The Novice Blogger #3 - time delayed posting

Staci (a.k.a. Miss Squirrels) from over at Going Nutty in First Grade tipped me off to this super cool option in Blogger.

(this is how I picture her at Christmastime)

You can time delay a post to publish later, automatically.

Think of the ramifications. The time saved, the panic averted.

I'm not even writing this up on the day I am going to post it. Sneaky shenanigans!

This is how it works.
See the list of options under post settings?

Click on Schedule. Select "set date and time". Choose the day and time you want your post to publish!

Want to know a secret? I think this is how the Super Bloggers roll. My suspicion is that they write up a bunch of posts, polish them, and then set them to publish during a time when they know they will be too busy to write. You, too, can roll like the big dogs!

The Novice Blogger #2 - comments and links

This one took me for-EVAH to figure out. I actually went out and scoured the web looking for the answer.
(yes, like I put on my coat and grabbed an umbrella and went out to scour the web. The internet has obviously become a very real for me.)

How does one get their blog link to  show up in as a signature in comments?

See how below my name it says the name of my blog? That's a hyperlink to my blog. Just in case someone wants to come visit me, see who this weirdo commenter is.

I thought for sure there was some setting, but I could never find anything. Since signatures happen to be such an important thing for us bloggies, you would just think that Blogger would have some built-in widget that makes it all super easy. Not so much.

But it really isn't hard. Here's what you do.

When you are finished writing your comment and have signed your name, you copy and paste this into the comment:

<a href="http://peacocksandpenguins.blogspot.com/">Peacocks & Penguins</a>

But....don't leave it like that. Unless you want everyone to think my blog is yours. To fix that, you change peacocksandpenguins to your blog name. It breaks down like this:

<a href="http://peacocksandpenguins.blogspot.com/">Peacocks & Penguins</a>

The part in red should be your blog address. The part in blue is what you want the text to say.
And that is how you get a hyperlink to your blog in your signature in comments.

I keep the tag on a post-it on my desktop. That way I always have it available to copy and paste.

Just double check your work when you are done, so that if you ever need to go back and take a screen capture of one of your own comments for a blog post, you don't get something like this:

Ta-da!!

The Novice Blogger #1

A-hem.*cough* ((((blush))))

Hello, my name is Heather and I am a novice blogger.  ("Hello, Heather....")

It looks so easy, right? Right. I read through tons of blogs, and it looks so simple. All these gadgets and tricks, am I right? Buttons and links and signatures.

Shhhhhh, lean in close. I'm going to tell you a secret.
It really is kinda hard.

But I'm here to help. The blind leading the blind.

Check out what I learned today?
And this is with a big shout out to Amanda and Jenny. Make sure you run along after reading this post and say "thanks!" to them for enlightening me and in turn you.

No-Reply Blogger.

That's what they called me. As in, "shhhh, I think she might be a no-reply blogger."

How would I know? Well, it's easy to tell once you know what to look for. When you leave a comment on someone's blog they might reply back. It's a friendly and polite thing to do. But will you ever know that they replied back? If you are a No-Reply Blogger, then you might never know. How awful! All those sad, lonely words, floating about in cyberland with no way to find their intended.

Want to know if you are a No-Reply Blogger? Really, it's better to know since you can fix it.
It's like having head lice. It's embarrassing when you find out, but everything is a-ok when it's gone. So head over to Teaching With Love and read this very enlightening and problem solving post.

Really, it's like one of those electric combs. Just turn it on and your problems are solved.