to Start a Blog

So you have downloaded a custom Blogger template from the internet and now you want to customize it to the needs of your Blogger blog (Blogspot blog). Before you expend all that energy check under the hood to make sure the Blogger template isn't a lemon and that you are not going to be wasting your valuable time. Blogger has been around for some years now and has gone through many changes. Before the most recent default templates were introduced, the choice of default templates was not that great leading many developers to crank out a heap of custom templates to meet the demand of bloggers looking for a theme that matched their blog. The problem was however, that many of these Blogger themes had missing code and many had hard coded fonts, color schemes, gadgets etc requiring coding knowledge to make alterations to the template. Many of these custom templates are still around to download. Some are good, some not so good. Be aware if you use a custom template on your Blogger blog it...

"Can I still use the old default templates for my Blogger blog (Blogspot blog)?" is a frequent question I am asked on Blog Know How pretty often. Other people have asked me about the template I am using and how to get it. In answer to the first question as you can see older style templates do work on Blogger. And with respect to the second question the template I am using on Blog Know How is an enhanced version of the Rounders 3 Blogger template which is one of the older style default Blogger templates available from 2006 onwards. In today's Blogger tutorial I am going to show you how to access the older style default Blogger templates (Blogspot templates) and activate them on your Blogger blog. This tutorial is mostly written for those new to Blogger who might not realise that there are a number of default Blogger layouts released in 2006 that are still perfectly usuable. Also there may be some of you who would like to revert back to an older style Blogger template but...

Today I will show you how easy it is to have Blogger (Blogspot) display profile images in the embedded comments section of your blog even if you are using a custom template. About a month ago Blogger announced that it was enabling profile images (profile avatars) in the embedded comments section on Blogger (Blogspot) as part of its 10th birthday feature series. The new profile image feature which has been available on other commenting options has now been extended to the embedded comments option. This is good news if you are using a default template as you will now see a small avatar next to your visitors comments and your own avatar if you have uploaded a profile image. Default Blogger Templates - Enabling Profile Images Profile images work on default Blogger templates and have been automatically enabled by Blogger. If you are using a default Blogger template with embedded comments enabled and have recent comments on a post you will see a profile image to the left of visitor comments...

Today I continue the series of Blogger tutorials (Blogspot tutorials) by showing you how to apply CSS styling to blockquotes in a Blogger template. Other articles I have already published on the subject of CSS styling include: How to Add, Delete or Remove Blogger Image Borders How to Align and Justify Posts in Blogger How to Add a Divider Between Blogger Posts How to Add or Change a Background Image in a Blogger Template . Today's tutorial on Blogger blockquotes will be useful if you are using a default Blogger template or a third party custom template. It will show you how to change your blockquote area in the following ways: Add a background color to the blockquote Add a border around the background of the blockquote Add or change the color of the blockquote text Add or change padding around the text Add or change the margin Add a background image Blogger beginners you can relax as I have written this Blogger tutorial with you in mind. I will walk you through the steps of styl...

Sometimes you may want to remove, delete or change the image border of a custom Blogger template or default Blogger template (Blogspot template) . In this Blogger tutorial you will learn how easy it is to make changes to your template so that you can get rid of unwanted image borders around all the images that appear in your blog posts or around a single image in a blog post. You will also learn how to enhance your Blogger template (Blogspot template) by changing the line color and line style of the existing image borders. Note this Blogger tutorial applies to custom templates and the previous generation of Blogger templates. If you are using the new default Blogger Template Simple please refer to my Blogger tutorial How to Remove the Image Border in Blogger template Simple for instructions This Blogspot tutorial is rated easy. It involves making minor alterations to your Blogger template (Blogspot template) but this is well within the capabilities of beginner bloggers and newbies. T...

In this Blogspot tutorial you will learn how to convert your existing Blogger footer (Blogspot footer) into a 3 column footer or a 4 column footer. With more columns in your Blogger footer you will be have the extra room to accommodate more widgets such as Flickr photos and Twitter updates. Also you will be able to put less frequently used widgets such as recents comments, archives, followers, About Me etc at the bottom of your template so that only the most important widgets are loaded first. This tweak involves adding code to the footer section of your existing Blogger template to change it to 3 columns or 4 columns. The tutorial is not beyond the capabilities of Blogger newbies and webmasters with intermediate skills but care needs to be taken when modifying your Blogger template so back up before you start. For best results a Blogger template with a width of around 900px is best. How to Add a 3 Column Footer to Blogger Log in to Blogger if not already logged in Navigate to Layo...

Sometimes you may download a Blogger Blogspot template which does not display the date header above the post title. I recently struck a free Blogger template like this and it took some time to find the right part of the template to fix the date. Plus the answer was not as far as I could tell listed in Blogger help. So to help anyone desperately struggling to find the solution to this problem I have decided to share this information in this article. To Display the Date Header Above Post Title 1. Log in to Blogger 2. Go to Layout > Edit HTML 3. Back up your template before attempting any changes 4. Type the following into the search box (CTRL + F) to find the block of code beginning with this line: &ltdata:adStart/&gt 5. Paste the following lines of code &ltb:if cond='data:post.dateHeader'&gt &lth2 class='date-header'&gt&ltdata:post.dateHeader/&gt&lt/h2&gt &lt/b:if&gt into the code block as shown here: ...

Today I will show you how to fix your Blogger template if the embedded comments feature is missing or not working. I decided to write this article because I have noticed that the embed a comment below the post feature is often not working in many Blogger custom templates available for download. This is usually because many of these templates were released prior to Blogger enabling embedded comments. If you have downloaded a custom template that has embed a comment missing then read on as I will show you how to insert the code for embed a comment form into your template. Inserting code into a blog template can be challenging for some but if you follow these instructions it is not beyond even virtual beginners. 1. Login to Blogger if you are not already logged in 2. Navigate to Settings > Comments . Under Comment Form Placement make sure the Embedded below Post radio button is set. Save any changes you make. 3. Navigate to Layout > Edit HTML 4. I strongly recommend you back u...

This Blogger tutorial shows you how to easily and quickly add a subtitle to your Blogger posts (Blogspot posts) so that both search engines and readers will have more information about your post. I also discuss the benefits of adding subtitles to Blogger articles. This is an easy tweak to your Blogger blog that anyone can carry out in a couple of minutes. Benefits of Using Subtitles in Posts Adding a subtitle which appears below the title of your post can be both eye catching and informative. For instance a titling schema for this post could be: Title: Add a Subtitle to a Blogger Blog Subtitle: Make Your Posts More Search Engine Friendly and User Friendly If you craft your titles and subtitles carefully you will encourage more targeted readers of your blog as they will be able to see at a glance what your post is about rather than reading the whole article. Your traffic therefore might be slightly less but they will be far more targeted to the content of your site resulting in a...