Nexus 5 Two Column
A description of my site

Thanks to Nixdminx for passing on this lovely award to Glamumous! I was thrilled to bits to receive my first award for this blog :)

When in Tunisia, one of my favourite beveraes is strong Arabic coffee flavoured with rose-water. Sounds odd, but trust me, this is one of the most divine drinks ever!

As per the concept of this Lovely Blog Award, I would like to nominate 10 blogs which I've recently discovered as new receiptants of this award:

1. Susanna of A Modern Mother, because I read your blog everyday and you post such interesting topics about motherhood in Britain.

2. Esther, Courtney. Michela and Emilie of Babyccino, a site of wonderful things for mums, kids and tiny tots too. I loved the recipe for preserving children...

3. Miss Thrifty, the ultimate money-saver for helping us learn to live for less (and love it!)

4. Reccessionista, who posts wonderful money-saving tips and bargains galore.

5. Nadine at Time Management Mum who writes about juggling a busy life with children. She's just published her first book on time management, which truly looks an interesting read!

6. Becky and Linda over at You've Got Your Hands Full who blog about their experiences with twins and triplets...

7. And another shout for their new travel blog, Have A Lovely Time, where you can find reviews on days out and holidays for families with children (well worth checking out!).

8. Experimental Mum who has a gorgeous design for her blog, and offers loads of wonderful science experiments which my son truly loves!

9. English Mum in Ireland, who I discovered after reading about her wonderful escape to Disneyland (ooh, I'm soooo jealous! But we may yet escape to Disneyland Paris this year...)

10. Are we nearly there yet Mummy, because as Laura rightly points out, parenthood is the longest journey we could ever undertake!

For those who I have nominated to receive this award, I'll be in touch soon through your blogs to let you know. If you choose to accept the reward, here are the rules:

Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.(You can save the award image to your computer and upload to your blog in the usual way).
Pass the award to 10 other blogs that you have newly discovered.Remember to contact the blogger to let them know they have been chosenfor this award.

I hope you enjoy reading the blogs I have posted here! These are all new additions to my RSS reader (which is now becoming so long to read) but are wonderful bloggers whose posts are well worth a look.

If you're a blogging mummy (or are considering starting a blog sometime soon) be sure to check out Blogging in Pink: a women's guide to blogging by Michelle Mitchell, author of the popular blog, Scribbit.

This 24-chapter guide gives you tips for organizing yourself, getting started, focusing your efforts and taking things to the next level. Plus you get some pret-ty darn spiffy illustrations to boot.

I've been reading Blogging in Pink all afternoon and am very impressed with Michelle's advice. This really does offer some great advice for bloggers, including loads of information I wish I'd had to hand when I first began blogging, such as dealing with comment spam, which blog host to use and "The Ten Commandments of Blogging".

Did I mention this ebook is completely free to download?

Pay a visit to Scribbit to learn more and download this outstanding guide to blogging, and while you're there, check out some of Michelle's other posts too - she really writes an interesting blog about her adventures in Alaska...

Way back when I first started writing Glamumous, it was difficult to find and network with other British parent bloggers. Luckily, blogging has become a much more popular pastime, with many mums starting blogs and writing of their experiences as parents and even the occasional book deal has sprouted from the new-found British love of blogging.

But what about the "Daddy Bloggers" among us? Surely they also deserve a place in the limelight?

So here are my favourite 5 British "Daddy Blogs": written by fathers who blog about their children and family life. I hope you will enjoy reading these blogs as much as I did while researching them!

Lemon Drizzle

This hilarious blog is written by Paul Collins: a lone man in a house full of girls. I love reading a daddy's perspective on the naiive and wholly entertaining interactions with his daughters.

Lemon Drizzle is such a curious name for this blog. At first I wondered if the inspiration had come from a recip (and checked); in fact the name derives from a friendly discussion about blogging, in the same way which many of the greatest ideas do.

Visit Lemon Drizzle

Single Parent Dad

Single Parent Dad is written by Ian: a 30 year old widower, "and parent to the most brilliant young boy in the world".

