How to add "Tweet This" links to your Blogger Template (with short URLs)

Twitter has become one of the most popular ever syndication and networking tools for bloggers. A few readers have asked if it is possible to add a "Tweet This" link to our Blogger templates, and while this was possible, I had not discovered a method of automatically shortening the URL of our blog posts until now.



Luckily for us, Bit.ly have created a JavaScript-based solution which shortens the URL to just a few characters and enables bloggers to add a Tweet This link configured for their posts. In this tutorial, I'll explain how you can add this to your Blogger template so your readers can Tweet your posts to their Twitter followers, enabling your Blogger posts to be syndicated to a wider audience.

Editing your template to add the Twitter links

First of all, you should make a full back-up of your existing template (which you can later restore if you make a mistake in the coding). To do this, go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard and click on the "Download full template" link near the top of the page. Save your template to a location on your computer which you can easily access later.



Next, go back to the Layout>Edit HTML page and ensure you have checked the "Expand widget templates" box. The place where we need to add the Twitter code is contained within the Blog Posts widget.



Search for this section in your Blogger template code (or similar):

If you cannot find this exact line of code, search for 'post-footer' instead. Alternatively, you can add your code immediately after the

line.



Just after the 'post-footer' line you have located, paste the following section of code:

I'm reading: Blogger BusterTweet this!





This link automatically generates a Bit.ly shortened URL for your post. When a reader clicks on this link, they are taken to Twitter.com (where they can log in if required) with a pre-filled Tweet which appears like this:

http://bit.ly/url I'm reading: [title-of-blog-post]

If you would prefer the prefilled Tweet to say something other than "I'm reading", you can edit this phrase in the code you add to your Blogger template. Readers can edit this pre-filled Tweet before updating if required.



I hope you will enjoy using this Twitter syndication link in your own Blogger templates. Please try this out for yourself to see how it works and feel free to leave your comments below.

How to add "Tweet This" links to your Blogger Template (with short URLs)

Twitter has become one of the most popular ever syndication and networking tools for bloggers. A few readers have asked if it is possible to add a "Tweet This" link to our Blogger templates, and while this was possible, I had not discovered a method of automatically shortening the URL of our blog posts until now.



Luckily for us, Bit.ly have created a JavaScript-based solution which shortens the URL to just a few characters and enables bloggers to add a Tweet This link configured for their posts. In this tutorial, I'll explain how you can add this to your Blogger template so your readers can Tweet your posts to their Twitter followers, enabling your Blogger posts to be syndicated to a wider audience.

Editing your template to add the Twitter links

First of all, you should make a full back-up of your existing template (which you can later restore if you make a mistake in the coding). To do this, go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard and click on the "Download full template" link near the top of the page. Save your template to a location on your computer which you can easily access later.



Next, go back to the Layout>Edit HTML page and ensure you have checked the "Expand widget templates" box. The place where we need to add the Twitter code is contained within the Blog Posts widget.



Search for this section in your Blogger template code (or similar):

If you cannot find this exact line of code, search for 'post-footer' instead. Alternatively, you can add your code immediately after the

line.



Just after the 'post-footer' line you have located, paste the following section of code:

I'm reading: Blogger BusterTweet this!





This link automatically generates a Bit.ly shortened URL for your post. When a reader clicks on this link, they are taken to Twitter.com (where they can log in if required) with a pre-filled Tweet which appears like this:

http://bit.ly/url I'm reading: [title-of-blog-post]

If you would prefer the prefilled Tweet to say something other than "I'm reading", you can edit this phrase in the code you add to your Blogger template. Readers can edit this pre-filled Tweet before updating if required.



I hope you will enjoy using this Twitter syndication link in your own Blogger templates. Please try this out for yourself to see how it works and feel free to leave your comments below.

Using Blogger's New Followers Feature

As many of you may have read on Blogger Buzz, Blogger has introduced a great new feature: "Followers".

This new feature allows you to:

• Show that you are a fan of your favorite Blogger blogs


• Follow a blog publicly or anonymously
  
  


• See fans of your own blog (and the number of followers you have) from your blog dashboard


• Display a list of your followers in a new "followers" widget


• Read your favorite blogs (even those not hosted on Blogger) from the reading list in your dashboard.


• Import your reading list from Google Reader


• Read posts from the blogs you are following in a special "Blogs I'm Following" folder in Google Reader
  
  

At present, this feature is not available to all Blogger users, though it is being rolled out for everyone to use over the next few weeks.







