Technology Tips: Add a Subscriber Feature to your Blog

Blogger.com makes it easy to add a subscriber widget to your blog so that people who want to keep up with your posts can do that easily, using GoogleReader, or NetVibes, or any of the many other RSS feed readers available. To complete this tip, you need to already have a Blogger.com blog.

STEP ONE: Access blog layout options. Go to Blogger.com, log in if needed, and click on the Layout link from your blog as listed in the Dashboard.

STEP TWO: Add a gadget. From the top of the right column, click on the link that says Add a Gadget. 

STEP THREE: Choose Subscription Links. From the list of gadget options that appears in the pop-up window, select the Subscription Links option, clicking on the blue plus sign. A new box will then pop up prompting you to give a label to the gadget box that will appear on your blog; you can accept the default title or change it to something else if you want. Click OK when you are done.

STEP FOUR: Save. The new gadget by default will appear at the top of your right column. You can drag and drop the box to put it somewhere else in the column if you prefer. When you are done, click the orange Save button.

STEP FIVE: View blog. You can now view the results of your change to the layout. Just click on the View Blog link either in the yellow box at the top of the layout, or the View Blog link to the right of the main tabs.

You should now see an easy subscription option in your blog's sidebar where people can subscribe to the posts and/or to the comments: 

When you are done, send me a link to your blog via the email. Make sure you use this subject line for the email: TechTip Blogger Subscription.

When you have sent in the email, you can do the Gradebook Declaration for Extra Credit. Here is the text of the Gradebook Declaration you will complete: