Change your blog icon in blogger to look more professional

The below post is one of the many awesome tips found in the exclusive BlogStar Community. Full access to the BlogStar Community is just one of the great things you get with a BlogFrog premium membership. If you love blogging, be sure to check it out.

Do you know what your "blog icon" is? Look up at your browser address bar right now. Do you see the miniature version of my picture? That's my blog icon (known in geek speak as a "favicon"). When someone browses to your blog, your blog icon appears next to your address in their browser. It also appears when your friends bookmark your blog. If you go to any big blog you will notice that they have a customized blog icon.

Now go to your blog and check out the blog icon. Is it the boring default Blogger icon? Here's how to change it on Blogger so you can look more professional:

First, you need a small picture. Take the image you want to use, then resize it to 32 x 32 pixels and save it as a PNG or GIF. You can do this resizing and saving on Picnik or Photobucket. Next, upload your new image to Photobucket, Flickr, Picasa or any other image hosting service. After you have uploaded it, you need to grab the "URL". The URL is the "web address" of your image. You can get the URL by viewing the details of your uploaded image. In Photobucket, if you click on the picture, it will show you the "direct url". Find the URL and press CTRL+C to copy it into your computer.

Next, edit your template and scroll down to (or search for) the tag . Insert the following HTML just BEFORE the </head> tag:

<link href='http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww346/theblogfrog/favicon.png' rel='shortcut icon' type='image/png'/>

Next, replace the http://i734.photobucket.com/albums/ww346/theblogfrog/favicon.png part with the URL of your image. You can do this by highlighting it and pressing "CTRL+V" to paste in the URL of your image.

Save your template and reload your blog. Sometimes it takes awhile for browsers to recognize it, especially Internet explorer. Did it work?

If you like tips like this, be sure to check out the BlogStar Community then upgrade your BlogFrog account to get full access.

Who says you can't? Probably just you.

(photo by AF-Photostream)

Today my business partner, Holly, ran a marathon. The reason? Because it was something she thought she could never do. My wife ran the half marathon. Motivation? She could never picture herself as a runner and decided to change that.

Many times we look at others and say, "they are amazing, too bad I'm not that type of person". Who are we not to be? You've probably heard this before but it's worth repeating:

"We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others..." -Marianne Williamson

Son-days

I used to hate Sundays. Sunday is supposed to be a relaxing day, yet it seemed the most stressful of the week. Then I stopped doing two things on Sunday: no work and no TV. Just family and friends.

Now I love Son-days.

Computer Chromosomes

At a young age I was fascinated by switches, buttons, and light bulbs. I wasn't allowed in the front seat of the car because I would press all the buttons and drive my parents crazy.

This love of technology was not something that was passed to me genetically. For most of my growing up my parents could barely turn on the computer. I remember one day in High School sitting in Mrs. Beckstrand's Sociology class when the office messenger walked into our class, approaches my desk and says, "Rusty come with me, there is an urgent message from your mother, you need to call her immediately."

My heart sunk as I thought about who could have possibly died. "One of my Grandparents?" I thought. "No, they had lived great long lives and surely their deaths wouldn't require a call from the office. Oh no, it's my Dad. He loved to drive fast and it has finally caught up to him. Great I'm going to be fatherless. Who am I going to play tennis with now?"

I was pale white by the time I reached the office. I made the phone call and my mom answered in a frantic tone which only helped confirm my fears and said, "RUSTY YOU HAVE TO TELL ME HOW TO PRINT THIS PAPER, I have a paper due today and I can't print this paper!!"

My mom had been taking a continuing education Art History class and her first big paper was due today. Rather than wait till I got home I was summonned out of class by the office messenger. The office secretary just laughed as she listened to me describe the steps of printing the paper:

"Mom, is the printer on? It has a green light when it's on. There's a switch on the side. Okay now, press the print button. No it's not a real button, it's a button inside the program. It's on the toolbar. The toolbar is the thing at the top of the page."

My mom forwarded me this video this week that summarizes things perfectly. My favorite part is when the monk declares the book "Not as fast as the scroll!" If I had a nickel for every time I heard my mom say, "If I could just have my typewriter back this would have been done hours ago!"