Where Do You Get Your Free Google Blogger Templates Or Themes?

Do you have a Google Blogger blog? It's free to make one (or a lot, if you like), and there are a million (well, it seems that way anyway) free themes and templates that you can use for your blog.

If you use Google Blogger, or if you have a Google Blogger blog, are you using a free template? If so, where did you get your free theme? Which website did you use to download it?

I've seen and found lots of pretty awesome and cool themes (free, of course 😊), but it's hard to choose which one to go with. And they're all scattered around on various websites, so it can be hard to find them all.

It's unfortunate that Google Blogger isn't like Tumblr, which has a theme garden. It's got lots of other templates posted on other sites too, but Tumblr itself already offers a multitude of awesome free themes.

You don't even need to download anything. You just have to pick your chosen template while you're logged on to your Tumblr account and then click on the "install" button that they helpfully provide.

Unfortunately, Google Blogger isn't anything like that. The built-in or free themes it offers on its site are, well, let's just say they ain't awesome, okay?

Your Thoughts and Opinions

So, what about you? Have you found free Google Blogger themes? What website do you use? What kind of them do you like? Feel free and welcome to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

*Notes:
- Image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published elsewhere on Friday, October 21, 2016 at 11:30 AM

Do You Like the Infinite Scroll Feature?

Infinite or endless scrolling is a feature that some sites have. When you scroll down to the end of a webpage, if infinite scroll has been enabled, then more and more posts or content will automatically load.

This was made using Persona Paper's poll feature

This will keep happening until all the posts have been loaded. If this feature has been disabled, you will see the navigation buttons like 'next' or 'previous' instead. Clicking on those buttons will take you to the next or previous page of your site where new posts will load.

Do you like infinite scroll? I actually don't like this feature for a number of reasons, so I like having the option of disabling it. Some sites let you do that, but some don't.

So, how 'bout you? What are your thoughts on this feature? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

Note: you might notice that a lot of the options in the poll are about reasons to hate or dislike endless scrolling. If you know any more pros or positive things about this feature, then feel free to mention them.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

cheri wrote on March 11, 2015, 8:50 AM
Just do not like it. Thats all.

FreyaYuki replied to cheri on March 12, 2015, 12:51 PM
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I really don't like this feature too :-(.

crowntower wrote on March 11, 2015, 9:15 AM
If we are viewing photos or quotes in a photo I would love to have an infinite scroll... hehehehe, because I am so lazy to click the next button... hahahahah! But in some cases I would love to disable it. Thanks and God bless.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 12, 2015, 1:07 PM
Ah, I see. You're welcome. I was mostly talking about articles and posts though like those that appear on the homepage of a site or blog.

MakeMoneyOnline wrote on March 11, 2015, 10:53 AM
I wouldn't mind to see it on Persona to tell you the truth. I like the feature.

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on March 12, 2015, 1:09 PM
Ah, let's agree to disagree then 😃. LOL. But may I ask why you like the feature? Just trying to see what others think of the infinite scroll feature. I see there are others who don't like it either, but then there are also those who do.

MakeMoneyOnline replied to FreyaYuki on March 12, 2015, 2:25 PM
I've only seen this feature on Pinterest and Fiverr (maybe one or two other sites I can't remember). I like the feature because I don't have to click "next" to get to other posts. I'd love to see it on Persona because I like to see what's happening on the first page and when I hit the end of the page I either can't find the "next page" button or I'm too lazy to even look for it. But if the next posts would appear, I'd scroll much further and find more interesting posts to comment on.

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on March 13, 2015, 12:45 PM
Ah, I see 😃.

For Persona Paper - I'd also like it if we could see more posts, but I'd prefer seeing next-prev buttons rather than infinite scroll. It would be good if we can see more posts so we can read even the older ones. Right now, it's hard to find those old posts so I agree that we should be able to see and easily find more posts here.

