How to Add a Top Sidebar to a Minima Stretch Template for New Blogger?

This blog is using Minima Stretch template. I have customized the look of this blog a lot. Now I want to add a top sidebar to this template. How can that be done? Actually it is not so hard than I thought. The following steps describe how I've accomplished this task.

• Always backup your template before you do anything. Go to http://www.blogger.com/home. Click on a down arrow that will show more options. See the screenshot below:
  
• A list of choices will show up. Click on Template. See the screenshot below:
  
• It will lead you to the next screen. On the upper right corner, click on Backup/Restore. See the screenshot below:
  
• Next a popup window will appear. Click on an orange button Download full template to save your file to your PC. See the screenshot below:
  
• After that close the popup window. Next click on Edit HTML. See the screenshot below:
  
• Another popup window will open. It will allow you to edit your html. See the screenshot below:
  
• Next hold Ctrl and hit F at the same time to bring up a search bar. Type #sidebar-wrapper { in the text field to find the following code:
  

  #sidebar-wrapper { width: 160px; margin-right: 15px; float: right; overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */ }

• Next add the following code above it. See it in red below:
  

  #topsidebar-wrapper { width:330px; //pick your own width here float: top; overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */ } #sidebar-wrapper { width: 160px; margin-right: 15px; float: right; overflow: hidden; /* fix for long non-text content breaking IE sidebar float */ }

• Then hold Ctrl and hit F at the same time again. Type <div id='sidebar-wrapper'> in the text field to find the following code:
  

  <div id="sidebar-wrapper"> <b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'/> </div>

• Add the following code above it. See it in red below:
  

  <div id='topsidebar-wrapper'> <b:section class='sidebar' id='topsidebar' preferred='yes'/> </div> <div id="sidebar-wrapper"> <b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'/> </div>

• Finally click on an orange button Save template to save it. See the screenshot below:
  

In order to understand the above steps, you must read How to Expand Your Minima Strech Template? before you apply these steps. Otherwise some parts maybe confusing and you may not understand it. Anyway would you like to add a top sidebar to your Minima Stretch template? Tell us why or why not in our comment section.

How to Redirect an Old Feedburner Feed to a New Feed?

Lately I changed my blog title, but then my Feedburner feed name doesn't reflect the new blog title name. Instead of feeds.feedburner.com/LearningMyFirstOnlineBusiness I wanted to change it to be feeds.feedburner.com/MeaningfulBlog. How can I change it without losing my existing feed?

There are three steps that I need to accomplish this task:

1. First I need to burn a new Feedburner feed using my original blog feed as my source. I name it MeaningfulBlog


2. Second I need to update the source of my old Feedburner feed (used to be my original blog feed) to be feeds.feedburner.com/MeaningfulBlog (my new feed). Make sure you save the change. 


3. Third I need to go back to my old Feedburner feed, click on "Delete Feed..." It says

   You are about to permanently delete the feed: Learning My First Online Business. If you complete this action, your feed and ALL associated statistical history and service benefits will be deleted. You have the option for this feed address to permanently redirect to the currently configured source feed.

   Make sure you tick the box next to "With permanent redirection". After that hit Delete Feed button.

So now my old feed, feeds.feedburner.com/LearningMyFirstOnlineBusiness, is permanently redirected to my new feed, feeds.feedburner.com/MeaningfulBlog. I checked it out and it works.

How to Migrate Joomla! 1.0.x to Joomla! 1.5.x?

I am still using Joomla 1.0.15 for one of my sites. Now I am thinking to upgrade it to Joomla! 1.5.x. The reason being is Joomla! 1.0.x is no longer supported. Also hackers can hack the older version of Joomla! easily. So it is time for me to move on. I know it is not easy but I have to do it...I will write down the steps along the way. Here they are...

