More Blogging Tips

I wanted to make a few more blogging tips. First it is about what it looks like. First place to start is with the template or background. I have found this site useful in selecting a background or template www.ourblogtemplates.com. This is where mine is from.

Select on and it will allow you to download a file to your computer. I recommend saving it to a place you will remember where it is, like the desktop or in your documents folder. Rename it to something you will also recognize.
Then log into blogger. Click on Layout. The along the top click the link that says Edit HTML. Then at the top of that page there is a empty box click the Browse button next to it and find the file you just saved and click open. The empty box will now have the location of the template file in it so all you have to do is click Upload button to the right. Continue by clicking save or ok which ever comes up.

After that your template or background is loaded. After that all you need to do is add things that are on the side. These are called gadgets. You can get these from inside blogger or outside. I will first explain inside blogger. Go back to www.blogger.com and click Layout underneath your blog. You will see a bunch of boxes there. Wherever you want to add a gadget click Add a Gadget. There is a menu on the left you can choose to find things or a search box on the top right to type in for what you want. You can also use the stuff down the center of the page as well. Scroll down and find Picture. Click on it. Then there is a place to click browse to find the picture you want from your computer. Find it on your computer in the little window that pops up. You can add a title for the picture above and below the picture. Then click Save or Upload which ever is in the bottow left of that little window. Then it will put it on for you automatically.

From outside blogger I will use the example of Weather Bug. You can go to http://weatherbug.com/desktop-weather/web-widgets.html. There you can find the one you want and choose the size you want. Remember to pick one that is medium or small to fit on the side of your blog. If you want it on the top or bottom of your posts you can choose a big one. For this example I will choose the very small one on the left at the bottom of the page. It says 125x125 HTML size and shows basically the temperature. Fill in the registration information below it and click get code at the bottom. There will be a box with a lot of typing into it. Just highlight it and right click and choose copy. Or you can use the shortcut ctrl c (which is the shortcut for copy). Then go back to blogger.com click on Layout under your blog again. Wherever you want to put the weather click on Get A Gadget. Scroll down the middle of the page and choose HTML. A box will come up. You can type a title in. Then in the big box right click and go to paste. You can also do ctrl v (shortcut for copy). Then just click save. That puts the weather on your blog.

I want to remind everyone that there is a gadget for just about anything and everything now a days. So you can have a lot of great stuff on your blog if you choose.

Another thing I want to mention is your gadgets can make your blog load slower if there is too many. Say your blog shows 7 posts which pictures and then you have gadgets on the top, side and bottom. This could make your blog load slower because of all the things it has on it. You can do two things. One change the settings of your blog to only show 4 or 5 posts, or you can remove some of the gadgets. Keep in mind that blogger loads top down. This means the stuff at the top will load faster than the things at the bottom so keep the cooler things or the best things at the top.

If you want more tips or need an a walk through please email for arrangements and/or call me.