This is the third post in my "Blogspot Blogger Design Series." You can read the first introductory post here, as well as the one I wrote up about sidebars.
Today's topic? Pages.
So what even are pages? Pages are the individual tabs most commonly seen below or above the header on a blog.
The first time I tried to add pages to my blog, it took me two hours. It's not as easy as it seems! (Unless you do a web search. But somehow my fourteen year old mind never thought of that possibility. *shakes head*)
Here's what you do:
- Go to your blogger home page.
- Click on your blog.
- Find pages.
- Create as many pages as you'd like.
- Then, go to layout.
- Look for pages and click the little, tiny edit button.
- Select the pages you want to display and click save.
So now you have your pages lined up nicely on your blog, but the next step is to make your pages looking pretty.
- Go to layout.
- Click customize.
- Then, advanced.
- Here are the two options you can play with:
There are some pages you should have, but I think a lot of it is preference and using pages to personalize your blog. Below are some page I have seen on other blogs and my thoughts about them.
1. ABOUT ME
This page. THIS PAGE, GUYS. Everyone should have an about me page. I don't care who you are or what your blog is like, just please have an about page. If I'm going to follow a blog, I want to know about the person writing it! I want to know about their quirks, personality, favorite bands, if they like pizza (*cough*), and all that fun stuff.
2. CONTACT ME
"Contact me" pages are great. This is the page where you'll insert a contact form for questions (Here's how to add a contact form to a page.), and list all your social media sites so people can stalk you properly.
3. ABOUT THE BLOG
I don't have this page (though maybe I should consider doing so?), but I've seen a lot of other people who do. After readers get to know a bit more about you, then obviously the next step is to learn about the blog. Here you can link to some of your most popular posts or posts you're most proud of.
4. FAVORITE BLOGS
Okay, to be entirely honest, this is probably seen as more unprofessional than not. But for me, listing my favorite blogs is a way to give back to the wonderful blogosphere and appreciate how awesome the other bloggers are out there. (and plus I've found a few new blogs this way myself on other blogs.)
5. WRITING // REVIEWS
Most of the people following me are either book bloggers or writing bloggers. So...
IF YOU'RE A WRITING BLOGGER: I loooove visiting pages where bloggers talk about what kind of books they're writing. This is the place to insert makeshift covers, collages, blurbs, and link to posts about your novel if you have any.
IF YOU'RE A BOOK BLOGGER: You have no idea how much I love it when book bloggers have a tab devoted to their archives of reviews. It makes it SO easy to search for their opinion on a certain book!
6. BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
I've only actually seen one blog with this type of page (I would link to it, but I forgot which blog it was. Sorry!), but I thought it was such a genius idea. I'm slowly working on one myself because it is so fun to shove your favorite books in people's faces and watch them suffer with the pain and feels. :P
7. ARCHIVE // POPULAR POSTS // START HERE
These are all basically ways of linking to posts you'd want new readers to read once they arrive at your blog.
*cue the overflow of links* (Note: These are all blogger tutorials.)
HOW TO ADD A DROP DOWN MENU WITHIN A PAGE. (This can be great for organizing your different WIP under a "things I'm writing" page.
HOW TO REMOVE THE BORDER AROUND PAGES. (This is the lined box around each page section. It looks a lot cleaner without these lines, so this would be a good tutorial to use.)
HOW TO STICKY NAVIGATION BAR. (You know how some blogs, when you scroll down to read a post, the pages bar keeps scrolling down the post with you? This is what that is.)
HOW TO CENTER YOUR PAGES. (It just looks a lot cleaner with your pages centered rather than hanging out on the left side of the blog.)
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- Katie Grace
What pages do you have on your blog? What pages do you like to see on other blogs?
Also note: Tomorrow is the last day of the month (aaah, right?!) which means my January Monthly Highlights post will go up then.
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CONNECT WITH ME!
Your tutorials are so helpful, it's fantastic!! lol. Thank you so much for putting all the effort, time and energy that I know goes into these posts (any of your posts). I'm no designer, and it's hard to make sure that everything works and fits together nicely while still making it your own, too, you know? Agh. Practice and experimentation, I suppose. And tutorials. ^^
ReplyDeleteWould you mind stopping by my blog and taking a quick peak at the design and layout? I'd love to hear any suggestions, if you have them. I've received some feedback about some readers having difficulty navigating around and finding posts they want. But I have a category page, popular/related posts widgets, and also the archives gadget (as well as a search tool), so I'm having a hard time figuring out where to make improvements.
Thank you if you do, and thank you again for these amazing posts!
Eve
Edge of Night
Aww, thank you! They take awhile to put together, but I'm glad that they're helpful. :)
DeleteHmm... I don't think it's hard to find posts at all. You have archives, popular posts, a search bar, and the related posts gadget at the bottom of your post. So, I don't think it's hard to find or navigate at well.
