Beautify your Blog: week 6 - Posts

10:30:00 AM

Hi all, and welcome back to the Sew at Home Mummy "Beautify your Blog" series.

If you've been following along, making improvements to your blog, I'd love to hear about it - make sure to leave a comment with your blog's URL so that I can check out your take on my tips :)

If you'd like to post a button for the series on your blog, I'd love for you to share the love!

Sew at Home Mummy


This series builds on the previous week's tutorial. I highly suggest that you start at the beginning, and work your way forward, even if you don't intend to use the modifications on your blog; there are some basics covered in each tutorial which I'll breeze over in later tutorials (since they've already been covered).

Please read the disclosure statement and how to back your blog up in Week 1.

Here are the previous tutorials in the series:

Sew at Home Mummy

1. Start Here


Please also note that in the right sidebar of my blog are the instructions for the entire series listed.


Let's start!

This week we'll be covering 'Posts' - post titles, post bodies, post backgrounds.

1.0) Post Titles & Text

1.1 - from your Blogger.com homepage, and from the dropdown menu beside your blog's name, click "Template"

Under the "Live on Blog" image, select "Customize"

the following screen appears:
Click "Advanced"

1.2 Hover your mouse over the bottom part of the screen, where you see the image of your blog - scroll down so that you can see your post title and post body.

Now we'll play a bit with our fonts. Here are some tips.

- Keep your post body fonts simple. Post body fonts are the fonts you write or compose your posts in. Avoid using fancy or handwritten fonts - though they look really nice, they are a lot harder to read. Most articles I've read about successful blogging indicate that when your fonts are hard to read, people won't take the time to read your posts, or worse, follow your blog. This applies to the color of your post script, too. Don't use lime or bright purple - it's hard on the eyes. Stick with neutral, easy to read colors, like dark grey or black.

- If you want to play with fonts, have fun with your post title - or your blog title.
If you really want to fancy up your posts, this blogger suggests just doing it with your post title. Here's where you can use the fancy, handwritten or script-type fonts. And you can have fun with your colors, too - just try not to make them *too* bright or retinal-burning. hehe. Matching your post title colors to your blog's background or color scheme is a great idea. Or, keep the post titles just as simple as your post body - both will look great. :)

- Web Fonts take longer to load.
You'll notice as we go through the options for fonts you can choose from that you have two choices - standard fonts and 'web fonts'. The standard fonts are quickly read by any browser and are standard fonts that are uploaded to all computers - like Arial, Courier, Georgia, and Times New Roman, to name a few. These fonts will load quickly and automatically when people are accessing your pages.

If you decide to go with a 'Web Font' (or a 'fancy font'), you'll notice that in some cases, when you go to load your page, there's a slight delay, and you'll see a standard font load first, and then your fancy font will appear.

- Keep your post background solid.
Transparent backgrounds are pretty, but if you're blogging about your lovely crafty and quilty projects, your blog is essentially a portfolio. And you don't want your post backgrounds to compete with your photos or what you're writing. So, I would suggest keeping your backgrounds light. White is probably preferable - and if you don't believe me, look at almost all of the most 'famous' or popular quilting blogger's blogs out there: almost all of them have simple, solid, white post backgrounds.
transparent background
white (solid) background

Have that friend who will tell you you have spinach in your teeth and toilet paper stuck to your shoe look at your posts.
What you think might look super fantabulous might not be easy to ready or look at. Maybe your post background is too dark, maybe your font is too light, maybe it's too hard to read. It's good to get a critical eye to look at it. 

1.3 Page Text.
Choose a page text from the slide menu you're happy with; choose a font size and color.
As you change these characteristics, you'll see the live view of your blog change in the window beneath.

I chose to set my font to Verdana, grey in color, and 14px tall.

1.4 Post Title Text.
Select "Post Title" from the second scroll menu.
I decided to go with Arial, Bold, and 30px tall.

1.5 Post Title Color.
Select "Links" from the second scroll menu.

Changing your "Link" color will change your post title color and any hyperlinks you may insert into your posts.

"Visited" color will change the color of the hyperlinks and titles which readers have clicked on in the past.

"Hover" color changes the post title and hyperlink color as readers hover their mouse over the text.

I changed my colors to match my background and color scheme.

2.0 Post/Body Background.

From the second scroll menu, click "Backgrounds"

To modify your post background, select the little dropdown color menu (circled in red below the "Main Background" section in image below:
If you've decided to use a solid background, uncheck "Transparent" so it's not selected.

I personally decided to go with a solid white background.

3.0 Date Header
from the second scroll menu, click "Date Header"
Play with the attributes by clicking on the little dropdown arrows in the color boxes under "Text Color" and "Background Color".

I chose a nice blue color for the text color (to match my Blog's subheading) and chose to make the background transparent.

4.0 Post Footer
Your post footer sits at the bottom of each post, and is where your readers go to comment or share your post.

Scroll down in your active window so that your post footer is visible.

In the second scroll down menu, click "Post Footer"
Change the attributes to suit your blog.

I ended up setting the
Text Color: Dark Grey
Background Color: Transparent
Shadow Color: Very Light Grey

5.0 Applying the Changes
Once you're done editing all of these attributes and you're happy with the changes, click
"Apply to Blog" (top right hand corner)



So! Here's my (test) blog's BEFORE and AFTER for this week:


AFTER:


I hope you're enjoying this series. Remember, if you're following along, I'd love to see what you're doing each week!

And, if you missed it, I'm participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day - make sure you enter my giveaways for your chance to win some awesome swag!

{Click HERE} to go to the giveaway, and read about how to enter in other's giveaways (they usually have a great turnout - in the hundreds!)

Happy Tuesday, all!

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3 comments

  1. I have been following along and building a new blog for my quilt and crafting. It is coming along. Thank you for sharing. http://pedalsewlightly.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love how you have laid out each step and they are so detailed. I have made more changes in the last couple of weeks and has been fun learning new things. Thanks for all of this work you have done!

    ReplyDelete

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