Protect your Adsense Account : Bad Clicks and Invalid Activity

Have you ever wondered how Google actually generates an income? It has a very large network of ads, with which it earns and also shares some revenue with publishers (people who put up AdSense ads on their websites). It's a very elaborate system, with Advertisers trusting Google, and investing their money with it in order to grow their own exposure. Google then shares some of that revenue with the publishers. Now it naturally follows, that Google has to make provisions to maintain the trust of its advertisers, and for that, it has to ensure that publishers don't cheat, or use fraudulant methods of clicking on ads to glean more money out of advertisers. Such bad clicks might result in the ban of your AdSense account. So what can you do to prevent such a thing from happening, even if you're not creating any mischief on your side?

 Unfortunately, this happens to the best of us. You can't always control invalid click activity on your blog. Indeed, there are some bad fish out there who feel jealous or threatened from other blogs, so they perform invalid click activity in spite. In this way, even good publishers might come under the spotlight, let alone bad publishers who get banned outright.

If you were in Google's position, you would see how bad clicks are against the best interests of Advertisers, and ultimately those of Google. Advertisers wouldn't like it if they had to pay extra for clicks that didn't really help them. So Google has some tools that keep bad traffic and bad sites out of their network. Unfortunately, these tools can't tell when you're a good publisher who is just subjected to unknown bad-click activity. So to solve this problem, here are some changes Google is making that you might find helpful.

 Trusted publishers

Google will now be considering tenure more actively in response to detected invalid activity. If you are a good publisher, and don't have a notorious history, Google will just suspend your account, instead of terminating it. So you should always try to keep it on the safe side of Google. Also, Google is working on a new system wherein it will work more closely with publishers to ensure that they don't even face the inconvenience of getting their accounts disabled, provided that they are trusted publishers.

Activity reports

Google also will send you emails and notifications in case invalid activity is detected. It will let you know about the type of activity, so that you can get to root of the problem. It will also provide you further instructions on getting rid of the invalid activity. So keep checking your email at a regular basis.

Support

Google is now providing publishers with tools to help them submit appeals. The new forms let them tell Google about their plight in more detail, and provide more information. This would hopefully improve the process of submitting appeals and reconsideration requests to Google.

Google has also launched an expanded AdSense Academy, which will detail beginners and pros alike on the do's and don'ts of AdSense. In addition, Google is starting a video series that will explain AdSense policies, and discuss best practises.

We're really looking forward to seeing these changes being implemented, and we'll keep you updated on the latest happenings in this regard. Stay tuned, and keep reading :)

Add Floating Social Media Sharing Buttons To Blogger

The Floating Social Media Sharing is a very popular widget on all the top blogs and this is one of the ways to increase the number of times your posts get shared on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.

This floating social bar has the following options: Facebook Like, StumbleUpon, Twitter Share, Digg This, Google+ and each of them comes with a live counter. You can add more sharing buttons or social bookmarking icons later if you want.

How to add the scrolling social bookmarking bar

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger Dashboard, select your blog and go to Layout 

Step 2. Click on Add A Gadget link

Step 3. From the pop-up window, scroll down and select HTML/Javascript 

Step 4. Copy the code below and paste it inside the empty box.

Step 5. Save the gadget.

The code to copy-paste (updated!):

<style type="text/css">
#social-buttons {
position:fixed;
bottom:15%; 
margin-left:-721px;
float:left;
border-radius:5px;
-moz-border-radius:5px;
-webkit-border-radius:5px;
background-color:#fff;
padding:0 0 2px 0;
z-index:10;
}
#social-buttons .button-share {
float:left;
clear:both;
margin:5px 5px 0 2px;
}
</style>
<div id='social-buttons' title="Get this from helplogger.blogspot.com">
<div class='button-share' id='like' style='margin-left:7px;'>
<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>
<div class="fb-like" data-send="false" data-layout="box_count" data-width="40" data-show-faces="false"></div>
</div>
<br /><div class='sbutton' style="margin-left: 2px;" ><a class='twitter-share-button' data-count='vertical' data-via='Helplogger' expr:data-counturl='data:blog.url' href='http://twitter.com/share' rel='nofollow'>Tweet</a><script src='http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js'; type='text/javascript'></script>
<br />
<div class='button-share' style="margin-left: 3px;" id='su'>
<script src="http://www.stumbleupon.com/hostedbadge.php?s=5"></script>
</div>
<div class='button-share' id='digg' style='margin-left:3px;width:48px'>
<script src='http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js' type='text/javascript'></script>
<a class="DiggThisButton DiggMedium"></a>
</div>
<div class='button-share' style='margin-left:3px;' id='gplusone'>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>
<g:plusone size="tall"></g:plusone>
</div>
<div style="clear: both;font-size: 9px;text-align:center;">Get <a style="color: #3399BB;" href="http://helplogger.blogspot.com/">widget</a></div></div></div>