For those of you who are (like me) impatient to try out this new feature, you can enable this automatically by following a blog (use this link to follow Blogger Buster, for example). Once you have followed even one blog, your dashboard will be updated to show the number of followers, your personal reading list, and the ability to add a "followers" widget to your layout. Thanks to Ionut of Google Operating System for the tip to enable this new feature :)

Add new subscriptions to your reading list

Once your blog dashboard has been updated for the new "followers/reading list" feature, you can easily add new subscriptions to read in your Blogger dashboard.

Adding a new subscription is easy. Simply click on the "Add" button near the bottom of your reading list, where you will be presented with a screen like this:

You can add a new blog by simply typing the URL (eg: http://www.blogsite.com). This does not need to be a Blogger powered blog, nor do you need to know the URL of the blog's feed.



On the next screen, you can choose to follow this blog publicly or anonymously. Choosing to follow publicly means that your friendship with this blog is made public. Those using Blogger can see a list of their public followers, and readers of these blogs can also access follower details if a Followers widget has been added to the blog. In the future, non-Blogger sites will have access to similar widgets to display their public followers.



Choosing to follow anonymously is similar to subscribing to a blog feed in the normal manner: you would be counted among the list of followers, though your details and affiliation would be hidden.



Alternatively, you can choose to import your subscriptions from Google Reader by checking the "Import from Google Reader" option. On the next page, you can see a list of all the subscriptions in your Google Reader account, then check the ones you would like to import. It can take a few minutes to import all of your subscriptions of you have many listed in your reader, so you may need to be patient!

Managing your subscriptions

If you decide not to follow a blog you can easily edit or remove blogs in your reading list by clicking the "Manage" button.



This will generate a page listing all of your subscriptions with options on the right to delete this from your reading list and to toggle between "Public" and "Anonymous" following. You can also add new subscriptions near the bottom of this page.

Building a social network with Blogger...

In time, the "Followers" feature will also be integrated with FriendConnect which is built on Google's Social Graph API.Rather than being a social network in its own right, FriendConnect will link with other social networks and allow you to integrate your blog completely with your online social activities.



I must admit that my research on this subject is sparse, though you can read more about the possibilities for FriendConnect on Google Operating System, the FriendConnect homepage and the OpenSocial pages.

Learn more about the "Followers" feature

The Blogger Help Section has been updated with information to help you make the most of the new Followers feature. Here are links to the most useful pages which should help you get up and running:

• What is Following? 


• How do I add the Followers gadget to my blog 


• How do I use the Blogger reading list?


• Follow a blog publicly or anonymously
  
  

What do you think of the "Followers" feature so far?

I'd love to know your thoughts about the new Followers feature, so please feel free to leave your comments and opinions below.

Using Blogger's New Followers Feature

As many of you may have read on Blogger Buzz, Blogger has introduced a great new feature: "Followers".

This new feature allows you to:

• Show that you are a fan of your favorite Blogger blogs


• Follow a blog publicly or anonymously
  
  


• See fans of your own blog (and the number of followers you have) from your blog dashboard


• Display a list of your followers in a new "followers" widget


• Read your favorite blogs (even those not hosted on Blogger) from the reading list in your dashboard.


• Import your reading list from Google Reader


• Read posts from the blogs you are following in a special "Blogs I'm Following" folder in Google Reader
  
  

At present, this feature is not available to all Blogger users, though it is being rolled out for everyone to use over the next few weeks.







For those of you who are (like me) impatient to try out this new feature, you can enable this automatically by following a blog (use this link to follow Blogger Buster, for example). Once you have followed even one blog, your dashboard will be updated to show the number of followers, your personal reading list, and the ability to add a "followers" widget to your layout. Thanks to Ionut of Google Operating System for the tip to enable this new feature :)

Add new subscriptions to your reading list

Once your blog dashboard has been updated for the new "followers/reading list" feature, you can easily add new subscriptions to read in your Blogger dashboard.

Adding a new subscription is easy. Simply click on the "Add" button near the bottom of your reading list, where you will be presented with a screen like this:

You can add a new blog by simply typing the URL (eg: http://www.blogsite.com). This does not need to be a Blogger powered blog, nor do you need to know the URL of the blog's feed.



On the next screen, you can choose to follow this blog publicly or anonymously. Choosing to follow publicly means that your friendship with this blog is made public. Those using Blogger can see a list of their public followers, and readers of these blogs can also access follower details if a Followers widget has been added to the blog. In the future, non-Blogger sites will have access to similar widgets to display their public followers.



