Add a forum on your Blogger blog with Nabble

Forum is a platform where visitors can interact with each other and discuss different hot topics. There you can create various topics for getting comments or suggestions on them. If you have good traffic, then you can post questions on daily basis for the potential visitors to answer, thus your forum simultaneously converts itself into a huge frequently asked questions section (FAQ).

Forums are a great way to provide your visitors an open social atmosphere to express their useful ideas and share others ideas as well. So, here are a few easy steps on how to add a forum to your Blogger or blogspot blog using Nabble:

How to Create a Forum on Blogger With Nabble

To add a forum we will use Nabble which is, in my opinion, one of the best free options available online. First, go to the Nabble page to create an account (keep in mind that this account will be the moderator of the forum).

Once we have everything set, go to "Options" -> "Application" -> "Change appearance":

There, we can also edit the CSS of the forum, among many other things.

Next, create the structure of a real forum so that it is organized by categories. To do this, click on the "Options" menu - select "Application", then click "Change application type":

Then, choose the Forum category and save your changes.

To finish, we only have to create categories. So go back to "Options", this time select "Structure" and then choose "Create a new sub-forum":

Fill in the details of the category, and that's it! You will now have your forum up and running.

The rest are small details, like sort categories (Options > Structure > Manage sub-forums), customize your avatar and your signature (YourNickname > Account Settings), change permissions (Options > Users > Permissions), etc.

For adding the newly created forum to your blog, you must go to "Options" - "Embedding options" and copy the javascript code.

Embed the forum in a Blogger page

Log into your Blogger Dashboard - select your blog, click the "Pages" link on the left sidebar and click to create a "New Page".

Once the page editor has opened, switch to the "HTML" tab next to the "Compose" tab.

Inside the empty box, paste the code that you copied earlier, and if everything went well, you should see the new forum on your Blogger blog.

So this is how you can add a Forum on a Blogger blog using Nabble. Hope this tutorial has been useful and you will begin using this great service.

Top Commentators Widget with Avatars for Blogger

The commentators are a fundamental part of any blog, since they are the ones that give life to the blog, opening and replying to discussions which leads to more activity in the posts.

It is therefore very important to know which are the most active users of your blog, the users who leave more comments, and for this reason, today I present a great method to display a list with the top commentators.

The gadget will look something like this:

This Top Commentators gadget comes with user's avatar and is done with JavaScript.

