10 Ways to Dress Up Your Blog

Congratulations, you started a blog. (Maybe I even inspired you to do it!)
Now you’re ready to give it a facelift and think about adding some new
features. The only blog software I’m familiar with is blogger.com, but I’m
sure you can achieve any of these ideas using other software.

1. Templates. You can change your template at any time. So don’t feel
cornered into keeping the layout you chose when you didn’t know what you
were doing. Change the colors and fonts to match your website.
Go to Layout menu/Pick a New Template.

2. Images. People love pictures. If it’s appropriate, select the photo and link it back to your website. (Doing this, however, disables the default function of viewing an enlarged version of the image.)
When you create a new post, click on the little photo in the menu bar. Or, to permanently add a photo, go to layout/add a page element/image.

3. Poll Question. You can pose a question to your readers with multiple choice answers.
Go to layout/add a page element/poll question. Enter the question and the answers in the boxes displayed.

4. Video. A good video can burst onto the internet and get passed around the world giving you lots of site traffic. Post your video on your own site as well as the popular YouTube for maximum effect.
When you create a new post, click on the little filmstrip in the menu bar. Or, to permanently add a video to your page, go to layout/add a page element/video. Or, simply create a text link to your video on YouTube.

5. Link back to your website. A big reason to have a blog at all is to direct traffic back to your website. So, link back to your site when it's appropriate. This may give you ideas for updating or adding content on your site.
When you create a new post, select some text, click on the chain icon in the menu bar and enter the link to address.

6. Change the color of the blogger nav bar. The default blogger nav bar at the very top of the viewing screen is blue. You can change it to be tan, black or gray to better match the look of your blog.
Go to layout view/select the edit button in the blue nav bar area and select the color you prefer.

7. AdSense. You can make money with your blog if you don’t mind mucking it up with ads. I saw a book recently (forgot the name, sorry) that suggests you can make a living this way. I think you’d really have to work at it though.
Go to layout view/add a page element/adsense.

8. Labels. I love this feature. You’ll notice that every post of mine has a category—artist tech tips, my work, etc. This feature creates a Labels menu on the left side of my blog. If a reader is only interested in one area that I write about, they can click on that label (ie artist tech tips) and see every single post I’ve created on the topic. It keeps track of the total number of posts automatically!
Go to layout view/add a page element/labels.

9. Create custom header with link to your website. You can insert an image instead of text on your main header bar.
Go to layout view, select the edit button in the top header bar, in the image window, browse to locate the image.

10. Add a photo to your profile. Go to the Dashboard page. Choose edit profile in the righthand column. Scroll down to Photograph/Photo URL and browse to the location of your photo.