5 Cool Recent Post Widgets For Blogger

For bloggers that pride themselves on always staying up-to-date with new content, a recent post widget for Blogger can be an invaluable tool. A recent posts widget for blogger is in many ways similar to a ‘breaking news alert’ that journalists love to use during their reports, providing the most recent and relevant posts that you have to offer.

Adding a recent post widget for Blogger helps to reduce the dependency on email marketing, because you don’t have to send out an email just to let people know you made a new post. Instead, it updates automatically for everyone to see. You can then use this information to design scheduled email newsletters, and take advantage of what’s often referred to as the ‘Twitter effect’ where audiences will regularly check back on your site for the possibility that new posts are available. Without this, you force people to do run their own search for information and content, increasing the likelihood that they’ll leave the site and hurt your bounce rate.

Once you’ve managed to attract visitors to one of your posts using the recent post widget for Blogger, it will continue to act as an accessible secondary resource to navigate around your site. That way, you can avoid having them sifting through old content that might be outdated. If you’d rather show off some of your best posts instead of your most recent posts, you can do that instead, or add that feature to the bar with just a few alterations.

Apart from looking great and taking up minimal space, there are too many benefits for you not to have a recent post widget for Blogger. The best part about these add-ons is that they come in a wide variety of designs that will fit any theme.

If you’re interested in adding a widget to your site, here are 5 cool recent post widgets that might catch your eye and fit perfectly with your Blogger template:

How to Add Recent Posts Widget on Blogger

Want to add one of the styles above? Just follow the following steps below:

Log into your Blogger dashboard and click on your blog.
Go to “Layout” and click the “Add a gadget” link on the right side.
From the pop-up window, scroll down and select the “HTML/JavaScript” gadget:
Paste the code of the chosen widget found below it.
Hit the “Save” button and you’re done!

Keep Your Blog Updated

Using a recent post widget for Blogger can truly benefit you and improve your skill as a blogger. As you can see, these designs can look great on Blogger sites, but they do act a little bit like a progress report for the author. If you start to fall behind, the dates on your recent post widget will definitely give you away.

Set a schedule and make sure that you are making regular posts on the blog. These posts will be automatically updated on your widget and readers can view this information whenever they want. Add your recent post widget for Blogger on the every page of the blog or in your template so that these posts can encourage others to continue reading, thus increasing the total time spent on your site.

How To Add An Instagram Widget In A Blogger Blog

If you’re not familiar with Instagram, it’s a photo-sharing network that can be downloaded to your smart phone as an application. Think of it as Facebook without the status updates. By developing a simple service that does one thing, and does it well, Instagram has become one of the most prominent photo sharing apps on the market.

The great thing about using Instagram is that it’s not just for individuals. Businesses and non-profits alike can take advantage of this service to share their day and passions with their dedicated customers and fans. These fans number nearly 200 million active users a month, and approximately 7.3 million new daily posts. That’s an astonishing number of potential new customers available for you to capture.

By adding Instagram on Blogger as a widget, you can unleash a new visual aspect of that site and allow visitors to go beyond just words on a page. With the convenience to carry the application around on your smartphone wherever you go, you can snap pictures, apply filters, and upload that content to your profile. From the profile, a widget specially designed for Instagram on Blogger would translate that data and display the image on your site. Even those visitors that aren’t members of Instagram could benefit from such a service.

It doesn’t matter what you are sharing. Whether you’re the type of person that loves to share pictures of your dinner with the world, or business owner that loves showcasing their brand in everyday life, Instagram can work for you. Adding Instagram on Blogger as a widget also offers an incredibly accessible tool for stock photos to use in new posts.

This guide will explain how to add an Instagram widget to your site with step-by-step instructions. The design of your new Instagram widget is entirely customizable and will allow you to modify the background color, font, and how the widget is actually displayed on the site. When you’re finished, you’ll find that the Instagram widget will blend together effortlessly with your current theme and make your Blogger site truly stand out from the rest.

How to Add An Instagram Widget in Blogger

1. To get the Instagram widget, access the Intagme website here: http://www.intagme.com/

2. Type in your username > select Grid or Slideshow:

3. Select the Thumbnail size of your images (100px is the default) and choose if you want a border around your Photos or not

4. To change the Background Color, simply click on the empty box and pick your favorite color

5. If you want to show the Sharing buttons on your widget, select ‘Yes’, otherwise, click ‘No’.

6. Once you’re satisfied with the widget, press the “Get Code” button and copy your code.

7. Log into your Blogger account and select your blog > navigate to Layout and click on the “Add a Gadget” link on the right side:

8. In the pop-up window, scroll down and click on the “HTML/JavaScript” gadget:

9. Paste the code that you got from the Intagme website into the content section and press the ‘Save’ button to save the widget.

10. Click and drag your widget if you want to change its position and press the “Save Arrangement” button on the upper right side.