How to Add the Top Commenters Gadget to Blogger

1. To add this gadget, you have to go to Layout, click on Add a Gadget link.

2. Select the HTML/JavaScript gadget and copy/paste within the empty box the following code:

<style type="text/css">
.top-commentators {
margin: 3px 0;
border-bottom: 1px dotted #ccc;
}
.avatar-top-commentators {
vertical-align:middle;
border-radius: 30px;
}
.top-commentators .commenter-link-name {
padding-left:0;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
var maxTopCommenters = 8; 
var minComments = 1;     
var numDays = 0;         
var excludeMe = true;    
var excludeUsers = ["Anonymous", "someotherusertoexclude"]; 
var maxUserNameLength = 42;
//
var txtTopLine = '<b>[#].</b> [image] [user] ([count])';
var txtNoTopCommenters = 'No top commentators at this time.';
var txtAnonymous = '';
//
var sizeAvatar = 33;
var cropAvatar = true;
//
var urlNoAvatar = "https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTKfXlTiJYl5plNRPsvo0ZZkyOcDzxMU-I7IUokNTyot51vAPiPtURWWDtITKvV5DfEGz6jZjhaZxE_hCIQ9HIEk0XUdUUK4F98xivAhG-QcbjfS2qIiIvEdmHk211m0gLVo7dq1N6TXSU/s1600/avatar_blue_m_96.png" + sizeAvatar;
var urlAnoAvatar = 'https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPimfKz3Nv6hXmir_-9tLEL1RTmsw0xM3PvjMjpSC7pvTZYRjbZoxHLekEm31gpYc6z2YSlfDqsIGi9Ro78Dylf53e6MpzuDpSna2PX7KTgS2o3cVF_p6nq3L3AnDQfbCcdvkhNI7RIInk/s1600/avatar1.png' + sizeAvatar;
var urlMyProfile = '';
var urlMyAvatar = '';
if(!Array.indexOf) {
 Array.prototype.indexOf=function(obj) {
  for(var i=0;i<this.length;i++) if(this[i]==obj) return i;
  return -1;
}}
function replaceTopCmtVars(text, item, position)
{
  if(!item || !item.author) return text;
  var author = item.author;
  var authorUri = "";
  if(author.uri && author.uri.$t != "")
    authorUri = author.uri.$t;
  var avaimg = urlAnoAvatar;
  var bloggerprofile = "http://www.blogger.com/profile/";
  if(author.gd$image && author.gd$image.src && authorUri.substr(0,bloggerprofile.length) == bloggerprofile)
    avaimg = author.gd$image.src;
  else {
    var parseurl = document.createElement('a');
    if(authorUri != "") {
      parseurl.href = authorUri;
      avaimg = 'http://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=' + parseurl.hostname;
    }
  }
  if(urlMyProfile != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile && urlMyAvatar != "")
    avaimg = urlMyAvatar;
  if(avaimg == "http://img2.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif" && urlNoAvatar != "")
    avaimg = urlNoAvatar;
  var newsize="s"+sizeAvatar;
  avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+-c\//, "/"+newsize+"-c/");
  if(cropAvatar) newsize+="-c";
  avaimg = avaimg.replace(/\/s\d\d+(-c){0,1}\//, "/"+newsize+"/");
  var authorName = author.name.$t;
  if(authorName == 'Anonymous' && txtAnonymous != '' && avaimg == urlAnoAvatar)
    authorName = txtAnonymous;
  var imgcode = '<img class="avatar-top-commentators" height="'+sizeAvatar+'" width="'+sizeAvatar+'" title="'+authorName+'" src="'+avaimg+'" />';
  if(authorUri!="") imgcode = '<a href="'+authorUri+'">'+imgcode+'</a>';
  if(maxUserNameLength > 3 && authorName.length > maxUserNameLength)
    authorName = authorName.substr(0, maxUserNameLength-3) + "...";
  var authorcode = authorName;
  if(authorUri!="") authorcode = '<a class="commenter-link-name" href="'+authorUri+'">'+authorcode+'</a>';
  text = text.replace('[user]', authorcode);
  text = text.replace('[image]', imgcode);
  text = text.replace('[#]', position);
  text = text.replace('[count]', item.count);
  return text;
}
var topcommenters = {};
var ndxbase = 1;
function showTopCommenters(json) {
  var one_day=1000*60*60*24;
  var today = new Date();
  if(urlMyProfile == "") {
    var elements = document.getElementsByTagName("*");
    var expr = /(^| )profile-link( |$)/;
    for(var i=0 ; i<elements.length ; i++)
      if(expr.test(elements[i].className)) {
        urlMyProfile = elements[i].href;
        break;
      }
  }
  if(json && json.feed && json.feed.entry && json.feed.entry.length) for(var i = 0 ; i < json.feed.entry.length ; i++ ) {
    var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
    if(numDays > 0) {
      var datePart = entry.published.$t.match(/\d+/g);
      var cmtDate = new Date(datePart[0],datePart[1]-1,datePart[2],datePart[3],datePart[4],datePart[5]);
   
      var days = Math.ceil((today.getTime()-cmtDate.getTime())/(one_day));
      if(days > numDays) break;
    }
    var authorUri = "";
    if(entry.author[0].uri && entry.author[0].uri.$t != "")
      authorUri = entry.author[0].uri.$t;
    if(excludeMe && authorUri != "" && authorUri == urlMyProfile)
      continue;
    var authorName = entry.author[0].name.$t;
    if(excludeUsers.indexOf(authorName) != -1)
      continue;
    var hash=entry.author[0].name.$t + "-" + authorUri;
    if(topcommenters[hash])
      topcommenters[hash].count++;
    else {
      var commenter = new Object();
      commenter.author = entry.author[0];
      commenter.count = 1;
      topcommenters[hash] = commenter;
    }
  }
  if(json && json.feed && json.feed.entry && json.feed.entry.length && json.feed.entry.length == 200) {
    ndxbase += 200;
    document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false&max-results=200&start-index='+ndxbase+'&alt=json-in-script&callback=showTopCommenters"></'+'script>');
    return;
  }
  // convert object to array of tuples
  var tuplear = [];
  for(var key in topcommenters) tuplear.push([key, topcommenters[key]]);
  tuplear.sort(function(a, b) {
    if(b[1].count-a[1].count)
        return b[1].count-a[1].count;
    return (a[1].author.name.$t.toLowerCase() < b[1].author.name.$t.toLowerCase()) ? -1 : 1;
  });
  var realcount = 0;
  for(var i = 0; i < maxTopCommenters && i < tuplear.length ; i++) {
    var item = tuplear[i][1];
    if(item.count < minComments)
        break;
    document.write('<di'+'v class="top-commentators">');
    document.write(replaceTopCmtVars(txtTopLine, item, realcount+1));
    document.write('</d'+'iv>');
    realcount++;
  }
  if(!realcount)
    document.write(txtNoTopCommenters);
}
document.write('<script type="text/javascript" src="http://'+window.location.hostname+'/feeds/comments/default?redirect=false&max-results=200&alt=json-in-script&callback=showTopCommenters"></'+'script>');
</script>

