue" button you'll be presented with a page where you can pick a blog template - this is the design or the way the blog will look.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Psk6AWcS626DWnzqpbSl7T5ep2vkN1V7AJnYv6caAyo7OmxF3OcQP6t4EMX_AI-RLoS-6Q25xarJN5mjtMQ8ramWhNqlQDbmmpjdcLQsCGuX4bYBqLCxZWba-wN3DdY3hXfL-UC1HyY/s1600/choosetemplate.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="picking an initial template in blogger" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407637207560064242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Psk6AWcS626DWnzqpbSl7T5ep2vkN1V7AJnYv6caAyo7OmxF3OcQP6t4EMX_AI-RLoS-6Q25xarJN5mjtMQ8ramWhNqlQDbmmpjdcLQsCGuX4bYBqLCxZWba-wN3DdY3hXfL-UC1HyY/s400/choosetemplate.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 340px;" /></a><br /><br />Select a design by clicking the button under it. It doesn't really matter much what you choose to get started with - changing the template later is easy, and takes nothing more than clicking a button. Customized template designs are something for those with a litle experience, so we're starting with the basics offered in blogger.<br /><br />Click continue and you'll get a page like this:<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosVdKlr5xda1UfvS1oxv-PLdfZ-kqfLzr2teevJMkoSgydA1X0bKdf4oml4Xs9BMKEKWJFcW-Lq_xZveV-HnC99Bo3g6oNZQDKY7XXiA7IsoJhhSgmXr7Xl_Mti5zpXYHYZRuEOT35Qs/s1600/blogcreated.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="blog created page" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407638208456196546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiosVdKlr5xda1UfvS1oxv-PLdfZ-kqfLzr2teevJMkoSgydA1X0bKdf4oml4Xs9BMKEKWJFcW-Lq_xZveV-HnC99Bo3g6oNZQDKY7XXiA7IsoJhhSgmXr7Xl_Mti5zpXYHYZRuEOT35Qs/s400/blogcreated.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 167px;" /></a><br />So now the basic layout and setup has been finished and your blog is ready for you to start typing in. Click the start blogging button and it takes you to a page where you can enter your first post.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hyphenhyphenQRVHrYWncJv7XdG_y_z_zk3rFEB8ScPFDMU3Zyaswd0Y_iZ4KBNRqSmYNCJT0p91FVvy1ebEq00isx_X_1sSCgSgako87yFe7WxiA7HAULgTR4Sc2sJjtmTcTST7bb6O_nEx7H-I8/s1600/startblogging.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="blogger blog editor page" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407638886488810546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1hyphenhyphenQRVHrYWncJv7XdG_y_z_zk3rFEB8ScPFDMU3Zyaswd0Y_iZ4KBNRqSmYNCJT0p91FVvy1ebEq00isx_X_1sSCgSgako87yFe7WxiA7HAULgTR4Sc2sJjtmTcTST7bb6O_nEx7H-I8/s400/startblogging.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 315px;" /></a><br />This is the "blog editor" or "wysiwyg editor". It's what you'll use to enter information and images, even videos into your posts.<br /><br />Across the top of the editor are options like "font" (in a drop down box) where you pick the type of lettering you want, next is a large and small T with an arrow - when you click that you make your text bigger or smaller.<br /><br />The "b" lets you make <span style="font-weight: bold;">bold</span> text (highlight the text by clicking, holding down your mouse button and dragging across all the text you want to make bold, then click on the "b"); the little i gives you<span style="font-style: italic;"> italic</span> text (done the same way as you get bold).