Now I can recommend Blogger for a small business website.

The last few months have seen enhancements in Blogger that I think make it a viable choice for a small business who wants to do their website themselves.  I’m not talking about a business Blog.  I’m talking about a full-blown website.  Probably the most important new feature making this possible is the addition of ‘Pages.’  You see, a Blog is made up of dated entries called Posts.  Whenever you write a post, it is automatically put in date order with all the other posts.  If you wanted to have one page where you listed all your products and prices, you don’t want that page to be dated and published in order with other posts.  You want a page to be outside the flow, to stand on it’s own, and to be accessible from a menu. Another example is an ‘About Us’ page. 

Blogger calls that a ‘Page’ as opposed to a ‘Post’ and it has been available since late 2009.  What was still missing was any way to customize the design of the site so it didn’t look like everybody else’s Blog on Blogger.  Blogger’s new Template Designer fills that hole.  It is still in draft, but I’ve tried it and it seems to work great while still being very easy.

Blogger Stats

A business also wants to know if anyone is visiting their site.  Blogger now has their own ‘Blogger Stats’ that is much more informative than just a hit counter. 

Custom Domain

When you create a Blog using Blogger, you get a web address (URL) that ends in .blogspot.com.  For example, MyRVStuff.blogspot.com.  Most people with a small business don’t want an address like that.  They want MyRVStuff.com.  You can do that.  It’s called a Custom Domain.  If you own the domain name e.g. MyRVStuff.com there is a setting in Blogger to make your blog use that address.  And, if you don’t already have your domain, you can buy one thru Blogger for $10 for a year. 

Your blog/website will be hosted on Blogger’s free servers, but people will get to it by typing the custom domain name.  Your viewers will never see .blogspot.com. They type www.MyRVStuff.com and they will see the website you created with Blogger.

Will it Look Professional?

Well, that depends on just how picky you are!  Using Blogger’s new Template Designer, you can certainly make it look very nice.  But, if you have specific ideas of exactly how you want your website to look, this probably isn’t for you.  You may find a third party Blogger template that will work for you, but it has been my experience that once you use features that aren’t part of Blogger’s direct offerings, you may lose some of the functionality that Blogger offers.  There is a LOT of offerings though in third party templates, you might find something perfectly suited to your design needs.

If you don’t find anything in Template Designer or in Third Party Templates to suit your needs, then you need a Web Designer, and that can get very expensive.  I’m a believer in a small business starting up with what they can afford, and at $0, Blogger is something you can afford.  I say, build something that looks nice and is functional, for free.  When the business can afford it, you can get fancy!

Show-Me-How Videos on Blogger that apply to this article:

• Add a Photo to your Blog Header (Members Only)
• Blogger Stats (Free)
• Blogger’s Template Designer (Members Only)
• Changing Template – using 3d Party Templates (Free)
• All Blogger Show-Me-How Videos If you’re not a member of Geeks on Tour, you can Join Today!  It’s only $39 for a year of access to all the videos in our Complete Learning Library.

Related posts:

1. Re-Energize your Travel Blog
2. Blogger Pages
3. About HTML and Blogger

Below are 4 of the 16 choices you are given when you create a blog.  You can just pick any one with the knowledge that you can change to another at any time you want.  And, when you change later there are more choices because each of the 16 have multiple variations when you revisit them.  These templates are old and tired.

More Templates from Outside Sources

The good news is that you’re not limited to the templates that come with Blogger.  There are hundreds of templates available from outside – third party – sources.  Here is a listing from Blogger of third party template sources.

The bad news is that they’re not as easy to install as the built in templates.  And, they’re not supported by Blogger, so if you have a problem, you’re out of luck unless you can get support from the source.  Many of them are free – which is a great price but don’t expect any support for that.  Here are some samples:

Step by Step Installation

1. When you find a template you like, you should see a button to ‘Download’ it to your computer.
2. What gets downloaded is a compressed or ‘zipped’ file.  You need to unzip it.  Right click on it and ‘Expand All.’  (Macintosh – Double-click the zip file)
3. Now log in to your blog, choose the Layout link, then the Edit HTML tab and you should see the screen below.  Click ‘Download Full Template.’  This makes a backup on your computer of the template that you are currently using.  This is important in case everything gets messed up – you can alwyas return to the way it was.
   
4. Upload the template you just downloaded (and unzipped):  Click Browse and find the downloaded template  (it will end with .xml)  on your computer, then click upload.
   If you have installed widgets into your sidebar, you may see an error message like that below.  It’s best to delete the widgets so you can start clean, but if the widgets are important to you, you can click ‘Keep Widgets’ here.  Then, you may need to deal with repositioning them in the new template.
   
5. Click the ‘Save Template’ button at the bottom, and you’re done.  Take a look at your new blog!

There may be things in the new template that don’t work right with your old content.  You’ll need to deal with each of those things individually.  For example, if you had an image in your blog’s header that no longer fits in the new template, you need to go to the Page Elements and Edit the Header to remove the image.  If there is some canned text in the new Template, you need to edit HTML to find that text and change it so it speaks for you.

What if you just can’t get the new template to look the way you wanted?  Well, that’s why you downloaded your old template!  Start with step #4 and re-upload your old template.

What if you ignored my advice and didn’t back up your old template?  You can always just choose another standard Blogger template by clicking on ‘Pick a New Template.’

Have fun!  Try a few templates … you wouldn’t go to a clothes store and only try on one outfit now would you?  If you’ve been delinquent in posting to your blog – you may find that a new look will re-energize you.

Would you like me to show you how to do this?  My pleasure!  Here’s a Free Video on Changing your Blogger Template

And, if you want to go even further with ‘Tweaking’ the template, here’s a Video on Editing the HTML of the Template This one does require a Geeks On Tour Membership.

Happy Blogging!
Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

Related posts:

1. Adding Video to your Blog
2. Blogger for Small Business
3. Make money with your Blog