Ian's posts make for wonderful reading, and it's easy to tell his writing comes from the heart. Going back through the archives to read of his emotional journies as a widowed dad is highly recommended!

Visit Single Parent Dad

Man About the House

Alasdair, writer of "Man ABout the House" is a stay-at-home-dad: "an over-educated father of two who spent the first 25 years of his lifeattempting to achieve everything that educated people are ‘meant’ toachieve".

His posts have a definite political overtone, but as written from the perspective of a dad, these offer interesting insights for parents into the political state of Britain.A really entertaining post from Man About the House is The Peasant Princess … and why Pastor Mark Driscoll is an idiot, where Alasdair offers his fiery feedback on a video interview with the pastor (and his wife) condemning fathers who choose to stay at home.


Visit Man About the House

Bringing up Charlie

Bringing Up Charlie offers us a glimpse into the life of a stay at home dad who cares for his young son, complete with CBeebies, Pram Rage and parents evenings at school.


Tim also writes about his wife and school age daughter in his posts which are often funny, sometimes emotional and always entertaining. I discovered this blog through browsing the sites listed on the British Mummy Bloggers network, which now makes me wonder why there are no such sites listed for British dads...



Visit Bringing up Charlie

WorryBomb

Worrybomb is the "blog of a baby, kept by her father", which was started even before Amelia was born!

While Worrybomb was created as a means for friends and family to keep track of Amelia's progress through life, it is positively endearing and there's no wonder this blog was listed as "Dad blog of the week" on the MyChild site!

Visit Worrybomb.

I hope you enjoy reading these British Daddy blogs too! Please let me know if there are other Daddy blogs you recommend by leaving your comments below.

As anxious parents we are all too aware of the dangers posed to our children on-line. From concerns of sharing personal information to accidental splashes of unsavoury images while our children research material for their homework. How can we ensure our children are safe on-line?

The answer dawned on me when I took my daughter to nursery last week. Staff had just installed a dedicated "Kids Browser" to their child-friendly computer and were testing the effectiveness (and fun-value) with the kids. I thought this was just amazing: the browser prevents unsavoury sites from being accessed at all, instead offering a colourful cheerful approach which encourages safe, responsible learning.

Now this particular software is reserved for nurseries and educational establishments (therefore it's quite costly), but I was intrigued and after a little research discovered several wonderful free browsers for kids which I would recommend to other parents too.

These browsers are probably better suited to young children (my 9 and 12 year olds think these are way too "babyish"!), but offer a safe environment for your little ones' first encounters with the internet.

In no particular order, here are my top 5 (free) Internet browsers for kids:

1. Kidoz

This bright and colourful browser offers a completely safe environment for children and prevents access to any unapproved content.


Younger children can simply "point and click" to access their favourite content, while the "Parental Control" section enables parents to monitor and control the content available to their children.

Content is restricted only to approved sites (these are moderated by humans and updated daily) or by manually adding your seal of approval in the Parental Control area.

Kido'z operates using Adobe Air and ensures browsing is both fast and reliable. You may need a fairly recent computer to use this browser effectively (Pentium 4 and above is recommended), though this is an otherwise beautifully designed browser which you and the children will enjoy equally.

Visit the KIDOZ site for more information and to download

2. Kidzui

This browser offers more features and seems appropriate for a slightly older audience. Using a tabbed menu at the top of the screen, children can quickly navigate between the Web, Videos and Photos and have a vast range of visual prompts to be clicked which help them find the content they want to view.



One huge advantage of this platform is the parental controls. You can change settings for Kidzui to prevent the browser being closed without entering the parental password which helps protect your desktop and other files being accessed or accidentally deleted.

Kids can design their personal Zui avatar; make "parent approved" friends online and chat in a safe environment.

There is also a premium version of Kidzui which offers such features as unlocking more clothes for avatars, a homework helper and favourites folder.

Learn more and download Kidzui

3. KidRocket

KidRocket is a simple hybrid browser and activity centre for the kids. Featuring a desktop lock (to prevent access to your important files) and optional email service (where you control whom emails are sent from and to your kids), it's quite useful and makes browsing fun.


