Click "Advanced."
Here, we are going to custom design every little aspect of the template with colors, font choices, sizes, etc. The possibilities are very exciting.
There are a couple of differences in this advanced tab according to your template. This guide is for the Awesome template, but you can adjust according to whatever template you have.
The first tab on the list, "Page", is basically the font of the text inside your posts. You can tinker around with the different colors, fonts, sizes etc., paying heed down below on how it looks as you change it. Keep tinkering until you decide on what you like. Remember, simple is the key. In general, text of the body of posts are better as 'sans serif' fonts - fonts that don't have little squiggles but are just straight text, like Arial, Tahoma, Trebuchet, and Verdana. For background color, choose something light - white is best, but if your blog has a particular color scheme you want to work with, choose something light. For the autism parenting blog, I chose a light blue to go with the light blue theme of the blog. Here, I'm leaving it white. The color of the text is best if left basic black, although I've been some blogs have it in gray. I went with Verdana and increased the size to 14 points. When you're happy with your choice, hit "apply to blog".
The next tab, "Links", allows you to choose the colors of any links inside the blog, which includes the titles of posts, 'comments', and so forth. I liked the lilac coloring of the blog so I left it that way.
"BLOG TITLE" is one of the most exciting customizations of the blog; it allows you to change the look of the top of your page. Note where there are red dotted lines; there are always red dotted lines around the area you are working on in this advanced part of the designer.
I decide to be a little adventurous. I choose "Permanent Marker" as the font, increase it to 60 points, and play around with the font color and background color. I know I'll change it eventually, but I want to have fun with it for the moment.
Blog Description is something we haven't encountered before. You can add a line underneath the blog title summarizing what the blog is about.
Since we haven't decided on a blog description yet, and we will add that in later, let's just choose any color and font for now and I'll show you later on where and how to add the blog description.
"Tabs Text" and "Tabs Background" are not relevant to us yet; that is used when you have a bar underneath the blog description with things like "about us", "index", and so forth - this is something we will set up later as well.
"Date Header" controls the font, color and size of the date on top of every blog post. It's best to leave that in easy-to-read font and color. I changed mine to Bold and 14 points just for the sake of it.
"Post Title" is just what the title indicates; the title of your blog posts. Since my blog is more of a sample, whimsical one, I did play around with it and chose a unique font, changed the color and size around a bit too. It's up to you if you want your blog to have the classic, clean look, or to play around a bit with the font and colors and so forth.
"Post Background" - I guess it's time for me to admit that I made a mistake. The 'background' at the "Page" tab apparently did not refer to the post background, but this tab does. Just refer to what I wrote above about leaving your background color plain or easy on the eyes.
"Gadget title" is for the font on top of the little gadgets your blog will soon be full of. Many of the forthcoming posts will be about the endless amount of gadgets your blog will have. Here, too, it's best to just leave it default black and not play around with it, unless you have a cohesive color/font scheme in mind.
The same goes for Gadget Text, Gadget Link, and Gadget background. If you've made your posts a differently colored background, make sure they match up (if that's what you want.) Ditto for the fonts and links - your call.
"Sidebar Background" gives you the option of adding another color around the entire sidebar of the blog, if that's your thing.
I'm not even sure what "images" is for but I imagine it sets the background and border for any images you will put into the blog eventually. I'll test that when I upload a picture in a later post.
"Feed" and "Feed Links" refer to the very bottom of the page where readers can click to subscribe to the feed of your post. Feel free to play around with the font and colors if it's your thing.
The rest of the advanced options are for some other little gadgets found on the bottom of the page, I'm not even going to bother with them.
Okay! Click on 'apply to blog'.... and voila! The changes aren't that noticeable yet, but weve just had fun tinkering with the fonts and colors of the page. We're ready to roll!
In the next few posts we'll start with the real meat-and-potatoes stuff: Gadgets, affiliate programs, getting the word out. The possibilities are so exciting!
If anyone reading this blog is really setting up their blog using tips from this blog, or adjusting their blog using any tips, please do let me know. So far I feel like I'm just 'talking to the wall' , but hey.... I do get hits and google adsense money from this, and you never know if at some point down the line someone will want to set up a blog and feel lost and want guidance. But I'm just curious if there is anyone out there who has benefited at all from the blog so far. Please let me know.
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