About Pinterest - what I don't like about the infinite scroll on this site is how, for example, you search for something and you end up seeing lots of pins. You can keep scrolling down and more pins load and show up. But if there's way too many of them, you can't see them all in 1 day. If you have to leave the site for now, when you come back, how can you find the place where you left off?

You can't because all the pins loaded in one page so you have to start at the top again and then start scrolling down again. On the other hand, if there were next-previous buttons, you can take note of the URL link of the page you're on so you can just go back to this page to continue looking through the older pins when you have the time to do so.

MakeMoneyOnline replied to FreyaYuki on March 13, 2015, 2:08 PM
Makes sense. Probably there should be a hybrid option, where you could scroll but also quickly find the place where you left off.

arthurchappell wrote on March 11, 2015, 11:45 AM
I prefer it on big sites as waiting for fresh pages to load can get very irritating

FreyaYuki replied to arthurchappell on March 12, 2015, 1:18 PM
Ah, I see. For me, pages don't really take much time to load so I don't mind. I'm actually not fond of the infinite scroll feature on, for example- Pinterest because, being new there, there are so many pins that I have yet to see.

There's no way I can seem them all in one sitting. For instance, I can use their search feature to search for pics, but I won't be able to finish looking at all of those pins in 1 day. But if I want to go back to the spot where I left off, I can't do that thanks to the infinite scroll feature. I will have to start searching again and then load all the pins again.

nbaquero wrote on March 11, 2015, 5:37 PM
FreyaYuki I don't really mind the feature, but I wouldn't implemented on my sites/blogs.

FreyaYuki replied to nbaquero on March 12, 2015, 1:25 PM
I turned off this feature on my Tumblr blogs and I'm not implementing it on the Google Blogger blog that I'm working on. The only exception is WordPress, but that's because you don't really get a choice. You either end up with the real automatic infinite scroll or the fake manual infinite scroll.

*Notes:
- This was previously published on Persona Paper on March 11, 2015, 7:54 AM

Reasons Not to Use URL or Link Shorteners

Also known as, "What is the problem with shortening links?"

Reason to Use Link Shorteners

People use link shorteners to shorten their URLs especially when they want to share sites on Twitter thanks to the limitation on the number of characters per tweet.

Reason to Dislike Link Shorteners

What are your thoughts on this? Would you willingly click on a shortened link? Or would you actually be averse to doing so?

For me, it’s actually the latter. Shortened URLs look like a mix of letters that don’t make sense at all. That’s precisely what makes me reluctant to click on those links.

It’s because you don’t know where those links will take you. How would you know what website you’ll be brought to based only on the shortened URL?

You can see something like bit.covzxwm (example only), and that doesn’t look appealing or safe especially not when you compare it to something from sites like Daily Two Cents such as dailytwocents.com/article-title-here.

The latter URL tells you which site you’re going to be brought to, so you won’t end up being surprised when you click the link. When you click on the link, you know you’re going to this particular site to read this particular article.

Is It Safe to Click on a Link Shortener?

But with a shortened link, if you’re just looking at the URL, it will tell you nothing, so how will you know it’s safe to click on that link? What if you’re brought to a dangerous site with viruses and malware or something?

Or what if you end up getting redirected to some other site? What if you get taken or redirected to an ad?

Of course, that’s not to say that all short URLs would do something like that, but, with the way they look, they just give that sort of impression or vibe, don’t they?

What do you think? So, are you reluctant to click on short URLs that you see on websites like Twitter, or do you not mind them at all?

*Notes:
- This was previously published elsewhere
- The last updated date is listed as Aug 12th, 2015 1:01:25am
- First image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by Cpro (CC:BY-SA) from Wikimedia Commons
- Image is meant to symbolize someone using a link shortener
- YouTube video shows you how to shorten links

Reasons NOT to Use Official Social Media Sharing Buttons and 3rd-Party Plugins on Your Blog

Social media sharing buttons (like the ones for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, etc) are pretty much a staple or a given when it comes to blogs and sites, right? If you have articles, there should be sharing icons somewhere so that your readers and visitors can easily share your posts.

