Tweaking layout

This is so simple as to need no explanation. Within "Customise" choose the "Layout" tab and then just move the boxes around on the page by click and drag. If you don;t want an item, click "Edit" and within that choose "Remove".

Simple.

There is also the option to add various predetermined boxes. I'd ideally like some kind of tag cloud, a Blog Roll, some information about me - including a link to website and a couple of links to articles about the blog itself. The statement about what the blog is, I have already put below the blog title as a strap line.

Tweaking the template - header

Next to take this somewhat bland template and customise it. The intention is to end up with a stripped down design with a few essential utilities.

First a strap-line to go under the title. Simple enough.

Select "Layout"

Select "Page Elements"

Click "Edit" on the header box.

Type in the required text.

In this case - "a step by step guide to building this blog"

Preview and save.

Web Statistics

Finding out how many people are visiting the blog is the next task. Along with this it is possible to collect other statistics, such as where in the world the visitors are coming from and what page they come to the site from.

There are many free online services that can be used. I have used Startcounter before and decided to try a different counter this time. I picked Onlinewebstats, went through the registration process and was given a chunk of HTML code to insert on my blog template.

This I did, but Blogspot would not accept the code. I scratched my head for half an hour, trying different variations, but ultimately failed.

So I went back to Startcounter and successfully set it up. You should be able to see the counter at the bottom of this page. The step by step process is as follows:

Go to the Startcounter website and register as a user. I'd done this five years ago, so can't advise on the process, but it should be straightforward.

Log on to your new user account on Startcounter. Go to the "My Projects" page and click "Add New Project".

You will be prompted for your blog name and blog address, also for a variety of other choices, which are self-explanatory.

Having gone through the options, the site provides you with a chunk of HTML to paste into your blog template.

Select the HTML, right click it and COPY it into your paste buffer.

Now go to Blogspot. Log in and choose "Customise".

Choose "Edit HTML"

Now, scroll through the template on the Blogspot page. Go almost to the end until you reach the tag.

Put your cursor just before this tag. Right click and PASTE.

Preview before you save!

Then save and it is done.

There is another precaution you could take before messing around with the template. That would be to copy the entire template into a Notepad file before you make any changes. Then if there were any problems, you could always revert to this saved version.

Registering and setup

I already had a profile on blogspot, so didn't need to go through the "Create Account" part of the process.

From the DASHBOARD I clicked "Create a Blog"

I then went to the "Blog address (ULR)" box and tried a load of different names, each time clicking "Check Availability" to see if it was already taken. The vast majority of simple names are already bagged on Blogspot. But with a bit of creativity and juxtaposing interesting pairs of words, there are plenty of good, memorable ones left. I tried putting a hyphen between the words sometimes and just running them together other times. I ended up with "blog-steps", making my address http://www.blog-steps.blogspot.com/

This fixed the blog name - which I then input in the "Blog Title" box.

Finally I filled in the "Word Verification" box and clicked "Continue"

The next page asks you to choose a template. I chose the first on the list "Minema" This can be changed later, so it doesn't really matter what you pick.

Mission Statement

Simply put, this blog is an experimental platform for me to walk through the steps of setting up a blog on blogspot, recording what I am doing along the way.

I have no intention of posting regularly or frequently, though it may happen from time to time.

It is not really aimed at anyone other than myself. But if anyone else does care to look in, that is fine. Join me for the journey if you wish. And feel free to throw in comments. You probably know a heck of a lot more about setting up a blog than I do.