<br /><br />The T with the coloured box changes your text colour; the small globe with the chain link across the top helps you make links.<br /><br />The next series with all those little lines let you decide whether your text starts at the left (left justified), or is centered, or is right justified, or is justified across the entire page.<br /><br />The small lines with numbers next to them lets you make a numbered list, the ones with little squares lets you make a bulleted list.<br /><br />The quotation lets you make a block quote, and the ABC with the check mark is a spell-checker. Next to that is a tiny picture - click that to insert an image from your computer or an address on the internet. The next little picture lets you add a video, and the last icon - is an eraser that removes formatting from a specific selection of text.<br /><br />Okay, so now you know it all. Well, not exactly, but you should have an idea of how to get started.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQHJ-gGxAJyEcExXaLbxMlgZvcYOz5ua9m44YjuX_Mjc0JKE8nkNwYqFWjTOIvy78zxQHaoQMa6PHMYq3ZfJwz3flkXfjQJaAjbRvY5_iixUfiCKcgs1VbMAP9Lox9f4OMf_7r2xUqR8/s1600/writingapost.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="writing a post" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407641041369456738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIQHJ-gGxAJyEcExXaLbxMlgZvcYOz5ua9m44YjuX_Mjc0JKE8nkNwYqFWjTOIvy78zxQHaoQMa6PHMYq3ZfJwz3flkXfjQJaAjbRvY5_iixUfiCKcgs1VbMAP9Lox9f4OMf_7r2xUqR8/s400/writingapost.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 339px;" /></a>To write your first post, you simply start typing in the editor's text box. It works like most text boxes.<br /><br />When you are finished entering your article, or story or text, you can add labels for your post. This helps search engines and readers find your content - labels work a little bit like keywords do. Then, you click "publish post" and you can click the "view blog" link at the top to see your blog with it's first post.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzsSDcRn8c5T5mHvFbDxLaGf-7zvcf95RV_vRnBJeA4WU4gVJ5fswTuGW-kDkZZt7So6mZzJpUxcG2XP2i7UcPOHLvLACE_sbg5N9r-6TY3DNuMTerIa3I-je3qWs69XSKRQdIi3KEfA/s1600/finishedfirspost.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="first post published image" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5407642256840260338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzsSDcRn8c5T5mHvFbDxLaGf-7zvcf95RV_vRnBJeA4WU4gVJ5fswTuGW-kDkZZt7So6mZzJpUxcG2XP2i7UcPOHLvLACE_sbg5N9r-6TY3DNuMTerIa3I-je3qWs69XSKRQdIi3KEfA/s400/finishedfirspost.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 161px;" /></a><br />There are a lot of things not covered here because this post is already very long. The next one will cover the settings in your blog, and how to change the header to use an image, how to change the colour of the the navbar (that bar at the top), how to add gadgets to your sidebar and other fine-tuning details of setting up a blog that not only has good and interesting articles, but that looks good too.<br /><br />Until then, make some posts and explore your blogger options. Oh - one thing - don't mess with the templates html unless you know what you are doing, and <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT</span> try to monetize your blog at this point. Leave that until you've got some content worthy of having advertising on it.

