This document provides instructions for creating a blog on Blogger.com to develop a professional online presence. It outlines how to set up a Blogger account, choose a template, create blog posts and pages, add labels and tags, and embed videos, documents and books from other websites using HTML. The goal is to use these blogging features to share work such as publications, presentations, teaching activities and professional engagements.

1. DEVELOPING A PROFESSIONAL PRESENCE ONLINE:
USING GOOGLE BLOGGER
Jamie Ranse
www.jamieranse.com
Prepared for HDR Orientation week. Semester One. University of Canberra. 31 January 2013.

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3. CREATING A BLOG: OVERVIEW
1. Go to: www.blogger.com
2. If you do not have a Google account, click on sign up and complete the sign up process
3. Sign in to Blogger
4. Create a new blog
5. Give your blog a meaningful title and address
6. Pick a template, such as Simple and click Create blog! You can change your blog
template at any point in time
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4. 7. Go to the overview menu
8. In the overview menu, you can access many features of your portfolio. You can change
the ‘look and feel’, view your ‘statistics’, plus much more
Posts: Here you can create, view and edit all of your posts (this is your
dynamic content)
Pages: Here you can create, view and edit all of your pages (this is your
static content)
Comments: If you allow comments on your posts, you can moderate, view,
edit or delete comments here.
Layout: Here you can change the way in which your information is
presented.
Template: Here you can your template, or add a HTML template to your
portfolio.
Settings: Here you can manage settings for your profile, such as a
description of your portfolio or change your portfolio name.
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5. CREATING A BLOG: SETTINGS
1. Basic
a. Add a description of your portfolio
b. Pick the level of privacy for your portfolio
c. Change the permission for blog readers
2. Post and comments
a. Select the comment location. If you want people to make comments on your
posts, make no changes. If you do not wish to have comments on your posts, click
on hide from the drop down boxes.
b. Alter the Who can comment?
c. Alter the Comment Moderation to your preference.
d. Leave other aspects of this section as their default.
3. Language and format
a. Under the format section:
b. Make changes to reflect your time zone.
c. Change the date and timestamp format if you wish, otherwise, leave this as the
default.
4. Search preferences
a. Add meta tag sentence descriptions if you wish. Meta tags are used by search
engines, such as Google, to make your work discoverable. If you want to be
hidden, leave this blank.
b. Leave the remainder as the default settings
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6. CREATING A BLOG: POSTS
1. Click on New post
Content
2. Add a Post title
3. Add some content
4. Add Labels
a. Labels should be meaningful, relate directly to your title and/or content. You
should use your labels repeatedly when making multiple posts. An example of a
Label is:
 Presentation
 Publication
 Reflection
 PhD
b. Later we can create links to any labels that we create, for example:
http://your blog name.blogspot.com.au/search/label/PhD
5. Add a Schedule
a. You can post your work immediately by selecting Automatic, or
b. You can schedule your work to be posted in the future by selecting Set date and
time.
6. Add a Location
a. You do not need to include your location
b. If you wish to indicate your location on your post, you can use the search
function.
7. Select Options
a. Select the level of Reader comments you want to be made.
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7. CREATING A BLOG: TEMPLATE
1. Backup / Restore
a. At some point during the development of your portfolio, you should back up your
work. Click on Backup / Restore.
b. Select Download full template.
c. Save this file in a safe location. This file can be used to restore your portfolio to
this point.
2. Mobile
a. In this section, decide if you want your work visible via a mobile device.
3. Edit HTML
a. If you want to introduce additional templates to your work, use this function to
import your files. You can search www.google.com for templates, use the search
term ‘blogger free templates’
4. Customise
a. Make changes in the Templates, Background and Adjust widths sections.
5. Layout
a. This section can be changed at any point in time.
b. Change the body layout to suit your needs
c. Change your footer layout to suit your needs
d. Click on Apply to Blog to ensure your changes are kept.
6. Advanced
a. If we have time, we can revisit the advanced section and make changes to fonts
and colours.
7. Click <<Back to Blogger
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8. CREATING A BLOG: LAYOUT
1. Click on the Navbar section
a. Select off, this hides the navigation bar at the top of your portfolio.
2. Click on the edit button on the Blog Posts section
a. Change the configuration of your blog posts.
b. In the arrange items section, you can change the order and layout of various
aspects of your posts.
3. Click on the Add a Gadget link
a. You can pick a choose a number of gadgets for your portfolio. A number of
recommended gadgets include:
 Labels – this will create a list of labels you use with your posts
 Blog archives – creates a list and orders of all your posts
b. You can click and drag to move the order of various Gadgets.
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9. CREATING A BLOG: PAGES
1. Pages consist of static content
2. Create a New page
3. Add a Blank page
4. Add a Page title
5. Add content to your page. The following are examples of the type of page you might
include on your portfolio
 Publications
 Presentation
 Teaching activities
 Professional engagements
 About me
 Current projects
 PhD milestones
6. Add a Blank page
7. Add a Web address
a. We will come back to this point and add a label from a post you make.
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10. CREATING A BLOG: POST / PAGE EXTRAS
Consider HTML embedding the following on your pages or posts:
Videos via YouTube www.youtube.com
Presentation slides and documents via SlideShare www.slideshare.net
Books you have read from Google books books.google.com
To embed an element, find the HTML code (commonly in a sharing box or button)
1. Find the share button
2. Find the HTML code (HTML is a special code / writing / language for websites).
3. Copy the HTML code
4. Go to your page or post
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11. 5. Click on HTML
6. Paste your HTML code in the content section
7. Click on Compose
8. Your page should look something like this:
9. Add any text to your post and publish.
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