How to Update Your Blogger Blog to Act Like a Fancy Wordpress Blog
06 January
This post contains affiliate links
So... remember when I had that crazy idea to move my blog to a Wordpress format? The post where I warned all my readers was appropriately titled {Warning!} and included this picture:
Well, as most of you know I DID make that switch and I did it all by myself without hiring someone to do the complicated move for me. I'm really proud of myself for that AND I saved quite a bit of money which would have been wasted since I decided to switch back!
But, if that picture didn't express my fear BEFORE making the move it sure did about a week and a half AFTER I made the move...
I decided to come back to my first love, Blogger... I'm so sorry Blogger that I cheated on you, please forgive me.
So why did I cheat? Well... let me explain!
I was sucked into it... manipulated... the scare tactic was used and everything!
I know a LOT of blog's are hosted on a Wordpress platform, and I know a LOT of people love that platform and wouldn't even think of using anything else, and it works for them! I am happy for every one of them...
But I believed those people who continue to write posts saying the Wordpress is the only way to go. They said "if you ever want your blog to be taken seriously you HAVE to use Wordpress". I searched and searched for a reason other than that... why would I not be taken seriously with a Blogger blog? I could never find anything that gave a valid reason. Some people just talk to hear themselves talk I think. I even heard that you can't have ads on a blogger blog because it's a Google product... ummm hello! AdSense is a Google product too... you can totally run ads on a blogger blog!!
So I made the switch and not even two weeks into it I started getting emails from my hosting site saying I was maxing out on resources... what??? How??? I hadn't even had my new Wordpress site up for 2 weeks when I got the first email... they wanted me to purchase more resources... so I did. Then only a week later I got another email for the same thing! It felt like a scam...
So anyway, long story short, I came back! Now that I'm back I've decided to make the best of what I have to work with here on Blogger. I've been working on prettying up my little Blogger blog :o) and guess what? I'm really happy with how it's looking lately!
Wordpress has lots of little fancy plug-ins that do things that you cannot do on Blogger... or can you??? (Note: you have to be careful with those plug-ins, a badly coded one can bring down your whole site)
Let me show you what I've done so far to make my Blogger blog look pretty and act like a fancy Wordpress blog.
The images below will show snippets of by blog with an arrow pointing to the change and a little explanation.
I added a favicon
See the arrow in the picture above pointing to that little heart? That's my new favicon, you should see that little heart on your screen when you are looking at my blog! (It won't show up in the email you get if you are subscribed to my mailing list, you'll have to actually go to my blog).
You'll often see these on your favorite Wordpress blogs but now I have one for my Blogger blog! If you want to have one and you are on Blogger, I used these instructions from {BloggingTips.com} to learn how to add the Favicon to my blog and I used {Favicon Generator} to create my little heart favicon.
I created a new header/banner
I added a simple but pretty (at least I think so) new blog header using {Picmonkey}. Brenda over at {Brenda's Blog Tips} has a great tutorial for how to make your own. I also used her tutorial for {how to center your header} above your blog.
Speaking of Picmonkey, they are my go to choice for all my photo editing needs too! Check them out by clicking on the picture below or the link above if you are interested in trying it out.
I added sharing (or social media) buttons along the side of my blog. Now if you see something you like and want to share with your friends you can just click the one where you want to share my post!
I added the Pinterest widget
I used a tutorial at {Code It Pretty} to learn how to add the Pinterest widget. This widget shows my latest pins and has a follow button too!
I opened an Amazon affiliate store
I am an Amazon affiliate so I decided to try what they call an "astore"... I think that probably stands for Amazon Store but I'm not sure :o/
I decided to create a "get the look" store meaning that if you like the way I decorate my home you can go to my store and get similar things from Amazon. These are not things that I personally have for sale but things that I curated from Amazon's website that are similar to the things I have in my home. If you choose to purchase anything from the store links it doesn't cost you any more but I get a small percentage added to my affiliate account!
You can see my store by clicking on the "Shop My Home!" tab in my blog (see the picture above). I hope you'll hop over and check it out!
I learned how to add Tweetable links
Have you ever been on someone's blog and you see a link right in their blog post that says "Tweet It" and says something more after it? All you need to do is click it and it automatically composes a Tweet for you right there, lickety split!?
I used another tutorial on {Code It Pretty} to learn how to do it for my own blog! Here, I'll show you!
Awesome right??!! Go ahead... click on it and try it out!
I'll admit, this one was a little more complicated than most but the tutorial was really awesome and easy to understand. You can even change the colors to match your blog!
I added related posts links
I added a related posts gallery at the bottom of each post. I used yet another tutorial from {Code It Pretty} for this!
Well what do you think so far? PLEASE let me know if something isn't working right, I've tried to view my blog as a normal person to make sure but sometimes that doesn't work out so well... me being normal that is! :o)
So... remember when I had that crazy idea to move my blog to a Wordpress format? The post where I warned all my readers was appropriately titled {Warning!} and included this picture:
Well, as most of you know I DID make that switch and I did it all by myself without hiring someone to do the complicated move for me. I'm really proud of myself for that AND I saved quite a bit of money which would have been wasted since I decided to switch back!
But, if that picture didn't express my fear BEFORE making the move it sure did about a week and a half AFTER I made the move...
I decided to come back to my first love, Blogger... I'm so sorry Blogger that I cheated on you, please forgive me.
So why did I cheat? Well... let me explain!
I was sucked into it... manipulated... the scare tactic was used and everything!
I know a LOT of blog's are hosted on a Wordpress platform, and I know a LOT of people love that platform and wouldn't even think of using anything else, and it works for them! I am happy for every one of them...