Rather than being "installed" like a regular program, KidRocket is a standalone program which is launched through a desktop icon to prevent conflict with your regular (grown-up) web browser.

Access to websites is limited only to those which have been approved by KidRocket, such as CBeebies, Crayola and Disney. Simple "art" and "maths" programs add offline interest for curious kids, while you can control how the program functions using the "admin" section.

Learn more about KidRocket and download

4. Pikluk

This browser is completely controlled by the parent dashboard where you choose which sites your child is allowed to access, and with whom they can correspond by email.


No URLs are displayed, and access is restricted to any sites which you have not deemed as "safe". Your desktop is also safe from prying eyes and accidental deletion as Pikluk cannot be closed without parental consent.

Learn more and download Pikluk

5. Buddy Browser

Buddy Browser is a very interesting application. Functionally it's close to "Mum and Dad's" browser in terms of appearance and functionality, though rather more colourful and child-orientated.


Navigation is made easy using descriptive buttons at the top of the browser, with individual sites linked in the sidebar. School-age children can easily access sites to help with homework, while a dedicated "Toddlers" section offers games and education suitable for pre-school ages.

Kids can chat safely using a messaging service which parents control to ensure they are totally aware of who their kids talk to online, while "favorites" can be added in just a couple of clicks (a feature sadly missing in other free kids browsers I've seen).

Learn more and download Buddy Browser

What do you think?

Have you encountered any other free kids browsers which you'd like to recommend? Which of these browsers do you prefer to install for your own children?

Please share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below.

Image credit: Computers and kids by Tanya Ryno (top right).

Over at Totsy's Place, Tracey and Lisa have meticulously compiled a list of the top 100 most influential parent blogs in the UK. Using "currency", "influence" and "popularity" as the basis for a scoring system, over 250 blogs were discovered, analyzed and ranked.

The Tots 100 Index will be updated regularly, including details of movement up and down the ranks in future editions.

Here are the current top ten Brisith parenting blogs:

1. Petite Anglaise
2. Wife in the North
   
3. Jo Beaufoix
4. Alpha Mummy
5. My Boyfriend is a Tw@t
6. Crystal Jigsaw
7. Babyccino
8. A Modern Mother
9. Single Parent Dad 
10. Notes from Inside My Head

I'm thrilled to see this list has been published, not least because this offers an opportunity to connect with more British based parent bloggers ;)

Take a look at the complete list, especially if you're looking for interesting, funny and entertaining blogs to read!

The NSPCC's newest venture, YourFamily.org.uk, offers an invaluable resource for parents with young children.

Honestly, this site is wonderful! It's wonderfully designed, offers easy navigation to articles of interest, and - most importantly- it includes the most helpful interactive parenting feature I have ever seen: a digital nanny!

A digital nanny?

The Digital Nanny feature can be found on the home page (near the bottom) and on most internal pages in the sidebar to the right. To use this, type the name of your child and their age, then use the drop-down menus to choose the specific advice you would like for your child. Once you're done, you'll receive personalized advice specifically geared towards helping you with your problem or question.

Things to do with the kids

YourFamily offers loads of fun and creative ideas for things to do with your children, from days out in your area to creative crafts and healthy recipes the kids will love to help make.

There are loads of videos you can watch on the site too which are fun to watch with your little angels before trying out these ideas for yourself.

Go take a look for yourself!

If you have young children, you really ought to check YourFamily.org.uk out for yourself to see what's on offer and how this site could be useful for you too. The site is regularly updated with new features, tips and videos and also includes a forum where you can discuss parenting issues with other mums and dads in the UK.

Visit YourFamily.org.uk

I've started the makeover process now, and have uploaded my brand new, fancy template! I hope you like these changes so far!

I know there are loads of links which need to be changed or added, and that most of my previous widgets are gone. In the next few days I'll tidy things up a bit and soon everything will look and act better than it ever did before!

If you're looking for a new template for your own Blogger blo, why not check out the selection I created over at Blogger Buster? There are various templates available to suit almost all tastes and preferences, or you could even search through the archives to find a tutorial to help you customize your own...

