Works for Me Wednesday: Blogger Categories

Almost from the minute I began blogging, I wanted categories on my site. Alas, my blog is a blogspot blog and it doesn't support categories. I googled high and low looking for a solution and came across many hacks and tricks. I even considered, and rejected for now, the idea of moving my blog entirely.

What I finally decided on was a manual solution. Here were the steps involved:

1. I decided on the categories for my blog.
2. I created a post within my blog for each, separate category.
3. I used the datestamp feature to backdate the posts so they would be buried in my blog.
4. I created hyperlinks within the category posts for the blog entries that fit those categories.
5. I added links to my sidebar for each category post.

Doing this for the blog posts I have already done took several hours. Going forward, however, it will be easy to keep the category posts updated. I'll just have one extra step to do when I post a blog entry (placing a hyperlink for it into the correct category). Since I only post a handful of entries a week, that shouldn't be too cumbersome.

If you want a more automated version of categories, there are several ways you can accomplish it. None are as simple as if Blogger would just offer categories, but they're better than nothing. I have found Freshblog to have the most comprehensive listing of these tricks and workarounds.

By the way, my site stats tell me that since I've implemented categories in my blog, the length of time people stay when they visit has doubled!