{Blog Help Series - Blogging Blocks Part One: "But I'm Not An Expert"}

Sometimes whether you are just getting started or even if you have been blogging for a while, there are some "roadblocks" that can get in your way.  We've decided to begin our Blog Help Series with some of the things that can get in your way and prevent you from blogging or even getting started.

Blogging Blocks - Part One: "But I'm Not An Expert."

Unless you're writing a small family blog, feeling unqualified to blog because you aren't an "expert" is a common roadblock.  This is especially true for new bloggers, but more experienced bloggers run into this one as well.  In fact, we ran into this when we decided to do this "how to" series.

{Blog Help Series - Introduction}

Over the last couple of years, Jennette and I have discovered some blog strategies that work for us, researched a lot about the tech part of blogging, and found some ways around some of the metal blocks that can get in your way when getting your blog up and going. 

We don't mean to suggest we are in anyway experts, but we would like to share what we have learned to try to help other mom bloggers avoid some of the trial and error that we went through (Ask Jennette about the panic-filled "WHAT DID YOU DO?" emails and calls during a couple of major template revisions.  But don't tell her about the time when I messed up the entire template and couldn't find the back up, lol)

{Simple Ways You Make Money With Your Blog/Social Networking}

There is so much information out there on making money while blogging or social networking. Providing great information for your readers that will actually be useful is so important. When I find a new way to monetize I always make sure I will be able to choose what to post. I think it is really important to post things that are relevant for our readers because after all it is you that I am communicating with. I have tried a few ways to monetize STM and decided to make a list of the ones that work for me. Each one works a bit different so be sure to familiarize yourself with each one. Do you know of anything else I should give a try? If so do leave me a comment.

{Scrolling Buttons Box for Blogger}

Have you ever wanted one of those boxes with the scrolling buttons on your Blogspot/Blogger blog. Here is an example of one with two of our Smart and Trendy Moms Buttons:

Since we are dealing with a widget, if you already have buttons in your widget, you will want to cut and paste that code into a text file and save it.  (You NEED a backup. Its really a pain to set up all your buttons again if something doesn't go right the first time.)

Here's how to add the scrolling button box:

AS ALWAYS BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY CHANGES, BACK UP YOUR CURRENT TEMPLATE & WIDGETS

1. Go to Layout

2. Click "Add a Gadget" in the area that you want to add the box

3. When the Add a Gadget box comes up, choose HTML/JavaScript

4. Here is the code you will paste into the box. You need to add the html for your buttons in between the two pieces of code.

<center>
<marquee direction="up" onmouseover="this.stop()" width="175" scrollamount="4" onmouseout="this.start()" height="350" align="center">

THE HTML FOR YOUR BUTTONS GOES HERE

</marquee>
</center>


In the top piece of above the button code, you can customize things:

direction="up" can be changed to control which way the buttons move - "up", "down", "right", or "left"

height="350" controls how tall the area that the buttons scroll through is - "number"

width="175" controls the width of the box - "number" (this cannot be larger than the column it is in)

scrollamount="4" this controls the speed the buttons move, the higher the number the faster they go.


I hope you enjoyed this post! Never miss a post-Subscribe by Reader or Email!Smart and Trendy Moms finds products, ideas, projects, recipes, and other information that we have personally found helpful or interesting.  As always, it is up to you to determine what is appropriate for you, your children, and your situation.  See our Disclosure

Image Code Basics Explained

Here is a basic explaination about some of the parts of the <img> tag that you use to put an image onto your blog.

Here are the parts we'll be looking at:
SRC = http://www.PATH_TO_IMAGE.com
WIDTH = "125"
HEIGHT = "125"
ALT = "This shows up when you move the mouse over the image"
ALIGN = "right"
BORDER = 0

"Grab A Button" - How to Add a "Cut and Paste" Box to Your Blog

"Cut and Paste" boxes, using an "html textarea," work great to add "Grab a Button" Code to your blog.  It lets you put your button code into a box that your followers can highlight and copy.  (This "how to" assumes you already have your button code.)

Before making any changes to your blog, you should do a full backup of your template and widget code.

You put the code for your button in between the text area tags:

<center>
<textarea rows="3" cols="30" style="overflow: auto;">

YOUR BUTTON CODE GOES HERE

</textarea>
</center>

We like to put this "cut and paste" box just below the code for the button so that our visitors can see the button that they are going to get when they cut and paste the code.

The Details

Adjust the rows="3" to control the height
Adjust the cols="30" to control the width
style="overflow: auto;" controls whether you see a scroll bar or not change "auto" to "hidden" to hide the scroll bar

 BEFORE making ANY changes to your blog, you should do a full backup.  Smart and Trendy Moms is not responsible for any problems caused by your use any of our "how-tos" or any other information on our site.

Smart and Trendy Moms finds products, ideas, projects, recipies, and other information that we have personally found helpful or interesting.  As always, it is up to you to determine what is appropriate for you, your children, and your situation.  See our Disclaimer