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Download the "Shinobi" template
2007-09-28 11:39:00
Here is a new template I've been working on for a while now: the "Shinobi " (Ninja) template. This template features a unique "Web 2.0" style theme including inline comments. Take a look at the screenshot or preview the blog in action on the Shinobi Temp late demonstration blog. Read on for more details and to download the XML template. The Shinobi template features: Unique theme with rounded corners and ninja-style header. Inline comments on post pages, so readers can leave their comments without having to leave the page. Complementary label cloud. You can download the XML template using the link below:Download the Shinobi Blogger Template (Zip File)Included in the zip file are both the XML template and a help file with details of how the template can be installed and configured. If you would also like to copy over your widgets from your existing template, please refer to this post which explains the whole process.All images used in this template are hosted by Blogger Buster, so...

Making your links more interactive with Snap-Shots
2007-09-27 23:45:00
While researching design techniques for new templates, I discovered Snap -Shots : a way of making your links interactive by displaying previews of websites, video, RSS feeds and audio as the readers mouse hovers over them. Although I've seen this on other sites before, I never realised this service was free to use, and also that it barely impacts page loading time at all.Here is a preview of what Snap-Shots can do for your blog. Read on if you'd like to know more! Snap-Shots creates a pop-up preview of whatever content your link points to. You can use this to display previews of websites, videos, recent RSS entries and even audio if that is what your link points to.Installation is really easy, especially for Blogger blogs. The process can be summarized in four steps: Head on over to Snap-Shots and click on the "get started" link. Choose your color scheme, pop-up size and upload your logo if you would like this to be displayed too. You can also set advanced options, such as wethe...
More About: Links , Interactive , Makin

Create rounded corners without using external images
2007-09-26 10:53:00
Rounded corners are one of the biggest web design trends. Usually rounded corners are created using images as backgrounds for the section we want to appear rounded (such as those used in the Rounders template or created using Corners hop). However, it is also possible to create rounded corners using only CSS styling! Spiffy corners is a site which can generate the code for you, based on the foreground and background colors you specify. Then all you need to do is add the code to your blog template, and your rounded corners will appear in your sidebar, your main posts section, or indeed anywhere you wish in your blog!The rounded corners wizard is really simple to use: all you need to do is specify the colors you wish to use and a preview image is generated for you. You can then choose the amount of "roundness" you require and the wizaed will generate two sets of code for you to use: the CSS style code, and the html code to wrap around your blog elements. Then all you need to do is ...
More About: Images , External , Create , Rounded

Free blog icon set download
2007-09-25 20:18:00
Here are three sets of blog icons I designed while working on the new template for this site. There are 10 icons in all in red, blue and green color schemes, each against a transparent background for use in any color scheme. You can download these icons using the link below:Download blog icons setThese icons are all in .gif format to ensure that the transparency is compatible across all major browsers. Feel free to use them in your templates and websites, or to modify them as you wish. However, please do not redistribute these icons without also including the license document in the file.Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below.Technorati Tags: blog+icons | images | icon+set | template | design
More About: Icon , Free , Blog

Will Google PageRank be updated soon?
2007-09-24 19:12:00
If you use the Google Toolbar, you may well be familiar with Google PageRank as you can see the rank of any site in your toolbar. The toolbar PageRank was usually updated every three months, but we have not yet seen an update since April-almost five months ago now!For many newer sites, this has been rather disappointing (here at Blogger Buster, for example, we still have a PageRank of 0, despite efforts to improve this). So why is this update taking so long, and when can we expect to see an update? PageRank is the status given to sites by Google which can help web-users understand their importance. Rank is determined on a scale of 0-10 with a rank of ten being attained only by sites such as Google Yahoo and MSN. IOt has long been understood that if you can acquire backlinks from high ranking sites, your own site's PR will in turn be improved, since effectively the higher PR site will be "endorsing" the content of your own.However, many services have taken this too far, offering...
More About: Pagerank , Google Pagerank , Ager , Gera

