How To Create Your Own Blogger Template Theme

This tutorial will cover the steps needed to create your own blogger template. Many people have used blogger to run blogs and have wondered how they can make their own theme to use with it. There are a very few hard to find guides on how to do this, so I’ve decided to take up the task to help as many people as I can, create one.

To create a blogger template, you will need a graphic editor (Such as Photoshop, GIMP, or even Paint will do) to create images for backgrounds, post headers, sidebars, etc.. We will get to that later. You will also need an idea or vision about what you want to create. Without that, you are just wasting your time and electricity. Lastly, you will need to know about C.S.S (Cascading.Style.Sheets) and how to operate them. If you do not know how to do that, you cannot apply interesting effects to your newly designed template (Such as: Positioning pictures or text, creating repeated backgrounds, moving around pictures and text and more). A great guide on how to get started with this is available here.

Once you have got everything you need, you should start the C.S.S Framework by putting properties such as


body[ background-color: #000000; margin: 0 auto; font-family: “Trebuchet MS”, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
font-size: 14px;}

#title [ font-size: 32px; color: #000011; }

so-on and so forth. A basic list of these tags that were taken from Blogger’s simple white theme are available here: (PDF File) XML Tags Blogger List Of CSS. An easier way to do this would be to find a theme that you like and copy and paste the C.S.S, editing it along the way so that time is saved. The only problem with doing that is that every theme is engineered differently so the tags will change.

After configuring your CSS Stylesheet, you must piece it together in HTML. This can be achieved using similar structures.

...

....
........

Do not forget to reference blogger templates that have already been created for the required widgets that you are supposed to put in certain spots. Without doing this, you could not complete making your own template.

Now comes the grueling part that you can either do yourself which could take hours to finish, or copy from another site and edit accordingly. Blogger is configured using widgets. All your posts are just one big widget hence the code up there. An Example of the code that you could type yourself or copy is:

1

,

That code translated into human terms controls what goes at the bottom of every post…In this case its the author, time, comment link and labels. To extract the code from other templates, just click the “Expand Widget Templates” button and it is below the stylesheet on a certain template.

Most of creating a template is just trial and error. If you look at the code and try to piece it together bit by bit.. you will eventually succeed and reap the rewards of creating one. I hope this tutorial has covered everything that you will need and comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated as it would be great if this tutorial would become a one-stop source for all of the Blogger CMS(Content Management System) users.

*Update*

Every different piece of code inside the template does not need to be used and can be modified to fit what you are creating. For example, you don’t need to include a “Labels” section in each post if it will make the design that you create look terrible. Then again, It is all in the eye of the beholder as everyone has different tastes.

Blog Design Requires A Unique Theme

this article from http://blogmarketingjournal.com/category/blog-design/
Writing by Brick Marketing

There is more to running a blog than just content and blog SEO. The blog design needs to be right as well and by that I mean it needs to fit the niche you are writing in. Many bloggers just grab a free theme they like, install it and away they go.

I don’t have anything against free themes per, especially if you are first starting out and are don’t have many readers or visitors. However as you start to build a name and reputation of your blog online you need to think about a theme that is unique for your blog. Your theme becomes a part of your branding - a part of your image.

Free themes come with several problems, the first and obvious being that many others share it. While this may not be a big problem, it can be for your image and branding - remember, you need to be unique - to stand out in the crowd of the millions of blogs active on the web.

Other problem associated with free blog themes includes hidden links in the footer that may go to sites that may hurt your SEO efforts. This can be a serious problem you can lose visitors as well.

Your blog theme is the first thing that visitors see, well before the content. It has to be attractive and inviting while selling you and your brand and image. It needs to convey a feeling of authority, even if your site is just full of jokes; it still needs to sell that feeling.

Free themes won’t cut it in the long run. They won’t support your image and they won’t help to sell you. Getting your own theme designed is not always that expensive, it can however make a huge difference.

What To Do With Free Blog Template Code?

06th November 2007
Author: Trevor John

OK. You've found some free blog template code that you really like.It displays well.It works with your chosen blog platform.What next?That will depend on your particular blog platform.Some blog platforms give you lots of flexibility in terms of the blog template code you can use. Others are fussier and will restrict you to a set of pre-designed templates.Before your blog gets too popular, it's worth finding out what, if any, restrictions there are on changing your blog template.That said, most blog platforms will allow you to change your blog template.There are a number of things you need to consider when you do this:

* Does your new blog template include a visible link back to the designer?

* Are you required to keep that link on your page and visible as part of the license to use the blog template?

* Does the underlying code look neat?

* Is the code "commented" so that you or your web designer can make changes?

* Are you allowed to make changes to the blog template code? Or does it have to be used exactly as it is?

* Is it simple to change things like the background image and other images to make your theme more personal?

* Does the blog template code work in the major web browsers? At the very least, your blog should look near enough the same in Internet Explorer and Firefox.

* Does the blog template code load quickly? Or does it take forever to "render" (put itself into the correct place)?

* Are there any hidden images or other sneaky items included in the blog template code? You may need to get a HTML savvy friend to check this for you.

* Will using this blog template code limit your ability to change the look and feel of your blog in the future?

For instance, are there are special elements in the code that affect your blog's navigation?Once you're happy with the answers to all these questions, it's time to take the plunge and change your blog template.But there's one thing to do before you install a new set of blog template code. It's important, but it's often missed:Take a backup of your current blog template.That way, if something goes wrong or doesn't work as expected, your blog can be put back to a working version quickly and easily.Find out more about how to find free blog template code and how to use your blog to best advantage. Learn the secrets of easy blogging.

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