Gardeners Guide to Blogging Pt 2

Welcome back!  I hope you enjoyed the guide on setting up a template for your blog.  If you haven't read the Gardeners Guide to Blogging Pt 1 you should go here for some great tips on installing a custom template for your blog.  Then come right back because I have some more great tips for you here today!


Now pull your hair back up, throw on some shades and I decided to wear a long sleeve today since it's overcast.  Jump back into the convertible and lets cruise on down the super blogging highway to our next few stops.  These will include some of my favorite blogging tip sites like KevinandAmanda.com, SneakyMommablogdesign.com and McLinky!!!


The first thing I wanted when I started up my blog was lot's of followers.  Since I'm still working on that I decided to change my sights a bit and start with my template.  A background and banners and page breaks that flowed with my vision for my blog. 


After that was said and done I really wanted to customize my blog further with some fancy text.  This is also one of those projects that requires editing the HTML in your template.  So just like we talked about last time I recommend downloading a copy of your template either to your documents or desktop before editing any of your html.  If you have a practice blog you can also test this over there.  So head on over to KevinandAmanda.com for their tutorial on "How To Use A Cute Font For Your Blogger Post Titles".  If you like the one I have on my blog it's "Baby Bowser".


Another great addition to a blog is the three little preview boxes at the bottom of a post that might say something like "You might also like".  I love these.  Whenever I'm looking at a blog for the first time these little previews keep my interest and I'm more likely to look at other pages on the blog.  You can find instructions on how to get these fabulous little boxes at Linkwithin.com.


I H.E.A.R.T. linking parties!  I've gained new readers because they came to my site via a link and took a longer look around to see what else I had done! They liked what they saw and have become loyal followers!  If you have been to a blog where you see tons of people linking up with their projects you know what I'm talking about. 


If your interested in learning how to host a linking party on your blog you must check out Mclinky!!! I haven't actually used this yet but plan to start having my own linky parties very soon. I have however heard reputable blog owners rave over this site. It's the most user friendly and makes it simple for your guests to link up multiple posts.


Last stop. I want to impress upon you the importance of free advertising! Having a "Button" for your guests to grab and post on their page will give you free advertising with little effort. Sneakymommablogdesign has a great tutorial on how to set up a button grab box for your page. I found these instructions super simple to follow.

I L.O.V.E Sneaky Momma! She has tons of great tutorials, tips and tricks for your blog. She also breaks them down by skill level from Beginner to Advanced. You will find some wonderful tips on her site such as placing borders around your photo's, before & after mouse over photo's, numbered comments so that you can easily respond to your readers by number. She also shows you how to add video and falling snow to your blog!


There are many many great bloggers out there who are willing to invest their time into showing us lesser skilled bloggers how to create great blogs without having to invest tons of money in a custom designer. Make sure to leave a comment or a thank you for these great friends if you end up utilizing their tips.

Gardeners guide to blogging Pt 1

So after my blog makeover the past couple days I thought, wouldn't it be nice to share what I know with my readers?  Now now don't get crazy over there.  I am no expert.  But I am great researcher and will post tons of links for you all.  So buckle your seat belts, let the top down, put your hair in a pony, hold on to your nickers and enjoy the ride down the blogging super highway!  Here we go!

First stop... Leelou blogs.
I have searched high and low for a beautiful blog I could do myself.  Cause let's face it ladies, I'm a stay at home mom of three children living on a single income that my dear Mr Garden works his hiney off for.  Occasionally I sell some furniture that brings in enough money to splurge at goodwill ha!  So I'm a self blogger. 

I have stopped by many (un-named) blogs with banners, backgrounds and blinkies.  And after playing around I've decided it's just too darn hard to find a background and banner that all matches and lines up nicely. 

So I've gotten comfortable with "XML" templates.  This changes your entire layout.  The banner, the background, the widget headers (these are the little banners in your columns that say, ABOUT ME etc...).  Everything ebs and flows together. 

The only difference is that installing a template is a little different and can be intimidating to a first timer.  This is where I suggest making a back up of your current blog template and save it to your desktop just in case you need to re-install it.  Or you can set up what bloggers call a "practice blog".  This blog you can mess up, screw up and experiment here with cool blogger tips.

Here is how you will download a copy of your current template... Click on the Design/Layout tab on your blogger site.  There you will see a link that says "EDIT HTML"

Double click picture to enlarge.

Next you will see a text box full of code you will not understand.  This is not Chinese, it is what I would consider a foreign language though.  There is another link up top on this screen that says "DOWNLOAD FULL TEMPLATE".  You want to click on that and tell your computer where to save the file.  I recommend naming it something you will remember and putting it somewhere you will remember as well.  I either use my Desktop or My Documents.

Now you can CTRL+A in the text box and delete everything.  You will click on the "Browse" button and find your new template "XML" file on your computer and "Upload" it.  There are usually instructions that come in a file with your new downloaded template as well. 

You may get a message that says you will loose all your widgets, it will be in red.  If so scroll to the bottom of the message and click to keep the widgets.

Next... preview your blog and make sure all is functioning as it should be and then you can save!

After many tanks of internet fuel and driving through some super shady blog towns I finally found Leelou blogs.  Leelou has a bunch of great templates and they are free!  If you like my page then you will love this site.  Please go check them out.

I heard once that the human brain can only memorize ten items at a time comfortably.  I wouldn't want to be the cause for any eye twitching or thumb sucking in the corner so were going stop here today.