Learn about Web 2.0 in five minutes
2007-09-22 10:52:00
Here is a great video I found over at Deziner Folio which explains Web 2.0 in a way we can all understand: I actually found this while researching Web 2.0 design, and was so impressed by this great explanation of Web 2.0 I thought I'd share it with you all. For me, this video embodies everything I love about the web. And when you consider that blogging is a part of this online revolution, it can be quite inspirational too!Please let me know what you think too by leaving your comments below.Technorati Tags: web+2.0 | video | deziner+folio | blogging | inspiration
More About: Learn , Minutes , Utes

How I copy widgets from one template to another
2007-09-21 18:31:00
When you choose a new default Blogger template, all of your widgets are copied over to the new template. However, if you try to upload a customized template (such as the ones featured here), you will probably get a message asking if you want to delete most of your existing widgets. I am often asked "how can I copy my widgets over to a new template?", so in this tutorial I will share the method I use to do this quickly and painlessly. Your blog widgets are saved in your Blogger account, rather than in the actual template of the blog. The widgets are called to your blog by anchors within the template which look like this: <b:widget locked='false' title='My Widget Title' type='HTML'/> As you can see in this example, each widget in your blog is given a unique identity (in this case, "HTML1") and a title, which is the same as the title you provide when you create the widget.If you upload a template to your blog which contains the same widget identifiers, then the widgets ...
More About: Widgets , Template , Copy , Temp

Find free icons for your blog with the Iconlet search engine
2007-09-20 23:40:00
Iconlet.com is a great new search service to help you find free icons you can use in your blog posts and templates. This service runs like a simple search service, allowing you to input search terms for the icons you need and returning results in image format for you to download to your computer. There are loads of "Web 2.0" style icons to use, and even full icon sets (such as Home/About/Contact icons of a matching theme). Don't be put off ny the simple layout of the front page: this is truly a very useful design tool, and can also provide you with great inspiration for your blog template design. Let me know what you think of Iconlet by leaving your comments below.Technorati Tags: icon | search+engine | blog+design
More About: Icons , Free , Search , Search Engine , Blog

How to set up a test blog (and why you may want to use one)
2007-09-20 22:50:00
A test blog can be very useful for testing template changes and other hacks before implementing the changes into your own. I always use test blogs when designing new templates, testing scripts and other such experiments. In this post I'll explain how you can set up your own test blog, and the reasons you will find it useful to use one. What is a test blog?For me, a test blog is a temporary blog I use for experimenting with template design, javascripts and to copy widgets from one blog to another. Since these blogs are usually temporary (or used only for experimental reasons) I set them up differently from my main blogs, so that they do not attract visitors or interfere with the preferences of other bloggers.How do I set up a test blog?Luckily, Blog ger allows us to set up any number of blogs in our free account. You will probably want to set up your test blog differently to your regular blogs, so follow the steps below to learn how to do this: Go to your Blogger Dashboard and lo...
More About: Test

5 best free file hosting for your images and scripts
2007-09-19 18:06:00
Although Blogger allows us to upload image and video files for our posts and sidebar widgets, we are unable to upload other file types (eg: Javascripts) for use within our blogs. This can prove quite awkward for those who rely on such files, so I have compiled a list of the top five free file hosting services I have encountered. All of these services will allow you to upload Javascripts, text and image files, and to "hotlink" to these files for personal use. Top 5 Free File Hosting ServicesHotlinkFiles.comThis service provides 8000mb of bandwidth so you can be pretty sure you won't exceed your monthly quota! No need to register to upload image files, though this is nescessary if you wish to upload any other file type. Maximum file size is 50mb, and with up to 1000mb of webspace available, this is surely a free hosting service that is difficult to beat! NakidoFiles are saved forever on this free host! You need to register to use, and can choose to install the "Nakido Flag" softw...
More About: Images , Scripts