Of course, it's not exactly as easy as saying that you want these buttons, not if you're talking about your own website or blog (like Weebly, Wix, Tumblr, Google Blogger, etc).

I wanted social media sharing buttons on my blogs/sites too. I'll focus on Tumblr (microblogging platform and social networking site) in this one since my quest for social icons for my Tumblr blogs was what led me to finding out all this info about these buttons. LOL 😃.

Reasons to Use Third-Party Plugins

Anyway, at first, I thought about going with the third-party social media sharing buttons plugins. Pros for using this include:

• Easy installation - just sign up or create an account on the 3rd-party site, get their code then add it to your blog
• Choices - these plugins usually offer different designs of social icons, so you can just choose whatever you want plus you can decide how many buttons you need, like if you only want 3 or 4 or more icons, etc

Reasons NOT to Use Third-Party Plugins

There are lots of plugins out there though, so it's up to you to decide which one to go with. So, how come I didn't go with any one of these plugins?

Well, I was reading up on the reviews for many of these plugins to help me decide, and what I've discovered wasn't all that good. The cons include:

• Possible breach of privacy for you and your readers - do you know what kind of data these plugins are mining from you and your readers and whoever else clicks on the share buttons on your blog or site?
• Possible redirect to inappropriate ads - if the share buttons are clicked, where will your visitors be taken? Will they be redirected to ads they don't want to see?

Now, of course, not all plugins do that, but then how do you find out which ones don't? That would take lots of time plus you might have to do trial and error too. Besides, how do you even know which ones will work for your blog or site?

Another thing that made me decide to forget about the third-party plugins was how some of them had such long Terms of Services and Privacy Policies. I always read these stuff before joining sites, but wasn't feeling up to it considering the length of these boring documents.

Reasons to Use Official Social Media Sharing Buttons

So that brings me to the official social media sharing buttons. What are these? Where do you find these? You find these buttons by going to the social media platform whose share icon you want to add to your blog.

For example, if you want to add a Twitter share button to your site, all you need to do is go to Twitter and get their official sharing button.

Get the codes then add them to your blog and that's that. Pretty simple, right? Plus, you shouldn't have to worry about privacy or security since, if you and your readers have accounts on these platforms, then it's a given that you've agreed to the terms and policies of these sites.

Reasons NOT to Use Official Social Media Sharing Buttons

• Design - your mileage may vary, but, in my opinion, these buttons don't look all that nice or appealing
• Plus, each of these platforms have their own buttons that look different from the others, so if you add them all to your blog or site, it won't be uniform at all
• Javascript

Did you know that using Javascript can slow down your blog? And did you know that the code for the social media share buttons make use of Javascript, so you end up getting a lot of codes depending on how many buttons you want to add to your site?

Actually, even the third-party share plugins make use of Javascript, so that's another point against them.

Alternative to 3rd-Party Plugins and Official Social Media Sharing Buttons

Yup, there's an alternative and it's to use simple, lightweight sharing icons. These buttons do not use Javascript, so they won't contribute to slowing down your site. They are merely URL links that lead to the social media site so you don't need to worry about your privacy and security either.

Simple, Lightweight Social Media Sharing Buttons

In short, it's like adding links to your articles (like when you interlink them) only, instead of adding links to text, you add links to images or icons so that, when someone clicks on them, they'll be taken to the site where they can share your post.

For example, they can click on a Pinterest share button, and the link in that icon will take them straight to Pinterest where they can log in and pin the pics in your article.

Some Pros:

Pretty awesome and cool, right? Plus, you can design your own icons or use free ones out there, etc, which means that you can end up with buttons that look uniform and that fit your site.

1 Con:

What about cons? Are there cons? There's one that I can think of, but I don't really consider it as a con. Again, your mileage may vary. What is it then?

It's the fact that you don't get counters for these links, so you won't be able to easily tell how many people shared your posts.

