How to Add a Photo to a Blogger Header

The header is one of the first elements users notice while visiting your blog. It typically consists of text, an image or both. Blogger’s default header consists of a text message and an optional slogan you set up when you initially configure your blog. However, you can personalize your page further by adding your own photo into the mix.

Step 1

Go to Blogger.com to view your account’s dashboard. Click the drop-down arrow located to the right side of your blog’s title and select “Layout” from the context menu. If you're using Blogger’s older template, click “Design” from the blog you wish to configure.

Step 2

Click the “Edit” option within the header section, located toward the top of the screen. The header typically contains the title initially given to your blog.

Related Reading: How to Add Audio As a Link to a Photo in the Blogger Sidebar

Step 3

Select whether the photo should be placed behind your blog’s current title and description or whether to replace it entirely. Additionally, click the check box stating “Shrink to Fit” in the event your photo exceeds the blog’s height and width.

Step 4

Click “Browse” if you wish to upload a photo from your computer. If so, click to highlight the photo in question using the subsequent dialog menu, followed by "Open." Otherwise, click the “From the Web” button found within the header section and paste the picture's direct link. This URL is typically found in your Web browser's address bar.

Step 5

Click “Save” to effectively apply the photo as your blog’s new header.

Make a cool logo in Photoshop in 10 minutes or less!

In this instructable, you will learn to make a cool logo for yourself like the pros in 5 minutes or less! The example I have provided is very basic, but you can get much cooler results if you get more involved. I am using Photoshop CS3, but I'm sure it will work with earlier versions or other programs. Let's get started! 

Step 1: Step 1: Getting Started


OK, here we go. Start with a new blank document. I used 500x500, but you can use whatever works for you. This concept is very adaptable.
About This Instructable .

Step 2: Drawing the Basic Form

 
 Now, get out your pen tool (shortcut "p"). Draw a line with it, then grab the point where your line ended and drag it a bit. If you still don't understand this, play around a bit with the pen tool and you'll get it. It's a valuable skill to have. The picture illustrates what I ended up with, a very basic pen shape. If you have not already, make sure the shape is filled with black, or the darkest that you are going to go with whatever color you are using.
About This Instructable


Step 3: Layering up the Logo


 
In this step, you'll start to see the logo itself take shape. What I like to do is go to the layer with the shape on it and select all (ctrl+a) and copy and paste (ctrl+c, ctrl+v) which should copy the shape to a new layer. Then transform that newly copied shape (ctrl+t) so that it is smaller than the original. A good tip for keeping the dimensions correct is to hold shift while you are transforming. Load the selection (select, load selection) and use the paint bucket tool to fill it with a slightly lighter color. It is important to load the selection instead of just filling it, as if you do not, then the shape will appear to have jagged edges.

Step 4: Time for a progress check!

At this point, you should have something like this.
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Step 5: Adding More of the Same...

Just repeat step 3 now.
About This Instructable

Step 6: And you are finished! That wasn't so bad, was it? Here a couple examples of how it could turn out. On the black and white one, I just applied "Satin" under blending options. On the second one, I used the Sumi-E filter. Enjoy!Post a commentBe nice!

How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide

How To Start a Blog – Beginner’s Guide
So, you want to start a blog huh? Great idea!

But…how the heck do you get started? There’s so much info out there on the web, and everyone’s telling you to do different things. Who do you listen to? Where’s the starting point?

Damnit, maybe you should just forget it – it’s too confusing!

Well, hold up. I used to be a blogging newbie too. I had the same problems. I started my blog (BloggingBasics101.com) back in 2006, and I knew less than nothing about blogging. In fact it was only the week before I’d learnt what a blog was.

Now I know a ton about them, and my blog’s doing pretty well – I receive more than 300,000 unique visitors per month which makes me consider myself someone you could listen to and learn from when it comes to building your own blog. I’m not some sort of Guru, but I certainly do know the basics.

I promise it’ll be simple, relatively easy, and definitely easy to understand (no stupid jargon). Sound good?

Awesome, let’s move on.
Why you should create a blog and join the blogging community

So below, I’m going to outline exactly what you need to do to get started and set up your own personal blog. Before we dive in though, I really want to talk about WHY you should build a blog.

Note: If you already have a solid idea of the whys, then skip this and go right ahead with the guide.

    Blogging has quickly become one of the most popular ways of communicating and spreading information and news. There are literally millions of blogs online (don’t worry, you can make yours stand out and get noticed!).
    It’s a great way to express yourself and also a fantastic way to share information with others.
    You become a better person and a better writer.
    The best reason? You can make money doing it!

I bet you already knew all of that, but it’s nice to be reminded.

One very last thing before we get started:

    Creating your own blog can take a little while, probably up to 30 minutes. So grab yourself a coffee or juice (whatever you fancy) and let’s get stuck in. If you need any help during the set-up process, get in touch with me here and I’ll help as best I can and answer any questions you might have).



Disclosure: This guide to starting your own blog contains some affiliate links. If you purchase a service through one of these links I may earn a small commission, this is at no extra cost to you.
The Steps Covered In This Blogging Guide

There’s five main steps you need to go through in order to set up a blog. If you follow this guide and the five steps, you’ll have your own blog set up in 30 minutes or less. It’s nowhere near as difficult as setting up a website from scratch (there’s very little technical ability needed here). In fact, there’s no coding required by you. Good news, huh?