Inline comments hack
2007-09-17 14:04:00
Would you like to be able to feature comments and the comments box beneath your blog posts, Wordpress-style? In this tutorial I will explain how this can be achieved in your Blogger "layouts" template. After you implement this hack, your readers will never have to leave the page to post a comment on your blog! This is an example of what the inline comments looks like in one of my test blogs (click on the image for a larger version):You can also see an example of this hack in action on this demonstration blog.You will be able to change some elements of the inline comments' appearance as I will explain later in this post. For now, let's see how this hack can be done. How to implement the inline comments hackBefore you do anything to your template, be sure to make a back-up of your existing template. This can be done by going to the Edit HTML page and selecting the "Download Full Template" link near the top of the page. It is always good practise to back-up your template before m...
More About: Hack , Comments

I think Blogger Buster needs a makeover...
2007-09-15 22:35:00
Despite my recent changes to the Blogger Buster site, I'm still unhappy with the overall look and feel of this blog. It takes ages to load, it isn't quite as easy as I'd like to find relevent information, and let's be honest: the overall look isn't anywhere near as eye-catching as most of the templates I design!So I'm planning a bit of an overhaul... Personally I think these are the main problems with this existing template: It takes too long to load. Navigation is a little awkward. There is too much excess content in the sidebars. And let's be honest: this template isn't nearly so eye-catching as most of the templates I design!So, in answer to these problems, I plan to design a whole new look for Blogger Buster, including a more definitive logo, a "Web 2.0" style theme, easier navigation, no unnecessary distractions, and much faster loading times.Sound good?As always your opinions matter to me, so I would appreciate any suggestions or comments to help me design a better...
More About: Makeover , Needs

Tic Tac Green Three Column Template
2007-09-15 22:24:00
Sorry for the delay in getting this template ready for download! Here is a screenshot of the modified Tic Tac green template for your perusal: You can download the XML file for this template using the link below (this is contained within a zip file which you can save to your computer):Download three column Tic Tac (green) templateAll images are hosted by Blogger Buster so you do not need to upload them to your own servers. Feel free to modify this template as you wish; however I do ask that the author credits remain intact within the template. Please do not redistribute this template without a link back to Blogger Buster!For loads more free Blogger template downloads, be sure to visit the Blogger Temp late s section.Technorati Tags: blogger+templates | tic+tac | three+column | template | green
More About: Green , Column

How to show links to related posts
2007-09-15 19:27:00
Over at Hoctro's Place, I found a great hack which can help you show links to related posts (by label) beside each of your blog posts (in the sidebar section). This can be a very useful hack because many visitors to your blog will land on a "post page" rather than on your home page, and these links can direct them to other posts of interest on your blog. This hack uses the JSON Callback technique to retrieve post titles from your blog's labels feed. Also, the inclusion of more than one label set is possible, so if you have more than one label for a post, related titles will displayed for each of these labels.You can choose the maximum number of labels to display as well as the maximum number of posts for each label, which is handy if you feature a great many posts under one particular label.Hoctro's instructions for this hack are very good, and take you through the modifications to your template step-by-step. It is advisable to pay close attention to the instructions though a...
More About: Show , Links , Posts , Related

Mobilize your blog with Widsets
2007-09-13 22:18:00
I recently came across a new service from Widsets which enables you to syndicate your content for people to read as a widget on their mobile phone! Using WidSets, you can create a widget using your blog's Atom/RSS feed which can be read on a mobile phone. Readers can subscribe to your WidSets widget and receive updates on their mobile device where a regular feed reader may be unavailable. You can see an example of the subscription button for WidSets in my right sidebar.WidSets is a free service for both subscribers and publishers, and may be very useful in generating traffic from the new wave of readers using their mobile phone to surf the web. To create your own account and begin creating widgets to syndicate your blog content, head on over to WidSets and register your account details. You will be sent a confirmation message to your mobile phone and email account, and can begin creating your WidSets widgets straight away.Do note that the text message sent by WidSets will conta...
More About: Blog

