Jazz up YOUR blog!

My last post in the Jazz up YOUR blog series is a simple short list of 10 Ways to Make Your Blog Better!

1. Include Pictures.

Most of your readers don't want to read pages of text.  Use bullet points, pictures and other visuals to break up lots of text.  

2. Going on a holiday? 

Don't let your blog die.  Write and schedule some good posts or have guests post and to be published ahead of time.  

3. Keep it simple.  

Don't clutter your blog with ads, widgets, or non-useful items.  

4. Make it easy for readers to contact you.  

Broadcast your email or the way readers can contact you easily and have it visible.

5. No inspiration?

Read!  Read anything you can to get inspiration.  If you find something, write it down so you don't forget!

6. Comment and link to popular blogs. 

You will get more traffic to your blog by promoting yourself on other blogs!

7. Respond to comments.    

If readers leave a interesting comment or have a question, reply back!

8. Sign up for Site Meter.

This way you can view what pages get looked at and how many people visit your blog!

9. Try writing about what your readers might want.

Include how-to's and keep your readers interested!

10. Have a theme. 

Incorporate your blogs background, header and name into a theme and stick to it.   It's okay to change it up just keep it consistent!

For a while on Tuesdays, I will keep it as a 'tutorial tuesday' and post craft tutorials!  It will definitely keep me busy!

Jazz up YOUR blog!

This is the 2nd post in the series to experiment and make your blog more YOU!  In this post, I will show you how to add a specialized signature to the end of all your posts!

To design it, I just used this website.  It was the easiest!  Otherwise, if you want something different, you will have to design it using Paint, Picasa, Photobucket, Microsoft, or any of the other programs you like!


Step one:
Follow the steps on the online signature maker website to create it!

Step two:
When you get the to the step that says Finished, click "want to use this signature" to access the HTML code.

Step three:
Click "Generate HTML code"

Step four:
Click "Generate a code for my Handwritten Signature" which should be the first option.

Step five:
You will get the HTML code there.  Copy it.

Step six:
Log into Blogger.  Go to the 'settings' tab, then to 'formatting' under settings.

Scroll all the way down and where it says "post-template", delete any text that might be there and paste your HTML code into the box.  Click "Save Settings" and your done!  Every time you start a new post, your signature should be there and you can just type the post like normal but with the signature! You can deal with it as though it is a picture!

Voila!  You have your very own signature!

  Next week will be the last for the Blog tutorials, but there will mean there will be tons of more time for crafty blog posts!

Jazz up YOUR blog!

New Series!  Just for 3 weeks, I will have a new tutorial up every week on how to JAZZ UP YOUR BLOG!

The Very first one is how to make a HEADER!
A header makes your blog look more like YOU!  This is a very handy add-on to your blog and it is really quite simple!  If you noticed, I've changed mine about 5 times since December...

There are many, many, many places to make a free header! 

 or design your own with pictures on  

• Picasa 3
• Microsoft Word 
• Paint.  
• Editing sites- picnik.com or fotoflexer.com
• My personal favorite?  
• shabbyblogs.com under the designs tab.  
• Or just type into google, 'free blog headers' and with not much surfing, you should find some site with a header you love!  

On this tutorial, I will show you how I made the header I have now from shabbyblogs.com!  Their blog decor is more funky looking and really cool!  go check it out!

1.  I downloaded the original photo to Picasa, where I edited it. There are many sites out there, but I do all mine on Picasa and picnik.com mostly because they have what I need and its easy to use.  Occasionally i will use fotoflexer.com as well.  Many people use photobucket.

2.  Then I added some text and adjusted it to my liking.  This is where you can make a collage out of your photos, add text, or any symbols you like!  Make it fun!

 3.  Export it and save it as a file to your computer so you can download it onto blogger.

4.  Now it is in a folder and you can close your editing program.  

5.  Open blogger and log in.  Click on the design tab and then click edit on your header.  

6.  Then click the choose file button and choose your file from where you save it earlier.  

7.  Make sure to click the circle beside the text that says 'instead of title and description' so you don't have both.

8.  Click the orange save button on the pop-up as well as the design tab!  There you have your blog header!

***You might have to resize it using your editing programs if it turned out to be too big or too small.  

Come back for another Tutorial next Tuesday!