Customization:

• Vertical alignment - Change the 15% value of bottom. The code positions the social bar relative to the bottom of your browser window. To fix the distance even when window is resized, specify the value in px (pixels) instead of %.

• Horizontal alignment - Change the -721px value from margin-left. Negative value pushes the button to the left of the main blog column, positive value pushes it to the right. Increase or decrease the value based on your needs.

• Twitter setting - Replace Helplogger with your Twitter username

• Replacing and removing buttons - You can replace existing buttons with your own. Each button is represented by this code:

<div class='sbutton'> BUTTON CODE HERE </div>

Enjoy!!! :)

Numbered comments on threaded comments for Blogger/Blogspot

In a previous tutorial you've seen how you can add numbered comments to your blogger blog, unfortunately, this trick worked only for those who don't have the reply option and are still using the old blogger commenting system. But we won't have any problem this time because this tutorial will show you how to add numbered comments with comment bubbles on the threaded comments, as well ;)

What the following CSS trick will do for you:

1. When the general block of comments is initiating (.comments-content) a counter called countcomments activates and starts with an initial value of 1. 
2. Then, each time the code flow goes through a review of any level, either the original comment or a reply (.comment-thread li), it will bring us in front (:before) of the comment's body the number that is the counter.
   
3. Finally, this is incremented in the counter (counter-increment).

See the screenshot:

Isn't that great? I'm pretty sure many of you have been waiting for this cool trick. So, let's begin applying it for our threaded commenting system.

Steps to add bubble comments count

Step 1: From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Template and click on the Edit HTML button:

... click anywhere inside the code area and press CTRL + F to open the Blogger' search box.

Step 2: Type the following tag inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

Note. you have to click on the arrow next to it, then search the ]]></b:skin> one more time 

Step 3: Add the following code just above ]]></b:skin>:

.comment-thread ol {
counter-reset: countcomments;
}
.comment-thread li:before {
content: counter(countcomments,decimal);
counter-increment: countcomments;
float: right;
z-index: 2;
position:relative;
font-size: 22px;
color: #555555;
padding-left:10px; 
padding-top:3px; 
background: url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrLdY4frC0v2PaIhl3vBbCKpAQb1r-tebb7jSR_sFFaiezSDKxrWRnSROn9yQmlmhJhxC1mn1J3PnKG_e-eqvUlnygLjeQ3a9E0SZS-2ew2e-BR5yZ0aCqS6j8gIjwb6DQxhfEqiC8OODX/s1600/comment+bubble2.png) no-repeat;
margin-top:7px; 
margin-left:10px; 
width: 50px; /*image-width size*/
height: 48px; /*image-height size*/ 
}
.comment-thread ol ol {
counter-reset: contrebasse;
}
.comment-thread li li:before {
content: counter(countcomments,decimal) "." counter(contrebasse,lower-latin);
counter-increment: contrebasse;
float: right;
font-size: 18px;
color: #666666;
}

Note:

• if you want to have no bubble icon, remove the code in red (including the address in blue)
• to change the comment bubble, replace the code in blue with the URL address of your own icon. If you're not sure what icon you should use, you can find some cool icons in my previous posts (see these tutorials here and here)
• to change the position of comments count, increase/decrease the values (3 & 10) from padding-top and padding-left
• to change the position of comments bubble/icon, change the values (10 & 7) from margin-left and margin-top

Step 4: Now Save the Template and you're done!

If you enjoy reading this blog, please share and subscribe. For any questions you may have, leave a comment below.

How to Create Drop Caps (Big First Letters) in Blogger/Blogspot

Here's another way to customize your Blog. In this case, your Posts and Comment's first letter. The effect is a large first letter stretching down three or four lines with the text wrapped around. The drop cap letter can also use a different font and have a different color from the rest of the text. This style can be often seen in newspapers, literature, magazines. So, in this tutorial I will show you how to apply automatically a Magazine text style on Blogger Posts and Comments. Let's start adding it...