And that’s it! Now you have your very own Instagram widget on your Blogger blog to share new photos with visitors, and provide just a glimpse of your life when you’re away from the computer. To change or add any of the photos that are displayed in the widget, you’ll have to go directly through the app itself, or log on to your account via Instagram’s website.

Once you’re ready to show off your new work, let all your customers or fans know by posting a Facebook link to the site or a tweet about the changes and asking them to follow you. Just make sure that you’ve added a few photos before making the announcement, so that they have something to look at. After they access your widget, they can like your new photos and interact with you in entirely new ways.

Automatic Featured Posts Slider Widget For Blogger

Anyone with a blog wants readers to stay rather than move on to another. It’s not being selfish but after someone has read one post, you’d definitely want them to read another, right? After all, isn’t it one of the tenets of SEO to make people stay longer on your blog if it has to have a fighting chance at the rankings game?

The question now is: how exactly do you entice them to read a few more of your blog posts?

First off, you don’t know exactly what brought a reader to your site. Well, you sort of do, if you have Google Analytics and all that. But that’s beside the point. It wouldn’t be productive for you to stare at GA the entire day hoping that it will tell you that yes, someone has been perusing your blog.

The point being driven at here is that you have to offer more on your blog. It’s not enough that you get traffic from search engines and other sites; you also have to add some extras that will entice visitors to stay longer.

How exactly do you do that?

The Tactics of Persuading Users to Stay

Bloggers have employed a variety of tactics to persuade readers to stay. For one, they load the sidebar with widgets for Popular Posts, for example. Of course, it would be in the interest of your readers to know which other posts on your blog are gaining traction. Maybe those pieces are of interest to them as well. As a result, you’ve got one surefire way of making readers stay.

Now, what if you want to highlight Featured Posts, for example? Let’s say that your blog has been around for a number of years and in that span, it has produced some great content that received quite the number of shares, likes, +1s, comments on so on. Wouldn’t that be the kind of post you want featured? Unless your reader was looking for that topic specifically, there’s little chance that they might uncover that gem if you don’t bring it to their attention.

Thankfully, it’s quite possible to add a Featured Posts slider for Blogger. And if you don’t know how to make one yourself, this is exactly what this post is for. Here’s an awesome Featured Posts slider widget that you can use on your blog.

Demo

How to Add Featured Posts Slider Widget in Blogger

1. Go to ‘Layout’ > click the ‘Add a gadget’ link in the sidebar area and select ‘HTML/JavaScript’ gadget from the pop-up window.

2. Add the code below inside the empty box:

ul.featured-widget-list,ul.featured-widget-list li{margin:0;padding:0;list-style:none;position:relative }ul.featured-widget-list li{display:none}ul.featured-widget-list li:nth-child(1){display:block;line-height:0}ul.featured-widget-list img{border:0;width:100%;height:auto}ul.featured-widget-list .featuredbg{width:100%;height:100%;position:absolute;z-index:2;left:0;top:0;opacity:.6;background-image:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xYcCNrcnTNWee7JpsdHu1DUMSjLwE-Wwmp1Vo0Cb-5i2okkL-ltU_fDOVylXzY7-rdbnvn3bwdfWIvhN8wNgbM6IfUhLHSJ1QnUz2n1EKL7QrqtQu2Uh3zqY23DZB3uPo87zey3xP20/s400/overlay-bg.png);background-position:0% 100%;background-repeat:repeat-x}ul.featured-widget-list .featuredbg:hover{opacity:.1}ul.featured-widget-list h5{position:absolute;left:0;right:0;text-align:center;bottom:10px;z-index:2;color:#fff;margin:0;text-transform: capitalize;padding:10px 20px;line-height:1.9em;letter-spacing:0.3px;font: 600 16px ‘Abel’, sans-serif;overflow:hidden}ul.featured-widget-list li:hover h5{bottom:30px}ul.featured-widget-list .featured-meta{font: 11px ‘Abel’, sans-serif;letter-spacing:0.3px;position:absolute;bottom:0;left:0;right:0;text-align:center;z-index:2;color:#fff;opacity:0}ul.featured-widget-list h5, ul.featured-widget-list .featured-meta {-webkit-transition: all 0.3s;-moz-transition: all 0.3s;-o-transition: all 0.3s;transition: all 0.3s;}ul.featured-widget-list li:hover .featured-meta{bottom:20px;opacity:1}.feat-buttons{position:absolute;top:50%;left:0;z-index:5;width:100%}
.feat-buttons a{text-indent:-9999px;margin:0 7px;width:15px;height:15px;padding:5px;background:#000;-ms-filter:”progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(Opacity=60)”;filter: alpha(opacity=60);-moz-opacity:0.6;-khtml-opacity:0.6;opacity:0.6;position:relative;-webkit-border-radius: 50%;-moz-border-radius: 50%;border-radius: 50%;}.feat-prev{float:left;}.feat-next{float:right;}.feat-buttons a.feat-prev::before, .feat-buttons a.feat-next::before{content:””;width:0;height:0;border-width:6px 7px;border-style:solid;border-color:transparent #fff transparent transparent;position:absolute;top:50%;margin-top:-6px;margin-left:-11px;left:50%}
.feat-buttons a.feat-next::before{border-color:transparent transparent transparent #fff;margin-left:-3px}