Free PageRank display button for your blog
2007-09-12 23:54:00
Many blogs and websites show off their PageRank with a button like this:You can use this free tool to generate your own PageRank button display which updates dynamically each time your PageRank is updated, so you can always be sure that your correct ranking is displayed. To use this free tool, simply enter the full URL of your blog and click "Check PR. Your blog's current PageRank will be displayed, along with a selection of buttons you can choose from to display in your site. When you click on a button style, the code will be generated for you to copy and paste in your blog where you would like the PageRank display button to appear.Create your free PageRank Button Display What is PageRank?Google PageRank results from a "ballot" among all the other pages on the World Wide Web about how important a page is on a scale of 0-10. A website or blog with a high PageRank is considered more important than one with a lower PageRank. Read more about PageRank on this post.(At present, Blog g...
More About: Pagerank , Free

Tic Tac Three Column Template (Blue) available to download
2007-09-12 20:39:00
As requested by a few people now, I have modified the Tic Tac Blue template to add a second sidebar. Here is a screenshot for you: You can see a demonstration of this template in the Tic-Tac Three column demonstration blog. You can download this template using the link below. This is a zip file which contains the XML file for this template.Download Three Column Tic Tac template (blue)To use this in your blog, you should extract the XML file from the zip folder and save it to your computer. Then go to your Blogger dashboard, and click on Template >Edit HTML. Near the top of this page you will see a link where you can upload a new template from a location on your computer. Browse for the saved template file and click "upload". This will then install your new template in place of the old one.All the images used in this template are hosted by Blogger Buster. You do not need to upload them to your own hosting providers.You are free to modify this template as you wish, however I do as...
More About: To Do

All about blog feeds (part 4)
2007-09-11 20:28:00
This is the fourth and final installment of a short series of posts written to help you achieve a better understanding of your blog feeds, and how you can use them. In this post, I will explain how you can use services like FeedBurner and AddThis to syndicate your blog feeds and attract more subscribers to your blog. Services such as Feedburner and AddThis aim to help you publicize your blog feeds, and make them more readily available for readers to subscribe to. If you use Feedburner to syndicate your feeds, for example, you can offer your readers the option to subscribe to your blog feed as a daily email digest, which for those unacquainted with feed readers may well be a pleasant and accessible option!How FeedBurner worksFeedBurner is probably the most popular feed management system to date, and is completely free to use. Many services are offered to members to help publicize and optimize your blog feeds, and attract more readers to subscribe to them.To create your own free F...
More About: Blog , Part

All about blog feeds (part 3)
2007-09-10 23:33:00
This is the third installment of a short series of posts written to help you achieve a better understanding of your blog feeds, and how you can use them. In this post, I will explain about the "Label" and "Per-post" feeds, and how you can create links to these feeds in your blog. The URL required to find the feeds for Labels and Per-post comments are very different to those we used to find the blog-wide posts and comments feeds, and require a full post to discuss them! Rather than using the blog's url, we need to use the blog's unique identification number, and in the case of per-post comment feeds, the unique post identification number.About Label feedsLet's begin by looking at the format of the Label feed url: http://www2.blogger.com/feeds/[yourblogID ]/posts/[feedType]/-/[labelName] First we notice that the feed URL is located at "www2.blogger.com", and that the feed is located by your blog's unique identification number. Notice also the "/-/" section: this is what defines...
More About: Blog , Part , Part 3

All about blog feeds (part 2)
2007-09-09 18:14:00
This is the second installment of a short series of posts written to help you achieve a better understanding of your blog feeds, and how you can use them. In this post, I will explain how to find the main posts and comments feeds and how to make them available for your readers to subscribe to them. Your main posts and comments feeds are the easiest feeds to find, and are also the feeds which Blog gers are most familiar with. By default, Blogger publishes these feeds in Atom format.These feeds are found at the following URLs (where YOURBLOG is replaced by the name of your blog): For the main posts feed: http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/ defaultOr if you are publishing to a custom domain: http://www.yourdomain.com/feeds/posts/def ault It can also be found at: http://yourblog.blogspot.com/atom.xml For the main comments feed: http://yourblog.blogspot.com/feeds/commen ts/defaultOr if you are publishing to a custom domain: http://www.yourdomain.com/feeds/posts/def aultYou can chang...
More About: Part