It's been such a long time since I last updated this blog... Of course, I know I should have updated sooner, to let my few readers know about my lengthy absence from this blog. But what with one thing and another, I simply didn't have the time or the inclination to do so....

Yes, I'm a terrible mommy blogger! I know this and from now on vow to keep this blog updated, as I should have done all along.

In fact, I have a few bright and wonderful ideas in mind for the (soon-to-be-newly-revamped) Glamumous blog!

So keep your eyes peeled. You could be in for a pleasant surprise!

Over at Rocks in my Dryer, Shannon has posted her "5 question" meme, which I thought would be fun to answer here. So, here are my questions and answers, some of which were a little tricky to answer (especially with the kids arguing in the background!) but here goes:

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Um, I'd hate to have to eat only one food forever! That would be so boring, not to mention unhealthy! But if I have to choose, it would be "Lift": it's a Tunisian dish made with meat, lots of spinach, garlic, tomatoes and chickpeas. Can I still have some French bread to go with that..?

What's the most nerve-racking "close call" you've ever had?

This would probably have to be an incident which happened some years ago when my little man was still a toddler. We'd just moved into a new flat after some troubles, and were both exhausted. Since I didn't have a cot or proper bed for my little man to sleep in, I tucked him up in my double bed and went to watch some TV in the lounge. I was so so tired that I fell asleep right there.

When I woke up a few hours later, I went to check on my son. But he wasn't there. I called his name over and over, and when he didn't answer I began to panic: it was a new place for both of us, and I was worried that he'd done himself a mischief. Then I noticed the front door was slightly ajar. I ran out onto the landing and started screaming for him, running around the block like a madwoman thinking someone had kidnapped my son. Eventually, I went back inside to call the police when I noticed a lump in the bed covers. Upon checking it out, I realised my little man was just huddled beneath, and he'd been there all along! I felt like such a fool!

Name five features your ultimate dream house would have.

The dream house we'd build when we win the lottery? Oh yes, I've already thought this one through! We'd have:

1. A bedroom for each member of our family, plus two guest rooms, each with their own en-suite bathroom.
2. A huge library with a domed glass roof and shelves ceiling to floor.
3. A basement "cinema"
4. A wonderful huge garden including a labyrinth and secret "wild" area.
5. Staff to cook, clean and do the gardening

Perhaps too much to hope for, but I can dream...

Who has been the most influential non-relative in your life?

It's hard to define just one, so I'll have to make three: my English teacher at school, who I will always remember fondly; my tutor at college, who taught me to think for myself academically, and my good friend "C", who despite being my senior has taught me much about life and loyalty. If I could pick the most influential family member, it would have to be Dad!

What one non-physical feature would you most like to change about yourself?

Sometimes it would nice to be more selfish! I'm often told that I'm too apologetic, and always put others before myself, no matter what my feelings may be.

If you want to answer this meme yourself, head on over to Shannon's post and leave your link in her comments. Thanks for reading my answers!

Chili over at Don't Try This At Home, has passed out an invitation to all bloggers to write their own blogging story. And lately, blogging is something I love to talk about at every opportunity, so I just couldn't resist writing my own! The story is based on a series of questions about how you began blogging, your motivations and readership. Once you've read this, why not hop on over to read Chili's post and see what others have to say too? I've found some really great reads from her Mr. Linky...

Anyway, here is my own blogging story:

How did you start blogging?

I "discovered" blogging a little over three years ago, when researching material for a creative writing project. It was Blogger's caption: "Push button publishing" which inspired me to read more. Then I realised that I could actually write for the web, that anyone could (and perhaps would) read what I wrote. And comment on it. And link back to me! In effect, discovering Blogger was like opening a can of worms: I immediately became addicted, started my account, and created my first blog: The Urban Kunoichi.

After a little while, I realised there was much more to blogging than a Blogspot could (then) currently offer, and so I migrated over to Wordpress, and bought my own domain. Now, of course, Blogger is a much better blog hosting company, which is why my two new blogs are hosted over here. More about that later...

Did you intend to be a blog w/a big following? If so, how did you go about it?

