Blogger Tutorial 3 of 10: Finding a focus - what are you going to write about? Why?

In this post I'll walk you through the "About Me" or "Profile" section of your blog, and at the end give you a hint on how you can create a more in-depth profile and link it to your sidebar. Check my expanded page here (see it at the end of my "About Me" section) .

There is no magic here, just make sure you enter as much information as you feel comfortable sharing. I'm simply going to walk you from the top of the page to the bottom, modifying the most important things on the list. Believe it or not, when people read your blog, they do check out your "About Me" page.

Edit Your Profile

1. Login to Your Blogger account at www.Blogger.com
2. To the right of the screen, you'll see your name and a link to "Edit Profile". Click there.
3. Under the "Privacy" heading, check the box marked "Share my profile"
4. If you are an author or well known business person, using the blog to promote yourself, by all means go ahead and use your real name. However, a word of caution if you are blogging about more personal matters (especially anything related to your employer which I DO NOT recommend), you may want to come up with a screen name.
5. If you set up an email account just for the blog, certainly let people see it by checking "Show my email address".
6. Next "Display Name" enter your first name, full name, screen name, or any combination you feel comfortable with.
7. Under "Photograph" you can enter a URL where your photo is stored. If you need to post a photo online somewhere, click on the "find out how to get free photo hosting" link and Google will walk you through the process. If you're camera shy, you can always add an avatar, like the ones generated by Yahoo.
   
8. If you're posting your picture, you might as well select your gender. I have no idea what this setting does, except maybe give some marketing insight to Google.
9. "Homepage URL" - if you have another website, this is the perfect place to promote it. If your blog is your website, simply enter your blog's address here.
10. The rest of the questions and fields, well, they speak for themselves.

REMEMBER: Hit the orange "Save Profile" button at the bottom of the page once you're done!

Creating a More In-Depth Profile

To post a more in-depth profile follow these steps:

1. Create a new post titled "About Me" or "About Susie Jones" (whatever describes you best) and write - as much as you want. You can even post a number of pictures, links, whatever you'd like.
   
2. Publish your post.
3. Click on the title of your post. This will take you to the unique page for that post.
4. Copy the URL in the address bar of your browser.
5. At the top of the page, in the upper right you'll see your email address, click on the word "Customize" next to that (you must be logged in or you will not see the word "Customize" - if you're not logged in, do so now, and click on "Layout" under your blog's name in the Dashboard, which is in the middle of the screen).
6. Now you are looking at your site's template. You should be seeing a brown window with some text in the middle of the page with your blog's title and other page elements. This is the outline of your blog's various components.
   
7. To add the item to the sidebar, click on "Add a Page Element" which is in blue underlined text. A small window will pop-up (if it doesn't, check your pop-up blocker).
8. Select "Add a link".
9. A window will appear where you can add text and the URL of your "About Me" post. Paste the URL from your expanded "About Me" post (# 4 above).
   
10. Viola! A new, expanded, improved, perfect "About Me" link in your sidebar. (Ps. If you want to change the positioning of the link, simply drag and drop under the "Page Element" section of the "Template" tab.)

Enjoy! The next tutorial 3 of 10 will be published on Friday. If you try the advanced "About Me", post your link so I can take a look.

The Next Tutorial Article:

Blogger Tutorial 3 of 10: Finding a focus - what are you going to write about? Why?