How to get a Thumbnail Photo to Display on Blogger Reading List

Ok, I may not have enough blogging experience to write this post. I do not know the ins and outs of Blogger and I could not start from scratch to write the HTML code for a blog post…but I am slowly learning what works and what doesn’t so I thought I’d throw out some ideas to see what you all find successful or not.

Like many of you, I follow a number of blogs on Google Friends Connect (GFC) and like that when I log into my Blogger Dashboard I can see who has posted what recently. I used to keep a list of my favorite blogs on bookmarks (yes, outdated I know, I said I am still learning!) but with the Reading List on Blogger I have most of my favorites at my fingertips. I wondered why some sites had a thumbnail photo included with their snippet of text and others did not.

It occurred to me that I did not know what photos were showing up with my own posts so I joined my own blog by GFC and was surprised to find that not one of my own photos had been displayed! Either no photo appeared or a blog button for a blog to which I had linked up was showing. Odd, I thought. I turned to Google for answers but didn’t find many. The best info I found was on this Blogger Hints and Tips site but some of the info provided was too technical for me. The main point I took away from the Hints and Tips site was that it might help to post photos which had been saved on Picasa Web Albums through Google+.

I’ve been trying this consistently—processing my photos in Picasa on my computer than hitting the Google+ button to transfer them to an online web album before inserting them in my blog posts—and so far, it seem to be working. I can now see my thumbnails next to a snippet of my blog posts as they appear on the Reading List.

What have you learned while working on Blogger and the Reading List? Are there any tips you could share? Feel free to leave notes in the comment section to share your insights with others who are growing on this blogging learning curve.

By the way, the BEST way to learn more about blog design, blogging, HTML and more is to ASK other bloggers. I appreciate Kelley from The Grant Life and Chrissy from The Taylor’s House, just to name a few, for being so willing to offer feedback and help. I am also grateful to Barb at Creative Culinary for suggesting ideas to me such as adding an email subscription through Feedburner. That’s a recent addition to my blog—if anyone needs directions on that process, let me know.

I link up to these fantastic blogs: