Beautify Your Blog Part 4: Custom Signature and Commenting

ok, in this episode of Beautify Your Blog, we're going to tackle the Custom Signature and show you how to adjust your Comments settings to make it easier for others to leave comments.are ya ready? but first, my disclaimers....

Huge Disclaimer: I am not the most computer savvy chic. I dropped a basic photo editing course in college after the first class because I was so overwhelmed. So needless to say, all this html and photo editing business scares the socks off me. I really don't know what I'm doing half the time. But I like to share how me, a computer handicapped person, pulled off a few blog design elements that worked for me and my blog.

2nd HUGE DISCLAIMER: (please read!) this is how I did it. I know there are plenty of better, easier, and faster ways to do this. I'm just sharing what worked for me. and I make no guarantees :)

Like all the previous Beautify Your Blog tutorials, I used picasa for my custom signature. This tutorial builds on the previous ones so if you have questions about how to do something that I refer to but do not show you how to do, please check out my other 3 Beautify Your Blog tutorials.Also note, this is for blogger and will not work in wordpress or other blog formats.

To create a custom signatture, edit a photo like I did in my linked menu tutorial.

 This is what my custom signature looks like.
I think you might be able to use the Paint program to do this too, but I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. I am not very familiar with Paint and could not figure out how to even add text. ugh. Told ya I was computer handicapped! I'll just stick with Picasa for now.

Next, you'll upload the file to Photobucket.com. After it's uploaded you'll want to copy the "direct link" photobucket provides you.

*added later: the code was cut off earlier. I'm so sorry! It's all there now, but it is a little small....*
You'll then plug your "direct link" from photobucket into the code above where it says "Your Direct Link Here". You have just created the code for your custom signature! yay! way to go! Now I'll show you how to set it up so that your signature will pop up automatically every time you create a new post.

In your dashboard, click on Settings and then Formatting. You should be looking at a screen like this.

Scroll down until you see "Post Template". Paste your custom signature code into the box (you can see my code pasted there) and click "Save Settings". And that's it. Now each time you create a post, you will have a cute signature!
*If you want your signature on your older posts, you'll have to manually go through each post and paste in the code.*

Ok, now for Commenting. I've had lots of questions on how to set Commenting up like mine. This may be old hat to some of you, but for some of us non-computer people, it can be hard to figure out. So I'm going to show you how to set yours up like mine.

This is where you want to be to fix your comment settings. To get here, click "Settings" and then "Commenting". I'll just go down the list for the most part and explain what each does and why I have mine set the way I do.

 Section                   What I have and why

Comments                                Show. I like for everyone to see other comments.

Who Can Comment                  Anyone. Lots of viewers do not have a blogger
                                               or google account. So I allow Anonymous
                                               comments. This means I get some spam but I can
                                               prevent if from getting published. I'll explain how
                                               to avoid most of them in a second. But allowing
                                               Annonymous comments allows everyone to enter
                                               my giveaways so that those who do not

                                               know/want a blogger or googgle account can still
                                               enter AND still be a part of

                                                 my blog by leaving comments.

Comment Form Placement        Pop-up Window. This makes it so that a
                                                new window pops up to leave a comment.
                                                That way, each commenter can see the
                                                original post while they're writing their comment.
                                               I like to refer back to the post sometimes to look
                                               something up for my comment. Plus you don't have
                                                to click "Forward" and "Back" to view the post
                                                which can take time depending on how fast your
                                                internet connection is.

Comments Default for Post        New Posts Have Comments. I like
                                                 comments. enough said.

Backlinks                                   Hide. I don't show all the links to this post
                                                 because some of my posts get linked back
                                                 to quite a bit and it would clutter my blog
                                                with all the links at the bottom of each post.
                                                But if you'd like to show the places where
                                                 your post has been linked, select Show.
                                              

Comments Time Stamp               March 26, 2010 11:03AM. But it doesn't
                                                   matter. Whatever you prefer. 

Comment Form Message            I ♥ comments! This is where you can leave
                                                   a message to all your commenters. To be
                                                   honest, I prefer short and sweet here. I find
                                                  that the more wordy I get, the less likely
                                                  people are to read what I write. 

Comment Moderation                Only On Posts Older than 2 Days. This is
                                                  how you evade most of the spam and enable
                                                 Comment Moderation for any comment left
                                                 on a post that is older than 2 days. I've only
                                                  had 2 spam comments get through this 

                                                  because spammers usually leave spam on
                                                  old posts.With comment moderation, I just
                                                  delete them in my dashboard so they're
                                                  never published. I don't like to enable
                                                 Comment Moderation for all comments,
                                                 because if you're like me, I like to see my 

                                                  comment published right before my eyes.
                                                  That way I know it went through and don't
                                                  leave 4 more comments with the same thing
                                                  before I realize that Comment Moderation
                                                  has been enabled.....

Show Word Verification             NO! BIG no! I hate word verifications with
                                                  a passion!! They take so much time and I can
                                                 NEVER get them right! ever. Please do me a
                                                 favor and take it off!!

Comment Notification Email       I put my email address in the box because
                                                 I {surprisingly} read every single comment you
                                                 leave :) (it's not uncommon for me to open my
                                                 email and have 100+ new emails.) I love hearing
                                                  what you have to say and I'd probably miss
                                                  comments on older posts if I did not do this.

                                        

That's what my comment settings are. Be sure to click Save Settings if you changed anything!!

One last thing about commenting is, I have fun responding to some of your comments and will reply back if your email is linked to your account. But most of you do not have your email address linked. :o( So if you'd like people to be able to respond to your comments, here's how you link your email to your account:

From your Dashboard, click on "My Account" in the upper right hand corner. Then find "Email Addresses" and click edit. Add your email address and Save.

Happy Friday!!