By: Tracy A Edwards

By: Tracy A Edwards

Are you tired of the regular templates that come with Blogger? Well never fear because this article will show you how you can change the colors and layout of your chosen template into something that's unique and attractive. You can add different headers, change the background, and even change the font style and the best thing is that it's actually very simple. So let's get started so you can learn how to edit your Blogger templates.

We will start with the easy stuff first and change the fonts and colors of your template. Head to your Blogger Dashboard and click the layout tab. From there you'll see four links. Choose the font's and colors link and you'll be taken to a page that is split into two sections. The top section contains the items that you can edit and change and the bottom section gives you a preview of what that change will look like. Feel free to change and play around as much as you like because nothing with actually be changed until you press the Save Changes button, so if you choose a color or font that you don't like you can always cancel those changes. Once you are happy with your template then save your changes and you are done.

Next let's add a custom header to our page. Most Blogger template headers are defaulted to display just text but you can easily add an image behind the text or even to replace the text at the top. Go to the Layout Tab and click on the Page Elements link. You'll see a page that shows the basic layout of your blog. Find your header at the top and click the Edit link to bring up the Configure Header display. From here you can upload your image and choose to have it behind your test or instead of your text. Most Blogger header sizes are 730 pixels wide so keep this in mind when making your header graphic.

Advanced editing can also be done to your template however you will need some html and css knowledge before you decide to try and rewrite any code. However there are some simple things that you can do that shouldn't be too hard. The first is changing the background color of your page. Scroll down until you see the body stylesheet of the template. This is where you'll find the basic information about your template such as background color, line-height and general font-size. If you know the hexadecimal color that you want for your background then just replace the hex number (the number that starts with a hash (#)) with your new hex number.

In the advanced editing section you can also add your Google Analytics code at the bottom of the template before the /body tag if you would like to track your visitors.

Tracey is becoming well known for helping people to make money online. You can read lots more tips to help you succeed at her blog at http://www.tracey-edwards.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tracey_A_Edwards

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1588049

How To Become A Professional Blogger - An Introduction

By: Rajeeve Admonds

Today weblogs have transformed completely from what they were a decade back. Thousands of new blogs sprout everyday on diverse topics of which, some are created by hobbyists, some are company blogs to promote their businesses and some are professional blogs dedicated to a particular niche, made solely for the purpose of making money out of it. Professional blogging is an art as well as science. Many aspiring bloggers who want to take it as profession, struggle to make their presence felt in the blogosphere in the beginning. If we closely follow the top bloggers, we will find some common traits inherent in them, which helps them in becoming an influencing blogger. Let us see what is takes to become a professional blogger. Before you start your blogging ventures, you must ask few basic questions to yourself.

• Am I a writer?
• Can I devote enough time for blogging?
• Am I Web Savvy?
• Do I have enough funds to pay my ISP and hosting bills till my blog start giving me returns?
• On which topic (niche) should I blog?

Content creation : Can I do it?

It is one of the most important quality of a good blogger. Ability to write useful content that attracts the readers makes you different from your peers, and your authority over your niche is established firmly. Writing a killer post is no mean task. You must have already read this famous phrase, "Content is the King". No matter how stunning your blog looks , unless you do not have the writing skills, you are not going to succeed in pulling readers to your blog.

Time Management: How much can I blog per day?

If you cannot devote at least 3-4 hours per day to your blog, its better to not do it at all. Your readers and the web crawlers need fresh content from your blog at fairly consistent pace, and only then you can expect some inflow of targeted visitors to your blog.

Web Savvy: Do I have technical bent of mind?

If you are not web savvy, then you are a dead duck in blogoshpere. For taking your blog one step ahead from your competitors blog, you have to equip yourself with all the technical knowledge to grow and popularize your blog, like SEO, a bit of basic HTML and PHP programming, web hosting fundamentals and many more. If you have that zeal to dig the net and filter and absorb that technical knowledge, you will find it easier to get your blog ranked higher in your niche.

Funds: Can I maintain a blog (for some months) from my pocket?

Starting a professional blog on sub-domain address with free hosting service is not a wise option. If you are serious about making money from your blog, get a top level .com domain with paid hosting service which will give you complete control of your blog.

Niche: What can I blog endlessly?

Always choose a topic in which you are personally interested and are passionate about it. It will give you a reason to blog consistently without loosing the interest. But before you chose your blog niche, some research need to be done. If your chosen topic have low search volume in major search engines and does not have good advertiser base in major PPC programs, then no matter how expert you are in your niche, you will not be able to make decent money from it.

Making money from blog takes hard work and time. There is no shortcut. If you decide to go for it, do it with passion and work on it endlessly for at least one or two years and the returns will be extremely promising. Good Luck...