Lost Avatar

[DDolan1075]

Hey there! I was just working on my Blog, trying to change my look and I lost my avatar. It is still loaded, but it is not on my blog.

Also, I was wondering what it would take to shift my blog against the left margin and move my Surfbirds logo to the right side.

While I am at it, I was looking at another blog somewhere, which I can't find anymore, that had twocolumns on the right instead of one. Where I could put my recent posts on one column and my links on the other. I would like to then have the ability to put my widgets under both of these columns in two columns that start below the longest of the upper columns. I have a picture to describe this at home. talk to me before doing anything on this, although I did save the info if I need to change back.

I have a lot of things that I want to do, but I am really becoming more successful with your help. I am now ranked 435 on Fatbird after just 1 week.

Oh, BTW, you had mentioned that I didn't need to worry about photographic album space. I am getting ready to run out of room on mine.

Sorry to hit you with so much. I am just really excited about getting this right.

[admin]

Hi Dave, that's great the blog is doing so well and gaining a wide audience. Lots of great photos on there. As many blog owners know, latest blog posts get added to the homepage so you have a chance of getting lots of interested eyes on your posts.

The good news is that you have a lot of control over your blog template. There are "out of the box" ready to go templates but those who want to tweak them further still, can do so with a bit of practice. You've already added web stat buttons so you have an idea of where to find the templates. For those who don't know, when you are logged in to your blog, click on "template" to choose or edit your template. For further tweaking, you may also want to look over the "template guide (http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/manager/support_guide.php#4)" which gives you shortcuts on how to add avatars etc if you template doesn't come with one. Dave, I went ahead and added yours by copying and pasting the following in your "Description" area. <div class='avatar'><img src='<%Avatar%>' border='0'></div> You can change that text to "About Me" if you prefer. You can preview all your changes before committing to them.

Adding another column is possible too. Just show me a pic (or website) of what you want and I'll post how to do it here. You may also want to explore giving your blog a header such as these:
http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/labirding
http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/Norway/10187
http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/eccles

Again, possible to do this by editing the template and I can show you how here if you want to explore it.

You can also post from your cellphone both pics and text if you have email on the phone and for those who like to tweet, you can add twitter badges which allows you to post even if you're away from your computer.

Also, don't forget to publish your site feed (RSS) so others can get notified when you post a new entry. In template guide, look for RSS - code will be this to add to your template:<a href="<%SiteFeedURL%>">Site Feed</a>
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[DDolan1075]

I have some things that I want to show you for my plans, but is this something that we can work with as a banner?http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm392/ddolan1075/DSC_0075-1.jpg I can make it longer.

Also, I was hoping to put my avatar with a shortcut to my profile on the top next to my banner on the right, and a slide show, of my pictures on the blog,on the right. Is there a problem using that space? I thought that I found somebody to do the slideshow widget but they have not responded to my emails. Do you have any other options?

Also, what is the point of providing free widgets? What are they getting in return? IS there risk associated with using these programs?

Thanks for all of your help!

[DDolan1075]

Check out my test blog

to see what I am looking at http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/ddolantest/

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm392/ddolan1075/DSC_0075-2.jpg

This is 600 across which would be the correct width.

I have a couple of options on that test.

[admin]

Hi Dave, go to your template and scroll down until you find the beginning of the code for the body of your template. It will look like this:
<body>
<center>
<table width='98%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' align='center'>
<tr><td align='center' class='title'><%Title%></td></tr>
</table>

To replace your title with this jpeg image, you will need to copy and paste over the <%Title%> with the address of your image which is this:
http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm392/ddolan1075/DSC_0075-2.jpg

so the code will now look like this (you can copy and paste this):

<body>
<center>
<table width='98%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' align='center'>
<tr><td align='center' class='title'><img src="http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm392/ddolan1075/DSC_0075-2.jpg"></td></tr>
</table>

Now if you preview this, you will see your jpeg instead of your title at top of blog. Now I think you mentioned wanting to left justify everything instead of centered, so you can also remove the three "center" pieces of code, so the code will now look like this (again you can copy and paste this):

<body>
<table width='98%' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'>
<tr><td class='title'><img src="http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm392/ddolan1075/DSC_0075-2.jpg"></td></tr>
</table>

and scroll down the very bottom of the template and remove:
</center>

I'm afraid you can't move the Surfbirds logo as that's a standard strip across all blogs so users coming in to a blog from a search engine have an easy way to discover other Surfbirds blogs. It's good for all blog owners.

To make your profile picture link to your profile, look for "avatar" in your template. it's going to look like this:
<b>Description</b><br>
<div class='avatar'><img src='<%Avatar%>' border='0'></div>
<%Description%>
<br>

go ahead and change it to the following:

<div class='avatar'><a href='<%ProfileURL%>'><img src='<%Avatar%>' border='0'></a></div>

In terms of widgets, if they're from a reputable organization they should be fine.

PS. Preview everything before saving means you can play around until you get it looking right. Perhaps, you might also like to go to your template, "select all" and copy and paste it to a text file on your computer. That way, you always have a back-up of the template just in case.
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[DDolan1075]

So far so good! I really want to thank you for your help. What do you think so far? As soon as I get my slide show I will talk about splitting the right column into two columns and where to put what. The problem is getting a response from the slide show widget people.

Again, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help!

[admin]

Hi Dave, looks great! Don't forget to promote your site feed too (RSS). It's a good traffic builder as loyal readers will have a chance to subscribe to your blog and get notifications of new posts. Go to "settings" and "site feed" to check it's enabled and then "template" and "template guide" to see how to add it to your sidebar.

I think I've mentioned it before, but do be mindful of how large the images are because a lot of 200-300kb images in an entry can really slow page loading time. Many internet users have short attention spans and if a page takes too long to load (eg more than 15secs), they will hit the back button and move on. I would aim to get your pics below 100kb in size - 50-60kb is ideal if you have a lot of pics. You might want to check your banner as that loaded quite slowly for me. Programs like photoshop "save for web" feature can reduce the resolution without compromising quality much.

You could also go to "settings" and "general settings" to make "number of entries per page" to 1 so each page also loads quicker.

Great job and look forward to checking your blog often.
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[DDolan1075]

I am not sure what the site feed is supposed to do. I put it on my page and when I clicked on it it didn't do any thing. Did I miss something?

<a href="<%http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/DDolan1075/%>">Site Feed</a>

I will work on the smaller pictures. I had trouble putting the pictures on and clicking to enlarge. I will try that again this weekend.

Thanks for your help. I am so lost in this html stuff! Sorry for asking for so much help.

I tried this for my RSS also:
<a href="<%http://www.surfbirds.com/blog/rss.php?w=DDolan1075%>">Site Feed</a>

[admin]

Hi Dave, all you need to do is add:
<a href="<%SiteFeedURL%>">Site Feed</a>
and it automatically outputs the correct web address of your feed when clicked on. I fixed it in your template if you want to take a look.
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[DDolan1075]

Hey Andrew, I was really overthinking it. I am sorry to pester you into doing all of this work for me, but I really apprecitate it! Thank you so much.

[admin]

Hi Dave, no problem. I'm sure others have similar questions, so hopefully it will help those also wanting to customize their blogs and learn a little html at the same time.
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