• Backup all my files of Joomla! 1.0.15 to my desktop through FTP
• Login to my hosting cPanel
• Click on phpMyAdmin to export my database to my desktop
• Download Joomla! 1.5.24 from Download Joomla! to my desktop
• Download the Migrator component to my desktop
• Install the Migrator component to my existing Joomla! 1.0.15 site
• Login to my Joomla! 1.0.15 backend
• Click on Components/Migrator
• Then click on Create Migration SQL File
• Next click on Start Migration >>
• Then click on Download to save SQL Dump from my Joomla! 1.0.15 to my desktop
• Next make a clean Joomla 1.5.24 installation in a new folder for instance internet
• Then upload Joomla! 1.5.24 to http://www.mywebsite.com/internet
• Next type that url in my browser to run the installtion
• Then choose my language and click on Next
• Next check whether everything is okay if not it should be corrected and click on Next
• Then read GNU General Public License and click on Next
• Next go to my server and create a new database. Jot down the username and password for the next step.
• Then fill in Database Type, Host Name, Username, Password, and Database Name and click on Next
• Next fill in FTP user, FTP Password, FTP Root Path for FTP Configuration and click on Next
• Then for Main Configuration fill in Site Name, I leave Your Email, Admin Username, Admin Password, and Confirm Admin Password blank. 
• Next I have to tick next to the Load Migration Script option, fill in the old table prefix jos_, leave the Old Site Encoding the way it is, browse the Joomla 1.0.x migration dump that I downloaded earlier, tick next to This script is a Joomla! 1.0 migration script, and hit Upload and execute button
• Then I see "Migration successful. Press Next to continue". So I just click on Next
• Finally I have to remove installation folder
  

After that I find out my Joomla! 1.0.x theme is not compatible with Joomla! 1.5.x. Also my images, my favicon, all my components are gone. So I have to work hard to get them back.

P.S. I try to migrate to Joomla! 1.7.x directly but it will not allow me to do so. So instead I have to migrate to Joomla! 1.5.x instead. My next post will be How to Upgrade Joomla! 1.5.x to Joomla! 1.7.x. So stay tune for that...

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Few Valuable Tips On Improving Search Engine Ranking?

The purpose of launching a website is to promote the services and the products that you are aiming to business. If your traffic to the website is not high then your whole marketing purpose does not yield very promising returns. So "How do I make my website more search engine friendly?" Let us look at few basic tips on improving search engine ranking.

Valuable Content: This is one of the most important aspects that should be considered. Your site should be loaded with lot of valuable content. The search engine crawlers that crawls the web pages after regular intervals keep on updating their data, and can differentiate the good content from the bad one. They do not penalize the site but in order to be more search engine friendly and for improving search engine ranking you need to have original and unique content that is keyword rich.

Keyword is a very common for an Internet user. It is also a very critical aspect and help improves the search engine rankings. Keyword is basically the word that users use to make their query on the search engine window. If you your content are keyword rich and you are targeting the right keyword then it will remarkably improve your page ranking for that particular keyword. So it is very important that you use a keyword analytical tool to know the most common words for searches that user uses.

Meta tags also are very important deciding factor. By adding keywords to the meta tags makes your content rich. Some people believe that method has is outdated but it is still a viable way to improve your ranking.

If you do not have a sitemap on your website then you might just be reducing your chances of achieving higher page rank. It is used as a guiding tool that helps the crawlers to crawl all the pages of the website in much easier and faster way. And once all the pages in the website are crawled, it is indexed in the search engine, which eventually helps in achieving a much better page rank.

We cannot talk about page rank without discussing about the link building. It is the most important aspect of SEO and is a very good tool for improving search engine ranking. Every relevant link that is created adds to the popularity of the website. The more links you generate the better it is. It is good for your website if you are able to build links with website already having a better page ranking then you.

Boosting your website ranking will help you have more traffic to your website, which means that your chances of converting business leads are increased and it helps in increasing profit. Hence for any business house to be able to generate more profit needs to concentrate on improving their website structure and make it more search engine friendly so that it get ranked high on search engine index.

By Sheryl Bocelli

About the author: There are millions of sites in the Internet especially if you check prominent search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN. This is why you need to find ways for improving search engine ranking of your website to draw the attention of online visitors. Or you need to check how to be at the top search engine ranking.