But, if you're new to blogging or your site or blog is new, then it's likely that you won't have thousands of shares anyway, so even if you use counters in the share buttons, you'll probably just end up seeing 0, and that's not really nice to look at, is it? LOL 😃.

Example:

Anyway, here's an example of what the social media sharing buttons look like on one of my Tumblr blogs. Look at the screenshot below:

The screenshot is from this article: 2 Ways for Harry Potter to Prove He Didn’t Put His Name in the Goblet of Fire.

By the way, it might not be all that noticeable on the pic, but the title or tooltip only shows up when you hover your mouse on the icon, so you'll only see the "share this post on Pinterest" and the opacity change when you hover your mouse on the Pinterest button.

The same goes for the other social media icons.

What do you think?

Oh, and, yes, for the record, the theme I'm using actually already came with social media sharing buttons, so what in the world was I doing looking 'round and trying to add these buttons to my blog, you ask? LOL.

That's a pretty long story actually. For now, I'll just say that I did keep those built-in buttons, but I wanted the share buttons to be more prominent on my blog. I wanted to customize them further, I- eh, I think you get the point 😃.

Edited to add: I've changed the theme on my Harry Potter Plotholes Archives Tumblr blog, but I'm still using simple, lightweight social media sharing buttons. They now look like this:

The Harry Potter blog is now using the Clarent Premium Tumblr Theme. Check out the demo blog or learn more about this theme.

I am also still using simple, lightweight social media sharing buttons on all of my blogs on both Tumblr and Google Blogger. Even the themes I make use these kinds of buttons.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

UK_Writer wrote on February 26, 2015, 12:52 PM
There's 1001 things to think about, discover, learn - and more - when you start doing your own thing.... so many things, choices. So hard:)

FreyaYuki replied to UK_Writer on February 27, 2015, 9:41 AM
Yup. There's so much to learn about when it comes to blogging and creating websites, etc. It may not be an easy task, but you can really learn and discover lots of things about this, which makes it easier for you if you decide to use other blogging platforms or website builders.

GemstonePink wrote on February 26, 2015, 5:09 PM
Wow, there seems to be so many concerns when starting a blog and building it. I think a blog is more than I have time for.

FreyaYuki replied to GemstonePink on February 27, 2015, 9:39 AM
Yes, that's right if you want to add things like social media follow and sharing buttons, popular posts and recent posts widgets, ads, tags, etc, etc.

But if you're just looking to write, then you don't have to pay attention to all these other things, not if you don't want to. A blog does require a lot of time though especially if you want to publish posts on your blogs at least once a day.

nbaquero wrote on March 1, 2015, 8:02 AM
FreyaYuki Great info, this definitely needs to be taken into account for our own sites/blogs. Need to reread and bookmark for future reference.

FreyaYuki replied to nbaquero on March 1, 2015, 12:00 PM
Thanks. I've also been implementing this on the other platforms that I'm working on. If you have any questions, feel free to ask 😃.

crowntower wrote on March 13, 2015, 5:17 AM
I think this will help if we have other personal site, but for us Philippines and India, this is not gonna work for us here in Persona for the changes that we understand. But thanks for the whole thing. I hate plugins because it always make my computer to crash.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 13, 2015, 12:31 PM
Yes, this is for those who have blogs or sites so they can also add social media sharing buttons to their posts, similar to how there are also sharing buttons here on Persona Paper.

*Notes:
- This was previously published on Persona Paper on February 26, 2015, 12:46 PM
- First image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- The rest of the images are screenshots from my Potter Archives Tumblr blog

What Will Make You Think That Critique Circle Is Awesome?

Critique Circle is an online writing critique group. It's free to join although the site also offers a premium or paid version.

Is Critique Circle really a perfect and awesome tool for writers?

How does it work?

The basic premise is that you critique a person's work and they do the same for yours. So, it's a give-and-take (or tit-for-tat) relationship. You can post your story on the site and people can choose to critique it, giving you constructive criticism that can help you improve your writing, plot, characters, etc.