All about blog feeds (part 1)
2007-09-07 23:22:00
This is the first in a short series of posts written to help you achieve a better understanding of your blog feeds, and how you can use them. In this first post, I'll outline the basics of blog feeds, the differences between Atom and RSS feeds and an explanation of the different feeds available from your Blog ger blog. What is a blog feed?Your blog feed is a machine readable version of your blog posts and comments. Blogger publishes this XML file to allow further syndication of your blog; that is, readers are able to "subscribe" to your blog and receive updates via a feed reader each time you publish a post.Your blog feeds are published in two formats: RSS and Atom, which I will explain in more detail further down the page. Take a look at this short video first, which explains RSS (the most commonly known format) in plain English, as this will give you a great understanding of what blog feeds are all about: Click To Play So what is the difference between ...
More About: Part

Enable per-post comments feeds
2007-09-07 00:40:00
For a while now, I've been wondering how to enable the feed link for per-post comments in order to allow readers to subscribe to the comments for a particular post they are interested in. From what I'd read in the Blogger help groups, the only method was to create a link for each individual post including that particular post's ID number. Which would have been very tedious! However, today I finally figured out a much simpler methos, so you can simply add a bit of code to your post footer which will easily enable your readers to subscribe to the comments of a particular post of interest! To create the link which will enable readers to subscribe to the comments of a particular post, you will need to ensure you have enabled post pages in your blog settings. If you haven't already done this, go to Settings>Archiving in your Blogger dashboard and set "Enable post pages" to "yes".Next, find this section in your Blogger template: <p><data:post.body/></p> Just afte...
More About: Post , Comments

How to manually install Haloscan comments and trackbacks (for customized te
2007-09-05 13:51:00
Haloscan provide an excellent commenting and trackback service for bloggers. While Blogger blogs are supported by this system, the installation wizard will not work for customized templates, even those which have a few lines of Javascript included! Haloscan commenting and trackbacks do work in customized templates, but you will need to install the nescessary code manually. Unfortunately, Haloscan do not provide any support (yet) for manual installation of commenting and trackbacks in Blogger templates. So here is a tutorial of how you can manually install Haloscan's commenting and trackback features in your own Blogger templates. Please note: this is a tutorial for installing both Haloscan commenting and trackback functions in your Blogger template. If you wish to only install Haloscan trackbacks (as I have done in this blog), please take a look at this post instead.Here is a tried and tested method for installing Haloscan commenting and trackback features in your blog. Be sure...
More About: Comments , Trackbacks , Manual , Ally , Alos

More site changes (and opinions needed!)
2007-09-05 00:49:00
As many of you will have already noticed, I have recently created a new site for Bloggers: Blogger Buster Tools. This sub-domain features loads of useful tools for bloggers, so please take a look if you haven't already visited!I will shortly be redesigning the header for this blog to include a button link to this great resource site to replace the "about" and "contact" buttons. I also have another idea which I would greatly appreciate your opinions on... As I now have quite a selection of templates available for download, I am considering creating a new blog hosted on a sub-domain of Blogger Buster to showcase only the templates. I think this will make it much easier for you all to search through templates by theme. It will also make it easier for me to provide the templates as text files which you can copy and paste. This new blog will be available from this main site, and also on it's own sub-domain (something like templates.bloggerbuster.com). Of course, I will still announ...
More About: Opinions , Site , Chang , Chan

"Gourmet Menu" themed template available for download
2007-09-05 00:27:00
I have just finished work on a rather interesting template called "Gourmet Menu ", which you can see as a screenshot below: This is a food themed template, featuring a complementary label cloud and customizable fonts. You can preview this template in action on the Gourmet Menu Demonstration Blog. All images are hosted by Blogger Buster, so you only need to install the XML template.You can download the Gourmet Menu template using the link below. This download is a zip file, which also includes a help file to assist in customizing the template.Download Gourmet Menu Template hereYou are free to modify this template as you wish. However, I do ask that you leave the credits intact within the XML template. Please do not redistribute this template without credit to the original author. A link back to Blogger Buster is always appreciated!For more free Blogger templates, be sure to visit the Blogger Templates section of this site.Technorati Tags: blogger+templates | downloads | food+theme
More About: Available

