Bloggerific: blogging

How to Install a Blogger Template

By Julie On June 20, 2017 In featured

Setting up a blog can be fun and scary at the same time. It can show you how indecisive you are and sometimes how little you know about a subject (i.e. coding). This is something that I ran into when I first had the idea to create my first blog. I had no idea what I was doing, everyone out there was recommending a self-hosted WordPress site, but I just didn’t want to spend the cash just yet.

Honestly, I was also a little intimidated by the way people talked about self-hosted WordPress sites. It made them seem like so much work and usually having to pay someone. But this was also years ago. Since then templates have changed drastically and things have gotten easier.

But we’re not here to talk about WordPress, we’re here to get you started and on your way to having a blog on Blogger.

So the first thing that you need to do is figure out what you want to blog about. This is important because it can help determine how you set up your blog and what it will look like. You can use my blog post HERE to help you find your niche and figure out what in the world to blog about.

Once you know what you want to blog about, you need a template. Unless you are super good at coding and can write your own… For the rest of us, I have listed off a few websites below that have Blogger themes for free.

Where to Find Templates

www.soratemplates.com has many free templates, but they do offer paid plans on some of the templates if you want support in setting it up.

www.mybloggerthemes.com has all of the same templates as Sora Templates and more. This is so far the most comprehensive database for templates that I have found.

www.btempaltes.com this is great if you want a more simple blog theme, similar to the ones that you find on Blogger itself. They have a lot of different backgrounds and graphics to spruce up your blog.

Once you have found the template that you love, or that you can deal with, download the zip file and extract the files to a folder on your computer. I like to create a separate folder for each theme I download so everything stays together.

Uploading your New Template to Blogger

Now it’s time to log into Blogger. Log in and follow the prompts to create you website. This will be the starting place for everything. Don’t worry about which template to choose, we will be changing that in a minute. Just make sure that you get the name that you want. You can change the domain later too, but I find it easiest to start with the one that you want.

When you are in the main page, click on Theme on the left hand side. Then you will want to click on Edit HTML.

You will then go into the template that you downloaded, click on the template (make sure it opens in WordPad or Notepad or some word document). Open the Free Version of the template and copy all of the file to your clipboard (CTRL+C).

Then go back into Blogger and you will see this page if you clicked on Edit HTML. If not, Click on it now and see this page. I know it looks scary, but we won’t be here long. Highlight all of the text in the box and then paste what you copied from your Word file in this box. (CTRL+A to highlight all and then CRTL+V to paste).

Click on Save Theme, the orange button up top. And now you may leave the scary page. You have successfully changed your template.

To edit this template, go to Layout and make sure you refresh the page to load your new template parts into this area. This is where all you editing will happen, You can add parts and pieces from here without having to go into the code, unless you want to of course.

Once you are done editing in this area, your blog will just need posts to be ready to go.

**Please be aware that some parts of the blog template may not work properly until a certain number of posts have been published.**

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How to Find Your Niche

By Julie On June 15, 2017 In featured

We all want to find that perfect topic that we are super passionate about that we can turn into a business or a blog. There are so many interesting topics out there and to have to choose between them is a tough choice for some. Other knows exactly what they want to do because they’ve already found their passion and know what they want to do with it.

For me, I had a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to blog about. All I knew is that I wanted a blog and I went through several before the idea of blogging about blogging came to me. Had to hit me on the head a few times before I would listen. So this is how I finally determined what my niche was going to be. Hopefully this will be able to help you determine what you want your niche to be, or at least narrow it down for you.

Without further adieu,

1. Write down a list of things you like

Start with things that you enjoy doing. You want this list to encompass event he things that you follow of Facebook. Things that you find interesting and would like to know more about. The more that you can put on this list, the better off and more sure you can be. You can create the list 2 ways.
The first way is to create a list of things that you have always been interested in. Things that you have continuously done or looked into or followed for years.

The second way is to create a list of right now. Things that you are currently interested in that may wane over time. This way may lead to some failed ideas or running out of post ideas, but it also lets you delve into a subject and learn new things to talk about.

2. Choose 3 topics

Now that you have your list, you want to be able to narrow it down. Having a broad niche isn’t going to do anyone good. So think about how many of these topics that you can see yourself talking to others about? Can you see yourself saying to a future employer,” yes I have a such and such blog on the side” or would you be too embarrassed? Don’t worry we all have these kinds of topics that interest us whether we admit it or not. So try and narrow it down to your top 3 interests that you can see yourself doing for a long time.

Whether or not you plan to make a living out of this, think of it seriously as more than just a hobby. Hobbies can change like the wind, but your niche shouldn’t change with it.

3. Experiment with these 3 topics

Now that you have your top 3 topics, experiment with them. What do I mean by this? I mean act like you actually have everything set up already and start producing content. See what you can produce.

Ask yourself these questions about each one:
Are you happy with the final product?
Was it easy for you to produce?
Did everything just flow?
Did it feel “right”?
Did it lead you to more ideas?

If you answered yes to these questions then this may be your niche topic. If you have more than one that you can say this for, keep going, keep producing content for the one that you enjoy more. This content will not be wasted. If there is more than one topic that you can answer this for, and the topics are close enough, think about combining the topics and creating an even more specific niche.

Drop me a comment and tell me if this helped, you determine your niche or helped you narrow it down some for you.

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