My daily treat: How I got to enjoy YouTube again

I used to watch you a lot of YouTube videos before. In the past, not a day was spent without religiously checking YouTube homepage to see if any of the lovely people I was subscribed to on YouTube had made any new videos. Then I got more serious about blogging and I got behind with my YouTube activity, making videos and watching them, that is. By the time, I was ready to watch some YouTube again, YouTube had made some serious changes to the homepage that it really put me off visiting the homepage, let alone watching videos. More space was given to videos 'recommended to me' rather than the stuff I actually subscribed to, it is not possible anymore to remove select content from your subs box (you used to be able to do that by crossing clicking the X on the corner of each video) even more annoying adverts, the list goes on...


And then my lovely friend Liz aka @MidnightDraven showed me a rather genius way to keep up with my YouTube subscriptions. It's nothing revolutionary, some of you might already be using this but for me, it is all kinds of awesome.






Ok, Get on with it. What is it then?
It's very easy. It involves installing an add-on or extension to your internet browser.

Not any browser, mind you. You need to install Google Chrome if you haven't got it already. Before all this, I didn't even have Chrome. In fact, I don't even like Chrome and I still do most of my browsing through Internet Explorer but this little add-on/extension made me my installation of Chrome a million times worth it.

The extension is simply called YouTube Feed, available for free in the Chrome Web Store and you can download it here.





They say: “This extension notifies you instantly whenever new videos are available in your YouTube Homepage Feed. These are videos that your friends or subscriptions have uploaded, favorited, liked, commented on, etc” I am not too bothered (read: I couldn't care less) about what the people I am subbed to favorited, liked and so on so I've changed the settings so that the thing tells me only about new videos.


Once you've installed the extension, you should see the little YouTube logo in the right hand side corner of your Chrome Browser. And once logged in, you can have a look at all the new videos from your subscriptions. No need to go on homepage, no adverts, no recommended rubbish, just the stuff you have subscribed to. It's simple, it's quick, it's effective and it's my daily treat when I come back from work.



Thank you very much again, Liz :)
What about you? Do you use Google Chrome?
Any Chrome extensions which changed your life?

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Measuring your blog traffic: Google Analytics for dummies

Do you blog? If you do and if you’ve been blogging for a while and even if it's just a personal outlet for you, I think it's sometimes nice to see which ones of your posts have been popular. It's a feel good thing. Of course, you can measure that by the amount of comments you get to your posts but it's not very fair. There are plenty of other reasons why you might not get as many comments as you would like on your blog.





The kids in the know seem to use Google Analytics to gather a mine of information about their blog and measure the buzz and traffic their blog posts are generating. How does Google Analytics work? How do you get it to track your blog? What can it tell you? Is it easy, is it reliable? Maria, from Miss Drifted Snow White Blog has written an absolute gem of a how-to article for 'dummies' on Google Analytics, to gentle you easily into the world of blog traffic tracking. The operative word here is 'easy'.


If you are interested about getting to know about the traffic of your own blog and a bit of a technophobe like me, it's a must read.

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Help! My Google Friend Connect box has gone. How to create an alternative GFC button

Blogger has been a right pain in the bum working not very well lately. As if Blogger being down on Thursday 12 and Friday 13 May  was not bad enough, users have been experiencing trouble with leaving comments on blogs and even responding to  the comments left by others on their blog. Blogger is aware of it and they're trying to fix it. I hope they're sweating hard to fix it, as the temptation to move to wordpress is getting bigger.

There is another  glitch happening at the moment which Blogger has yet to acknowledge and I am left to wonder whether it's meant to  be like that from now on: The Google Friend Connect box seems to have disappeared. Whether this is going to be a  permanent feature, I don't know but what I do know is that lots of you are quite upset about it.


Personally I couldn't  wait to get rid of my Google Friend Connect box: I just hated being judged on the number of Google Friend Connect  followers I had. I know that people can still find out how many followers I have but it is not as  straightforward as before and I feel happier about it.