//<![CDATA[
featuredbwidget({
listURL:”https://helplogger.blogspot.com/”,
featuredNum:9,
listbyLabel:false,
feathumbSize:350,
interval:3000,
autoplay:true,
featuredID:”#featuredbwidget”
});
function featuredbwidget(a){(function(e){var h={listURL:””,featuredNum:3,featuredID:””,feathumbSize:300,interval:5000,autoplay:false,loadingFeatured:”nextfeatured”,pBlank:”https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL-HKGMbN4lhifWz37o83dbEiXjZvmygWZ2ZkBjvACHCKc1_hJ2acw7PlNWJ3d3pvYFfPC8IATHKHUmvtWpcRSJcBdazEraoM0c5G_QoSB3sA1-gzXdWBVJEmXpTBDvLQrj3mAkGnVtUI/s500/no-image.png”,byMonth:[“Jan”,”Feb”,”Mar”,”Apr”,”May”,”Jun”,”Jul”,”Aug”,”Sep”,”Oct”,”Nov”,”Dec”],listbyLabel:false};h=e.extend({},h,a);var g=e(h.featuredID);var d=h.featuredNum*200;g.html(‘

Prev Next

‘);var f=function(w){var q,k,m,u,x,p,t,v,r,l=””,s=w.feed.entry;for(var o=0;o<s.length;o++){for(var n=0;n<s[o].link.length;n++){if(s[o].link[n].rel=="alternate"){q=s[o].link[n].href;break}}if("media$thumbnail" in s[o]){u=s[o].media$thumbnail.url.replace(/\/s[0-9]+\-c/g,"/s"+h.feathumbSize+"-c")}else{u=h.pBlank.replace(/\/s[0-9]+(\-c|\/)/,"/s"+h.feathumbSize+"$1")}k=s[o].title.$t;r=s[o].published.$t.substring(0,10);m=s[o].author[0].name.$t;x=r.substring(0,4);p=r.substring(5,7);t=r.substring(8,10);v=h.byMonth[parseInt(p,10)-1];l+='

‘+k+’

‘+t+’ ‘+v+’ ‘+x+’ – ‘+m+”

“}e(“ul”,g).append(l).addClass(h.loadingFeatured)};var c=function(){e(h.featuredID+” .feat-next”).click()};var b=function(){e.get((h.listURL===””?window.location.protocol+”//”+window.location.host:h.listURL)+”/feeds/posts/summary”+(h.listbyLabel===false?””:”/-/”+h.listbyLabel)+”?max-results=”+h.featuredNum+”&orderby=published&alt=json-in-script”,f,”jsonp”);setTimeout(function(){e(h.featuredID+” .feat-prev”).click(function(){e(h.featuredID+” .featslider li:first”).before(e(h.featuredID+” .featslider li:last”));return false});e(h.featuredID+” .feat-next”).click(function(){e(h.featuredID+” .featslider li:last”).after(e(h.featuredID+” .featslider li:first”));return false});if(h.autoplay){var i=h.interval;var j=setInterval(c,i);e(h.featuredID+” .featslider li:first”).before(e(h.featuredID+” .featslider li:last”));e(h.featuredID+” .featslider”).hover(function(){clearInterval(j)},function(){j=setInterval(c,i)})}e(“ul”,g).removeClass(h.loadingFeatured)},d)};e(document).ready(b)})(jQuery)};
//]]>

Automatic Featured Posts Slider Settings

listURL – replace “https://helplogger.blogspot.com/” with your blog URL
featuredNum – add the number of posts to display in the slider
listbyLabel – if you want to display posts by category / label, such as the tag fashion, it will be written as listbyLabel: “fashion”
feathumbSize – the size or dimension of the image in pixels
interval – time taken to change the slides position in milliseconds
autoplay – replace true with false if you don’t want the slides to change automatically.

3. Once you are done with the settings, click the ‘Save’ button.

Now, this code is for a slider widget which means that instead of just a random list of Featured Posts, you get to display them with images (if they have one) and you can include effects too. You can also control how many slides should be shown because it just wouldn’t be prudent to feature your entire oeuvre, right?

Plus, being a slider widget, it adds a nice little visual to your site. And we all know how visuals are important in enticing people to stay, don’t we?

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Tag: Widgets

5 Cool Recent Post Widgets For Blogger

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