How to Start a Blog Using Blogger

Since I've had a number of requests for help getting started with blogger, I'm going to do a "step-by-step" with pictures ...

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AdSense Privacy Policy - Adding it to Blogger Blogs

<div><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=gracey"><img alt="Bookmark and Share" height="16" src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" style="border: 0pt none;" width="125" /></a><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gracey" type="text/javascript"></script></div>In the last few months or so I’ve had to make use of the google help forums and discovered that there is a never-ending stream of questions coming into the help centers. Some quite simple, but others much more complex. What I also discovered is that help can sometimes be as simple as pointing someone to the right link in the vast network of google help links.<br />I am no expert on google or it’s help systems, but for the most part I have learned how and where to find help when I need it. What you’ll find though, is that getting a direct answer from any person who actually works for or is approved by google is difficult, at best.<br />Any email to support generally results in a form-letter reply directing you to a help forum for the area you are asking about. Considering the shear number of emails that must head towards google help centers every minute of every day, that really isn’t all that surprising.<br />I doubt any one entity that large could respond with personal emails to that volume of mail. But the help centers can be very useful once you learn how to navigate them.<br />While not related to all the google categories where you can find help, I’ve created a tutorial to help bloggers out a little bit – it walks you through the steps to add a Privacy Policy to your blogger blog, using written instructions as well as pictures in an easy-to-follow step-by-step manner.<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">Please note that this .pdf tutorial was updated Dec. 6, 2010 to include using your privacy policy on a static page on blogger with the pages gadget. </span><br /><br /><b><a href="http://photographyofgrace.com/TUTORIALS/PrivacyPolicyForBlogger.pdf" target="_blank" title="Adding A Privacy Policy to A Blogger Blog">Adding A Privacy Policy to A Blogger Blog </a></b><br /><br /><b>(please note:  unfortunately due to people trying to link directly to the server to to allow this to be downloaded from their own sites, I've had to password protect the tutorial. The password to open the file is: <span style="color: red;">getthisfromgracey</span>)<u><br /> </u></b><br /><b><u>Links to Help Forums</u></b><br /><br /><a href="http://www.google.com/support/?hl=en" target="_blank" title="Google Help Centers">Google Help Centres</a> – all one page for all your google services<br /><br /><div style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">SAMPLE PRIVACY POLICY TEXT</span></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Privacy Policy</span><br /><br />We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. (This privacy policy is applicable to websites falling under the primary holder <span style="color: red;">fill in your website(s) and urls here</span>.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Routine Information Collection</span><br /><br />All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cookies and Web Beacons</span><br /><br />Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.<br /><br />Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Controlling Your Privacy</span><br /><br />Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Special Note About Google Advertising</span><br /><br />Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.<br /><br />About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher’s website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user’s browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the <a href="http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html">Google ad and content network privacy policy.</a><br /><br />Some third-party avertisers used by Google may use a different cookie. You may opt out of most-third party advertising cookies by following <a href="http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp">this link and visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page</a>, or <a href="http://www.evidon.com/consumers/profile_manager#tab3">by visiting this Consumers page to opt out of all advertising cookies</a>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Contact Information</span><br /><br />Concerns or questions about this privacy policy can be directed to <span style="color: red;">fill in your contact information here</span> for further clarification.<br /><br />(originally posted by the writer, me, on one of my other sites)

AdSense Privacy Policy - Adding it to Blogger Blogs

In the last few months or so I’ve had to make use of the google help forums and discovered that there is a never-ending stream of questions ...

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Getting Started with AdSense and Blogger