My lovely friend Bicky has written a lovely post about why she hates is not a fan of that contentious GFC box and thanks to her  video and help on twitter I was able to do an alternative GFC button and still allow new visitors to follow me  through Google Friend Connect.


Do you need that Google Friend Connect box anyway? People can still follow you through Google Friend Connect  thanks to the navbar at the top, right?


That box is not compulsory for people to be able to follow you. And yes, people can start following your blog using the navbar but not everyone is  aware of that bar and what it can do for you. At the end of the day, you need to give people what they want.  Getting more readers / followers is hard work and you don't want to put them off because their preferred option of following your blog is not showing. If your readers want to have a button to click on and that is all it takes  for them to follow your blog, GIVE THEM A BUTTON. Make it easy for them. Also, some Blogger users may have had  their navbar removed for aesthetic purposes, so you can't always rely on that navbar to be there. Sometimes,  even when the navbar is on, the 'follow' link is not even there!!! {I am looking at you Internet Explorer}

So how do you get/install/create an alternative Google Friend Connect button?


It's not too much hard work actually and follows a very simple concept:

1. Grabbing from the navbar the short line of code which, when clicked on, enables your visitors to follow your blog
2. Creating a picture which could say for example 'click here to follow me on Google Friend Connect’
3. Creating a widget/gadget where you are going to insert that picture with the 'follow' link. No need to tinker too much with your main template and have great knowledge of html. woop.

Need more help? Read on. The following explains in baby language the 3 steps you need to follow and it is not meant to be patronising.
I'm going to assume you have not removed your navbar. If you have purposefully removed it, I am going to assume  that you know what you're doing and that you will remember how to get it back. 

	Grabbing the 'follow' code from your navbar Sometimes Blogger (on internet explorer) goes off on one and won't display the 'follow' link. You'll have to refresh the page, or log in again, or open your blog with a different browser until you see your navbar display the 'follow' link properly as shown below: -- Click on FOLLOW. This will in turn display a line of code in the address bar of your browser (at this stage you don't have to follow your blog  if you don't want to) we're only doing this to see the line of code. -- Select that line of code, copy and paste it in a word document or text document (right click on the link to copy the code)
	Creating or choosing a picture for your alternative Google Friend Connect button If you have no skills whatsoever in Photoshop or similar programme, by all means feel free to pinch one of the pictures below, or all of them if you want. Although they are not the nicest pictures.  Bicky has done her DIY button to match her template and is just so pretty. transparent on white background:       transparent on dark background:        You don't have to have that Google logo in there, but the Google logo will make people feel at home  and immediately recognise it. If you are going to create a picture, and if you want to put this picture in your  sidebar, please make sure that the width of the picture is not bigger than the width of your actual sidebar. If  it is blogger will shrink it like a bastard find a way to shrink it no matter what and it will look horrible and you won’t be able to sleep at night.
	Add the widget/gadget -- Click on design, then page elements, then ADD A GADGET and choose to add the PICTURE gadget. The rest is pretty self explanatory: -- Where it says 'link' paste that line of code you retrieved before and pasted into a temporary document -- Upload your picture (if you choose to use one of my pictures, please be considerate to my bandwidth. Download the  picture first, save it on your drive and upload it on your server, thank you) -- No need to add a title, but if you must, you can type 'follow my blog' with Google Friend Connect or something  like that. Click on SAVE and voila.

Please note this ‘new’ DIY button won't display the number of GFC followers you have. This will be perfect for smaller bloggers who are a bit embarrassed about the number of followers they have. Bloggers with a bigger readership might get upset that they can’t show off their numbers.
If you like this 'tutorial' feel free to share it to your friends, family and pets.


Personally and on a selfish note, I am really happy that the box is gone (I have yet to ascertain whether it’s coming back) and I can’t help myself from being influenced by the number it shows. A low number will make think ‘aww, that little blogger and its 14 followers, bless her little cotton socks’. A high number will make me think ‘how did she got all of those, I am so crap in comparison wow this blogger is doing really well. And if I think like that, it’s only understandable that *some* beauty companies regrettably and frustratringly might think the same too and approach you or not accordingly.


