How To: Set up & Edit Your Blogger Profle

This tutorial will cover how to set up your blogger profile. This is especially helpful for enabling others to find you and your blog and is handy for those who have may have a blog for testing backgrounds which they don't necessarily want others to see.
To begin, you'll need to sign in to your blog then navigate to the area I like to call the "backroom" of your blog. There you will see a small blue link for the "Dashboard" at the top right side of your screen....
On the next screen you'll see a selection of information including a list of your blog/s, and your avatar. We're here to modify your profile so click on the second choice below your avatar "Edit Profile"...
This is the area where you can choose what to show and what to hide from your visitors. Editing this information is easy, just read over the choices and select which items you wish to display in your Blogger profile.
{Some things to keep in mind are...

?If you enter giveaways on blogs then you may wish to select the "Show my email address". This will enable a blogger to contact you should you win.

?Keep your lists of interests brief, you don't want your visitors to get lulled to sleep.

?You may want to avoid using your real name if you're blogging under your business name as this will help with business recognition and you can always sign your posts and comments with your real name so others get to know you.
For now, we're going to work in the "Select Blogs to Display" area, so click that blue link...
In this area you will see a list of the blogs you have assigned for your profile. You can easily click the box to the left of the blog name to select or deselect the blogs you wish to display...
Once you are finished click the blue "Save Settings" button...
To return to the previous screen simply click the blue "edit profile" link at the top of the page...
You can then make any other changes or additions to your profile...
And once you are finished click the orange "Save Profile" button...
That's it! You've now successfully edited your profile. You can return to this area at any time to update your profile and add or delete the visibility of any new blogs you may add.

Enjoy!

How to: Keep it Clear - using clear background images

This tutorial will help solve the issue where clear png images show a white background. First an explanation...

Clear Images

The only two types of clear images are gifs and pngs. Although jpgs have a nice resolution they are unable to sustain a clear background. This is important to notice when you're saving images to your computer. Always be sure to save a clear backed png image as just that - a png.

Loading Images:

In the first example I've posted a clear png image as it's meant to be...

However in the example below the same image now has a white background behind it. Why? You may ask...Well, the answer is simple - in this case when I loaded the second image I resized it. Making a clear png image smaller will automatically fill in the clear background. So to keep images with a clear back you'll either need to load the image in it's original size or resize the image in a graphics program before loading it.

There are two main areas image sizing is important in blogging, the first is when you're adding an image to the sidebar of your blog and the second is when you're including an image in a blog post.

We'll address both of these below....

Adding an Image to Your Sidebar

Most of my sidebar image tutorials already cover how to add images using various methods so for this example we'll just pay close attention to the sizing factor when adding images.

When you're using the "Add a Gadget" feature found under the "Design" tab to add an image to the sidebar of your blog...

Be sure to uncheck the "shrink to fit" box...

This will keep the image you're loading in it's original size so if it's a clear backed png your image will remain clear.

Adding an image to a Blog Post

The same rule applies when you're including an image in your blog post and so it's important to pay special attention to the "Add Image" feature and load your images large if they're clear backed...

Size does matter - keep it large

I hope this info has been helpful and I hope to see more and more clear backged images around blog-land.


Enjoy!