Being able to fully customize the layout and design of your blog, while still being hosted by a free blog platform, is unique to Google's Blogger service. Sure, other blog services have the ability to select from a number of selected template designs (and Bloggers are by far the most boring), and all of the services include the ability to modify the page elements in your layout, but Blogger goes the farthest by allowing users to modify the actual code of the template through standards compliant CSS*.

There are three directions you can take your blog design customization:

• You can make small changes to a Blogspot template
• You can import a freely available template from elsewhere and customize it
• You can build a template based on an existing site and use that for your blog (ours is modeled after our corporate site)

The level of customization available to you is entirely dependent on your programming ability. If you are a CSS wizard, you'll have little difficulty turning any design you like into a blog template (stay tuned for an Advanced Level article on doing this).

For everyone else I recommend attempting small changes to one of the default templates provided by Blogger or venturing out to find a template that speaks to you. Thankfully there are a number of sites that provide hundreds, perhaps thousands of templates absolutely free that are SIMPLE to install and customize:

• BTemplates 
• BloggerStyles
• BloggerTemplates (navigate in the header by # of columns)
• DeluxeTemplates

Of these sites my favorite by far is the BTemplates site that is both easy to use, is easy to search for templates based on a criteria, and provides well over 1,000 templates to choose from.

With any of these sites the process to use one of these designed templates is the same:

1. choose the design you like by downloading the .zip file to your computer
2. unzip the zip file so you now have a folder with files inside including a .xml file
3. go to the Layout tab in Blogger and click on "Edit HTML" in the sub-navigation
4. upload the template from your hard drive by clicking on the "Browse" button and selecting the .xml file you just unzipped
5. click on the "Upload" button

Don't forget to backup your existing layout by clicking on the link "Download Full Template" BEFORE you upload the new template!

In uploading your new template you might receive a few small error messages regarding conflicts; these sometimes occur when a page element that you are currently using is not set up in the template you're installing. Agree to remove the element, then once you have the new template established, re-add the page element and your content should still be there.

At this point you should be able to click on the link to "View Your Blog" and see your old content in the new layout design. Based on the template you might see items that don't make sense in your site, leftovers from the original developer. Again, based on your coding comfort level, you can go into the "Edit HTML" page within Blogger and make direct changes to the template code which can include anything from changing a background photograph to updating the style sheet to use a different font. The changes you make are entirely up to you!


Previous article: Blog tip #2: Domain names are inexpensive, no excuses

* CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheet, more information found here.

Coming across a blog that is using a blogspot.com address, like yourblog.blogspot.com, tells us one of two things: that the owner doesn't know that giving the site a custom domain name is easy and inexpensive, or that they don't take their blog seriously. How serious could it be if they won't spend just $10 on a domain in order to customize the first, most important aspect of your site, your URL.

Using Google's Blogger service you are able to quickly and easily customize your blog to use either an existing domain or one that you can purchase through the site. This isn't a service charge as you could buy the domain elsewhere and still use it, and unlike the other blog services the ability to do this doesn't cost you extra.

If you don't own a domain

Google is not the cheapest registrar for buying your domain, however, the difference in costs is less than $5 and the difference in simplicity is worth much more than that if you're not technically inclined. Google also provides complete DNS management, customized email addresses using their Gmail service and other services they provide through their Google Apps. The other services that Google provides will come in handy in the next articles.

The steps for getting a custom domain set up for your blog start at the "Settings" tab and clicking on the "Publishing" sub-navigation item. Click on the "Custom Domain" link and the screen will switch to the domain purchasing screen. At this point you have the option of either purchasing a new domain name or you can click on "switch to advanced settings" in order to point a domain purchased elsewhere to your blog.



After purchasing your domain you'll see a message below that Blogger will automatically redirect readers who might be going to your freebie name to your website under the new domain name.

If you already own a domain

So you've decided to go the harder way, eh? Don't worry, it's not that difficult. The nice thing is that Google has already written instructions for you to follow for some of the most common domain registrars.


You'll need to set up the DNS entries with the registrar first THEN do the settings in the Blogger system. It might take 24-48 hrs for your DNS changes to propagate, or it might be immediate... such is the Internet.

Adding your blog to an existing domain

Lots of companies use their domain for their corporate website but then want to have a blog that is affiliated with their company. For a corporate blog the logical URL for you to set up is "blog.yourcompany.com". This is easily accomplished by adding a CNAME record to your DNS through your registrar that looks like:

blog -/- CNAME -/- ghs.google.com.

Once you've added this line to your DNS registry follow the same directions as above.


In conclusion

The nice thing about changing the URL of your blog to a custom domain is that, instead of looking like a cheap, disposable blog, the site now begins to look like time and effort have been invested in the site.


Next article: Blog tip #3: Interesting designs are widely available
Previous article: Blog tip #1: Blogger over Wordpress (or other hosted solutions)

If you're trying to decide which blog service to use you've probably stumbled across the long-running debate in any number of forums. Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad... how do you choose which one to use? For the purposes of this series we're going to use the following criteria*:

1. free, hosted service
2. ability to fully customize the design
   
3. custom url at no extra cost (besides domain ownership)

The basis of this criteria is to yield you the most personalized blog solution that will enable you to customize all aspects of the site We want to accomplish this without requiring the need for a 3rd party web hosting solution, extensive technical expertise, or paying privilege or subscription fees.

The Blogger service, offered by Google, is the only service to fulfill these requirements. Both Typepad and Wordpress offer a free basic service that provides you with a wide range of features, many of which aren't immediately available to you with an off-the-shelf Blogger site. However, both of these services provide the free blog with limits to how far your can customize your site before you need to start paying. For example, Wordpress provides you with a wide selection of design templates to choose from when you create your blog, but if you want to truly customize the look of the site (and access the code) you need to either pay for the additional service or maintain your blog outside of the service.

What selecting Blogger as your platform means for you and your blog is that you can truly take advantage of the wealth of free third-party services that are available to you, customize your blog to make it look and function like you want it to be, and put the full wealth of Google services behind your site. All for 0 cost.

Next article: Blog tip #2: Domain names are inexpensive, no excuses
Previous article: Your Blog is unique, don't settle for a default Blog


* This criteria might not be your criteria and we encourage you to do some research to find the right solution for you based on your needs and level of technical expertise.