As for the design, I would consider taking off the music. I mean, everyone to their own taste, but it takes up space and I don't personally care for it much. But if you love it, go ahead and keep it!
I'd also consider taking off the "recent comments" gadget on your sidebar. Then you can make it less busy.
I can comment more about the actual design and everything, but that's what I think of the layout and such.
You're welcome!
I appreciate any and all feedback, so if there's something that you think should be brought to my attention regarding the layout, design, or something else, I'd be more than happy to hear it. But what you've given me is perfectly fine.
DeleteThat's kind of what I was thinking - I have all of those already. Don't really know where to go from there. But I certainly want to look into it, see what I can do. I'll definitely be changing up my "Categories" page; currently hate the way it functions lol.
I always despised websites with music players. I still do. I can't believe I have one on mine, to be honest! But, as it isn't an automatic player, I do like having it there. It's probably one of those things that will come and go periodically.
I hadn't considered the recent comments widget. I may do that.
Thank you so much! It's always helpful to hear another's opinion! :)
This helped a lot!
ReplyDeleteYay! I'm so glad! :D
DeleteThanks for the tutorial! *marks for when I finally get around to remodeling my blog*
ReplyDeleteAhh, it's so hard to get yourself to ACTUALLY remodel a blog. It's so much work. xD But I look forward to the finished result when you do!
DeleteOh I really love all of the helpful insight that you put in this post. And you're so right, every blog needs to have an "about the writer" page.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to creating a dropdown menu within your pages, I think I might consider using that in a new writing page or something of that sort :)
So helpful!
You're so welcome! I've been wanting to do the dropdown menu for awhile... First I need to fix up how to actually describe my novels. xD
DeleteI loooove this post. I'll have to looks at all these tutorials later, when I'm not busy. I've been wanting to do a drop down menu for my writings page. Thanks for this!
ReplyDeleteYesss I'm so glad! <3 I'm excited to see the finished result. :D
DeleteAHH, thank you for this post, Katie! It is very much helpful. *nod*
ReplyDeleteI have 4 pages right now: Serial Stories, About Me, Writings, and Artwork. My about me page is ... actually a copy of yours right now. *headdesk* Someday I will try to be creative and make an original one, but today is not that day!
I like it when blogs have a 'writings' page (well, if it's a writing blog anyways) and an 'about me' page. I'm just nosy and like to read things like that :D.
AAAAH you are so welcome! :D
DeleteOoh, do you have a lot of serial stories on your blog? And you draw? Eep, that's so exciting! :D
Hehe, that's awesome! It's a super fun, quirky way to do the about page and keep it interesting instead of smacking down a bunch of text. :P
Yes! I'm nosy in that sense, too. xD
I have no pages on my blog, but I'm hoping to fix that soon. Thank you for the tips!
ReplyDeleteYou're so welcome! Hopefully it'll all work out for you. :)
DeleteThanks Katie :)
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Eliza! Hope it helps. <3
DeleteWhat a great tutorial, Katie! There are a lot of really helpful tips in here that have got me thinking. I haven't done pages on my blog yet, but an About Me page would probably be especially good.
ReplyDeleteI like having my Labels categories up top, actually. This allows people to find posts more topically, which I always like when I'm checking out new blogs.
Thank you, Rachelle!
DeleteAhh, so that's what you do. I was wondering how it all worked, but that makes TOTAL sense. I haven't seen it done that way before, so that's super cool. :D
Yep, that's how it works! :) And it make me organize my posts, which I like.
DeleteGreat tutorial! I've been putting off adding more pages to my blog for ages, and this might give me the push to go and finish them :)
ReplyDeleteYess, you should add some more! I can procrastinate so easily on these type of blog projects. :P
DeleteSometimes I wish I had a Blogspot blog just so that I could use your tutorials! xP
ReplyDeleteAww. xD Two blogs would be hard to manage. xP
DeleteTHANK YOU SO MUCH OH MY <3 I think it's okay to combine a About Me + About the Blog page into one, but I can see why people would do two. Again thank you for this, and I can't wait to see more of these in the future!
ReplyDelete~Noor
YOU ARE SO, SO WELCOME! <3
DeleteAhh, yes! Totally. I should probably put something "About the Blog" into my about page... That's actually a really good idea. :P
OH MY GOSH YOU ARE MY NEW BEST FRIEND. I have wanted to figure this out for FOREVER but I've never been able to get it to work. NOW I UNDERSTAND IT!!!
ReplyDeleteNow to simply find time to do it xD
WELL HELLO NEW BEST FRIEND. *hugs and pizza and highfives and secret handshake* xD
DeleteYes, time is the hard part. xD And the small amount of coding part. Most of the tutorials are very clear but it's STILL HARD.
