Thursday, 18 August 2011

One blog in 2 languages or more - Bilingual blog

Read in Swedish:  Blogg på 2 språk eller fler - Tvåspråkig blogg

It takes some time, but it's easier than you think to create a bilingual blog at Blogger. (Probably it's about the same with other blog-tools.)

You have to create one more blog from the beginning(Go to your dashboard, then click "Create a blog"). You can make it look different, but it's more fun if it's exactly the same I think! You can have exactly the same blogname also, but because my first blogname was in Swedish I took the same name in English for my twinblog. You have to take another blogaddress for your second blog. Here I also choosed the same name, but in English: evainathens instead of evaiaten.


I recommend to use the same profile for both the blogs -  then you only need to upload the pictures once. Because of that I have written in both languages at my profile, but as Stupid Blog Tricks told me; you don't need to use the default profile on your blog - you can create your own "About Me" using a HTML gadget.

When you are ready you put a small flag (or if you have any better idea!)on top of the blog with a link to your other blog! Ready!

Of course this way the reader will always come to the latest post when changing the language and not to the post he was reading, if he or she was reading an older post...I have been thinking to put a link in every post as well, to the same post in the other language. I recommend you to do that from the beginning. (Like I have done at the top of this post.)

The best would probably be if it was ONE blog because of the statistics, followers and so on, but at least now it's not possible at Blogger (or any other blogtool as far as I know), if you exclude the possibility to write in different languages under each other(recommended if you're writing really short blogposts). On the other hand you are creating links to your blogposts this way, which is positive. Remember to use keywords in links, not just "English" for example like I was doing in the beginning, also to use the words "Click here" in a link is of no good...! Use the exact title words when you're making the links to the other language.

Hope you understand! If not, just ask!
Good Luck!

2 comments:

Irina said...

I did that,inspired by you (and remembered I saw this on another blog,too) though without reading this post ;)
it is a good idea

eva i Aten said...

I'm glad to hear that, Irina! I like the cute, round flags that you've put!