Tag Archives: Blogger

More Blog Beautifying Templates

If you are looking for some nice n snazzy templates or design ideas, you have come to the right place

I love redesigning blogs and simply love to try out new designs and check out how things look. In WordPress, I have not opted for the CSS upgrade, so if I want to fool around with templates, I use my now-defunct Blogger blog as an experimental sandpit.

The Blogger platform really gives you a lot of flexibility regarding the design of your blog, and it is simply so easy to revamp, you can do it even if you have very little CSS knowledge. There are tons of sites on the web, which provide you with ready-made templates. All you need to do is upload them to your blog, and your blog is as good as new.

Some sites that I really love:

Blogger Templates (huge variety – there are templates to suit all needs)
Infocreek Blog (the variety is not too much, but the templates look really professional)

Btw, if you have a wordpress.org (not wordpress.com) blog you can still use the templates available in the above sites.

I used my old Blogger blog to test out some of these templates.

What do you think about these options I tried out?

The Blue Jeans Template from Infocreek Blog

I loved the denim look and feel. My favorite theme though was the Notepad template. It looks really beautiful, and I was itching to try it out. However, a Blogger version is yet to be released. Will definitely pounce on it when it does.

The Notepad Template from Infocreek Blog

I finally tried the Scrapbook theme, and eventually decided to stick with it for now.

It is really quite pretty and will suit a lot of photo blogs out there. With a little CSS knowledge, you can easily make whatever modifications you want to.

These templates are very easy to use. Just download and unzip them on to your system, and follow the instructions in the Readme. Most times, it is as simple as uploading the XML template file to your blog (in the case of Blogger), I am not very familiar with this process for wordpress.org blogs.

Now, you guys must be wondering why I spend so much time surfing for blog templates for a blog that I do not even update. The fact is that I dream about creating a beautiful secondary book blog ( I keep thinking about it, but in actuality I am just way too lazy to maintain 2 blogs). Changing templates is quick n easy, and for the amount of work required (minimal) provides a lot more satisfaction

If you do decide to update your blog using these links, please do leave a comment with your blog link, I would love to visit and check it out

Blog Beautification Project Complete

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For the past couple of months, I have been waffling over a change in the look of my blog. While I loved my old theme (Pressrow by Chris Pearson), it was definitely time for an upgrade. It is difficult to explain, but I think when the content of my blog has evolved from a largely personal chronicle to something a little more different, it makes sense that the blog’s appearance also change.

With change in mind, I went over various themes in the WordPress catalog, and finally settled on Vigilance.

What I love about Vigilance:

The neat right-hand side sidebar text. While I generally liked Pressrow, I always hated the blue color text on the sidebar. I also disliked the appearance of the tag cloud. With Vigilance, everything is neatly aligned and looks just right
I love the option to have a two-columned sidebar that is offered by Vigilance. This let me arrange all my various buttons and badges neatly without occupying any more space than is required. To visualize what I am saying, see the Show the Love and Follow Me sections at the bottom of my sidebar. These sections are actually two columns.
I love the basic color scheme offered by Vigilance. In addition, Vigilance offers a lot of options to customize the colors. While I used the standard color scheme, the option to customize means that there are not too many blogs out there that look exactly like mine. For example, Doing Jalsa and Showing Jilpa also uses Vigilance, but the blog elements look quite different compared to mine (and mostly that has to do with the color scheme).

Apart from moving to a new theme, and rearranging my buttons and badges, I have also added a few more graphics…why? just to make things a little bit more fun and make the blog look a little less serious (I think Vigilance is a pretty mature/serious theme), and to suit my blog content, it definitely needed a little playfulness.

Enter Elegia’s Background Garden and Cute n Cool Blog Stuff. Both these sites have tons of ideas that you can use to design your blog. I loved them both. After a great deal of browsing, I ended up selecting my header image and the two Welcome to my Blog and I Love Comments graphics from Itkupilli’s Cute n Cool Blog Stuff (see the top right hand corner of my blog for these graphics).

Introducing these graphics into my WordPress blog is another long story. Blogger easily allows you to include graphics in your sidebar. WordPress however has a long-winded, unintuitive process. I tried a couple of methods, and then went on to Google to check how to do this, and Bingo! I was able to upload these images successfully.

I no longer can find the link that told me how to do this. But in case, you are interested, here is a short description of the procedure I followed:

Create a new post (work in HTML mode not Visual mode).
Click on the image icon to upload an image from your system into the new post.
Copy the code that appears in your blog post.
Go to the Widgets page and move a new Text widget to the sidebar.
Paste the code into the Text widget and click Save.

Voila! the image is in the sidebar.

I also used this method to add all my reading challenges into the sidebar.

Now, I finally feel my blog redesign is complete (at least for the time being).

So, what do you think? Below is a snapshot of my old blog theme.

