{FRIDAY'S GOODIES}

Have you ever looked at "Settings" and scratched your head wondering, WHAT in the world does any of this mean?! Well, before moving onto the "Gadgets", which will come soon, I think there are a few of my favorite settings, the "MUST KNOWS", if you will, about your blog. Let's run quickly through a few.

Have you ever worried about just who is looking at your blog? Did you know there is a way to go private without actually going private?!

When you have a public blog anyone who is anyone can stumble upon your blog just by searching for a topic that you may have discussed or by clicking "next blog" on the toolbar at the top of almost everyone's blog (mine is missing, on purpose). Sites like Nie Nie's Dialogues and Pioneer Woman (she started at blogger) were like this.

Now, let's figure out how to filter who gets to look at your blog. If you go into your "settings" you will find several tabs. The first tab is "Basic". Open that one. Scroll down until you see the option that says, "Add your blog to our listings?" Select the option "NO". This will ensure that no one can find your blog by selecting "Next Blog" or find it anywhere else off of Blogger.

Now the next option on that list is "Let Search Engines find your blog?" Select "No". This will make it so that no one is able to search your name or a topic you have discussed and find your blog.

We made these changes 3 years ago and have not had any problems at all since then. I love these settings because it makes it so that anyone viewing your blog must know your exact address or find the link to your blog on a friends blog. It has been fun to meet different people that are friends of friends, through blogging. Some of them I have adopted as my own {HI BROOKE} and LOVE the friendship I now have with them! There are a lot of great people out there. A lot to learn. You just can't have enough friends. I am sure of that!

If you want a little more security after selecting these options join "Feedjit" or something like it. It tells you the city name or network area of everyone that comes to your blog and where they came from. Some come through others blogs. If it says Google it is usually email links, etc. This is also fun because you get to see where people are coming from.

This also answers Carrie Norris' {HI CARRIE} question from 2 weeks ago. If you want a map with the little dots on it that show where people are coming from to view your blog you can click on my "feedjit" at the bottom of the page and download your own for your blog. Select the layout that shows the map and VOILA! Easy Huh?!

Usually if you see something on someones blog that you want, you can just click on it and it will take you to the site where you can make your own.

Make sure that after making any selections in "Settings" that you click "Save" on the bottom of the screen.

Sometimes totally private blogs are necessary. However, if it seems to be a pain, but you want to be protected just make these changes and if it ever becomes a problem change it back. Again, no problems here for 3 years! One of the funnest parts about having a blog is finding old friends. I LOVE IT! It has been really fun to stumble upon someones blog and be able to get in touch with them. My link list is full of friends that I LOVED and then lost and then found again! Which I LOVE!

One more thing...if you have these options selected you can go into the "comments" tab and select "no" on word verification. This is only for the blogs that spammers can get to. The ones listed on Blogger. Also, under comments is the option to have your comment page show up in a "pop-up" box. That makes it so that people aren't redirected to another page to leave a comment for you. Plus, for anyone that has slow connections it makes it A LOT nicer to not have to load another page.

PHEW...if you stuck in CONGRATS! That was a long one, but hopefully helpful! Let me know if there is anything you guys would like to learn more about next week! Otherwise, we will move on to the "gadgets"! Woo Hoo!