Alice's blogging blog

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How to choose a suitable template and create a headline banner so that the blog starts to look like your own.

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Click on the button to download a pdf of this page.

First, a glossary (important = read it to understand this e-course fully):

Blog = an online diary that can be adapted for business purposes.

Post = an entry, article, piece of writing or message in your blog.

Dashboard = main menu or hub of a blog which provides access to the various elements.

Wordpress.com = the recommended blog programme software provider I’m using for ‘free’ blogs.

Domain name or URL = the web address of your blog or website.

Internet Spiders = robots that search the internet looking for keywords and new material to help with SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) = improving organic or natural search engine results using spiders.

Interaction = the ability to contribute or comment on the internet via blogs and forums.

Keywords (Tags) = words that are currently being searched for in search engines and are therefore attractive to internet spiders.

Categories = archived topic pages to store posts for research or retrieval purposes.

Permalink = each posts’ own specific URL created from its headline or title.

Widget = blogging programme for the sidebar.

Spam = unwanted comments or emails, usually of a malicious nature.

Tagline = secondary headline or title of your blog.

Theme = the template or skin of a blog to change its appearance or design.

Header = the banner across the top of a blog which shows the site’s corporate image, icon, logo or brand.

Since a blog is a kind of website, it is a good idea to give it a personality so it can represent you and your business. This is particularly poignant if your blog is acting as an ‘extension’ of your website; you will want to adapt it to reflect your corporate style.

For example, my old website used to look like this:

So I changed my old blog I had at the time to emulate my website’s theme:

And then after that I changed it to this:

So the two things you can do to give your blog an identity are change the ‘theme’ or upload a new header.

Changing the theme

Let’s start with changing the theme (or template) which is the style or design of the blog. The default theme Wordpress give us is called Kubrick, which is a sensible and practical theme with many suitable features that are easily adapted to suit. It looks like this:

But you may think this is a bit dull. So Wordpress have given us a selection of free themes for us to choose from. They are listed under ‘Appearance’ in the dashboard’s left sidebar and then in ‘Themes’ underneath it:

Click on ‘Themes’ and you get this window:

You can see that Kubrick is the current theme, and there are listed at least five pages of different themes to choose from. Have fun browsing through them, and if you find a theme you like, select ‘Preview’ to see what your blog will look like. Even if you already have some posts and other features on there, they will be included in the preview.

You can return to the theme pages by clicking on the cross in the top left hand corner, or activate your theme either in the top right hand corner or through the ‘Activate’ link on the main theme page.

Then Wordpress will acknowledge that your theme has been accepted:

and click on ‘View site’ next to your blog’s name at the top of the menu to see that your blog now looks like this:

If you don’t like this one, change it for another one until you find the one you prefer! It’s very easy.

Personalising the header

But another way of personalising your blog is to upload a new header image, like in the example of my other website and blog I showed you on the first page. So let’s revert back to the Kubrick theme.

You need to select ‘Appearance’ again in the dashboard’s left sidebar.  Now you can change the colour of your existing header to suit your corporate image, or go to Custom Header to change the header image.

Let’s look at ‘Header Colours’ first:

Here you can change the font colours, upper colour and lower colour of the background, and if you know your hex colours there’s an opportunity to put these in too:

Alternatively you can change your header image to match your corporate identity or existing website. To do this, go to ‘Custom Header’ in the left sidebar:

Here Wordpress provides the necessary dimensions details for your new image to be created in Photoshop or whatever medium you have for creating images such as jpegs or gifs. Note that for Kubrick you need to create an image that is 760 by 200 pixels in 72dpi:

Create a blank canvas with the right dimensions to work with, in which to place your design:

Design Tip: leave a white (or empty) margin around your design, eg don’t bleed the design off the blank canvas, as Wordpress have a tendency to want to crop the image and you’ll find that a vital piece of your design has been chopped off. By leaving a small margin your design is preserved.

Now upload the jpeg or gif of your new header (make sure it’s 72 dpi, RGB and the correct dimensions):

Press upload, and when you get this page:

You’ve done!

You can go look at your blog’s new identity by clicking on ‘View site’ which is located next to your blog’s title in the black bar at the top of the site, and you will see this:

Oh dear! To get rid of the original text in your header that’s coming through your new image, go back to the Dashboard and select Custom Header:

Click on ‘Hide Text’ and it will then look like this:

Don’t forget to save your changes – Wordpress will acknowledge it for you.

You can also see that there are instructions to restore your original header and colour of the theme so you can start again if you don’t like what you’ve done.

Now go to ‘Visit site’ to see your blog’s new identity:

If you like what you see, you’re ready to go onto the next stage.  View my selection of visual e-courses to complete your blog, and if you any questions, click on the fairy blog mother logo to send an email.

© Alice Elliott 2009