3. Now you just have to save changes and you're done!

Configuration

- To modify the number of users displayed in the gadget, look for var maxTopCommenters = 8; and change 8 with any number you want.
- To change the avatar size of the commenters, look for var sizeAvatar = 33; and change number 33 with the number of pixels you want. - To hide your name or some other username, replace the someotherusertoexclude text between the quotes (to add more, add another comma after the text in red, then type the username you want to exclude between the quotes)

Redirect Blogger 404 Error (Page Not Found) To Homepage

A 404 error page tells you and search engines that a page is not found by displaying a text similar to "Sorry, the page you were looking for in this blog does not exist.". This may happen because you have changed your URLs over time, either removed a few pages when you overhauled your design, or a visitor may have accidentally misspelled an URL nonexistent in your blog, so it automatically redirects to the 404 error page (page not found).

Most likely, this will not make a good impression on the potential users of our blog. So, before the visitor clicks the back button or close the window/browser's tab, thus leaving our site forever, we may want to redirect 404 error in Blogger to a page, so that the visitor will continue reading our blog.

One of the most used methods is the "meta refresh" but the problem with this method is that it breaks navigation (doesn't allow to return back). In this case, the best method is to use JavaScript about which I will go into more detail below.

Redirect Blogger 404 Error with JavaScript

Go to your Blogger dashboard, select your blog and click the Settings menu item > Search preferences > Custom Page Not Found.

Copy and paste the following code inside the empty box:

Sorry, the page you're looking for in this blog does not exist.
You will be redirected to homepage shortly.
<script type = "text/javascript">
PNF_redirect = setTimeout(function() {
location.pathname= "/"
}, 5000);
</script>

The text which is going to be displayed can be modified as you want. If you are willing to redirect the 404 error page to another page other than home page, just replace pathname to href and / with the url of your page. Finally, the number 5000 which is the delay expressed in milliseconds, can be changed to other value if this is more convenient.

Next thing to do is to 'Save changes' and do a little test to check if the code works well. You can verify the 404 error page functionality by adding a random text at the end of your blog address - after pressing Enter, you should see the error page followed by a redirection after 5 seconds. That's it!

4 Alternatives to Google AdWords

Many think that Google AdWords is the only tool dedicated and available to perform a study such as a keyword search, but it isn't so, today I refute this idea by collecting some alternatives that, although are not equal to Google AdWords, at least encourage us to make good keyword analysis for the SEO of our website.

Going back a bit, for those unfamiliar with the main features and tools of Google AdWords, we can find a very simple interface yet complete in every sense.

- AdWords appearance has changed, however there is a chance of returning to the old design;
- allows you to place a phrase or keyword, a web site and use the categories;
- for a better keywords search, you can apply filters such as location, language and add custom fields (competition, local or global monthly searches, CPC, Ad share, etc.);
- displays keyword ideas in columns with the amount of local and global monthly searches and approximate CPC;
- you can download keyword ideas, search results in a format to open with Excel.

Having recalled and refreshed the memory a little with the characteristics of AdWords, now it is time to learn about other options both free and paid.

Google AdWords Alternatives

Bing Webmaster Tools: Bing may not be the tool that we had first thought of, however it wants to provide the best conditions for studying keywords.

After we register, to access the tool, go to Diagnostics & Tools and click on the second option on the list: Keyword Research.

SEMRush: Other freemium alternative that displays a very complete report of a particular keyword or website. However, it has limitations and if you opt for a PRO recurring plan you need to pay a monthly membership from $69.95 per month.

Ubersuggest: This nice and simple online tool searches keywords suggestion as well as potential titles for an article. Personally, I recommend it 100%.

Keyword Eye: If you are looking to perform a keyword research on a particular region, Keyword Eye will be your help. It also has the option of requesting the display of search volume or AdWords competition and a full report of anchor text, keywords and domain.

At first it offers a free plan with limitations and to enjoy all other benefits, we have to pay $9.99 per month.

How to Add Google Analytics to Blogger

Google Analytics is a platform created with the purpose of helping us to track the number of visits and page views on our blog, which also uses several filters to check exactly from where the visitors are coming via standard or custom reports.

Google Analytics is the leading free tool that has a good relationship with the internet marketing and offers suggestions and improvements or benefits for our website.

