Out of the millions of blogs on the internet, new blogs are being created every minute and also being abandoned. Feel like joining the growing statistics of "having your own blog?" Well, keep on reading because this little tutorial just might be for you. I have lots of people asking me how to start up a blog all the time. Hopefully this article will address that.
There are many options out there if you are one of the millions who are considering starting a blog. The first step is finding a host for your blog. You can purchase and register your own domain from various web hosting companies out there. However, this tutorial will focus on Google's free blog service, Blogger.
Blogger is an excellent choice for building a blog. It is easy to use and feature rich. It can also be customized to your liking and tweaked if you have the knowledge to do so. This tutorial will focus on how I setup my blog as a standard three column layout, adding a graphic for the header, and monetizing with Google Adsense, along with the little fixes I have found along the way. I will try to make this as simple as possible, for the beginner blogger. If you're looking for an advanced tutorial on how to customize CSS, this is not for you. I am following the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle for my blog--a simple design for my readers. I will let my content be my brainchild.
Step 1: Creating a Google Account and your blog on Blogger
Previously, acquiring a Google Account involved getting an invitation to Gmail from a friend. However, Google has now opened up the floodgates and registration is now open to all. Go to www.blogger.com and click on "Create your blog now". If you have a Google Account, sign in. If not, you can create one on the spot through Blogger.
Step 2: Name your blog...whatever you want to call it!
Blog title: at this step you will have to do some soul searching. What do you want to name your blog? You can always change this later so don't worry about what you're going to write down.
Blog address (URL): this is the domain name that people will type into their web browsers to reach your blog. Think of something that you like and click "Check Availability" to see if it's available.
Word Verification: enter the letters you see in the picture. This prevents spammers from creating endless blogs.
Step 3: Choose template...pick your design!
Here you will choose a template, or design for your blog. You can change this later so just stick with Minima and click continue. That's it, you're finished! Now click on "start posting"...
You now have two choices.
A) If you want to start posting to your blog, you may do so now.
B) If you want to customize your blog and find out how to create the look and feel of The Digital Forest, keep on reading.
Step 4: Uploading a new template--Three Column Minima
If you're still following me, the next step is to upload a new template. We could manually change the CSS coding in the HTML template, but that's too complex for the average user (including myself!). The next best solution is to download one for free from Hoctro's Place!
Download it here and save it to your desktop:
Minima Stretch:http://hoctroarticles.googlepages.com/3col-minima-stretch.xml
1. Now, go to your blog and click the "Template" tab.
2. Next, click on "Edit HTML"
3. Where it says "Upload a template from a file on your hard drive," click on
4. Browse and find the template that you saved to your desktop. Then click "Upload". If it worked properly, it should say "Your changes have been saved".
Step 5: Resizing the columns--main column and sidebars
This next step is important if you want to monetize your blog by using Google Adsense banners and ad blocks. If you would like to put on a 468x60 banner at the top of your main posts, you will need to set the main column to 468 pixels. Also, my sidebars are larger to accommodate for widgets and other goodies that I will put up in the future. How do we do this? Well, it requires modifying your HTML template again. So, before we do this backup your blog template.
How do you backup your template?
1. Go to the "Template" tab in the settings and click on "Edit HTML".
2. From there, click on "Download Full Template"...save this XML file (it is your template) to your computer and that should be it. I would recommend doing this before you make any changes to your blog, as it is better to be safe than sorry!
Now let's move onto changing the sizes of your Minima three column blog layout. These are the changes that I made to my blog. If you want to try something else, go right ahead and experiment. That is the best way to learn how to modify your blog template.
1. Modifying the Header CSS code: Look for the following code in your template. Use the search feature in Firefox (Ctrl+F) and Internet Explorer (Ctrl+F) to quickly find this code. It is located in the top half of the HTML code:
#header-wrapper {
width:850px;
As you can see, I set the width for my header wrapper to 850 pixels. You can set yours to whatever you want.
2. Modifying the header description code: Look for the following code:
#header .description {
margin:0 5px 5px;
padding:0 20px 15px;
max-width:800px;
As you can see I set my max width to 800 pixels. Once again you can experiment with this yourself.
3. Modifying the outer wrapper code; I set mine to 850 pixels:
#outer-wrapper {
width: 850px;
4. Modifying the main wrapper code; I set mine to 468 pixels. This is crucial if you want a 468x60 pixel Google Adsense banner to show properly on your blog.
#main-wrapper {
width: 468px;
5. Modifying the sidebar on the right; I set mine to 175 pixels
#sidebar-wrapper {
width: 175px;
6. Modifying the new sidebar on the left; I set mine to 150 pixels. This was the default size. Ensure yours is at 150 pixels too:
#newsidebar-wrapper {
width: 150px;
Save your template. If all went well, it should save properly. If there was an error, click on clear edits and just leave your template as is.
Step 6 - Discovering your passion: What to blog about?
I'm going to stop this tutorial here. Your next step is to find a niche, or a specific area of interest that your blog will be about. As everybody says out in the world of SEO, "content is king". So that means you have to find something you will enjoy writing out--that way it won't seem like a chore when you're blogging. Have fun and be sure to subscribe to my blog!
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