But I believed those people who continue to write posts saying the Wordpress is the only way to go. They said "if you ever want your blog to be taken seriously you HAVE to use Wordpress". I searched and searched for a reason other than that... why would I not be taken seriously with a Blogger blog? I could never find anything that gave a valid reason. Some people just talk to hear themselves talk I think. I even heard that you can't have ads on a blogger blog because it's a Google product... ummm hello! AdSense is a Google product too... you can totally run ads on a blogger blog!!
So I made the switch and not even two weeks into it I started getting emails from my hosting site saying I was maxing out on resources... what??? How??? I hadn't even had my new Wordpress site up for 2 weeks when I got the first email... they wanted me to purchase more resources... so I did. Then only a week later I got another email for the same thing! It felt like a scam...
So anyway, long story short, I came back! Now that I'm back I've decided to make the best of what I have to work with here on Blogger. I've been working on prettying up my little Blogger blog :o) and guess what? I'm really happy with how it's looking lately!
Wordpress has lots of little fancy plug-ins that do things that you cannot do on Blogger... or can you??? (Note: you have to be careful with those plug-ins, a badly coded one can bring down your whole site)
Let me show you what I've done so far to make my Blogger blog look pretty and act like a fancy Wordpress blog.
The images below will show snippets of by blog with an arrow pointing to the change and a little explanation.
I added a favicon
See the arrow in the picture above pointing to that little heart? That's my new favicon, you should see that little heart on your screen when you are looking at my blog! (It won't show up in the email you get if you are subscribed to my mailing list, you'll have to actually go to my blog).
You'll often see these on your favorite Wordpress blogs but now I have one for my Blogger blog! If you want to have one and you are on Blogger, I used these instructions from {BloggingTips.com} to learn how to add the Favicon to my blog and I used {Favicon Generator} to create my little heart favicon.
I created a new header/banner
I added a simple but pretty (at least I think so) new blog header using {Picmonkey}. Brenda over at {Brenda's Blog Tips} has a great tutorial for how to make your own. I also used her tutorial for {how to center your header} above your blog.
Speaking of Picmonkey, they are my go to choice for all my photo editing needs too! Check them out by clicking on the picture below or the link above if you are interested in trying it out.
I made a peek-a-boo nav bar
In the image above see the bar across the top that the arrows are pointing to? That's called the Blogger nav (navigation) bar. I learned how to give mine a peek-a-boo or hover effect using a tutorial from {Spice Up Your Blog}.
Go ahead and try it! You have to be on my actual blog not in the email newsletter. Move your mouse up to the top of the blog and the nav bar should appear and then disappear as you move your mouse away!
I added social media sharing buttons
I added sharing (or social media) buttons along the side of my blog. Now if you see something you like and want to share with your friends you can just click the one where you want to share my post!
I added the Pinterest widget
I used a tutorial at {Code It Pretty} to learn how to add the Pinterest widget. This widget shows my latest pins and has a follow button too!
I opened an Amazon affiliate store
I am an Amazon affiliate so I decided to try what they call an "astore"... I think that probably stands for Amazon Store but I'm not sure :o/
I decided to create a "get the look" store meaning that if you like the way I decorate my home you can go to my store and get similar things from Amazon. These are not things that I personally have for sale but things that I curated from Amazon's website that are similar to the things I have in my home. If you choose to purchase anything from the store links it doesn't cost you any more but I get a small percentage added to my affiliate account!
You can see my store by clicking on the "Shop My Home!" tab in my blog (see the picture above). I hope you'll hop over and check it out!
I learned how to add Tweetable links
Have you ever been on someone's blog and you see a link right in their blog post that says "Tweet It" and says something more after it? All you need to do is click it and it automatically composes a Tweet for you right there, lickety split!?
I used another tutorial on {Code It Pretty} to learn how to do it for my own blog! Here, I'll show you!
Update your Blogger blog to act like a fancy Wordpress blog! #Blogger from @LCCrafts
Awesome right??!! Go ahead... click on it and try it out!
I'll admit, this one was a little more complicated than most but the tutorial was really awesome and easy to understand. You can even change the colors to match your blog!
I added related posts links
I added a related posts gallery at the bottom of each post. I used yet another tutorial from {Code It Pretty} for this!
Well what do you think so far? PLEASE let me know if something isn't working right, I've tried to view my blog as a normal person to make sure but sometimes that doesn't work out so well... me being normal that is! :o)
Posted by: Tania | Little Vintage Cottage
at 06 January
Tag:
Love the look of your new blog. I am definitely trying a few of these. I notice you do not have a hovering "P" to pin a picture from your post. My security took away mine and I have not been able to re-install it. Do you have an answer? I pinned this post to my Blog Help page.
ReplyDeleteIt looks great and all the new links are working for me. What
ReplyDeletea lot of work it was but worthwhile i think! Good job!
Hi Tania,
ReplyDeleteI love the new look of your blog, what a lot of work - you have done an amazing job! I love the pink and black!!
The little heart favicon does not show up for me...there is still the Blogger B by Little Vintage Cottage when I open your site.
Kimberley
Thank you Kimberley. I'm not sure why the heart favicon doesn't show up for you. It shows up for me when I sign out and look at my blog as the rest of the world does. I do remember seeing something that said that some services remove it... I'll have to check into that more. At least is just the favicon though that's not showing and not my whole blog! lol!
DeleteTania
Looks great! I eventually want to purchase my own domain. I think that is what my daughter did. I have done a few of these things you provided tutorials for. I might try out a few of the others soon. I enjpy playing around and adding things. Thanks for the links! I love your new look...:)
ReplyDelete