<div><a class="addthis_button" href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=gracey"><img alt="Bookmark and Share" height="16" src="http://s7.addthis.com/static/btn/v2/lg-share-en.gif" style="border: 0pt none;" width="125" /></a><script src="http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#username=gracey" type="text/javascript"></script></div><br />Everyday on the Google AdSense forums you'll see lots of questions about using AdSense with Blogger blogs. Today's post will help you get started using AdSense on Blogger. More complex questions will come later, and of course you can always post a specific question to the comments, or use <a href="http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/AdSense?hl=en">Google's AdSense Help Forum</a>.<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Can I use AdSense with Blogger?</span><br /><ul><li>yes, Blogger blogs accept AdSense code very easily.</li></ul><br />2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">What's the best way to sign up with my blog?</span><br /><ul><li>Blogger has a "monetize" link which many people use to get an AdSense account, and currently, if you try to apply for adsense without using this monetize link, you'll get rejected for "domain ownership issues.</li><li>Adsense does not accept "subdomains" for their applications, so signing up at the Adsense home page with a blogger URL will get your application rejected because a blogger URL is a subdomain. To avoid that, you need to apply using the monetize link.</li><li>Using the monetize link in blogger lets Adsense know that this is a blogger URL, which is acceptable to use for Adsense, so please do not try to sign up at the Adsense homepage for your blog.</li></ul>3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">My Adsense account for my blog was approved. How do I add the code to my blogger?</span><br /><ul><li>There are different options for adding AdSense code to your blogger. You can use the monetize link to place the ads, you can use the Adsense Gadget in Blogger, or you can use a Text Gadget and add code you generate from your AdSense Account.</li><li><a href="http://helpfulinformationfornewbies.blogspot.com/2013/10/putting-adsense-ad-code-on-your-blogger.html">See this step-by-step tutorial (includes snapshots and text) for the ways you can place your code on blogger blogs.</a> </li></ul>4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Why don't all of my ads show up on my blogger? I have all the code, but you can't see all the ads.</span><br /><ul><li>The main reason for this is that you probably have too many of the same kind of ad on one page.</li><li>AdSense only allows for 3 ad units, 3 link units and 2 AdSense for search boxes on one page.</li><li>When you choose to have the AdSense ads display below each post, the number of posts <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnx876sBDlOh44X3Y1-MY6b0bx7-dAvlWeBCSvzLHj3dRWZSnb6kbrzsGpnLrdKL_gQl6f1U_Na2db5V6fLzYSBeBTeLKVtNXyerFzazQFE4zYBtJIwHO-RrUtGKB4hH99f2JnUWcCOSI/s1600-h/Stickboy5.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383895818147567058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnx876sBDlOh44X3Y1-MY6b0bx7-dAvlWeBCSvzLHj3dRWZSnb6kbrzsGpnLrdKL_gQl6f1U_Na2db5V6fLzYSBeBTeLKVtNXyerFzazQFE4zYBtJIwHO-RrUtGKB4hH99f2JnUWcCOSI/s200/Stickboy5.png" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 200px; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; width: 137px;" /></a>allowed to display on a page has something to do with this problem. Many people leave the "posts per page" set at the default, wich I think is 5. That means there may already be three ads on the page (one ad after every 2nd post). What happens is that any other ads of the same type you put on your page won't display.</li><li>There are two ways to remedy this. Set your post count per page to 1, 2 or 3 posts per page. This will result in one or two ads being displayed leaving you one ad of the same type for another spot. Or you can change the add type. You can use ad units between your posts, and ad links in your sidebar, or vice versa. This allows you to display 3 ads between your posts, and 3 ads in your sidebar (or below your header if you choose).</li></ul>5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">How much does it cost to use Blogger and AdSense?</span><br /><ul><li>Nothing. Google provides both services freely. If anyone asks you pay anything for a Blogger blog or an AdSense account, then you are in the wrong place.</li><li>There are many websites on the internet that ask you for money in exchange for providing information about earning money with AdSense, and they trade on the Google name, but they aren't associated with Google, and their practice is not condoned by Google.</li><li>Information about AdSense or Blogger is available freely from their respective home pages at Google. You should never pay for something that is offered free. Any payments you might make to these other sites go to them, not to Google and Google cannot help you get your money back, nor will they refund you something they didn't charge you for.<br /></li></ul>

Getting Started with AdSense and Blogger

Everyday on the Google AdSense forums you'll see lots of questions about using AdSense with Blogger blogs. Today's post will help yo...

