iGoogle,Gmail Blogging Tips

Quick Blogger Posts : Blogger Posting Gadget
Find out different ways to blog directly from email  or your iGoogle home page to a Blogger blog.

The Blogger Posting Gadget is meant to save people time by allowing them to post directly from their Gmail account and iGoogle home page. I love time saving gadgets, but I think there are better, more versatile solutions, As alternatives, I suggest using the "Add this" browser extension for posting online content and setting up the option to email to Blogger. The "Add This" browser extension allows you to blog online content to a multitude of sites, thus it is much more versatile then the Blog Post Gadget. Emailing directly to a Blogger blog can also be done from any email client, thus giving more versatility once again. See the directions below for using "eMail to Blogger" , "Add This" , and "Blogger Post Gadget".



Blogging from email:

I like using the option to email directly to Blogger blogs, because I can forward from any email client hotmail, outlook,etc., emails can contain photos and pictures, and it's a great way to archive emails that will be handy to a number of people. It's wise to set your Blogger email options to save as draft, otherwise pictures may not fit your template. If you have a number of different blogs to which you post by email, it might be handy to use the Blogger Post gadget, so you don't need to remember all the email addresses. However, the Blogger Post Gadget apparently does not allow you to include pictures, and from the description only works with Gmail.

How To set up the ability to email directly to your blog:

Click "Sign in",Then after signing in-

Click"Settings" for the blog you want to set up for email posting

Click "eMail and Mobile"

Create a none obvious posting word unique to that blog and type it into the email posting address under "Posting". This will result in a blogger email address in the format "username"dot"secret word"@blogger.com ie. suzanne.tips@blogger.com (Hopefully no one is using this address or their blog will be getting spammed)

Click "Save"

I recommend choosing the option to" Save as draft".

To blog from your email, compose an email and send it to the blogger address, or simply forward an email you receive to your blog.


Blogging Online Content: Add This
With over 340 services accessible, with one click, Add This browser plugins are very handy for spreading information across the internet. While I usually use Hoote Suite for posting online content to Twitter and Facebook, I find Add This, very useful for sending draft posts to Blogger. This post, for example, was built on a draft post I created with "Add This" referencing the "Blog Post" gadget. Add This Browser Plug ins are available for: • Internet Explorer • Firefox • Chrome  
After downloading the free plugin, it's a simple matter of clicking on the "Add This" icon (vaguely similar to the swiss flag), then selecting where you would like the content to go. When sending to Blogger, I recommend saving it as a draft, so you can remove the link that isautomatically inserted in the Blog title, and to further refine your post  (add pictures,tags, ensure links open in a new window etc.).
How do you use Add This?

Blogger Posting Gadget Info: Slightly adapted from Blogger

The Blogger Posting gadget makes it easy to post to your blog from the convenience of Gmail or your iGoogle homepage.

To add the Blogger Posting Gadget to your iGoogle page, simply click here

Then click the blue "Add to Google" button. Make sure that you're signed in with the same Google account that you use for Blogger. Once you've added the Blogger Posting Gadget you will see the gadget on your iGoogle page:

To add the Blogger Posting Gadget in Gmail, you'll first have to enable the Add Gadget by URL lab feature from your settings:
Once you've enabled this Labs feature, then you can add the posting gadget by simpling entering its URL into the Gadget tab in your Settings. Here's the URL:

http://www.blogger.com/gadgets/post.xml

In the top right corner of the gadget you will see the title of your blog. If you have more than one blog, there will be a drop-down menu in the corner so you can select the blog you'd like to post to. You can then enter a title and write a post. You also have the option to add labels to your post as well. Once you have finished writing your post, click "Publish" to publish your post or click "Save Draft" to save your post back to Blogger without publishing it.

Notes:
The gadget supports editing the HTML of title and body.
If you start writing a post and decide you want to upload images or use other rich text features, just click "Save Draft". The gadget will save your post, then give you a link to directly edit the post in Blogger.
The gadget works in Firefox, Chrome, Safari 3, Internet Explorer and on the iPhone.

Hopefully these tips will help save you time with your blogging.

See the source:Blogging from iGoogle and Gmail for lots of other great blogging tips.

Please post comments or any questions. Love to hear from you!