-> Add Drop Caps For Blogger Posts

-> Add Drop Caps For Blogger Comments

Big First Letter for your Blogger / Blogspot Posts

Step 1. From your Blogger Dashboard, go to Template and click on the Edit HTML button:

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger' search box. Type this piece of code inside the search box then hit Enter to find it:

]]></b:skin>

Note: you might need to click on the arrow next to it to expand the code within and then you need to search ]]></b:skin> one more time.

Step 3. Just above ]]></b:skin>, add the following CSS code:

.capital:first-letter {
float: left;
display: block;
font-family: Times, serif, Georgia;
font-size: 40px;
color: #000000;
margin:0px 5px 0 0;
padding:0 0 0 10px;
}

Color - change the value in blue with the hex of your color
Size - to change the letter size, increase/decrease the value highlighted in pink.

Step 4. Now search for this code:

<data:post.body/>

Step 5. Then immediately before and after add the red fragments you see in the example below:

 <div class='capital'><data:post.body/></div>

Step 6. Save the changes by clicking on the Save template button.

Important! If the above code is not working, add one of following codes from this example:

<p class="capital"><data:post.body/></p>

Or try this instead:

<span class="capital"><data:post.body/></span>

Step 1. Log in to your Blogger account > go to Template > Edit HTML > click anywhere inside the code area and press CTRL + F keys to open the search box

Step 2. Type the following piece of code inside the search box and hit Enter to find it (if you have already added this code, skip step 2 & 3):

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Add the following code just above ]]></b:skin>:

.capital:first-letter {
float: left;
display: block;
font-family: Times, serif, Georgia;
font-size: 40px;
color: #000000;
margin:0px 5px 0 0;
padding:0 0 0 10px;
}

Color - to change the letter color, replace the value in blue with the value of your color. Here's a tool that might help you to find the hex of the color that you need: Color Code Generator
Size - to change the letter size, change the value in pink.

Step 4. Then Search for this piece of code:

<data:comment.body/>

Step 5. Add the red codes before and after <data:comment.body/> as you can see in my example below:

<p class="capital"><data:comment.body/></p>

Step 6. Save your Template.

That's it! Now you have a cool drop cap first letter on your blog. If you have any question, leave a comment below!

How to Customize Blogger Comments By Adding a Background Color and Border

The comments are an essential part of any blog as in them readers express their opinions about a post or a blog, thus it is important to spend a little of our time to make this part looking more stylish, accessible and neat.

To put our comments in order, we should make each comment easy to identify, so that we'll know from where it begins and to where it ends, otherwise it becomes a jumble of letters and our visitors could run away. Here are some methods to make some order by separating each comment.

- Add a Separator To Blogger Comments
- Add a Divider Below Comments in Blogger
- Fully Customize Your Blogger Comments By Changing The Background Color and Border

The first method is the easiest: we'll separate our comments by adding a border below each of them.

How to Add a Separator/Border To Blogger Comments

Step 1. To add a simple separator go to Template > Edit HTML and click on the small arrow on the left of <b:skin>...</b:skin>

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and search using CTRL + F keys, for the following piece of code:

]]></b:skin>

Step 3. Paste the following style just above it:

- If we are using threaded comments (with the reply option):

.comment-block {
border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;
}
.comments .continue {
  border-top: 0px solid #000;
}

- If we are using previous commenting system (with no reply option)

#comments-block .comment-footer {
border-bottom:1px solid #000000;
}

Note: To change the border's color, replace the bolded color value and to change its thickness, increase/decrease the 1 value.

Step 4. Save the Template.

Instead of a simple border, we can also add a divider/image between our comments.

How to Add a Divider (Image) Between Each Comment in Blogger

Step 1. Go to Template > Edit HTML and search (CTRL + F) for the following piece of code:

]]></b:skin>

Screenshot:

Step 2. Paste the following just above it:

- If we are using threaded comments (with the reply option):

.comment-block {
background-image:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SaIvJAFRSTICafinmEunt0fEZqzxO5-0MADihVaVFgdrjYKmZH6SoJbYprasSMQSYVaZt07ZJAY4AB__b6YOWegJ7I2opcAWlVeSNYqKKenBCC6upntWbffaWU7qoinp52uH7O_8a88v/s1600/74.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position:center bottom;
padding-bottom:30px;
margin-top: -10px;
}
.comments .continue {
border-top: 0px solid #000;
}