To answer this, I'd have to say that I hoped to be a blog with a reasonable following, but in no way expected that I would be. In fact it took quite a long time to get a regular readership, and even now, my oldest blog doesn't have too many subscribers, though it does receive quite a few hits from search engines.

In regard to my two newer blogs: Glamumous! and Blogger Buster, then the answer is "yes": I did set up these blogs to attract a readership. These days I know a little more about blogging, web design, SEO and such, so I've implemented some tactics such as joining blogging communities, posting daily, and giving a lot of link love to other blogs I admire.

I want to write posts that people want to read! This is especially true of my Blogger Buster blog, which is all about blogging, and my way of sharing the knowledge in this subject with others who might need it. I love to help others out, and blogging is my favorite hobby!

What do you hope to achieve or accomplish with your blog? Have you been successful? If not, do you have a plan to achieve those goals?

My goals for my old blog were simply to write on subjects I enjoyed writing about, and to have my posts read. I think I achieved this to the extent I was willing to push it at the time.

With Glamumous, my plans were somewhat different: this blog is more personal: it's about being a wife and mother, keeping house and family and staying sane. As well as attracting a readership, I wanted to have an outlet for my feelings at a time when I was feeling somewhat confused about what I wanted from life. Although I'll never talk in my blog about those issues which concerned me as I started to write, I do honestly feel that writing Glamumous has helped me feel better about myself and change the things that needed it.

Blogger Buster can be seen as an offshoot of Glamumous: after a few of my Custom Blogger posts attracted some attention, I began to realise that writing a blog about blogging would be a great way to attract a readership, and a way to help others by sharing information about the tips and tricks which have helped me. Blogger Buster is a very new blog, and only time will tell if I am successful at achieving my goals!

Has the focus of your blog changed since you started blogging? How?

The answer above may well answer most of that question! But there is one more thing I may as well add. A few weeks ago, I discovered Dooce (you know, the blogger who became infamous when she was sacked for blogging about her colleagues?), and something I read in her "about" section really caught my attention: her blog generates enough from advertising to support her and her family! They don't have to go out to work, and can still pay all the bills, keep a beautiful house, maintain a car and probably go on holiday too!

I know it's about as likely that I'll ever be able to do that as winning the lottery! Yet it gave me hope that if my blogs become popular, my ads may pay off a little bit so I might be able to afford the odd weekend away, or a pair of shoes I don't actually need!

In the meantime, I know I'll need to put in a lot of hard work!

What do you know now that you wish you'd known when you started?

Put lots of link love out there; read other people's blog's regularly and comment on them; write for your readers if you want them to come back. And if you ever plan on having a custom domain for your blog, do it early on! Otherwise you'll have to try and let all your readers/blog rings/directories/etc know your new blog address, and it can be a real drag!

Do you make money with your blog?

At the moment, I make pocket change from the Google ads on my oldest blog (just about enough to cover the hosting fees!), but as yet I haven't made anything from Glamumous and Blogger Buster. I would like to though, and have already put the ads in place because I wouldn't want them to "suddenly" appear!

I do try to make the ads relevant to my readers though! On Glamumous, you'll find more affiliate links, since the Google ones didn't match up to my expectations (probably because it's still so new!), and I'm still working on those at Blogger Buster. After all the hard work and effort I put into my blogs, I don't think it's a sell out to include ads; if they even pay enough to cover their domain registrations and a Starbucks coffee every now and again, I'll be a very happy bunny!

Does your immediate or extended family know about your blog? If so, do they read it? If not, why?

Hmm, tricky question. My sister and Dad know about my blog and sometimes read it. Hubby Dearest knows I run websites (as he explains it), but doesn't really know much about blogs or blogging. He doesn't seem particularly interested in reading it, probably because he doesn't spend a fraction of the time online that I do! One thing I ensure each time I post is that no-one (including myself) would ever be offended or troubled by what I write, either now or at any time in the future.

Unfortunately, I don't have any friends or family who blog (though I am still trying to remedy this!). I would like people I know to be more interested in blogs, especially mine of course, but it seems that "blogging" isn't yet a growing trend in my social circles.

What two pieces of advice would you give to a new blogger?