Do you know what would be funny in an ironic way? That the wretched Google Friend Connect box reappears the minute I publish this post.

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Behind the Scenes of Blogging - Commenting Resolutions and Google Reader Readability

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I am still overwhelmed and buzzing from all the responses and feedback you left me on the poll on 'Blog Commenting'. Thank you very much again for your valuable contributions. Not only did it open my eyes but it inspired me to try to become a better blog commenter: I want to leave more comments and show my appreciation to blog posts I've enjoyed reading. I am going to check my Google reader a few times a day, mark my favourites ones and make an effort to leave some time at the end of the day to comment on these posts which caught my attention during the day and which I favorited/starred throughout the day. This was my sytem before, it worked very well, I just need to stick to it.


A few people have asked me to explain how Google reader works so I thought this post could be a good opportunity to do that. I am sorry if the following sounds a bit too baby-ish or if you already know the following information.
If you've never accessed Google Reader, this is how you could access it.
If you are using Blogger/BlogSpot, go to http://www.blogger.com/ to access your dashboard and click on the 'View in Google Reader'






Your screen should now look more or less like this. Note that I have chosen to display all my unread blog posts in a LIST format.






To read the post, simply click on the title of the post, and the whole post should open itself within the same window of Google reader. However, it's not possible to comment on a post within Google reader. For this, you'll have to click on the actual blog post as usual and do your thing there.








However, there are certain posts who only appear in a summary format within Google Reader, and need you to click on that little arrow to read the full post, and you see this to be happening, which is a little bit annoying as it defeats the object of Google Reader really:






How do you know if your blog is set up to be shown as a summary on Google reader or if your readers can read your full posts within Google Reader. Well, you could follow your own blog and see how it shows up on Google Reader or you can check the 'Site Feed Settings'.
To check/change your site feed settings
open your dashboard again,
Then SETTINGS, SITE FEED.


 





Within SITE FEED, select 'full' if you want your readers to be able the entirety of your posts within Google Reader. This is a valuable tip from Louise from Get Lippie.com who I am extremely grateful for. Thank you very much again. And then voila, your readers should be able to read your (blogger) subscriptions posts without any problems on Google Reader



What are the advantages?

- My blog is not very accessible to readers. It has white text on black background which some viewers might find straining on the eyes. Allowing readers to see my site on Reader gives them to see them on white background, without me having to give up my beloved dark background.
- Lots and Lots of people use Google Reader to view your posts: very easy, very quick and for me the best way to keep on top of the content of my 250+ subscriptions. If your site appears in 'summary only', it's one click further away from being read and people sometimes have so many subscriptions, they sometimes don't bother reading it, if they need clicking

Disadvantages


As I see it, unfortunately viewing posts in Google readers doesn't allow you to comment on posts. If you were on the actual blog itself, you would just go the comments box at the bottom and do your thing. Readers are already on your site, so if they want to comment, it's already there for them. However, if you read post onto Google reader, the commenting page is one click away and sometimes people have got so many subscriptions to keep track, they carry on reading the unread post below, next in line, and never click on your actual blog and leave your post.

Full? Summary? Which option is the best I don't know. For some obscure reason, my site feed was on 'summary' before but I have noticed an increase in my pages views since I have changed the settings to 'full'


This post is dedicated to lovely Ann from Girl in the City in Glasgow Blog and I hope to be able to read her posts very soon, in their gorgeous entirety in my Google reader. I hope this has been useful to some of you and that you have not found this too beginner's level or baby-ish.


If you like Google reader, make sure to save it in your favourite bar (if your browser support it) .





Then next time, you open your browser, just click the little symbol of ‘Google Reader’ and you are straight into Google Reader.





Happy Blog reading xx
liloo/@tsunimee

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