Creating a Blogger.com Profile Page

Now that you have your first post to your Blogger^TM weblog, it is time to work on the surrounding areas on your blog webpage. Let’s start with your profile. On your weblog page, there is a View My Complete Profile link in the upper right corner. This link will take your readers to your profile page. In this tutorial, we will set up the information that you wish to appear on this page. Go to the Dashboard and click on Edit Profile to open the Edit User Profile page. There you will find eight sections.

Privacy Section

In this first section, you can control what private information you wish to be displayed on your profile page. If you do not want your readers to be able to view your profile, remove the checkmark from the Share my profile box and move down to the bottom of the page to click the SAVE PROFILE button. Boy, was this a short tutorial for you. For those who do want their profile to be read, let’s move on.

Next, you have the option to display the real name and email address that you gave when you created your Blogger account. Place a checkmark in these boxes. If you have more than one blog, you might want some or all of them to be listed in your profile. Click on the Select blogs to display link to see a list of all the blogs you have created under this account. Choose the blogs from your list that you wish to be listed on your profile.

Identity Section

This section should already to completed for you from the information that you supplied when you opened your account. Verify that it is correct.

Photograph and Audio Clip

If you wish to have a self portrait included in your profile, type in the URL (http://) address for the location where the image is hosted. If you do not have an image hosted elsewhere and still want to include one, check out the link for Upload a photo. This photo will be reduce to a width of 150 pixels when it is displayed and there will be a link for the reader to view it at full size if they choose to. The Audio Clip URL input box works much the same way as the Photo URL.

General Section

The purpose of your blog will determine how much of the information in this section you wish to display. You may wish to leave blank the personal information such as gender, birthday and Froogle^TM wishlist URL if your blog is for professional purposes. However, the Homepage URL and IM Username might fit your purpose.

Location Section

As with the personal information in the General section, you may or may not wish to display the information about where you are on this planet.

Work Section

Especially for a professional blog, you will want to list your occupation and industry information. The Industry drop-down list has a list of generic choices. If none of those fit your needs, you can try to add the information as part of the Occupation information.

Extended Info Section

In this section, you will list your interests, a little description of yourself, favorite movies, music and books.

When this information is displayed, each item in these lists become links. For example, if you listed football as one of your interests, this will become a link on your profile page that will lead to a list of other bloggers who also listed football as an interest. This is a quick way for people with the same interests as yours to find your blog.

When you’re finished with the form, click the SAVE PROFILE button. When the page reloads, you will see a message saying that your settings have been saved. Click on the View Updated Profile link to verify that all went well.

Screen shots reprinted by permission from Google Inc. Google^TM, Blogger^TM and Blog*Spot^TM are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Google Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

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