1. Write about the things you enjoy writing about, be it your family, your favorite hobby or your latest business venture! If you enjoy your subject, you are much more likely to stick at it, write better posts and attract a readership through your passionate writing!
2. Don't expect to be a success straight away! For a blog to become popular, it needs lots of hard work, time and effort before a readership will arrive! Don't be put off if it takes months or even longer for your blog to attract subscribers! It took me a long time and many mistakes to realise this.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my blogging story. If you want to join in with the carnival and write your own, head over to Chili's blog to read more about it, and submit your post to her Mr. Linky!

Technorati Tags: blog story carnival chili blogging about+glamumous

I found this gorgeous little widget at WidgetBox.com which I just had to share with you:

The countdown on this one isn't for me, but shows the due date for my friend who's recently discovered she's expecting after a long period of infidelity. I just know she'll love it when she sees it!

To get your own free baby countdown timer which is fully customisable, visit this link:

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/baby-ticker

Technorati Tags: pregnancy baby babies countdown widget free widgetbox

Summer's blog, Wired for Noise features a great regular feature called The Carnival of Sahms. Here you can read some great blog posts about SAHMs (stay at home mums) and the issues which concern us.

This month, the carnival features a post from here at Glamumous! Be sure to check out Summer's blog for some great posts and articles (Thanks for the add, Summer!)

Technorati Tags: blog| carnival| sahms| stay+at+home+mums| wired+for+noise

I used GoDaddy to register my domain name, as this company seemed the cheapest dot.com domain provider, and also because they supply a free email address and basic hosting account with each domain, which has come in rather handy.

However, I'd read quite a few complaints about using GoDaddy for custom domains with Blogger hosting, so I was rather careful to make sure I did everything correctly!

Please do note that you can only link your site as http://yoursite.com or http://www.yoursite.com. Not both. It just doesn't work that way. My advice is to use the www prefix, and if you can make a simple redirect page in your host root, as I'll explain later

I followed Blogger's advice to the letter, and everything works fine. Here are the basics of their tutorial, or you can read the whole thing yourself on this page.

1. Buy your chosen domain name and create your account.
2. Once your domain has been registered, log in to your control panel, and choose to "manage domains".
3. Click on the area marked Total DNS Control, and then on Total DNS Control And MX Records.
4. Look for a record prefixed "WWW". If there isn't one, add a new CNAME record; if there is one, you'll need to edit this record instead.
5. Insert these settings exactly as they are described! For the "Name" type "www" (as in www.yoursite.com). For the Host Name, you need to enter "ghs.google.com". Don't change or enter anything else except for these two functions. If this is a new CNAME, click "add". If you are editing an existing CNAME, click "update" and "continue".

Before you link this domain to your Blogspot blog, you may well want to check that all the settings are correct. To do this, you'll need to "ping" your new domain and ensure the host points to ghs.google.com.

If you're a Windows user, this is quite simple to do using the "command" feature. Windows 98 and ME have a "command prompt" program in the start menu; Windows XP has the "run..." feature, which brings up a box; simply type in CMD, hit enter and you'll get your command prompt.

Then all you need to do is enter the following:

ping www.yourdomainname.com

substituting yourdomain.com for your domain name and suffix. Hit enter, and see what happens. It should look something like this:

Pinging ghs.1.google.com [72.14.207.121] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 72.14.207.121:
bytes=32 time=85ms TTL=247
Reply from
72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=89ms
TTL=247
Reply from 72.14.207.121:
bytes=32 time=86ms TTL=247
Reply from
72.14.207.121: bytes=32 time=86ms
TTL=247
Ping statistics for 72.14.207.121:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received =
4, Lost = 0 (0% loss), Approximate round trip
times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 85ms, Maximum = 89ms, Average = 86ms

Notice that the ping recognises that my site is hosted with ghs.1.google.com. This means that I can (and indeed, have) followed the next step in telling Blogspot my new domain name. If you don't notice the host is registered as Google, wait a little longer before following the next step.

Log in to your Blogger control panel. In the settings section, click on the publishing tab. Near the top of this page, you'll notice "publish to a custom domain". This is what you want to do.

