Check Out These Must-Watch WordPress Tutorials

Guest Post - Our host is Debbie Allen, here Debbie has compiled a list of the very best tutorials for your WordPress blog.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Most bloggers understand the value of WordPress. It can be used free of charge, and it can be used for personal as well as commercial websites and blogs.

One of the nicest features of WordPress is its ease of installation. In fact, most hosting services offer WordPress installation that can be as simple as clicking your mouse. The WordPress admin panel is designed in a way that is user-friendly so that even beginners will feel at home with the design.

Make your blog special with WordPress!

Simple Design but Powerful in Function

Although WordPress is designed to offer simplicity, it is indeed a powerful platform. The good news is, whether your goal is to add articles or other content to your blog or you want to change the site's overall theme, the WordPress platform makes the task simple to accomplish.

In addition, WordPress is SEO friendly, which can make it easier to climb search engine rankings. The power and functionality of your blog or website can be extended with the addition of WordPress plugins.

The fact that the system is so powerful can be intimidating to some people who are not experienced with online blogging platforms. But fear not -- WordPress tutorials can help with every step of the way.

A Tutorial to Fit Every Need

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Load Posts With Infinite Scroll On Blogger Blogs

In this tutorial we have a new way for posts to be viewed on your blogs homepage, namely infinite scroll.Infinite scroll has been a popular trend in web design for some time and now you can have it on your blogger blogs.On Blogger we have on the home page by default 'Previous' and 'Next' buttons to load a new page of posts.Now this tutorial takes another step with adding Infinite Scroll to Blogger blogs.

This is user friendly and will cut down on load time.So I have the demo and a quick add button for you to add it to your blog in seconds.
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How To Choose The Registrar When Buying A Custom Domain From Blogger

Here on Spice Up Your Blog I have always advised (Strongly) users of Blogger to buy a domain name rather than use the free blogspot sub-domain.I have been such a strong adversary of using a custom domain a year ago I published the strong titled "Why Not Getting A Custom Domain For Your Blogger Blog Is Stupid ".I followed up that post with a Step By Step video tutorial on How to buy a custom domain and connect it to your Blogger blog.So I covered why to get a domain and how to get it.

In that video I tell you how although you are buying the domain directly from Blogger (Google) they are not a domain registrar.So Blogger use one of two registrars, namely GoDaddy and eNom.When you are going through the process of buying a custom domain from Blogger they automatically (and i presume randomly) choose either GoDaddy or eNom for you.

Up till now I have thought that's it you go with the one they choose and continue.However Chuck over at The real Blogger status has shown me different and in fact you can choose between GoDaddy and eNom.During the process you are presented with the option to choose which registrar you want.
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Fix The Blogger Comment Form Message Below Threaded Comments Error On Blogger

There have been a number of knock on effects to the recent addition of Threaded comment replies on Blogger.Basically some of the features that were available to the now old comment from no longer work or don't work in the same way.One of the things that changed since the addition of threaded comment reply option on Blogger is the 'Comment Form Message'.The comment form message for those not familiar with it is a message you can add above the comment from.Many bloggers used this to display some comment rules or a thanks for commenting message.

OK so what has happened - The comment form message is displayed above the comment form, however since the change to threaded comments once a comment is added the message moves to below the form.This in many ways defeats the purpose, people will be less likely to see the message below the comment form.Personally I add a message to subscribe to comments and this is Important as commenter's will be notified by Email when someone replies.

So whats the fix - There does not seem to be a direct fix for it but the guys at DuyPham have come up with a work around which I will show you below.

Move Comment Form Message Above Comments

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Save, Back Up And Restore A Blogger Template Using The New Blogger Dashboard

Last week i was busy making some video screen casts with tutorials for the new Blogger design.In the next few posts i will be sharing the videos with you here on Spice Up Your Blog.Whether you like the new Interface or not we do need to familiarize ourselves with it.I'm sure as with all new Google products or updates the Blogger team will continue to make improvements.I'm certainly not over impressed with the new design and did leave feedback with 8 changes or additions I would like to see.

The first video covers Making a back up of your Template, as we know when you edit your template it's vital to make a back up in case of mistakes.

How To Make A Back Up Of Your Blogger Template Video Tutorial

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Adding Post Titles To Older Post Newer Post Links On Blogger

One Wordpress feature i really like that is not available on Blogger is last post, next post links at the foot of the page with the actual titles of the posts they link to.On Blogger we have got Newer Post, Older Post links but the title of the post is not shown.I feel these links would get a super increase in clicks if the titles were connected.With simply "Newer" and "Older" people don't know what they are clicking the titles will catch the eye and thus entice more clicks.The knock on effect of this will see more page views that will lead to more return visitors, subscribers and followers.

I said this feature was not available on Blogger, that is until now.A few people have created hacks to add the titles to the older, newer links including myself but every time it had errors.However one hack i have seen does the job perfectly.
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Updated Snow Fall Effects, Merry Christmas Banner And Christmas Theme Templates For Blogger

In the build up the Christmas over the last few years i have published some seasonal posts with gadgets and widgets to add some Christmas cheer to your blog.These posts have proven very popular, the first snow fall effect for Blogger i published when Spice Up Your Blog was only a few months old in 2009 brought in a lot of new readers.So over the last week i have been working on updating the posts, the script for one of the posts "10 Falling Christmas Objects" had stopped working.I have changed that post completely and it's working fine now.Along with that post we have two other posts with snow fall effects, a stylish Merry Christmas banner that sits in the top corner of your blog and a a collection of Christmas templates on our templates site.

List Of Christmas Gadgets And Tutorials

1. Original Christmas Snow Fall Effect For Blogger.

2. Colored Christmas Snow Fall Effect For Blogger.

3. 10 Different Falling Christmas Objects For Blogger.

4. Stylish Fixed Corner Merry Christmas Banner For Blogger.

5. Christmas Theme Free Blogger Templates.

Hope you find them useful and an early Merry Christmas from Spice Up Your Blog.

Drop Your Comments And Questions Below.

How To Add Breadcrumb Navigation To Blogger Blogs

Breadcrumbs is the name given to navigation links usually displayed above posts on blogs and at the top of pages on websites.The links are a trail from the page you are currently on back to the home page.So for example on a blog you will have the home page link, a link to a label used for the post then the post title.This will be displayed like this 'Home > Label > Post Title'.This is a very popular type of navigation on all sorts of sites and in this post i will show you how to add it to blogger.

Below you can see a screenshot and the live demo.Credit for the original breadcrumbs for Blogger goes to Hoctro with further work by Blogger Plugins.




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Create A Link To A Point On The Same Page And Add jQuery For Scroll Effect

We all add links to different pages both within our blogs and externally to other sites.But what about creating a link within a page, a link from one point on a page to another.This is something i often see in Help or FAQ pages, a list of the most common questions and you click on the question to jump to the answer.This way of linking within a page is actually very simple and nothing needs to be added to your template for it to work.In this post i will show you how to quickly create a simple link within pages on your blog.But as a bonus i will also show you how some jQuery can make the transition between the link and the point it leads to less of a jump and more of leisurely scroll.
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