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Are you tired of the regular templates that come with Blogger? Well never fear because this article will show you how you can change the colors and layout of your chosen template into something that's unique and attractive. You can add different headers, change the background, and even change the font style and the best thing is that it's actually very simple. So let's get started so you can learn how to edit your Blogger templates.

We will start with the easy stuff first and change the fonts and colors of your template. Head to your Blogger Dashboard and click the layout tab. From there you'll see four links. Choose the font's and colors link and you'll be taken to a page that is split into two sections. The top section contains the items that you can edit and change and the bottom section gives you a preview of what that change will look like. Feel free to change and play around as much as you like because nothing with actually be changed until you press the Save Changes button, so if you choose a color or font that you don't like you can always cancel those changes. Once you are happy with your template then save your changes and you are done.

Next let's add a custom header to our page. Most Blogger template headers are defaulted to display just text but you can easily add an image behind the text or even to replace the text at the top. Go to the Layout Tab and click on the Page Elements link. You'll see a page that shows the basic layout of your blog. Find your header at the top and click the Edit link to bring up the Configure Header display. From here you can upload your image and choose to have it behind your test or instead of your text. Most Blogger header sizes are 730 pixels wide so keep this in mind when making your header graphic.

Advanced editing can also be done to your template however you will need some html and css knowledge before you decide to try and rewrite any code. However there are some simple things that you can do that shouldn't be too hard. The first is changing the background color of your page. Scroll down until you see the body stylesheet of the template. This is where you'll find the basic information about your template such as background color, line-height and general font-size. If you know the hexadecimal color that you want for your background then just replace the hex number (the number that starts with a hash (#)) with your new hex number.

In the advanced editing section you can also add your Google Analytics code at the bottom of the template before the /body tag if you would like to track your visitors.

Curious to see how many people visit your blog? Or perhaps you want to see where people are arriving from so that you can concentrate your marketing efforts where it is paying off? Google Analytics is a nifty little tool that will show you how people found your blog, where they came from and even how long they stayed around looking at all of your pages. If you are serious about building a profitable blog then you need to start finding out more about your visitors so this article will show you how to add Google Analytics to your Blogger blog.

Obviously you are going to need an account with both Blogger (blogger.com) and Google Analytics (google.com/analytics/) if you haven't already.

Once you have accounts with both the first thing you should do is log into Analytics and click on Add Website Profile. So enter the website address (URL) of your blog here and click Finish. Once you have done that you'll get given some html code that you'll need to put on your blog page so that Google can track your visitors for you. Copy the code by right clicking with your mouse and highlighting all of the code and choosing Copy so that it's ready to place in your blog.

Next log into the dashboard of your Blogger account and find the blog you wish to add the code to. Choose the Layout tab and then Edit HTML. On this page you'll see all the html code that makes up your blog. All you need to do is scroll down to the bottom of the page until you see the tag. When you have found that place your Google Analytics code directly above the end body tag being careful not to touch or overwrite any other code. You can just paste your code by right clicking with the mouse where you want the code to go and choosing Paste.

Save the Template and go back into Google Analytics to see if you have installed the code correctly. If you have you'll see the message Receiving Data. If you see Tracking Not Installed then it means that something isn't working correctly. However sometimes it does take a while for the tracking code to be picked up by Google - so wait a few minutes to see if it changes after an hour or so. If it still says Tracking Not Installed head back to your Blogger blog and check if the code was installed correctly and try putting it back in again.

Once it is working properly you'll find that you have so much great information about your blog at your fingertips so you'll be able to go to Google Analytics anytime you'd like to find out more about your visitors.

If you are a fan of Blogger (like I am) then you probably love the introduction of hundreds of new Gadgets that you can add to your blog for more functionality. Gadgets (Google's term for what is more commonly known as widgets) mean that you can add your personality to your blog by showing a list of your favorite movie quotes, or perhaps you could offer your viewers a game of pong? With so many to choose from what are the best Google Gadgets to add to your Blogger Blog?

1. Followers (Find it in Basics) - Followers is kind of like Google's version of Twitter meets RSS. You can follow people and they can follow you or they can subscribe to your blog anonymously. It's one of the easiest way's to get more traffic to your blog (just start following people and they will likely start following you too).

2. HTML/JavaScript (Basics) - Obviously being able to add your own code to your blog page will enhance its functionality exponentially. You can add your own opt-in box to start a mailing list, Add Images and Links very easily to your other pages, and even put in a PayPal button and sell something right from your blog.

3. Countdown (Featured) - Allows you to add a countdown to your blog. You can countdown to your birthday, Christmas, until you launch a new product, anything you like.

4. Feed (Basics) - You can add a feed from your other blogs, your Squidoo lens, or if you are an EzineArticles author you can add a feed from your author page to show your latest articles.

5. AdSense (Basics) - If you want to make some money from your Blog one of the first places to start is by adding AdSense to your page. You will need an account with AdSense first so make sure you write a few posts on your blog before you apply. Then you can just add your AdSense code to the Gadget and can start earning money.

To add Gadgets to your blog just head to your Dashboard and go Layout | Page Elements then click on the Add a Gadget link wherever you would like to place it.

Some planning and familiarity with blogging is essential before jumping in. Here are five questions you must ask yourself before you start.

1) What are your blog goals?

In order to be successful you must have goals. If you don't have any goals, how can you know if you're succeeding, if your blog is working? I suggest going beyond just listing goals and choosing your primary goal. Your primary goal will probably shift over time, and that is alright.

So, why are you going to do this?

2) What is your blog's focus?

What are you going to write about? You can't blog effectively on several unrelated topics in the same blog and expect to have many readers. It's unlikely that many potential readers will share your mix of passions - a blog must focus on only one topic for maximum success.

Conversely, instead of blogging on one wide topic, for example "marketing" or "fishing," you might chose a niche within that topic, for example "marketing small businesses in rural areas" or "fly fishing for trout in Montana." With a tighter niche, it's more likely you'll have passionate readers who devour your every post.

3) Who is your intended audience?

Who you are blogging for? Who do you expect and want to read your blog? What kind of content will they like? You need to know who you are writing for in order to do it most effectively.

Don't be surprised if you find an entirely unexpected secondary audience drawn to your blog as well, but determine your intended primary audience and start writing for them.

4) What are your strengths and how can you leverage them in your blogging?

For example, do you closely follow cutting edge current events in your topic? Are you really up-to-date on everything that happens, as soon as it happens and really into that? Or is some sort of in depth analysis of timeless issues more your forte?

Well obviously that's going to affect what you are going to be writing about, your style. Are you going to be writing about breaking news or how to do things well that don't change all that often?

5) How familiar with the blogosphere are you?

I suggest before anyone starts blogging, they read a lot of blogs for at least two weeks. This is the bare minimum. Take notes, see what you like and what you don't like about different people's blogs and blogging styles.

See what you think might work well for you and then be prepared to experiment.

An easy way to find other blogs you may be interested in is to use one of the blog search engines, for example, technorati.com, and you can search for ones in your topic area or areas you are interested in.

If you're considering starting blogging, by all means jump in and start. Do not just dive in headfirst however, do some planning and research first. Answer these five questions first, and your blog will be more successful and achieve that success faster.