Linking to a Google Doc From Blogger

If you make a file in Google Docs and Spreadsheets, this is how to link to it from Blogger If you've created one document and saved it already, locate the url (web address) in the window above on your screen and copy it. Use the right-click button on your mouse and then the Copy on the small menu so that you don't make a typo. Then go back into the post or sidebar where you intend to keep the link and produce this: <a href="http:...documentLink">DocumentName</a> Paste the url that you already Copied into the above code, replacing everything between the quotation marks with the url. Keep the quotation marks, of course. The "DocumentName" is whatever name you choose to call it, whether a title or description. If you can succeed with one link, you can make a list of them, maybe using the ul or ol list or create a LinkList type Gadget. Neither one is very hard, though anything can be intimidating the first time you try (remember bicycles?). Unordered & Ordered Lists

What Is Indexing?

Google and other search engines have their own rules and criteria for indexing blogs and other sites, but each one "crawls" the entire Internet every so often and "looks" at and stores info about most every site. The indexing is not immediate for your site, so you may have to wait for your site to show up on any search engines. Your site can't be "Googled" by you or your friends until the indexing can occur once or more after you've created your blog. Try not to be anxious while you're waiting, possibly as long as a month. The indexers may do a better job for your particular site if your site has some connections (links) to and from other sites--that's the usual view taken by people who hope to increase traffic to their site. [More below...] There are additional things you can do to improve traffic, listed in a link at the bottom of this post. Look for "Additional Information". After you've been indexed, the chances of your friends finding your site will increase and the chance of traffic by total strangers increasing will also improve. You should notify your friends and make new ones online and always try to write good (interesting) posts. All that attention being paid to your site will make your site more noticeable to the automated indexers (robots, aka "spiders") that crawl across the Internet. Sounds creepy, doesn't it? You may also want to know this additional information if you are new to blogging.

Change Email Options In Google Subscription List

1. Go to your subscription page where all the posts are listed. 2. Find the "Edit my membership" icon on the right and click it. 3. Then you'd have a page listing the options about email choices. 4. Select one option. 5. Be sure to click "Save these settings".

Email Notifications--Google Groups

How do I create a group?

1. Go to the Blogger Help Group forum and look in various locations where it says "Create a group". There is one under the Reply under each question. There's one at the bottom of most pages. 2. If you create a group there, you can add multiple email addresses at one time. Be sure to mark them all to recieve all email notifications. 3. You will be given an email address for the Google Group; copy it. 4. Then, in your blog, go to Settings - Email - Blogsend Address. 5. Enter or paste the email address you were given in the Google Group. Save Settings and you should be through.

More explicit directions to put a "Subscribe To" box on your sidebar can be found here: Subscribe

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Google Blog Search

It used to be that you could click on someone else's "favorite" things in their profile or even in your own profile and you could link to those people in Blogger whose specific interest reflected some of your own. A lot of people have complained about that feature being done away with in New Blogger. You could look up everyone who was interested in masturbation, approbation, Christian Cooking, diabetes, or whatever ticked your clock or worried you. I noticed recently Google has a new Blog Search that is similar, but dissimilar, to the above. It's better than nothing! The search is not limited to any one brand of blogs, but claims it will eventually list all brands of blogs in it's search parameters. Check it out: Google Blog Search

Later: The "favorites" feature in your profile has now been restored to Blogger, so you now have two means of searching!

Those unhappy about losing any other Blogger feature should contact Blogger at Wishlist. State your desire. Even if they don't answer you (and they won't), you will have had your say. Blogger has now removed it's Wishlist.

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Remove Content From Google Index

Request removal of content from Google's index:

Request Site

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35301

Warning: It does not appear that Blogger is very active in helping anyone with this, despite having this help site. The truth may be that you might as well talk to a lawyer and have him talk to Blogger if it comes to that. Blogger will not promptly save your donkey.

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Report Spam To Google

Don't be timid. If you THINK it's spam, report it to Google at

Google Spam Report

http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/spamreport?hl=en

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Strange Symbols

Clean MS Word Gobbledegook!

Word has formatted lettering. In short it introduces some gobblydegook and symbols that will screw up templates and sometimes posts. I use two methods, usually separately, to "clean them up".

1. I write often in Word, but I "clean" it (remove formatting) by copying and pasting into Notepad (plain-text editor), then copying that again before pasting it into the Blogger editor.

OR

2. I copy and paste the Word doc into Google Docs And Spreadsheets, then copy and paste that into the Blogger Editor. Sometimes this works when the other will not.

You CAN sometimes get away with using Word and it'll be okay. But then it will trip and stumble and screw up your blog when you're not looking! Apostrophes, quotation marks, or other symbols will appear and create havoc, and question marks will replace hyphens! I've found that the quotation marks in Word will screw up a link code (an anchor formula) because the machine is seeing it differently than you and I do!

Though Word is very good in its own arena, it's not worth being careless about pasting it directly into Blogger!

See also this post: Adding Pages.

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Submit Your URL to Google

A lot of new bloggers are in a hurry to find themselves on the Search engines. This may help to assure that you do get indexed.

Submit your site to Google.

This is the old contact.

There is also a new thing called Google Sitemap that's more complicated to fill out, but more helpful, it is promised. Warning: I don't think either site is immediate! It depends on when the indexer rolls through your part of the Internet!

Here is the Site Map


See also: New Blogger Blues and Meta Tags.