Platial Tip: Blogger MapKit Pages

Blogger is a great service which I know a lot of Platialites use for their blogs. My first blog, many years ago, was on Blogger, so it holds a special place in my heart. So powerful! So free as in beer!

If you want big, powerful maps, more than one maybe, and you want to get to them from your trusty ol' blog, this might be the solution for you. (Heck, you may already have thought of it yourself.)

Put simply: Create a new blog for each map and link to them from the sidebar of your main blog, linking back to the main blog from each map. Your blog is the hub, the maps are spokes. Your blog is the body, the maps are the tentacles.

Here's an example I threw together rather hastily this morning, showing things of interest to families in Somerville, MA. Please do not judge me on the graphic design (or lack thereof) of this example. I literally grabbed the first icons I could find for those map titles in the side bar.

Now, to get into the nitty and the gritty.

* Template I chose the template "Sand Dollar" because its header spans across the whole width of the page and I wanted my maps to be big and wide.

If you want your maps to match a Blogger site you already have, you will choose the same template for your map blogs as for your main blog or copy and paste the template you already use into the new blogs.

The MapKit looks nicer in some blog templates than it does in others. Experiment a little before forging ahead.

* Linking Back In my example I put the link to the main blog right into the blog description box. You can use href tags in that box, no problem. You'll find it under the "Settings" tab.

* Tell People What to Do I changed the titles of all my maps to "Add Stuff to this Map," or words to that effect. The Blog title takes the place of the map title.

* Putting the Map in the Template The best way to see how to put the map into the Blogger template is to watch this two-minute how-to video. Click on the picture below to see the movie.

If you set up some maps, send us an email to feedback at platial dot com to let us know. Use that same email if you need some help or advice on getting started.

Comments

[Tracy Rolling]

I took out those awful ugly icons. Bad idea!