- If we are using previous commenting system (with no reply function)

#comments-block .comment-footer {
background-image:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SaIvJAFRSTICafinmEunt0fEZqzxO5-0MADihVaVFgdrjYKmZH6SoJbYprasSMQSYVaZt07ZJAY4AB__b6YOWegJ7I2opcAWlVeSNYqKKenBCC6upntWbffaWU7qoinp52uH7O_8a88v/s1600/74.gif);
background-repeat:no-repeat;
background-position:center bottom;
height: 50px;
}

Note: The URL that is in blue represents the image that you can change as you like, just remember that at the height must set the height of an image with 30px more, for instance, if the image's height is 50px then the value will be 80px. This is for making sure that the image won't overlap the date of comments. (for threaded comments, increase/decrease the padding 30 value)

Step 3. Save the Template.

But you can still have more styles for each comment, for example adding a background color and a border.

How to Add A Border and A Background Color To Blogger Comments

Step 1. Go to Template > Edit HTML and search for the following piece of code:

]]></b:skin>

Step 2. Paste the following just above it:

- If we are using threaded comments (with the reply option):

.comment-block {
background:#F9F9F9; /* Background Color */
border: 1px solid #f1f1f1; /* Border style */
margin-bottom:20px;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
border-radius: 10px;
}
.comments .comment-thread.inline-thread {
background-color: #FAFAFA; /* Background color behind the replies */
border-left: 4px dotted #E6E6E6; /* Border on the left side of replies */
}
.comment-content {
padding:2px 10px 10px 10px;
color:#444444; /* Font Color in Comments */
}
.datetime a {
font-style:italic;
font-size:9px;
margin-left: 2px;
}
.comments .comments-content .user a{
color:#1982D1; /* Author's name color */
font-size: 12px; /* Author's name size */
padding-left: 10px;
font-weight:bold;
text-decoration:none;
}
.comments .comment .comment-actions a,.comments .comment .continue a{
display:inline-block;
margin:0 0 10px 10px;
padding:0 15px;
color:#B4B4B7;
text-align:center;
text-decoration:none;
background:#F8F8FB;
border:1px solid #C2C2C5;
border-radius:4px;
height:20px;
line-height:20px;
font-weight:normal;
cursor:pointer;
}
.comments .continue {
border-top: 0px solid #000;
}
.comments .comments-content .icon.blog-author {
background-image: none;
margin-left: -10px;
}
.comments .avatar-image-container{
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
width: 40px;
max-height: 40px;
border: 1px solid #F2F2F2;
padding: 1px;
}
.comments .avatar-image-container img{
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
padding: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
max-width: 40px;
height: 40px;
}

Step 3. Save the Template.

- If we are using previous commenting system (with no reply function):

Step 1. Search for this line in your template:

<b:loop values='data:post.comments' var='comment'>

Step 2. Then, add the following code just below of it:

<div class='comments-new'>

Step 3. Look a little further down and you'll see the </b:loop> code and just above it, add this:

</div>

Step 4. Now find this:

]]></b:skin>

Step 5. And just above of it, add this CSS code:

.comments-new{
background:#F9F9F9; /* Background Color */
border: 1px solid #f1f1f1; /* Bprder Style */
margin-bottom:20px;
-webkit-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
-moz-box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
box-shadow: 0 1px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .4);
-moz-border-radius: 10px;
-webkit-border-radius: 10px;
border-radius: 10px;
}
.comment-body {
color:#444444; /* Font Color in Comments */
padding:10px;
}
.comments-new a {
padding-left: 5px; /* Link color */
color: #4A9BD8;
}
.comment-timestamp a {
font-style:italic;
font-size:9px;
padding-right:10px;
padding-left:10px;
}
.comments .avatar-image-container {
overflow: visible;
}

(The rounded edges will not work in Internet Explorer with CSS)

In either case, you can change the background color, border, etc.. in parts with annotations in green.

Step 6. Save the Template.

If you need more help, leave a comment below.

How to Add a Vintage Style to Images In Blogger using CSS

To get that vintage Instagram effect for your pictures you don't have to use a program, now you can use CSS and get a similar result! We will apply a shadow inside the image, add a border, put a color in it, and on top of our image, add another semitransparent image with a grunge style that will give a vintage touch.