Your tutorials are so helpful! I'll be coming back to this later, but I did already utilize that link to an article about contact forms. (I couldn't figure out how to get it onto a separate page of its own, but at least I have one on my sidebar now. I'll have to figure out the confusing world of coding one day...)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you have impeccable timing, because I've been meaning to add some pages to my blog. Currently I only have one about my writing. >.> I really need to make an about me page.
Thanks again, Katie! Keep 'em coming.
Ooh, I'm so glad it helped! :D (Ugh, I still don't really understand coding. I just follow the directions of the posts and hope that I'm not putting in a "self-destruct" code into my blog. xP)
DeleteYes, you should make an about me page. *nod* I'd really love to read it! :D
You're welcome! Thanks for reading and commenting. <3
Thanks for the post Katie! This is VERY helpful, especially for first time bloggers who are trying to design their blog. =) I sent this to one of my friends who was asking questions about this. =) Thank you!!! Now I need to check my blog and make sure I did most of that...
ReplyDeleteThe pages I have on my blog also include (not counting the ones you mentioned) movie reviews, which I am going to do more of in the future. =)
Yay! I'm glad it's helpful. :)
DeleteOoh, movie reviews are cool. *nod* Is your blog specifically a move review or something you just add on the side?
Yes, movie reviews are just something on the side...because my blog is for Christian girls, it helps to have reviews that other Christians left. :)
DeleteThis is great. *nods* I do need to clean up my pages bar soon, but I'm still brainstorming what I want to do with it. I definitely want to add a drop down menu or two to clear up some clutter while still allowing me more options. In about a month or two I'll probably drop back in here to review your links and get some ideas. Thanks for sharing! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd even though the favorite blogs page might not be hugely professional, I would be very sad not to include it. As far as page views go, it's second only to my About Me page. *nods* So the people have spoken.
You're so welcome! I'm excited to see the changes. *really needs to actually use the dropdown menu eventually*
DeleteYes, same for me! I really like it when people have it so I can discover new awesome blogs. And it always gives me happy feels to see MY favorite blogs on there or my blog. :P
Wow, what are the odds! I was just thinking about remodeling my blog when I saw this post. Love your blog--you earned yourself a follower today!
ReplyDeleteEep, that's awesome! :D
DeleteAww, thank you! Makes me so happy. <3
*gives you pizza for congratulations for being a new follower*
Yes, pizza! My dream come true :D
DeleteI've kinda combined the contact page, about me page, and about this blog page in one page, then I have a page about my books, characters, art, book reviews, and tea reviews. :) Thanks for showing how to do a contact form! I need to do one of those. XD
ReplyDeletestoritorigrace.blogspot.com
Yesss contact forms are so important. It surprises me how often people use them, too.
DeleteHello Katie!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post! It was very helpful! Do you think you could tell me how to make my picture a circle? I've used PicMonkey and made it a circle, but when I upload it it is very small and not as big as I would like...?
Thank you!
~Hannah
Hey, Hannah!
DeleteHm. Well, it could be the size of your picture. If it's too small, it's not going to fix. I looked at your blog -- are you using the exact same picture file as the one you have on your sidebar right now?
When you upload your picture (make sure it's saved as a png so the background is transparent), I'm pretty sure that there's a box you can click to "fit to length of the sidebar," or something like that. And when I uploaded my picture, I had to delete it and re-upload it several times before it actually works. So, hopefully that helps? I'm sorry I don't have a fool-proof solution. :P
Thank you for your help, Katie!! I'll try it and see if it works...(:
DeleteOh, and yes, it is the same one as on my sidebar...(=
DeleteI fixed it! Thank you for your help...:D
DeleteHi Katie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this! It was really helpful for me, when I was setting up my blog. (I'm still setting it up in fact...)
Anyways, I had one quick question about the 'About Me' page. How long or short should it be? I don't want to bore my readers, but I don't want to leave them with nothing, either. Is there a certain length it should be kept to? Right now, mine's close to 500 words...
Thanks again!
~Thomas
Yay! So glad it was helpful.
DeleteI don't think there's a "perfect" length, so to say. It all depends on how you set it up. I think 500 words is fine as long as you keep it interesting. Make sure it's not one big block of text. Insert some pictures. List some of your favorite hobbies or books. You don't want to be JUST talking about you, but
also some things that your reader can connect with.
If you have a link to your blog I'm happy to read it over and see if it holds my interest. :)
Thank you for reading!
Ok, thanks for the advice!
DeleteI'll email you the link when it's ready, but that might be in a couple days. (My life is crazy busy right now. I hardly even have time to write!)