Get Bloggin' - Blog Housekeeping

Hello Sweet Fans!!

Its Dana here with another addition of Get Bloggin'. The topic today is Housekeeping, just a couple tutorials and a super important tip that you might not have thought about!

Ok so to get started lets talk about Categories! I started my blog back in 2011 and other then tagging each post with a label or making a new one, i never really looked at the Category list on my blog. However that changed last week when i was trying to correct some sidebar photo's. I noticed that i really didn't need a couple categories, in fact when i counted them i had 84!! Yes, 84 different categories, that's a lot!!

Having good and accurate categories helps your blogging guests find your stuff easy! So i made the following tutorial on how to clean up your categories for Blogger. if you have another blog like WordPress, do a quick google search for category clean up and your blog type.

The first thing i did was make a list of how i wanted to sort my posts, and for me i decided to have Holidays (Christmas, Valentine, Halloween, etc.), Manufactures (Sweet Stamp Shop, Hampton Art, Papertrey Ink, etc.) and last a Theme list (Love, Birthday, Masculine, Fall, Mothers Day, etc.)

Then i looked at all my categories, one by one and made a list of categories that i didn't need anymore, or didn't fit in my lists above. For example in the screen shot below you can see that i have a category for Bird and Bird Ornament. The Bird Ornament post can be under the Bird category and still be found easily.

Ok so to delete and change the labels go into your Blogger Dashboard and click on Posts on the left hand side. Then you are going to click on the All Labels button and scroll down to the label you don't want, in this example below that is the Love Papertrey Ink category.

Next you are going to click on the box next to the post you want to ADD a label to it. I found its easier to add a post to a label first, then delete the label you don't want.

Then you are going to click on the drop down menu next to the tag icon. Then click on the category you want to label the post with, in this case the Love category.

Then click on the drop down menu again and choose the category you want to remove, in this case it is the Love Papertrey Ink category.

And now you can see that the post has disappeared, it no longer falls under the label Love Papertrey Ink.

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Ok another area of your blog that might need a little Housekeeping is your profile. If you are like me, i typed up my intro up once and never thought about it again! As i've mentioned before in a past Get Bloggin' post i don't like to write, and i really don;'like to write about myself, but with updated categories, i figured its time for an update!

Here is what i had before, not the greatest, i know! :)

This is after:

Along with updating your profile introduction, check your email, location and privacy settings. Make sure they are all up to date!

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And the last Housekeeping tip i have for you is backing up your blog!! Didn't know you could or would need to do this right?!? I was pretty clueless to, but this is such a good idea, i can't believe i haven;t thought about it before! I'm going to show you how to do this with Blogger, if you have something other then Blogger, just Google it and 'back up your blog' there are sure to be tutorials out there!

First go to your dashboard, and click on Settings, its the last option on the left. Then click Other.

Next you are going to click on Export Blog. Up pops up a Other > Export Blog Window. 

Click on Download. For me it downloaded the file to my 'Download' File on my computer. I then moved it to my external drive and then deleted it from my Download file. It might vary on your computer, but you want to keep it in a safe place! (BONUS - if your download goes to a Download file too, but you don't want it to, i have a bonus tutorial below on how to change the download destination!)

That covers your content, now we will back up your blog template or design.

In your dashboard click on Template, then click on the Backup/Restore button (top right). This brings up a new window.

Next click on the Download Full Template button. Again for me it downloaded it to my 'Download' file and i moved it to my external drive.

Ok and the last think we want to back up is your photos! First while logged into your Google account, go to Picasa Web Albums, were you will see your photos. Next sign in to Google Takeout and check the Google Pics and for the heck of it check Blogger too (not sure what this blogger all entails, but hopefully you'll never have to use it, but it will be there just in case!) 

Next click on Archive button at the top, now Google will create an archive file for you.

When its done, click on the download button and save it in a safe place.

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BONUS!! While i was waiting for my Google Takeout file to download i found in Chrome where i can change the download location!! So if you happen to have Chrome and don't like where your downloads go, follow this BONUS tutorial!!

At the far right (in Chrome) just under the X is a 3 line button. Click it and a drop down menu appears, click on settings. At the very bottom click the advanced settings link. Then scroll down until you find the Downloads section (pictured below). You can either give it a particular destination to download to or check the box to be asked where to save files before downloading.

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Are you still with me ?!? :) I would recommend downloading your template once, then only backing it up IF you make any changes to it. For your blog and photos i would suggest backing up at least once a week! That way all your hard work is not wasted if something should happen! 

I hope you will give these tips a try, please let me know how you do! And leave a comment if you have any other suggestions for some Blog Housekeeping!

I'm going to leave you with a quick Christmas card! For the details you can visit my blog here!

Speedy Greetings

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In case you missed the BIG Sweet Stamp Shop announcement, click here to check it out! I DON'T want to miss it either!!

Oh and next week is the new release, you really don;t want to miss that!!!!!

Stay sweet, i'll see you next time!

Dana Pin It