As Analytics is part of the variety of Google tools like Blogger, many bloggers still don't know if it is possible to add the tracking code in Blogger. Implementing analytics in Blogger is very quick and easy, so you don't need to be experts or web developers. Here's a small guide for placing the Google Analytics tracking ID on our blog.

Implementing Google Analytics on Blogger

1. Do you have a Google Analytics account? Then it's perfect. If you don't have one, please Register.
2. Within the account, we'll go to Admin and in the Property column, click the menu, then click Create new property, where we enter the information from the website.

3. Click on "Get Tracking ID" and it will provide a box with a code, select and copy the code (CTRL + C).

4. Now let's go to our Blogger account.
5. Look for your blog and click on it, then go to Template > click the Edit HTML button and paste the code previously generated in Analytics before the </head> tag (CTRL + F in order to find it).

And this would be the entire procedure. Within about 24 hours, we shall see the first statistics of our blog in Google Analytics, otherwise check the following:

- Double check that the code has no spaces or characters.
- Doesn't have errors in the configuration
- There are no poor implementation of the filters.
- The Flash plugin is working or javascript is enabled.
- You will have minor issues if you are receiving visits from China (this conflict is not yet solved, according to Google).

How to Increase Alexa Ranking of your Blog

The Alexa Rank in its time may have been pretty important for the SEO, however, these days is already losing its importance due to the changes in the algorithm that Google applies from time to time.

The company displays information about visitors of a website, which in turn, classifies this in a ranking, generating estimated statistics about visitor traffic and links pointing to the website. In a few words, the Alexa Rank does not directly affect SEO, but rather serves as a reference for measuring the traffic type, popularity by country and other metrics.

If you would like to enrich or have a good Alexa Rank of your website, here some ways to do it, with short-term results.

5 Ways to Increase the Alexa Rank

Daily Content: Try to publish at least 2 articles per day and within a month you may start to see some changes in the Alexa ranking.

Install Alexa Rank widgets: Besides notifying about the results of your Alexa ranking, they will also provide an estimate of how many backlinks your website has. There are three types of widgets: button with ranking and links, the other one with the ranking only, and finally, a graph with daily records of visits. Traffic Widgets

Alexa Toolbar: From experience, I would recommend installing the Alexa Toolbar, because once we access the website, Alexa will count this visit and thus, we may get better results in the ranking. Besides this, the toolbar will also provide you more information about the backlinks of a web site, popular pages, reviews, and more.

Request a review: To calculate the Alexa ranking of a website, not only the amount of daily and monthly visits will make a site popular, but the number of reviews or opinions made with stars will also play a role in the ranking. Ask your readers to do a review or purchase Alexa opinions about your website.

Number of backlinks: As I said before, the number of visits and reviews about a website used to calculate the Alexa rank, and the total number of quality backlinks, may increase the likelihood of achieving a higher ranking for your website.

On-Page SEO Tips for Blogger

We know that SEO Off Page refers to the search engine optimization techniques that can be done outside of your website, such as link wheels, reviews, social bookmarking, social media (references and followers), sidebar links, among other techniques. However, without a proper on-page seo optimization, all would sum up to a non-optimized webpage without quality, which will not reach the traffic expected to have. This is mostly because search engines (especially Google) pay much attention to the alt and title tags (for images), meta tags, internal links, robots and so on, in order to display the content of your web page to the user who made a specific query in the search.

To never fall in this depression of search engine optimization, you can choose a good and reliable blog platform like Blogger. If you are working only on Blogger, here are some on-page optimization tips that might help you to become successful in the blogging world and increase the daily traffic to your blog.

Basic On-Page SEO Tips For Blogger

Optimization of the robots.txt file: besides alerting Google search engine, this file also helps us to prevent certain pages being indexed by Google in order to protect our blog against duplicate content issues.

Title optimization: In the default blogger template, post titles are not optimized properly for the search engines. To solve this, we need to touch some code in the design and optimize both page and post titles.

Image optimization: Whether your blog is about pictures or images as general topics, by simply adding a keyword related to articles, compressing the image and putting the title="" and alt="' tags, we would be optimizing SEO On-Page a little bit more.

Internal links: Internal links within posts on our blog will not only increase page views but will also help us to be well ranked in search engines.

Blog's loading time: When you start with a blog either new or old, it's important to offer a user experience filled with a fast loading time. Search engines give higher priority to a faster blog than to a slow or saturated one.

Using Google Webmaster Tools: After making sure that your blog is 100% SEO, this amazing Google tool will provide you support with both fast indexing and broken links, HTML improvements, page errors and many other specific suggestions for your website.

Got any other ideas or thoughts about natural and positive techniques to improve the On Page SEO on a web page?

Express them in a comment!