Free Tools for Bloggers!
2007-09-02 20:27:00
For the past few weeks I've been working on a great new resource site for Bloggers : Blogger Buster Tools ! I'm happy to announce that the site is finally online and available for use, with a great variety of tools to help you make the most of your blogs. Resources include: RSS Button maker Pagerank checker Blog/News Headlines widgets Color CalculatorMore tools will be added to the site as I am able to develop them. You can find a complete list of available tools on site. I will be adding new tools and resources as they are developed, which I will announce both here and on the Blogger Buster Tools site. If you find Blogger Buster tools useful, please help generate awareness of this new blogging resource by Digging the site, telling your friends or linking to the site from your blog.If have any suggestions for future tools, please let me know by leaving a comment below or sending me an email.Technorati Tags: blogging+resources | tools | widgets | pagerank | rss | images
More About: Free

How to add BlogThis! links to each of your blog posts
2007-08-31 17:37:00
In a previous post, I explained how to add a Blog This! button to your browser links bar. In this post, I will explain how you can also add this link to your blog posts. This will allow your readers to blog about your posts without having to visit their Blogger dashboard, and can assist in publicizing your blog. First, let me explain how the BlogThis! function works.The BlogThis! function uses javascript to acquire the url and title of the page you are looking at, sends this to Blogger and also sends you to the posting page in your Blogger dashboard.So, if you were reading this post from my blog's homepage and wanted to blog about it, the url sent to Blogger would be www.bloggerbuster.com and the title would be Blogger Buster. Since you are reading this post on the "post page", the url would be that of this particular blog post, and the title will be "How to add BlogThis! links to each of your blog posts".With this in mind, you should understand that it is much better for the B...
More About: Links , Posts

Add a "BlogThis" button to your toolbar
2007-08-31 11:37:00
"BlogThis!" is an easy way to make a blog post without having to visit your Blogger dashboard. It can come in very useful of you find a web page or blog post you want to blog about straight away. The easiest way to use the "BlogThis!" function is to add a BlogThis button to your browser's link bar. There are two ways you can do this: Create a link in your existing linkbar If you use the Google Toolbar , enable the BlogThis link in the toolbar menuWhen you click on the BlogThis! button, a small pop-up screen will appear which contains a link to the page you are on including the title of the page (as it appears in the top left corner of your browser). You can then add more text to the post and publish your post without even having to visit Blogger.com! The pop-up box should look something like this: You can experiment with the BlogThis! function by clicking on the link below. This link functions in the same way as the link bar BlogThis! link.BlogThis!Here's how to create a BlogTh...
More About: Button

"Mobile" (tech-style) Blogger template available for download
2007-08-30 16:57:00
This is the first "technology" style template I have created, which features a clean and simple layout with a mobile phone in the header background. here's a screenshot for you: You can see a demonstration of this template on the Mobile Template demonstration blog.This template also features: Optional "expandable posts" (script provided by Ramani) Hidden Blogger Nav-Bar Complementary Label cloud AddThis social bookmark buttons at the end of each post Fully customizable (fonts, colors, etc) To download this template, please use the link below. This is a zip file which also contains a help file and the template for use with the selective expandable posts.Download "Mobile" Blogger TemplateAll images featured in this template are hosted by Blogger Buster; you do not need to upload images to your own hosting provider.You are free to modify this template as you wish; however, I do ask that you keep the authorship credits intact within the template. A link back to Blogger Buster is a...
More About: Tech , Style

Rounders 4 Three Column Template for download
2007-08-29 18:05:00
I have now uploaded the Rounders 4 three column template for you to download. Additional features include a customized label cloud and Addthis social bookmarking buttons beneath each post. Here's a screenshot for you: You can see a demonstration of this template in the Rounders 4 demonstration blog.To download this template, right click on the link below and choose "Save As..."Download Rounders 4 Three column templateFor more free Blogger templates, please visit the Temp late s sectionTechnorati Tags: blogger+templates | download | rounders
More About: Column