Blog Basics - Chapter 3: Making your blog YOUR blog, presentation and customization.
So, you know what you’re going to write your blog on, you know what software you’re going to use and you know where you’re going to host it; the next step is setting it up so it’s your blog.
Chapter 3, Section 1 – Presentation, a.k.a Themes.
Every software package is different so I will try to speak as general as possible so most people can relate, but for the purpose of this article and all remaining ones I will be dealing with the Wordpress software. All blogging applications offer you a way to customize the look and feel of your blog; some only allow very simple changes such as colors and font styles while others offer very advanced features that allow you change the complete look and feel of your blog. In Wordpress for example you can change the complete layout, these are called themes. The Wordpress community is pretty large and there are thousands of free themes available to download off the Internet, so it’s more than likely there is one out there that looks good to you. If you’re using something other than Wordpress you will want to check over their site to see what they offer but most blog programs are moving to full theme customization because it allows complete design control over the blog.
If your blog software only allows you to change simple things like colors and fonts it’s pretty easy to setup the look of your blog. Simply go into the section of the blog that allows you to change these options and start experimenting until you find a look that fits your style. For those users that are using a more advanced blogging application they’ve done a pretty good job at making it as easy as possible to setup the design. In Wordpress you simply download a new theme and put it in your wp-content/themes directory; the theme will then be available for you to select in the Presentation section. Most other applications are very similar to this but you’ll want to check with the documentation for the particular software you’re using to make sure. Search online for free themes for you application and try a bunch out until you find the one that fits your blog the best.
There are people on the net that provide a service designing premium themes. These themes you usually have to pay for and they usually are of a better quality than the free one, thus the name premium. If you’re looking for a clean and professional look than using one of these premium themes might be the best bet, but remember that even though you’re paying does not mean it’s unique. For a truly unique theme you will have to pay more, often much more. Theme designers are popping up everywhere now which is good for us since it drives the prices down. If you’re looking for a unique design for your blog and are willing to pay for it search around and contact some designers to get a price quote for your design. Most designers work with multiple blogging applications and some work with just one so you will want to make sure they will be able to create the design so it fits with your software you’ve chosen.
Chapter 3, Section 2 – Extending you blog with plugins.
Now that your blog is looking great it’s time to take a look at what else you can do with it. The basic features of a blog, posting and editing content for example are already built in so you don’t have to worry about this. However, most blogging applications also offer some type of addon or plug-in feature that allows you to add extra features to customize your blog even more. Wordpress has a complete section built just around plugins and there are literally thousands of plugins you can use with your blog. Most of the applications I listed in Chapter 1 have something similar so once you’re blog is up and running you may want to check these out. Here are some of the plugins I use on this blog:
- Wp-cache – Caches your webpages for faster download times.
- cforms II – Allows an easy way to put forms(like my contact form) on your blog.
- Akismet – A spam detecting a blockin plugin, a must for any blog.
- All In One SEO Pack – A plugin that makes my posts and pages more search engine friendly.
- FeedBurner Feedsmith – A plugin that publishes my feed on the Feedburner site.
- Google Sitemaps – This generates a sitemap for search engines.
- Slimbox – The cool ajax image plugin that shows images in a popup box. You can see this plugin in action by clicking on an image.
These are just some of the popular plugins I use, there are dozens of others. Some plugins add functionality to the administration section; some add functionality to your pages to give your readers a better experience and some are internal plugins that make the blog run more efficiently. I suggest you find which plugins your software accepts and start experimenting to see which ones you like and which ones will work best with your blog.
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