0 Blogging for your Business Hangout May 15, 2012 /

Updated!

If you missed the Blogging for your Business hangout on Google+ today, you can watch it here instead:

16 Learn the Basics of Blogger and Get Certified - For Free! May 02, 2012 /

If you are just starting out with Blogger, Alison offers a useful free e-course which you may find useful.

The Google Blogger course by Russell Stannard offers video training, an end-of-course assessment and Alison certification:

Upon completion of this course you will be able to create your own blog. You will know how to add dates, pictures, links, video and embedded video to your blog. You will understand how to preview and publish your blog. You will gain a good knowledge of the settings that allow you to edit your blog.

Once you've passed the module, you can choose to purchase a PDF or parchment certificate, share your achievement with a badge or simply provide a link to verify your certification.

Admittedly this is a basic course in using Blogger, though it would be very useful for those just starting out or as a refresher course for those who have not used Blogger in some time (the video tutorials provide insight into the new interface and template designer).

Be sure to check it out and let us know your opinions of this free course in the comments below.

13 Create a contact form with Google Docs? April 26, 2012 /

While creating a client's website (using Blogger, of course), I decided to try using Google Docs to create a comprehensive contact form.

The form was wonderful: with a bit of tweaking, I was able to embed a CSS styled form (rather than use an iframe); validate required fields with jQuery; redirect to a custom "thank you" page, and even have the form submissions emailed directly to the client!

Feeling rather happy with the results, I created a similar contact form for the Blogger Buster contact page and was in the process of writing up a tutorial when I realized my inbox was rapidly filling up with spam. Which was unfortunately delivered by my Google Docs-based contact form.

Sadly, I haven't (yet!) been able to find a Blogger-compatible solution to create a Google-based contact form with spam filtering and emailed submissions, so I've reverted back to my previous contact form.

I'm still hopeful that a method to prevent (most) spam submissions is still possible, so I've decided to publish a simple version of my Google Docs form tutorial for anyone who would like to use it.

17 How to create a contact form for Blogger using Kontactr April 24, 2012 /

Contact forms enable visitors to our sites to send us emails without having to expose our email address to potential spammers.

I've been using Kontactr to embed a contact form in this site for years now, and still believe it is the most ideal solution for those using the Blogger platform. However, it seems my previous tutorial is now out of date!

Recently, Kontactr added CAPTCHA functionality to their forms which makes even more difficult for spammers to abuse the facility. We can also now customize the appearance of the form to match the design of our sites.

Here is a comprehensive tutorial to help Blogger users embed a functional, customizable contact form for their blog using Kontactr.

16 Free Blogger Template - CleanRed Portfolio Design April 23, 2012 /

CleanRed is a portfolio style template, originally created for CSSHeaven.org and now converted for use as a Blogger template.

CleanRed Homepage, including a welcome message above the latest posts

Demo | Download

This template is wholly compatible with Blogger's Template Designer. All fonts, font colours, background colours and widths may be changed through the interface. It's even possible to change the layout while retaining most of the template's stylistic properties!