Giving your blog an attribution (ie credits) gadget

This article is about giving your blog an attribution gadget, either one of Blogger's standard ones, or one that you make yourself.

Blogger's standard attribution gadget

If your blog has a Designer template (ref What sort of template do I have?) then by default it will have an attribution gadget at the bottom of the footer.

Previously, I've described the concerns that many people have with the attribution, and how to delete it.

However some people may want to add a standard gadget back in again, and others would like to make a customised version of the gadget that gives credit where it's due.

Adding a standard Attribution Gadget

The attribution gadget is not available through the usual Add a Gadget option.

The only way to get it onto your blog is to apply one of the Designer templates.

To do with with the old (ie pre-Sept-2011) Blogger:

• If you have a Layout template, use Design > Template Designer and pick one of the new options

• If you have a Custom template, use Template > Customize Design > Upgrade your template

• If you already have a Designer template, use Design > Template Designer and choose another one.   (And maybe use the same command again to change back to the template you had previously, if that's what you want to do.)

To do with with the new (ie post-Sept-2011) Blogger:

• If you have a Layout or Designer template, use the Template tab , hover over one of  the new options and click either Appy to blog or Customize 

• If you have a Custom template, use Template > Customize Design > Upgrade your template

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Remember:  changing templates undoes all the customisations you have previously applied through the Edit HTML tab.  Plan your template change carefully.

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Building an alternative Attribution Gadget

The only way to customize the standard attribution gadget is to add some text to the Copyright field.  This text is show an the beginning of the standard statement.

But many people want to change the other items too, for example to credit Tina Chen for the underlying template AND themselves for the colour scheme and layout.  This can be done by changing the template-name in your template.  If you want to more than just change the existing names, your options include:

1  a Blogger icon
Add a Blogger icon gadget to your template:  and choose one which you like.


2  A picture
Design a graphic that gives the appropriate credits, and add it to your blog  as a picture gadget


3  A Text Gadget
Add a text gadget, and put phrase(s) like these in it.

"Template created by WHOEVER, modified by YOUR NAME." 

"Photos by YOU (OR WHOEVER).   Page background image by WHOEVER"

"Powered by Google: site design by Blogger, file-hosting by Google-Sites"

"© YOU. You may copy and adapt this document for non-commercial use provided this notice is not reblog moved.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA."

Think carefully about where to put the attribution, and how to format it:  not many web-design or hosting companies expect their clients to devote prime screen-space to acknowledgements for the web-host - but you may want to advertise your own services ("customised by YOU").


Note:   at the moment, these methods only work on non-mobile template blog views.

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Related Articles: 



Changing the template-name in your template

Deleting the attribution gadget

Removing the attribution gadget from your mobile-template.

Planning your template change - seven simple steps to a snazzy new look blog

Adding a gadget to your blog