How to create a website using Blogger

In this article I will show you on how you can easily create your own blog/website in just a few minutes. For those of you that don't know, Blogger is a free platform that lets you create, design, and modify your own site without even a knowledge of programming or coding and anyone can use it as well. Yes, it's not the best out there but it's a good way to start with, specially if you do not have any experience on web design and of course if you don't want to spend money for your site.

First, you need to have a gmail account in order to get an access to blogger. In case you still don't have one yet, you can create a new one by just heading over to gmail.com and signup there. Now that everything is ready, go to Blogger.com and login your account.

After logging in, just click "New Blog". Here you can begin setting up your site, decide what title you want for your blog. Fill up the address bar with your desired domain name (Ex: geekydummy.blogspot.com). After that, you can now choose a template and hit "Create blog!". Also, note that you can always replace it later and play around with it until you get satisfied.

Then it will now bring you to the platform itself, the place where all the magic happens. From here, you can now create your first post, make pages, view comments, access your layout, customize your template, monitor your blog stats and earnings. To see what your site looks like, just click "View blog" at the top left portion of the website. At first, it will look something like this.

To change the look and feel of your blog, just head over to the Template section and click the "customize" button and from here, you'll be able to change the background, adjust widths, choose your desired font style, select background color, add CSS code, and many more. You can also change your theme in case you don't like what you've chosen a while ago. Below the preview of your blog, you can find all available themes provided by Blogger. Always keep in mind that in order for your readers to love your blog, you need to have a descent looking site and not just a trashy one. So, be creative in designing it unless you want your blog to get ignored.

Tip: Avoid using bright font colors like yellow, green, or purple as it will discourage your reader to visit your blog again. Not only because it's unreadable but also it's looks bad.

After a little bit of touch, your site will become more appealing to the eyes of your future audiences. You can also create your own logo/header design using a photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Logo maker, LogoYes, and others. To use the image that you've just created, just go to Layout and find the Header section then click "Edit".

Once you've done that, a new window will appear. What you need to do next is click on "Choose File" button then find your logo image. Then pick your desired logo placement option that you think will work best for you and click "Save". "Instead of title and description" always work for me and you can try it as well.

How to add Menu bars

Menu bars are very important to your blog, these help you organize your contents, so that your readers can easily find the information they're looking for. If you're not familiar with it, they are basically a rectangular bar that you can find at the upper part of a website. To add Menu bars into your blog, just head over to Layout and find the title Cross-Column then click on Add a Gadget. Next step is to look for Pages then click the + icon.

After that, you can now create your Menu bars, just type in the title of your tabs. By default, you'll find the Home bar already setup, which is fine. You can also edit it if you want. To add another tab, just click on +Add external link. From here, you can type in your page title and the link for it. What this link does is when you click on your tab, it will bring you to the address that you put in the Web address (URL) section. Just hit the Save button when your done and don't forget to click Save Arrangement as well to enable the changes you've made. Your blog will now look something like this.

How to create a post

Now that your done designing your blog, you can now start posting your contents. Just head over to your tool panel and click New post. You can find it just above the Overview section. After that, you're ready to make your first blog post. When your done, just click Publish and your good to go. Congratulations! You've just made your own website.

On a final note, blogger is not the best blogging platform out there. In fact, there are various platforms that offer more customization options with thousands of downloadable templates, widgets, and plugins. What separates blogger from others is that it's free. You don't need to spend any penny to make your own blog. Also, if you don't want to use the templates provided by blogger due to its very limited designs, you can always search for a custom template which I think a lot of blogger users do. Some of the templates will require you to pay for it though, but it's definitely worth it.