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FAQs About This Blog

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zjfKEgCiFzN4nxsCEiAV2kKiXn6WG09d-TDf1O23Fp2YnngrFXqKRzo-eV7Rb3pfouDRZcnWLcz70ODin1XCt7Q1gfDVK181Gc31Xp6-BusffUTAZe6Um4bqRYcyYXLCQMOLuWjhQW4/s1600-h/stickgirl9.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style=""><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396829190051863250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8zjfKEgCiFzN4nxsCEiAV2kKiXn6WG09d-TDf1O23Fp2YnngrFXqKRzo-eV7Rb3pfouDRZcnWLcz70ODin1XCt7Q1gfDVK181Gc31Xp6-BusffUTAZe6Um4bqRYcyYXLCQMOLuWjhQW4/s200/stickgirl9.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 146px; height: 200px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS BLOG?</span><br />A. Mostly because in the AdSense forums (where I answer questions) we see the same questions over and over again and I got tired of typing out the same answers over and over...especially when they require more than one or two lines (as you can already tell, I can be a little long-winded).<br /><br />I started the blog so I could type out long answers here, and then just link a person to the appropriate post from the AdSense forums.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-weight: bold;">HOW MUCH DOES ADSENSE OR GOOGLE PAY YOU?</span><br /><br />A. <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Pay me</span>? They <span style="font-weight: bold;">don't</span> pay me. Not anything. At least not for answering questions or posting answers in the help forum. That's volunteer work. Either you like to help out or you don't.<br /><br />There's no payment, no favours, no protection from being disabled for helping out on the forums. My account and sites get the same scrutiny as everyone else's, and could be disabled at any time if I didn't follow policy.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">YOU DON'T HAVE ANY ADS ON THIS BLOG? WHY NOT, AND WHERE CAN I SEE YOUR SITES WITH ADS?</span><br /><br />A. No, there's no ads on this blog...for a reason. I need to link this blog to the forums sometimes. I couldn't do that if there were AdSense ads on it - that would be considered unfairly promoting my own blog and sending people there to earn clicks.<br /><br />Secondly, my own opinion is that a blog about AdSense is difficult to maintain when it contains AdSense ads. For this blog to be any use I need to be able write things (answers) in it without worry about whether it meets policy or not. This blog is meant to be informational, it's not meant to earn money...at least not from AdSense. Someday in the future it might be useful to place other advertisers or affiliates on, but if I do decide it's ever ready for that, I probably won't be using AdSense.<br /><br />Where can you see my ads? Um, that's not something I'm willing to post for the world to see. People who help in the forums often get more than their fair share of click-bombers, harrassment, and stalkers (cyber types) because of the answers they sometimes have to give.<br /><br />But for those who think because there's no ads here I don't use AdSense, the answer is I do use it, but not on all my sites. Only on those I feel are suitable for AdSense.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">WHY DO YOU HAVE THOSE WEIRD CARTOON PEOPLE?</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cToknhMmWgMKHrXmjkAJ7CmmdwtjEdZ0KKgNog_TXYufX5xYFAgRKcz3fNIMBz8ZuSY0efetU73h7CBB0q-caUu1NO-KUC82CMxxKPeZxJtO2nS9ttHvToL-R4Nvusfb7iz_WktyJlg/s1600-h/Snap142.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396829534688560738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cToknhMmWgMKHrXmjkAJ7CmmdwtjEdZ0KKgNog_TXYufX5xYFAgRKcz3fNIMBz8ZuSY0efetU73h7CBB0q-caUu1NO-KUC82CMxxKPeZxJtO2nS9ttHvToL-R4Nvusfb7iz_WktyJlg/s200/Snap142.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 178px;" /></a><br /><br />A. Ah. Well, AdSense is a serious business for some people, and their problems or frustrations sometimes seem insurmountable, so the stick people keep the blog on a lighter note, while still allowing me to provide useful information.<br /><br />They were created for my grandchildren as t-shirt designs, hence the childlike art.<br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255); font-weight: bold;">HOW DO I GET TO BE AN ADSENSE PRO?</span><br /><br />A. Why are you asking me? I don't work for AdSense or Google. AdSense Pros are employed by Google. That really has nothing to do with my blog.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">HOW COME YOU'RE SO MEAN?</span><br /><br />A. How does one answer that?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">HOW DO YOU FIND ALL THE ANSWERS?</span><br /><br />A. The answers to what? I don't know all the answers...like the meaning of life (still looking).<br /><br />In fact I don't know all the answers to every question, but I do know how to use the Google search function, and I know how to perform research. That's pretty much all it takes to find a lot of the answers people ask questions to.<br /><br />Some I know from experience. Others, I look for.

FAQs About This Blog

WHY DID YOU MAKE THIS BLOG? A. Mostly because in the AdSense forums (where I answer questions) we see the same questions over and over again...

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