Blogging • Tips To Find And Upload New Blogger Template

photo credit: pixabay

I'm again away from my 'base' in a short trip back to my hometown. This means that it's difficult to post a new DIY project although I've already prepared some beautiful things back home! No sufficient photos, too many friends to meet here and so little available space and materials ...! 

But, of course, this didn't stop me to make some radical changes in my blogger blogs. It's a kind of digital DIY after all. For the first time I've tried to change completely my classical blogger template and upload a new blogger template in its place. I've already done it in my tumblr and wordpress blogs several times, but it's a brand new field for my blogger "homes".



So, my short weekend adventure started with me experimenting with new blogger templates two hours before leaving home for our trip!!! It's true that when a new idea is stuck in my head, nothing and none could prevent me to do it even in the last minutes... ☺!!! This behaviour may have some disadvantages ... My blogs had many errors during weekend because it was impossible to do everything perfect in so little time. After spending three days in changing and customizing templates between other activities, these are the tips I gathered.

1 • Save your old template and content. 

This is the first golden rule. 

• Login to your Blogger.com account.
• Go to Template page of your blog. 
• Click the Backup/Restore Button
• Click the DOWNLOAD FULL TEMPLATE button on the new dialogue window that appears
• Save this template in a folder. 

Katerina from sundaysprojects.blogspot.gr has a very easy-to-follow tutorial in greek language how to full backup our blog.

2 • Decide how you want your blog to look like. 

• Browse different sites that offer templates and check out different examples.
• You may find the perfect template with your first search. 
• If you don't, try a respectful number of templates before choosing. 

3 • Choose your criteria. 

• Do you want a right, a left, or two sidebars? 
• One or two columns? 
• A SEO friendly template or ads customized, or both things?
• Make a list of the things you want your new template to have.
• Try first the live tester view before you download the new template. Many things are not obvious from a frozen page. See how the pages look like when you browse them and pay attention to small details. 

When you define your criteria, you will eliminate your choices to what you really want.

4 • Upload your new template. 

These steps are usually the same in every site, but you should check out the tutorial of the specific site.

• Download the blogger template you want from the site 
• The file is usually .ZIP
• Go to the folder you saved the ZIP file and right click on it.
• Choose 'Extract' to extract that zip file and locate a .XML file in it. 
• To upload this XML file to your Blogger account. 
• Go to 'Template' page of your blog again  
• Click the 'Backup/Restore' Button again
• Click 'Choose File' button in that same page. 
• Find the folder you extract the ZIP file of your new template and open it
• Choose the .XML file
• Click the UPLOAD button to upload your new template. 

5 • Rearrange your widgets.

• The Widgets of your old blog template are still available 
• You may need to drag and drop your widget in the proper location 
• Go to the Layout page and rearrange your widgets.

6 • Sites to find free blogger templates 

• 58 Best Free Blogger Templates for 2015 at designscrazed.org
• Free Blogger Templates for Your Blog at btemplates.com
• Blogger Templates Gallery at mybloggerthemes.com

Hope this post will help you to make your blog more beautiful and friendly!!! 

What do you think about my new template? 

Wish you all a beautiful Tuesday !!! xoxo ...

Joanna