The 5 Simple Steps to Starting a Blog:

    Choose your preferred blog platform
    Choose web hosting for your blog
    Setting up a blog on your own domain
    Designing your blog (the fun bit!)
    Useful resources for blogging

So, we made it. Phew. Better late than never! So, without further ado, let’s jump into step 1.
Step 1 – Choose your preferred blogging platform

Choosing where you want to build blog is pretty much the first thing you have to do. I’m going to take a leap and assume you’ve heard of WordPress, and this is the platform I advocate. It’s massive.

It’s by far one of the biggest blogging platforms in the world, with countless plugins and add-ons and almost infinite ways to design and layout your blog.

There are more than 82 million active users of WordPress = a lot, basically.

wordpress

There are other alternatives however, and they are listed below:

    Blogger – Definitely the next best thing to WordPress.
    Tumblr – Half social network, half blog. Interesting, and very simple to use.

Even though WordPress is bigger (and probably better) than those two, here are my reasons why you should still go with WordPress:

    Super easy set-up and is free to use
    Tons of free themes and layouts (I’m not kidding, there’s gazillions).
    There’s a massive support forum in case you get stuck (you won’t, but it’s nice to have it there if you need it).
    Your blog will be insanely fast and it’ll also look Functionality and form – perfect!
    People can interact with you easily. Your content can be shared, commented on, and so on.

Here’s an article about different blogging platforms (including WordPress), give it a read:

How to Choose a Blogging Platform – (updated 2016)

Now, Step 2 (see, we’re moving fast now!)
Step 2 – Self-hosting or a free alternative?

Whoa, slow down there! This is the biggest decision you’ll have to make before we go any further. You need to decide whether to pay for your blog or grab a free one.

WordPress, Tumblr and Blogger all offer free blogs for anyone. Awesome, right? It’s perfect for those of us who aren’t super serious about blogging. But it does have downsides:

1) You won’t be able to get your OWN domain name

On a free blog, your blog’s web address (your URL) will be butt-ugly. Like, really ugly. In short, create a free blog with any other the above free blog services and it’ll look like this:

• blogger.com 
• tumblr.com

I know, ugly right?

2) Limits and more limits

There are some limits to free blogs. You can’t fully monetize it, and you don’t have the possibility to upload all those videos and images you want to show everyone – it’s all limited. Worse still, you won’t even have access to the free themes offered by WordPress.

3) You DON’T OWN your blog

It might sound silly at first, but you don’t actually own your blog. It’s hosted on someone else’s web property and they can delete it if they want so. They have done so in the past, and keep doing it in the future. Which means all your hard work on your blog, all those countless hours of writing blog posts might be vanished within seconds. Sad…

On the other hand, with a self-hosted blog on your own domain name – you are the REAL owner of your blog. You’ll be able to name your blog whatever you want, for example “YourName.com” or “YourAwesomeBlog.com. You can end it with .com, .co.uk, .net, .org, or virtually any other web suffix. Add to that unlimited bandwidth for videos, images and content plus the free themes and you have a winning combo.

So how much is hosting and a domain name? Not as much as you’re thinking, fortunately. It usually works out to about $5 to $10 per month, depending on your hosting provider which is less than a couple of coffees.

If you still have questions, here’s some further information for you to look at:

    Should I Choose a Hosted or Non-hosted Blogging Platform?

Step 3 – Start a blog on your own domain (if you chose self-hosting and a custom domain)

wordpress blogging platform

I’m going to push ahead based on the premise you’ve chosen WordPress, and if you haven’t, you should. Seriously, it’s the best.

If you’re still a little confused by what a self-hosted blog is, allow me to explain and how you can go about setting one up for yourself.

You’ll need to come up with a domain name you like and also choose a hosting company that can host your blog.

    Domain: The domain is basically the URL of your website. Examples: google.com (Google.com is the domain), Facebook.com (Facebook.com is the domain). See? Simple!
    Hosting: Hosting is basically the company that puts your website up on the internet so everyone else can see it. Everything will be saved on there. Think of it as a computer hard-drive on the internet where your blog will be saved.

Personally, I use iPage (for my blog domain and hosting), and I’ve got nothing but good things to say about it. It’s probably one of the cheapest (less than $2.50 per month) hosting providers out there. A domain name will cost around $10-15 a year, but with iPage they throw that in for free :). Big smiles for that! They’re the providers I use for all of my blogs, including the one you’re reading right now.

If for any reason you don’t want to go with iPage, feel free to choose your own hosting company. Most, if not all of them, should have a “one-click” WordPress install solution on their admin panel.

That button will automatically install WordPress on your blog. Did I say it was simple or what?

All you need to do is sign up with iPage (or your chosen provider), choose your hosting plan and a domain name and look for the one-click WordPress install button on the admin panel.

WordPress essentials aren’t often needed, but I’d recommend whois privacy (that will keep all your personal details private) and definitely automated backups (this’ll save your website just in case anything fails or disappears, so you won’t lose any or very little of your blog).