How to Get Your Images Sharp on Blogger using IMGMAX Parameters

DISCLAIMER: The images in this post are optimized for a Retina display. If you are viewing this post on a standard screen, the sharpness and quality differences will be less obvious.

If your blogger images are only sharp when viewed "at full size" (when you click on them and load them in a new window) you probably have some code in your image url that is causing it.

Here is an example of the SAME photo url rendered differently in the same blog post:

SHARP (look at the watermark):

BLURRY (look at the watermark again):

What is the difference?

This is the image source code for the first (sharp) image:

src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y6DVEVwqX-o/WioPfiHvVgI/AAAAAAABl20/6XLJZv3HDlgebD-_8VEO_NHlsUCbg1ZmgCLcBGAs/s640/Sawdust-is-my-glitter-filled-ornament-.jpg?imgmax=1600"

This is the code for the second (blurry) image:

src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y6DVEVwqX-o/WioPfiHvVgI/AAAAAAABl20/6XLJZv3HDlgebD-_8VEO_NHlsUCbg1ZmgCLcBGAs/s640/Sawdust-is-my-glitter-filled-ornament-.jpg"

 The image URL is the same, but the blurry image no longer contains the "imgmax" parameter at the end of the url (When I compose in live writer or mars edit this suffix is automatically added)

If the size of you original image displayed doesn't match the number (or if that number is missing) blogger can mess up the proper display size making the images look blurry.

THAT NUMBER HAS TO BE THE ACTUAL WIDTH OF THE PHOTO.

So if you are displaying an image that is uploaded at 2200px wide you should have ?imgmax=2200 on the end of the url.

Here is another example:

This image was originally uploaded at 1200px wide.  THIS is the original.

 This is the image displaying at the "medium" blogger setting with NO tag:

This is the image with the CORRECT imgmax tag ("?imgmax=1200"):

And this is what happens if I have the incorrect max width (in this case I used "?imagemax=100"):

It can be super frustrating if you don't know why your images are blurry, but once you do, it is a pretty easy fix!

How to Break A Post Into Multiple Pages (Paginate) on Blogger

It is no secret that I'm a Blogger blogger. Plus many people may be surprised to hear I have no intention of moving to Wordpress.  I often feel like I'm the only one who still uses this platform but I actually really like it.  I feel like I really "get" it and I'm not relying on someone else to help me with it. I understand it isn't for everyone, but it works great for me.

I do have one complaint about using Blogger: The people who will constantly tell you what they think it can't do.  And sure, it may not be 100% manipulatable, but most problems can be overcome.

Today I am going to tackle one of those "drawbacks" that I have heard you can't do on Blogger:  PAGINATE (Cut posts up into smaller sections for faster loading.)  Sure, Wordpress probably has a plugin or something for this, but I have always heard it was impossible to break up posts in Blogger.

Well today I am going to share a little secret about paginating on Blogger:
IT ISN'T IMPOSSIBLE.  (See? This post is paginated!)

In fact, it isn't even difficult to code it. For anyone who is too nervous to mess with your template code, I have good news for you: YOU DON'T HAVE TO.  You can accomplish it entirely within the post composition itself! I'm going to show you how (and I'm going to use this post to demonstrate how it works!)

For today's example I am going to use a four page post breakdown. You can actually break a post into as few as two or up to an unlimited number of pages.  I thought four would get the point across.

Blog Conferences 101 (Haven Conference Blog Hop)

If you are arriving here from Beauty and Bedlam welcome to The Kim Six Fix!  

Today I’m participating in the Haven Mentor Blog Hop with two dozen other amazingly talented bloggers. This group of women (and a couple men) will be leading small support groups during the Haven Blog Conference that will be held in Atlanta later this summer. 

10 Tips to Grow on Twitter if you HATE Twitter

I am pretty sure there is no other social media platform (other than Google+) that bloggers hate more than Twitter.  The majority of bloggers I hear always make comments like “I’m only on it since brands seem to like it” or “I never go on Twitter, I just don’t *get* it."

Luckily, I am NOT one of those people.

Setting up a Lead Magnet Trigger Email in Mad Mimi

You want to know the fastest way to grow your email list?  GIVE SOMETHING AWAY.

People love free stuff and are willing to shell out their precious email address to get it.  A lot of bloggers are already giving away things on their blog without really thinking about it.  Printables, tutorials, recipes, advice, organization planners etc.

But what if you told your readers you wanted to EMAIL them your giveaway instead of posting it directly on your blog or allowing them to click to download?  You would 1. Have their email address and 2. You would know what they are interested in.