However, before you can post your story to have it critiqued, you will need credits. You get credits by critiquing the works of other people.

It's only after you have the required number of credits (meaning, after you've critiqued a certain number of other people's stories) that you'll be allowed to post your own to receive critiques. It seems to be a pretty neat system that ensures that everyone's work will be critiqued.

Is Critique Circle really awesome?

I've been trying to find more information about Critique Circle since I wanted to join an online writing group and have my stories critiqued. I've found a number of positive reviews that recommend this site, however, most of them are dated several years ago.

The site itself seems pretty okay, though the layout could maybe use an upgrade in terms of looking more modern. There's a lot of info on the site including help pages and the like. However, I noticed that they don't have a Terms of Use and Privacy Policy pages. At least, I can't find these 2 pages anywhere on the site.

I wonder why not? Do these pages even exist? If they do (and, really, they should), then where are they? If you try to register for the site, you'll be asked to agree to the rules, but there's no mention of their TOS and Privacy Policy. What's up with that? Weird.

Is Critique Circle still active?

Critique Circle has a Twitter account, so I thought I'd send them a tweet to ask about their terms and policies. But they never responded (even now, they've yet to respond). So, I wonder if the site is even still active?

Unfortunately, you can't tell for sure unless you join because the main site itself (minus the help and FAQ and other such info) is locked and visible only to members. That's not really a bad thing.

In fact, I prefer it to be that way, so your work is only visible to site members, which should ensure you don't lose your story's first publication rights. But, on the other hand, if you want to know more about Critique Circle, this does mean you won't be able to find out much.

Who has joined Critique Circle?

Has anyone joined or tried out Critique Circle? What can you say about it? Would you recommend it? Is it still active? Does it really not have a Terms of Use / Terms of Service and Privacy Policy? Do you think it's a legit site?

Other online writing critique groups

If you don't like Critique Circle, can you recommend other online writing critique groups (except Scribophile)? What other groups have you joined or tried? What can you say about these sites?

Edited to add: I've joined Critique Circle and will be writing more about it in upcoming articles.

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) using Pablo by Buffer based on the image by sayuko (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published on Niume on 14 December 2016

What Is Missing In Some Review Articles?

What are some of the things that you look for when you read review articles? What do you think is missing in some review articles?

Introduction for review articles

What some review articles don’t have or may have forgotten or neglected to include is an introduction. When I say introduction, I don’t mean an introduction to the article,  but an introduction to whatever the author is reviewing. Many articles just get straight to the review as if all its potential readers know exactly what they’re talking about.

Importance of having an introduction to your review articles

But what if you get a reader that doesn’t know anything about whatever you’re reviewing? What if that person isn’t familiar with the show, series, product, or service that you’re reviewing?

That person would want to know even just a little something about whatever you’re talking about and this is where the introduction comes in. Introductions are important, so you can say a little something about what you’re reviewing.

Provide a short summary / explanation

For example, if you’re reviewing a series or movie, you can give a short summary of the story so people can at least know the basic plot and so they won’t get confused about the article they’re reading.

Add a warning for possible spoilers

If a review is going to include spoilers, it’s definitely important to state this somewhere at the top of your article. Some people don’t mind reading spoilers, but many do and they’d be upset if they end up reading spoilers, even though they had no intentions of doing so, because the article they saw didn’t give a proper warning.

These are the kinds of reviews that I like to read, which is why I do the same on my own review articles. I always put a short introduction on my reviews so even those who may be unfamiliar with what I’m talking about will have an idea of what the review is all about. When I mention a character, I also give a little description and I also add a warning for possible spoilers at the very top of the article if said article will include spoilers.

What about you? What kinds of review articles do you like reading? Do you want review articles to have a short introduction on what the product or service or story is all about or do you want the review to get straight to the point without any explanations?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to represent someone writing a review article using the PCs
- YouTube video shows you how to write introductions for your articles