Template and add-ons

I read quite a lot of blogs daily. Long term bloggers just like 'starting blogs'. I for myself am a starting blogger but have already been 'online-around' for quite a long time now (read :: approx. 15 years) and have seen the web evolve. From black pages with just content at the left to pages entirely coded in flash.

Nowadays I 'sit behind' a 8MB broadband connection. This means that every site shows up almost as fast as I can click and that is where all the 'fuzz' starts. A lot of long term bloggers have a personalized design. Newer bloggers quite often tend to change their 'standard blogtemplate' into something more personal as well. But a lot of bloggers also use 'third party' add-ons in their blog.

Two of the most popular ones being BlogRolling a service to share your links with your readers. Another popular add on is TTLB Ecosystem to show your 'blogpopularity' (the amount of blogs linking to you in the last 7 days). Of course there are a lot more add ons, but I have choosen especially those two for this thread.

'Experienced' blogreaders know that those two services need regularly 'quite some time to load'. Due to this I would advice to use those two services in a sidebar at the right (especially when no css-knowledge). In that way first the content (posts) of your blog will load and people (especially the ones having a dial-up connection) can start reading and don't have to wait till the 'sidebar' is loaded.

People still wanting to have their sidebar (with plugins) at the left, can avoid this 'problem' with the use of css. I know some designers might 'kill me' now, but if I need to wait up to 20 seconds before your sidebar is loaded, I will not read your blog either.

Define for your sidebar (with the third-party add ons) and your content-area absolute postion in your css. This means that the css tells the browser exactly where the 'element' must be positioned. In my blog I did the same with the header image, and the sidebars. I first load the posts in my blog, before loading the header image, to avoid that users with a dial-up connection have to wait till my header image is loaded (and that I immediately scare them of with the header as well *lol*). Trust me with only 56kb the header image is still 'small' compared to other blogs (see 'small remark/hint).

Example :: How to postion something ---> My 'first' sidebar.

.menu1box {
position: absolute;
left: 454px;
padding-top: 8px;
padding-bottom: 10px;
top: 446px;
width: 160px;
}

Here I define exactly where this sidebar must be positionned , related to the template borders.

-back to the theory-
In the template you postion the element (sidebar or header image) after the element that should be loaded first, the content.

I am aware of this 'not being ethical correct' for many designers, but it is a choice I made and I think that it is really 'helpfull' to your readers if they don't have to wait for your blog (posts) to load, because BlogRolling is out, again.

Some examples (screenshots not relevant in this case)
- How not to do :: Plaid Toaster
- Good use of CSS in this purpose :: Life Or Something Like It....

Feel free to discuss/argue this point (or tell me that I could as well have positioned my sidebar related to the right margin *lol*)

Any questions about how to use this feature please in this thread at BlogExplosion's forum.

Blog Buttons

In most sidebars of blogs you see Blog Buttons, those little buttons most of time referring to another website or a traffic exchange platform. Those buttons are a discrete way to 'pimp' your blog and to link to services.

The biggest online collection of blog buttons is GTMCKNIGHT. The website offers more as 3000 buttons, buttons everyone can download and put on his website, and a button maker. Please do not hotlink to the website, but download the buttons and upload them on your own webspace or use a free service like Blogexplosion's image hosting BlogPhotoHut. You need to be a Blogexplosion member to use this service.

A small introduction to the Blog Button Database GTMCKNIGHT

This project was began on October 22, 2002 when Jeremy Hedley posted the the original offering of buttons. I, as many others, were infatuated with these for quite some time and begun collecting as many as I could. Eventually my website became the depository for all things STB. The administration backend which allows me to stay sane while keeping a database of 3000+ buttons was written by Jason Bergeman. You can see the creators of all these fabulous buttons on the Authors Page.

If you want to make your own buttons, visit Enhanced Website button maker. This site gives you the possibility to make your own buttons and decide their colour and the size.

Small Disclaimer

This blog does not claim to be perfect, some tricks might even not be 'ethical correct'. This is just a small aid.

If I might have used your blog as an example 'How not to', there are 5 6 possibilities ::
1. Ignore it.
2. Feel free to bitch about it, but do it at your own (free) webspace. This blog is no Flame space and I will delete every flame in the comments.
3. Feel happy for the Technorati link you just got. I ping Technorati every time I link to some other blog.
4.Take my advice in consideration and change your template.
You do not understand what I tried to explain. Go to Blogexplosion, join the programm if you're no member yet and post your question in the Forums. Most of the tips and tricks I will publish here will also be in the Forums at Blog Explosion. It is easier to provide help in a forum as in Comments. No I will not provide you any email or instant messager contact here, go over to the Blog Explosion Forums. Period.
5. Ignore it.
6. Delete my main blog from your blogroll. Do not forget to whine about it either. It keeps the traffic fluent.

If I link to your blog, I will include a screenshot of the actual situation to avoid any confusion. You might change your template in a while. I am not that dumb.


Outgoing links make occasionally sense. Click on them, they might explain you something, especially if you are new with templates and coding. Many links will go to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, to the definition of a term I just used.


Guest posting is welcome. If you think having a usefull trick and want to share this trick. Feel free to get in touch with me at Blogexplosion. My username is belgianbrighton. Your trick will be given the credits and your website will be linked in a block 'Guest Posters' in the sidebar.

What is this blog about.

I started this blog since I plan to write several Tricks and Aids for blog templates. Most of those aids I will publish them at Blogexplosion's forums. Although I am still a young blogger, I am very often annoyed by what I see 'outside'. Some blogs have great potential but the template just 's*ks'. So I decided to share some of my Knowledge. Comments always appreciated.

I hope to provide you some usefull tricks in this blog. If you have questions, why not just join Blogexplosion and post your questions in their Forums. That is definitely easier to answer/help you and it is a nice community as well. Their traffic-exchange programm will explode your amount of visitors as well.

Some of the tricks I might show here, will be integrated in the design -I will use this blog as a showcase for some of my blogger templates as well- other will be used in blogs I link to. If I might use/link to your blog with a remark, don't take it personal. I do NOT hate you when I do.

If you use something out of those tricks, or even post them somewhere else or on your blog, feel free to do so, just link in your post to this article. All the tricks are written under Creative Commons. Please respect this license.