My Old WordPress Page

Do you think my blog’s new look is an improvement? Why/why not? Any suggestions, feedback? I would love to hear from you…

P.S. Please, please do not judge my technical writing skills based on the itty-bitty procedure I have written here (hands wringing )

Why do I blog? A survey

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Ms Mazolla at State of Denmark is conducting a meme, where bloggers answer a few questions about their attitudes and motivations. I am doing this survey almost a month later, and so it’s probably not useful to her. However, since, I enjoyed reading other people’s survey responses, I thought I would participate too.

How long have you been blogging?
I have been blogging since November 2007
Why did you start blogging?
I used to read a couple of personal blogs that my friends wrote about their lives, families, thoughts and so on. I was thrilled about the idea of keeping an online journal about my life. However, once I started I found some things to be too personal, so my blog has finally evolved into an “almost a book review blog”, although I blog about a lot of other things as well.
What have you found to be the benefits of blogging?
I love looking back at all the memories of what I experienced at a particular point in time. I also love the opportunity to pen my thoughts.
How many times a week do you post an entry?
2-3 times a week
How many different blogs do you read on a regular basis?
I read about 5-6 blogs regularly
Do you comment on other people’s blogs?
If I am in and out of the blog quickly, no. If I end up reading at least a couple of posts, then yes.
Do you keep track of how many visitors you have? Is so, are you satisfied with your numbers?
Yes, I do keep track. I am fairly satisfied with the number of visitors. I am blown away by the geographical map of visitors (Samoa! French Guiana! wow!).

But as far as numbers go, I really don’t know what to make of them. More than half my visitors come from Google, probably searching for something very specific, so my blog probably does not always correspond to what they are searching for.

I definitely wish for more comments
Do you ever regret a post that you wrote?
No.
Do you think your audience has a true sense of who you are based on your blog?
I am not sure, I should hope so.I think regular readers have a pretty clear picture of me.
Do you blog under your real name?
Yes
Are there topics that you would never blog about?
Yes, some personal stuff that could cause offense to people I know
What is the theme/topic of your blog?
I review all the places I’ve been to, books I’ve read, movies I’ve seen. Basically, this blog is a list of my experiences – good, bad, and ugly!
Do you have more than one blog? If so, why?
No, I have only one blog, but I am seriously considering creating a secondary book review blog as my blog is currently overrun with book reviews, and it would be nice to move it elsewhere and reduce the clutter. Unfortunately, I want to create the new blog on Blogger, however, I do not find any easy way to move my book reviews from WordPress to Blogger, and so I am a bit stuck there.

If anyone can help me in this, please respond with a comment

Hope you found these answers interesting. If you would like to participate in this survey, blog about this and link back to me. I would love to read it.

Blog Customization Options

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When I first decided to start a blog, I was torn between WordPress and Blogger. I just did not know which option to go for. So, I just flipped a coin and ended up with Blogger.

Turned out to be not a bad option. It was easy to use and setup, and I liked the overall experience. However, I was just not that happy with the quality of themes that they have on offer. They were always a little dull, and I felt that the WordPress blogs that I followed have a much crisper layout.

So, I moved my blog to WordPress and I have never looked back … i.e. until now.

While slowly getting accustomed to the blogosphere, I came across some unique and lovely blogs on Blogger. Only then did I realize the extent of the customization options provided by Blogger. You don’t even have to be a CSS guru to personalize your Blogger blog to reflect your taste and individuality. This is a good thing because the default themes are not the greatest anyway!

WordPress also allows users to customize their themes, but at a price and that really sucks. I hope a day comes when the WordPress folks allow users to customize their blogs without any charge. However, the basic themes are pretty good, which sorta makes up for this.

There are tons of lovely sites on the web that help you customize your blogs, and here are a couple that I love:

The Cutest Blog on the Block (henceforth called TCBOTB)- This site offers you some lovely backgrounds, blinkies, and headers that you can easily customize and incorporate into your blog. Even better is that they provide options that complement each other, so you don’t have to get a beautiful background and then struggle to create a header that suits it.
One lovely blog that has used its elements so beautifully is My Fluttering Heart …I just love the beautiful romantic background she has used. I also love the beautiful Alice in Wonderland header (a photo taken from a fashion magazine). After seeing this blog, I was inspired to try something on my still-existing Nishita’s Nonsensical Ramblings blog. I chose a much plainer background, and a “Life is Beautiful” blinkie, and I think this blog looks a lot better than it used to. If I had known about TCBOTB earlier, I just might have reconsidered my decision to move to WordPress.

Note: Currently TCBOTB only supports Blogger. Also, male bloggers may find the choices offered by TCBOTB a little too girlie for their tastes.
The Background Fairy – Unlike TCBOTB, The Background Fairy supports Typepad, WordPress, and Blogger. They have a large number of backgrounds that you can use (I did not find any blinkies or headers though). Not as beautifully romantic as TCBOTB, but a good start nevertheless. Also, a good option for people who like their blogs to not look too cutesie.
A nice example of good customization is Passions & Soapboxes. You can hardly make out that the basic theme of the blog is the good ole Pressrow by Chris Pearson that I also use. She has done an impressive job.

Have you customized your blog themes in any way? Did you use any sites that helped you ? Do you know any beautifully designed blogs you would like to share? I would love to know…