DOUBLE WIN!

A reader who loves cooking may want to download a printable recipe card.  But instead of hitting the “click here to print my recipe” what if they had to “enter your email here and I will send you my printable recipe card”?  To a reader the difference is minimal.. but to you it can be a GAME CHANGER.

You now have their email address and you know they like recipes. What an opportunity!  Not only has your email list grown by one person, you have automatically targeted and segmented your list.   I have talked about why this is so important previously, but today I’m going to take it one step further.  I’m going to show you how to set up a giveaway trigger within your content..

I use MadMimi and I love it.  There is no affiliate program for it, so I don’t make any money saying that.. but I still recommend it.  It is so much cheaper and easier to use than the other programs I have tried (and I have tried them ALL:  Convert Kit, Mailchip, Feedblitz, GetResponse and Constant Contact.).  I have not found any services that are worth either the huge rate increase (Convert Kit) or lack of flexibility (Mailchimp).

To show you how I set up a trigged email drip, I’m going to use my own blog as an example.  In my recent post I wanted to give away a set of cutting machine files that are used to create iron on decals.  Only people who own certain types of cutting machines can use them, so I am know that anyone who subscribes to this lead magnet is going to be a cutting machine owner!

(Bonus: I can pitch this list to cutting machine associated brands telling them that my email to my list is 100% proven machine owners! That is valuable to a brand!) 

How to set up a Lead Magnet Triggered Drip Campaign in Mad Mimi

How to Install The Facebook Tracking Pixel On Blogger

If you are on Facebook and are interested in tracking conversions to your blog from ads or post boosts, you are going to want to install the Facebook Pixel.   If you have never heard of the Facebook Pixel, you can read the quick summary directly from Facebook explaining how it works.

The problem is that the code they generate for users DOES NOT WORK directly on Blogger.

Installing the Facebook Pixel Tracking Code will give you an error that won’t all you to save the code in your template.   Luckily there is a work around that will convert the code to something more Blogger friendly.

How to Install The Facebook Pixel into a Blogger Blog

How to Identify and Fix 404 Errors with Webmaster Tools

404 Errors or "Page Not Found" warnings are frustrating for your readers and can increase your bounce rate.  Making sure that every incoming link to your site lands on an actual page is important in order to give readers a good user experience, but it can be difficult to identify those bad links on your site.

Fortunately, Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) has a tool made just for this task.  Using your sites own crawler data plus the ability to redirect bad incoming links, you can virtually eliminate 404 errors from your blog!

In this 7 minute video tutorial I walk you through, step by step, how to determine which links are bad, where they are coming from, how long they have been there, and what exactly you can do to fix them!

What are sponsored posts and how do they work?

Before I even start this post I want to premise it by saying that 100% of this post is *MY* real life experience.  Not every blogger feels the same way about sponsored posts and their experiences may be very different from mine.  But since this is MY blog, I am of course going to share MY thoughts and opinions.. the good, the bad and the ugly.  This post is not passing judgement of any other specific blogger and/or their sponsored posts..  nor is it a ‘call to action’ for other bloggers to change the way they write their sponsored content.  Every blogger must make their own decisions when it comes to working with brands.  I feel very strongly about the way I handle sponsored posts on my blog and this post solely reflects those feelings towards my own content.

As any long term reader may have noticed, in the past year or so my blog has become peppered with sponsored content. I have always monetized my blog with display ads, but beginning in March of 2014 I started writing sponsored content as another revenue stream.  (For my rationale see number 5.)  

What happens behind the scenes of a sponsored post

I recently wrote about my experiences with sponsored posts and why I think it is so important to make sure that the content within them is always worth reading.  I was actually surprised by how much traffic (and feedback) that post received.  Based on the majority of the responses to that piece (both on the post itself and on social media) I am clearly not the only one who feels that way.

It isn’t that I believe most bloggers set out with the goal of “write crappy sponsored posts and annoy my readers,” but sometimes that just happens.  Creating high quality sponsored posts usually means a lot more work than just regurgitating the sales pitch you are told to give.  Even with the best intentions, not every post will be a winner. Sometimes posts just don’t turn out like you envisioned. I admit that I have had that happen to me.

Good posts (sponsored or otherwise) are hard work..  and LOTS OF IT.  Most bloggers are already keenly aware of this, but a non-blogger may not realize what it actually takes get a post written and published. So today (and since I am tapped out of new projects to share.. #KeepingItReal) I am going to show you what it takes for me to create a post.