Setting up and Configuring your Blog

When you have signed in, the first place you are taken to is called the Dashboard. From the dashboard you can manage all aspects of your blog and even create new blogs. The Dashboard is part of the backend of the website which is accessible to you alone.

One of the best things about a Google Blogger account is that you can open as many sites as you like all under one account. And they can all be managed via the Dashboard. 

If you have created only one blog, then you will see the title of only one blog. But if you have more than one blog, you will see all of them listed on the dashboard together with separate control menus for each of them.

To enter any blog, simply click on the blog. The blue New Post button is for creating new blog post. Edit Posts is for viewing, editing and managing all your blog posts. Settings takes you to the configuration settings of your blog. Design takes you to the place where you can change the design of your blog.  Monetize is the place where you handle all the money aspects of your blog such as how you can place adverts on your blog. And Stats shows you the number of visitors your website is getting.

Setting up and Configuring your Blog

To set up your blog for optimal performance, it is necessary to configure it by selecting and modifying some of the available options. They include: Posting, Settings, Design, Monetize, Stats etc.

We shall be looking at them one in a post, starting from the last, ‘Settings’.

Under Settings, we find: Basic, Posts and comments, Mobile and email, Language and formatting, Search preferences, Other.

Under ‘Basic’, you find:

‘Title’: This is the title you gave your blog when creating it. You can change it here.

‘Description’: This is where you describe what your blog is all about. It will appear below the title when visitors visit your website.

‘Privacy’: Here, you choose whether you want your blog to be listed on Blogger; visible to search engines. I’d suggest you select Yes.

‘Blog Address’: This is where you can change your blog address if you want to. However, it is not advisable to change or keep change your website/blog address.

‘Blog Authors’: This is where you can add more people to write and post on your blog if you are not the sole owner.

‘Blog Readers’: Here you choose who can read and comment on your blog. I’d suggest you select ‘Anybody’. 

‘Posts and Comments’: Among other things, the only one you need to know right now is that here, you can choose the number of posts that will appear on your homepage.

'Mobile and email’: Under this heading, you choose if you’d like to Post using SMS/MMS, email and also, how your comment box appears.

‘Language and formatting’: Here, among other things you can select the language in which your blog will be displayed, time format and time zone.

‘Search preferences’: At this level, you do not need to make any changes here. Simply move on to the next subheading.

‘Other’: One important feature of this heading is the Import Blog, Export Blog and Delete Blog.

 You can also select the size of your blog feed. Feed is the syndication of your blog content that your subscribers receive either via email or other media that available (more on this in another post). If your blog contains adult content, this is also where you indicate it; users coming to your site will receive a warning that your site contains adult content.

Note: Please don’t hesitate to highlight any thing you observe…and please do comment to let us know how we’re doing :)