Choosing to follow anonymously is similar to subscribing to a blog feed in the normal manner: you would be counted among the list of followers, though your details and affiliation would be hidden.



Alternatively, you can choose to import your subscriptions from Google Reader by checking the "Import from Google Reader" option. On the next page, you can see a list of all the subscriptions in your Google Reader account, then check the ones you would like to import. It can take a few minutes to import all of your subscriptions of you have many listed in your reader, so you may need to be patient!

Managing your subscriptions

If you decide not to follow a blog you can easily edit or remove blogs in your reading list by clicking the "Manage" button.



This will generate a page listing all of your subscriptions with options on the right to delete this from your reading list and to toggle between "Public" and "Anonymous" following. You can also add new subscriptions near the bottom of this page.

Building a social network with Blogger...

In time, the "Followers" feature will also be integrated with FriendConnect which is built on Google's Social Graph API.Rather than being a social network in its own right, FriendConnect will link with other social networks and allow you to integrate your blog completely with your online social activities.



I must admit that my research on this subject is sparse, though you can read more about the possibilities for FriendConnect on Google Operating System, the FriendConnect homepage and the OpenSocial pages.

Learn more about the "Followers" feature

The Blogger Help Section has been updated with information to help you make the most of the new Followers feature. Here are links to the most useful pages which should help you get up and running:

• What is Following? 


• How do I add the Followers gadget to my blog 


• How do I use the Blogger reading list?


• Follow a blog publicly or anonymously
  
  

What do you think of the "Followers" feature so far?

I'd love to know your thoughts about the new Followers feature, so please feel free to leave your comments and opinions below.

Update: FTP Blogs do publish comment feeds!

While researching for my previous post, Recent Comments for FTP Bloggers, I had been unable to locate the comments feed for FTP published blogs (and had wrongly assumed that such blogs didn't publish a comments feed!).

Luckily, Pete has confirmed that FTP blogs do publish comment feeds! The URL structure of the feed location is as follows:

http://blogger.com/feeds/[blog-id-number]/comments/default

Where [blog-id-number] is the unique identifier for your blog.

To find your unique blog ID number, simply log in to Blogger and access the dashboard for your FTP published blog.

You can then locate your blog ID by looking in the address bar, where your blog ID will be the long numeric string at the end of the URL:



Copy this number, and replace [your-blog-id] with this number instead. The URL for your FTP blog's comment feed will then be structured like this instead:

http://blogger.com/feeds/8351217949706258294/comments/default

You can use the URL for your comment feed to enable a link for subscribers; to syndicate through Feedburner, or simply to provide a list of recent comments which is drawn from your comments feed.

How to publish recent comments from your FTP blog's comment feed

If you would like to display a list of recent comments in a similar manner to this widget's display, you can use paste the following code into your blog template (be sure to change [your-blog-id] to your unique ID number!):




By default, this script will display the 5 most recent comments, with a 100 character excerpt from each comment.

If you prefer to display more (or less) than 5 recent comments, you should edit this phrase in the code, replacing "5" with the number of comments you prefer to show:

var a_rc=5;

If you would prefer to show more (or less) of an excerpt for each comment, you should edit this phrase and replace "100" with the number of characters to display:

var o_rc=100;

Note: to display no excerpt at all, you can simply replace "100" with "0".

I hope this update has provided useful information for those publishing their Blogger blogs via FTP. Please accept my apologies for assuming FTP blogs didn't publish comment feeds!

Many thanks go out to Pete for his helpful comment and information.

Author and Permalink FeedFlare (proof of original source for SEO)

I have created a FeedFlare unit which can be added to your Feedburner feed. This generates a link to the permanent page for each feed item, using the post author's name and the title of your blog as the link text.

Using this FeedFlare will help Google (and other search engines) determine that your post is the original source of content, and prevent scraper sites from ranking more highly in search engine results.

This FeedFlare can be added to any blog feed (not only those hosted by Blogger) and will generate the author's name, blog title and permanent link from the actual blog feed. Once added as a FeedFlare, no additional set-up is required to present the correct attribution for your posts.

Why you should provide a link back to your original post

Scraper sites are blogs which are made for Adsense. Rather than create original content, such splogs prefer to source content from other high ranking sites and present is as their own.

Where duplicate content is found in search results, the one which appears to be from the original source will rank most highly, while any sites which appear to be duplicating this content will feature much lower down the page (if their result even appears at all!).

