Followers – drink the Kool-Aid

Blogger's pushing its social-networking widget Followers: possibly because the behemoth won't be happy until it controls every facet of our online lives. This device slots into the sidebar of every new blog, in fact. Graphics-heavy, it displays teeny profile shots of your publicly declared blogfans. Empty, it's but a pitiful thing: may I suggest that y'all follow each other to experiment with both sides of this equation (you can opt out later easily enough)?

Should followers have a Blogger account, it'll show them a Reading List on the dashboard, reminding 'em to check out your latest efforts. It'll also funnel a subscription into Google Reader, if they have an account. More details here on following and also "friending".

Google insists: "The Followers widget is a great tool to help you grow your blog's audience. Readers often visit a blog and enjoy it but fail to return. Additionally you should put your followers widget at the top of your sidebar so more readers will notice it."

I disagree, at least about its placement in the prime top-right real estate. Context seems far more crucial than a visual shout-out to readers. Plus, overemphasizing followers has a whiff of desperation: "I'm good enough, smart enough and, gosh darn it, people like me!" But, increasingly, Internet users want to see and be seen. So I'd advocate a Followers widget for any ambitious blogger – it's a community building device, after all. Then experiment with its position.

To add this widget, go to Layouts>Page Elements. Click "add a gadget," then scroll down to Followers. Hit save. To kick this popularity contest to the curb, go to Layouts>Page Elements. Click "edit" under "Followers" and delete. On Page Elements, you can also drag and drop the gadget into a spot that suits your style.

Another helpful device is a subscription widget, which allows readers to sign up for emails or a digest of your posts (this can also be a handy back-up for you ... or a way to print the class lectures easily, albeit, sans images). Again, go to Layout>Page Elements, hit "add a gadget". Search for "email subscription box" and install. Drag and drop to the desired placement in the sidebar. You may also want to add the subscription device found on the front "gadget" page: this allows readers to tap into posts or comments via various aggregators.

Dynamic sidebars

A powerful way to draw readers into your material is via the sidebar, i.e; the skinny column(s) beside the main post field (review Anatomy of a Blog, if need be). Elements that give context, build community, provide revenue and highlight original content include:

• About – as noted earlier, readers respond more strongly to bloggers with authority or character. Give your audience a chance to connect with you ... or, in some cases, with your nom de plume's persona. Either way, traction = good.
• Ads – we'll delve into this week nine.
• Archive – give readers a portal to your past material.
• Blogroll – reach out to similar writers ... and help your readers connect with them too. Such "link love" can have a powerful cumulative effect, boosting SEO and Google PageRank. But more on this week six...
• Greatest hits – a list of your favorite or most popular entries provides another "point of entry" for readers into your sea of original content. Insert your posts' permalinks into a blogroll-style gadget.
• Subscription box – more on this week six.
• Syndicated content via RSS feeds (headlines, tweets, and so on) – ditto on the week six thang.
• Widgets, aka "gadgets" (embedded programlets, often interactive, like clocks, calendars, Flickr slideshows, etc.) – read on...

Widgets away!

A widget – or "gadget" as Blogger calls 'em – is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page. An end user can install these without requiring additional compilation.

In other words, they're free mini-programs, which plug n' play on blogs, as well as websites, wikis and social networking sites. Classic examples include world clocks and weather reports. But widgets can stretch to baby-birth countdowns, Super Mario games and Amazon Affiliate referral boxes, all embedded on your site with a little cutting and pasting. Ace!

Browser-based tools for creating and hosting widgets include Microsoft Popfly, Widgetbox, and zembly. Widget-distribution platforms such as Clearspring and Gigya are now used to seed and distribute widgets as rich media advertisement units.

WordPress hosts more widgets than Blogger, thanks to its open-sourcy goodness. But we prefer Blogger for its free template-tinkering, so, as usual, our advice will revolve around that platform.

Blogger hosts a certain number of widgets on its servers. To add an element, go to Layout --> then click the blue text link "Add a Gadget" at the top of your sidebar(s). A popup box then displays a host of options, including polls, slideshows and RSS feeds, handy for streaming select headlines, adding fresh news content effortlessly.

To freestyle a bit more, you can add third-party programlets, like the class blog's recent comments widget. First, find reliable source code online. Vet it carefully by searching on its name. Then back up your Blogger template before you tinker.

From the Layout wireframe, click "Add a Gadget," then choose the HTML/JavaScript option. Click the blue plus-sign button, which leads to another popup window, containing fields for a title and content. Paste the embed code in the larger data field. Once you've saved, the element will appear on the layout page. You can then drag and drop it into an appropriate spot.

As we discussed earlier in the course, think carefully about what appears "above the fold." This newspaper term denotes the content visible on a front page when a broadsheet is doubled up. For a blog, that translates to "stuff visible without scrolling". The header and "about me/contributors" sections are obvious candidates: context helps readers – new ones especially – evaluate the site.

Widget wisely and well...

So why widget? For fun ... for borrowed programming glory ... to add texture and customized character. But don't overdo the bells and whistles: too many can distract from your content, the point of the whole enterprise. And a whole mess of widgets can bog down a blog, as feeds and data stream off the various mother sites.

As Timethief pointed out at One Cool Site: a common mistake beginner bloggers make is the overuse widgets as sidebar decorations, methods of bragging, and as space fillers, because they fail to consider the following:

1. the impact of the amount of script they have running on their blogs on their readers experience;

2. the collection of reader information (computer IP, location, browser type and version) that some widget use results in; and
   

3. how all those widgets clutter the 12-inch screen of laptops.

So widge away, but judiciously. As Mike points out, they introduce a lot of third-party reliance. "Widgets not hosted by Blogger – that is, not on the gadget menu list – are probably running on their creator's server, somewhere out there in the world, which may or may not be robust. You're also relying on them being a good citizen, like not drinking beer and coding."

A wonky widget might create a blank patch. Or – worse scenario – it could crash the page or load hella-slowly, dinging your PageRank. Google is revamping its 200-point algorithm to determine how the search engine features pages at the moment, as the company's Matt Cutts discusses here. The ongoing, super-secret (as always) update – nicknamed Caffeine – may factor site speed more heavily, rumors claim. Later in the course, we'll talk about how to monitor such things closely. For now, just be judicious about how many ornaments you hang on the tree...

The look and feel of your blog

A template controls how your site appears, via a cascading style sheet (css) written in html. Blogger prompts new members to select one, while creating a site.

One of the first considerations is how many columns you want and where they lie (left side vs right). Some bloggers prefer the wider text field of the two-column format. I've chosen that for Road Remedies, since its purpose is to showcase my writing. The right panel (sidebar) contains various text boxes (About Me, Links and the blogroll, named "Barrel of Monkeys"), as well as widgets. These plug-n-play mini-programs organize the blog's archives, insert ads from Google and Amazon, and so forth.

For the class blog, we've gone with a three-column layout, as we plan to demonstrate a lot of widgets. Blogger, unfortunately, doesn't have an off-the-shelf template for this. You gotta hack. Luckily Mike's done that heavy lifting and is happy to share his code. Interested students should let him know in week two's assignment.

For now, don't stress too much about the look – the "skin" –  at this point. You can always experiment with different options: go to Blogger>Dashboard>Layout>Pick New Template on the beige bar.

Click the orange "Save Template button" when you're finished.

Next week we'll explore Blogger's Dashboard in more depth and discuss how to craft certain styles and elements. Feel free to experiment in the meantime: remember that no change is permanent until you hit that orange "save" button.