When prompted, enter the domain name you have directed to the ghs.google.com host, including the www prefix! Continue, and you should see that your new settings have been saved.

View your blog to ensure everything works and looks okay. Don't worry if at first you get a "404 file not found" page: it can take a few days for DNS settings to propogate across the whole internet. You can always switch back to Blogspot hosting and try again in a day or two. When this does work okay, you'll see your blog exactly how it is normally seen, with the exception that your new domain name is in the address bar. Blogger takes care of all the inter-blog links, page titles and such for you, and even redirects traffic from your old name.blogspot.com address to your new www.yoursite.com address! This is great as it means it's unlikely you'll lose traffic or page ranking stats.

Now here's the awkward part: as I mentioned earlier, you can only have http://www.yourblog.com or http://yourblog.com. Not both. Blogger/Google simply haven't recognised that this may be important, and only offer the function of linking one address to your blog. But in a strange way, this is good: you don't have to worry about having two seperate blogs listed in Technorati, for example.

I advised that you use the www prefix for a good reason. Many domain providers offer a single page (often called a "holding page") with each domain name. This will show when you type http://yourblog.com, even though www.yourblog.com will link to your Blogger blog.

So make use of it!

If you are able to edit the HTML, you could create a redirect page to automatically redirect visitors to your www address. That way, you won't lose any visitors at all. To make the page redirect to your www address, you need to insert this code between the head tags, substituting "mysite.com" for your domain name. You can do this using an HTML editor (I prefer Notepad).

<head><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://www.mysite.com" /></head>

The part content="0; means that there is no pause before the browser is redirected. You can change this to "5" for example, to give a 5 second pause if you also want to include an explanation for the redirect in the body of the page. It is also a good idea to include a hyperlink to your www address in the body of the page, just in case the visitor's browser doesn't recognise the redirect command.

If you look at my redirect page at http://glamumous.com, you'll notice that there is an 8 second pause and an explanation for the redirect. Play around and see what works for you!

Similar posts:

• My new blog header
• Using Haloscan to enable trackbacks
• Creating a 3 column Blogger template"
• Creating a label cloud in the sidebar
• How to add social bookmark buttons to a Blogger template
  
  

Technorati Tags: blogger custom+domain domain+name dot+com+address customizing+blogger+templates blogging

In the next few days, the address for Glamumous will change from glamumous.blogspot.com to glamumous.com!

I've decided to buy my custom domain, and maintain Blogspot's excellent free hosting. An added bonus is that glamumous.blogspot.com will automatically redirect to the new address. I also have a new email address: amanda at glamumous.com!

Great, eh?

Technorati Tags: customizing+blogger domain+name domain dot+com blogger blogging

Last night, I finally got around to customising my blog header, which turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be!

I made the header using a combination of Publisher and Photoshop, then uploaded it to my hosting account on another server. I'm rather proud of how well the design turned out!

Then, rather then change the background image through the header widget, I read Peter Chen's excellent tutorial and added an extra widget to the header section; this enabled me to add an extra widget (HTML/Javascript), in which I created an image link to my header enclosed in link tags to the Glamumous home page.

After much tweaking of the header-wrapper/background images and the like, I finally have the (almost) finished design you see now. Please leave your comments to let me know what you think so far!

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Technorati Tags: custom+header customizing+blogger blogger templates

Everyday Mommy is giving away a free Blogger or Typepad makeover as a Mother's Day Giveaway! What a great idea! To be in with a chance of winning this great prize, simply leave a comment on Everyday Mommy's post here explaining why you'd like the blog design, and including a link to your URL.

Good luck!

Great, I can post by cameraphone!
Originally uploaded by AmandaFaz.

Here's a picture of my little princess, my first post by camera phone! Thankfully, blogging by phone isn't limited to those who live in the US! Using a flickr account you can post images straight to your Blogger blog. Thanks flickr!

To learn how to blog by cameraphone using Flickr, read this page, focusing on the "Do you have a cameraphone?" and "Do you blog?" sections.

Technorati Tags: flickr| photos| cameraphone| blogging| mobile+blogging