By using this FeedFlare, you can add a link to the original source (the 'permalink') for each of your blog posts. This helps Google understand that your article is the original content, as Matt Cutts explains:

So if the syndicated article has a link to the original source of that article, then it is pretty much guaranteed the original home of that article will always have the higher PageRank, compared to all the syndicated copies. And that just makes it that much easier for us to do duplicate content detection and say: "You know what, this is the original article; this is the good one, so go with that." (Source)

Why use a FeedFlare for this?

Blogger enables us to add content to the footer of our blog feeds in the Settings>Site Feed section of our dashboards. We could easily add a link to our home page here, but unfortunately we cannot use this to generate a link to each article published on our sites.

For better rankings in search engines, it's important to link to the original article. This can be achieved using Feedburner's FeedFlare API, along with attribution to the post author (great for group blogs) and the title of the publishing site.

How to add this FeedFlare to your Feedburner Feed

Adding the Author and Permalink Feedflare to your syndicated content is simply a matter of copying and pasting one line of code!

Log in to your Feedburner account and access the dashboard for your chosen blog. Click on the "Optimize" tab, then on the "FeedFlare" link in the left sidebar.

On this page, you will notice a section where you can enter a new FeedFlare URL:

In this box, paste the following URL:

http://bloggerbuster.com/author-and-permalink-blogger.xml

This is the location where the FeedFlare XML file is hosted on my server.

Finally, click on the "Add new FeedFlare" button, then you will see this has been added as an additional FeedFlare option which you can add beneath your posts.

All you need to do now is tick the box left of the "Blog Permalink" title, move the position as required and save your preferences.

Then as soon as your Feedburner feed is updated, you will be able to see this link appear beneath each entry of your syndicated feeds!

You can see this FeedFlare in action now by taking a look at the Blogger Buster feed (opens in a new page).

I hope this FeedFlare will be useful for you. Please feel free to let me know what you think about this idea (including any suggestions for improvement) by leaving your comments below.

Add Blogger Comment Count as Feedburner Feedflare

Until recently, it was not possible to display the number of comments for a post within our Blogger feeds.

However, via Google System I've learned that Feedburner have now added a new FeedFlare which you can use to display your post comment count in your Feedburner feed.

When readers click on the comment count link from your Feedburner feed, this will lead to the comments page for this post, enabling readers to read comments and add one of their own.

To activate this in your Feedburner feed, simply log in to your Feedburner account and click the link for the blog you wish to display the comment count.

Next, click on the Optimize tab, and then on the "FeedFlare" link in the sidebar.

On this page, you should easily spot the checkbox which says "Comments Count (Blogger)". Check the box which will display this FeedFlare in your actual blog feed (as this count should already be displayed in your blog posts).

Finally, save your FeedFlare settings for this new feature to take effect (or "activate" your Feedflare is you are not already using this particular feature of Feedburner yet!).

Using Intense Debate Comments?

For those who are using Intense Debate as their commenting system, you can also display your comment count using the Intense Debate comments Feedflare.

Simply log in to Intense Debate and click on the "Add-Ons tab in your dashboard.

On this page, look to the right-hand side of the screen where you will see the Feedburner Feedflare settings, like this:

Choose the blog for which you would like to display the comment count using the drop-down menu. This will then generate a unique URL in the box beneath.

Copy the URL from this box to your clipboard, and enter this in your Feedburner FeedFlare page in the box which says "Enter or Paste a FeedFlare Unit URL:

Then click the "Add New Flare" button.

Finally, save or activate your FeedFlare settings for this new feature to take effect.

Be patient!

In either case, the settings may not take effect immediately! It may be a few hours (or perhaps a day) before your new FeedFlare settings will become visible in your blog feed, though by the next feed count update, you should notice your comment count is visible when viewing your blog feed.

Also, you must ensure that you have activated the comment feeds for your posts in the Settings>Site Feed area of your Blogger dashboard. This is enabled by default, but do check to ensure you haven;t accidentally switched off this setting!

I hope this will be useful for you in adding your own comment count to your blog feeds. It's also another good reason to redirect your Blogger feeds through Feedburner if you aren't already doing so!

As always, please feel free to leave your comments and opinions below.

What is Atom/RSS?

Would you like to keep up to date with the latest content at Blogger Buster? There are a number of ways you can subscribe to receive news of the latest updates to the site, and the main ones used by Blogger Buster readers are the Atom and RSS feeds.

What is Atom/RSS?

Atom and RSS are both a similar technology which was developed to help people receive automatic updates of their favorite websites.

Although there are some differences between the technology of Atom and RSS, they both do essentially the same job: they fetch updated content from your favorite sites in a format you can easily read in a feed reader.

