Many of us have blogs that we update regularly to keep family and friends updated, to act as a portfolio for a business or for the lucky few - to provide an income from advertising. I keep mine mostly for fun and to showcase my writing.
However, I'd say somewhere in the region of 90% of the Blogger blogs are underperforming or have simply been abandoned. The free blogging platform, while good, doesn't have much in the way of taking your blog to the next level. In this article, I'm going to discuss a few Blogger tips and tricks you can use to spruce up your blog in a single afternoon.
I don't want to start changing all the work I've done to my blogs and website in the past few weeks so for the purpose of this article I've created a test blog on Blogger seen here in the screenshot below; pretty bland right?
Themes
It's painfully obvious to any visitor that your blog is just another lame project that barely gets worked on if you're still using minimia black with hopes of getting high readership. You have to make it look attractive and inviting. Not like it was made in Soviet Russia.
There are tonnes of Blogger templates available but I'd suggest this site. It has 120 really beautiful templates on offer that will rock your personal blog. Once you have found the theme you like, download it using the download link. There will be an .XML document in that file which you'll upload later.
Go to your blogs editor at Blogger and select "˜Layout'. Then, select "˜Edit HTML' from the tabs along the top. You see the window in the screenshot above. Click the button that says "˜Download'. This will download a copy of your existing theme to back it up in case something goes wrong later.
Then, upload the .XML document that you downloaded earlier and click "˜Save'.
Your new theme will then be displayed on your blog. There may be some missing gadgets which you can replace later. These would have had to be moved because of the new template design.
Getting Rid of the Blogger Toolbar
Across the top of all Blogger blogs there is that annoying toolbar (pictured above). Not only is it obviously there to get others to create their own blog but it also links to other blogs and is downright unattractive and unprofessional. By uploading a new theme, you're getting rid of your blogger toolbar for good as the HTML which displays the blogger toolbar will be erased.
However, if you haven't uploaded a new theme, a quick change to the HTML will get rid of it.
Paste the following under the blog credits in the HTML near the top as seen in the screenshot.
#navbar-iframe { display: none !important; }
Adding Promotion Buttons
Adding promotion buttons to your site (such as "˜Tweet', "˜Digg' and "˜Stumble' can really increase your traffic, not to mention make your blog look better. For this example we'll focus on Twitter, but by adding the HTML code for any other buttons below them will work just fine if you want Stumble, Delicious, Digg etc.
Click the "˜Expand HTML' box above the HTML editor and use "˜CTRL + F' to find this line in your HTML:
<p><data:post.body/></p>
When you have found it, paste this code below it:
<div style='float:right; margin-right:10px;'><script type='text/javascript'> tweetmeme_url = '<data:post.url/>'; </script> <script src='http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js' type='text/javascript'> </script> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script>
Click "˜Save Template' and your button should appear on each post like mine here in the screenshot. You can add any valid promotion site's HTML under this. Most are available on their website or can be found by running a Google search.
You can see that with a new theme and promotion buttons our blog is starting to look much better with less than twenty minutes work.
Affiliate Widget
Now that your blog is look in sharp and is being promoted, it's time to gain a little revenue and make it look even more professional. Affiliate sites are a much better way to earn money than AdSense for most blogs and they look way better than the bland Google ads.
Go to the Amazon Affiliate Site and sign up for the service. They'll have to check out your blog first, but once they've done that you can start adding widgets like the one in the screenshot below that will earn you money.
On the affiliate homepage you can see the option to add a widget or a banner as pictured in the screenshot below. Select what type you would like and customize it by selecting products from Amazon. While you get a percentage (around 5-6%) of the sale from your widget, don't be tempted to put expensive items on your widget. People don't just see a laptop for sale and decide to buy it.
Think in the context of your blog and the people who will find it. If it's a blog about tennis, look for tennis accessories or DVDs; something cheap that they don't have and can't just walk to a shop and get. Odd gadgets or helpful books also bring in high revenue.
Once you have finished customizing your widget, copy the HTML given in the screenshot above (yours will be different - you can also see red rectangles where I blocked out my personal affiliate code).
Then, go to the "˜Layout' section in Blogger and select where you want to add the widget. The top of posts and the sidebar are good areas. Select "˜Add a Gadget' in the appropriate slot and paste the HTML into the HTML gadget as shown. Your widget will now appear.
So in just an afternoon you can transform your mediocre blog into a great looking site that will have subscriber counts soaring. I'm a firm believer of "˜the proof is in the pudding' so to have a look at the final MUO test blog I used for this article - click here.
What tactics and tips do you use to make your blog look better? For some more ideas, check out Mark's articles on 6 essential websites to get your blog noticed.