Guestbook in Your Blogger Blog

January 15, 2009

If you have a Blog, personal or non-personal, you know how important (and encouraging) is to see some feedback from your readers......well at least the positive one.....:] [:
You also know what are your options in Blogger:

► visitors/readers can use comments (but they are attached only to a certain post)
► you can add a Shout box (Chat box) to your Sidebar (which is all right, but kind of too active, and works fine for chatting and instant messaging)
► something else?

Your Guestbook entries (comments) will be about you, your Blog, work, and will not apply to a certain post.

WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?
Hm, searching for a good Guestbook provider, I've found a bunch of them. But, there's a bad bunch, and a good bunch. I'll show you my favorites (good bunch). I've tested them personally, and therefor, guarantee for them.

◄ GUESTBOOK EMBEDDED IN YOUR BLOG ►
This is the best option to add a Guestbook. Why? Because visitors will not be forced to leave your Blog to sign the Guestbook (which is a case with 99% Guestbooks for blogs) .
The only good and functional option I've found is Bravenet Guestbook. Bravenet is a very popular (with good reason) provider of dozen web tools and services. Guestbook is one of them.
Check out example I've made: My Guestbook

What to do? Click here to see step-by-step instructions...

► create an account (free) at Bravenet.com
► confirm the account clicking on the link in your email
► while logged in, go to Web Tools section and click on Guestbook
► design page will open...customize your gustbook here...try everything!
► when you're done (there's a million options), click on the Get Code in the upper right corner of the page
► copy the entire Embeddable Copy and Paste Code
► now, in your Blogger, create a new Post
► paste the code into it
► on the bottom of the Post box, click on Post Options
► set the date (on the right) far back in history....like 2 years, or more (we do this, so the post doesn't appear as a "new" post on the main page)
► publish the post
► go to your LAYOUT -- POSTS -- EDIT POSTS and search for your Guestbook post (where you've placed the code)
► click on View
► when the post opens, copy it's URL address (save it in Notepad or somewhere)
► the only thing left to do is to show our Guestbook to our readers/visitors and invite them to sign in
► you can do this how ever you want (as a picture in a sidebar, on the bottom of your posts, in header)
► just Link it with the URL address of your post (where Guestbook code is)

Options? Unlimited! Music, custom backgrounds, fonts, styles, size, you can edit everything, make rules, ban....anything you think of. It's brilliant. And free...

◄ GUESTBOOK AS A SEPARATE WEB PAGE ►
You can see the disadvantage of this method from the title... This means, when someone clicks on "Sign my Guestbook" link on your Blog, it will open a completely different page where your Guestbook will be. Because it's hosted on the server of the Guestbook provider...

But, don't think of this as a bad thing. There are advantages of this method too. Simplicity, usability and security.
The process of getting one:
► create an account with the provider (free)
► create your guestbook (choose the design, customize)
► you'll get the URL address of your Guestbook
► Link to it from your Blog

Where to get one?
123.guestbook.com ► check the Guestbook example
ultraguest.com ►check the Guestbook example
free-guestbook.com ► check the Guestbook example

If you've heard of some others, do tell me.....

Smile!