A better alternative to bookmarking.

Before Atom and RSS were invented, web users had to bookmark their favorite sites instead, and return to the bookmarked sites manually to see if anything had been updated. This creates more work for you as the reader, and means you could easily miss new content if you forget to check your bookmarks. Also, it can be complicated trying to keep track of many bookmarked sites at the same time.

Atom and RSS can do all the hard work for you!

If you subscribe to a website's feed, you are asking the website to send you new content, instead of having to fetch this yourself. It's a bit like getting a magazine subscription, but rather than being sent your magazine once a month, you will be sent new website content each time the site is updated. This could be daily, or even more regularly!

So... How can I use Atom/RSS feeds?

You will need a Feed Reader to be able to read Atom and RSS feeds from websites. In their native forms, Atom and RSS feeds are difficult to read and look a little like raw html code. Feed readers translate this into something which you can easily read, which looks a little like a web page which focuses on written content.

Two of the most popular feed readers you could use are Google Reader and Bloglines. Both of these services are free and very easy to use, especially as they both feature detailed help sections.

There are of course many other feed readers available which you can easily using your favorite search engine.

The easiest way to learn how to use a feed reader is to sign up for one of these services, then subscribe to a few feeds. For both of these services, you'll notice that new items will stand out from those you have read, and also that the newest content will feature at the top of the page. This makes it easier for you to know which items you have read.

How can I subscribe to feeds?

There are many places to look feed subscription links, including:

• Your favorite website


• Your feed reader's website


• Your internet browser

Let me explain a little about these subscription links:

On Site Subscriptions

You may have noticed feed icons on your favorite websites; these are often orange icons (which seems to have become the standard color for feed icons), or may also be counters to let you know how many subscribers a site has. On the right are some more examples you may have noticed too.

Usually these feed icons will link directly to the Atom or RSS feed for the site. You can either copy the link location for use in your RSS reader, or may be able to subscribe from the link directly.

Your feed reader's website

Most feed readers will have a search utility to help you find feeds of interest which you can then subscribe to. Google Reader for example allows you to search through literally thousands of blog and news feeds simply by searching for keywords of interest to you!

Browser subscription

Some internet browsers (eg: Firefox) have a built in function to detect and subscribe to website feeds. If your browser detects that the website you are looking at has an Atom or RSS feed available, you will usually see an orange icon to the right of the address bar, like this:

If you were to click on this icon while reading this site, you would be locating the Atom feed for Blogger Buster.

For different browsers, the feed icon in the address bar may look different, or be another color though it should still be easily distinguishable as a feed icon.

If you use your browser to subscribe to a site feed, you may wish to change the default settings so that subscriptions are added to the feed reader of your choice (eg: Google Reader or Bloglines) rather than the default reader built into the browser itself. This is generally done in the settings section of your browser, and may also be chosen when you open the link to a website's feed.

Atom or RSS - which feed should I choose?

Modern feed readers are able to read both Atom and RSS feeds. RSS is the most popular feed format, but by default Blogger published Atom feeds for our blogs. So I decided to publish both the Atom and RSS feeds for Blogger Buster to provide a choice in the subscription type.

Currently most subscribers to Blogger Buster choose the Atom format, but since there really is very little difference in how these feeds function, so the choice is up to you.

If you would like to know a little more about the difference between Atom and RSS feeds, you can read this post.

Would you prefer to receive updates by email instead?

Many sites offer updates by email too. Here at Blogger Buster you can easily subscribe for email updates by using the form near the top of the sidebar. All you need to do is enter your email address and click "Subscribe". A confirmation email will be sent to you to ensure you do wish to receive updates.

It's easy to unsubscribe too!

If ever you decide you don't want to subscribe to a feed, either using your feed reader or by email, it is very easy to unsubscribe:

• For those using a feed reader
  
  Simply delete the feed from your feed reader, and you will no longer receive updates from this site.


• For email subscribers
  
  Usually you will find an "Unsubscribe" link near the bottom of any emails sent for feed updates. Alternatively this may have been sent in the confirmation email you were sent when you first subscribed for updates. When you click on this link you will be able to remove your address from further updates.

If you are new to the concepts of web feeds, I hope this explanation has been useful to you, and perhaps has persuaded you to experiment with Atom and RSS for yourself. Please feel free to leave your comments and opinions below.

Technorati Tags: what+is+rss | atom | xml | feeds | blog+feeds | feed+reader | bloglines | google+reader