See an example below: move the mouse pointer onto the image and it changes back to normal - notice that borders remain the same.

Obviously there will be images that will fit better these effects than others, but regardless of that we do, there should be made a few observations:

- this effect is made with CSS and it will not recognize some browsers, especially Internet Explorer. So this effect might not work on older versions of IE.
- The images are not centered, you will have to align them to the left (default) or to the right.

Now let's add the CSS code for applying this vintage Instagram effect on our images in our template.

Adding a Vintage Effect to Blogger Images

Step 1. From your Blogger dashboard > go to Template > Edit HTML

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open Blogger' search box

Step 3. Type or paste the following tag inside the search box:

</head>

Step 4. Just above it, add the following CSS style:

<style>
.vintage img {
padding:0;
float:left;
}
.vintage {
border:10px solid #000;
position: relative;
float: left; /* Change to right if you want the images to be aligned to the right */
margin-right: 20px;
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.vintage:before {
content: "";
display: block;
position: absolute;
top: 0;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
right: 0;
background-color: rgba(255,102,0, 0.6); /* sepia */
background-image:url(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6cjp22gH5iE8YSevAlrGewMnK3SqQLgz_j2L9zgLe0Ohu1ejLgMoM85Gr92yspiBVBKf9OTFtr0p8qypNF-8Kh4Ickxm428K3KlVWLycE8kuAGAeFDhXf3rcjBfEyvyGNRnVICepyRGs/s0/grunge.png);
background-size: cover;
box-shadow: inset 0 0 50px #000, inset 0 0 50px #000, inset 0 0 50px #000;
-moz-transition: all 1s;
-webkit-transition: all 1s;
-o-transition: all 1s;
transition: all .1s;
}
.vintage:hover:before {
background: none;
box-shadow:none;
-moz-transition: all 1s;
-webkit-transition: all 1s;
-o-transition: all 1s;
transition: all .1s;
}
</style>

Note: The line in bold that corresponds to the color of the image, can be changed to any other color; here are some examples of traditional vintage:

background-color: rgba(0,0,255, 0.5); /* blue */
background-color: rgba(0,255,0, 0.5); /* green */
background-color: rgba(0,255,255, 0.5); /* cyan */
background-color: rgba(255,0,0, 0.5); /* red */
background-color: rgba(255,0,240, 0.5); /* violet */

If you want the image to not change to its original state on mouse hover, then remove the last code:

.vintage:hover:before {
background: none;
box-shadow:none;
-moz-transition: all 1s;
-webkit-transition: all 1s;
-o-transition: all 1s;
transition: all .1s;
}

Step 5. After you've made your changes, click on Save Template

Step 6. Finally, add the following HTML code inside the HTML part of your posts each time you want to apply the vintage effect to an image:

<div class="vintage">
<img border="0" src="URL of the image" /></div>
<div style="clear: both;"/>

Replace the text in blue with the url of your picture.

And that's it, with this little experiment you can have your vintage-style images using CSS only.

How to Add a Widget Below First Post in Blogger

This tutorial will show you how to make a gadget/widget to appear just below the first Blogger post.

First, you must understand that the usual gadgets provided by Blogger can be added only where the design section allows this. Yet, we can show any element, for example, an AdSense ad, an image, a flash file or a video etc...

So, what we will do in this tutorial is to display an element under the first post, this means that it will not be visible below the other posts. This is great when you use any automatic summary, although it is not a requirement.

This is easy to do and we will use the isFirstPost conditional tag for that element to show it under the first post published on our blog.

Adding A Gadget or Widget Below First Post in Blogger

Step 1. From your Blogger dashboard, go to Template and click on the Edit HTML button:

Step 2. Click anywhere inside the code area and press the CTRL + F keys to open the Blogger search box

Step 3. Type or paste this line below inside the search box and hit Enter to find it:

<b:include data='post' name='post'/> 

Step 4. Just below it add this code:

<b:if cond='data:post.isFirstPost'>
<div align="center" style="margin:10px auto;">
Here goes the code of the element you want to show
</div>
</b:if>

Note:

- The bolded text indicates to where you should paste the code of the element (eg. AdSense ad, a widget). 

- In red are the top margins (margin-top) and the bottom margins (margin-bottom), this is in case you want the element to move towards or away from the entries, also you can add any style like a background color, border etc..

Step 5. Preview to make sure everything is ok, then Save your Template by clicking on the Save template button. That's it!