Previously, we started pondering the purpose for the blog. With over 40 artists contributing to the Blue Frog Arts environment, everyone is chiming in with thoughts. While that brainstorm is forming, we can build out the blog a bit.
Checking with TypePad’s Getting Started page, we find a section on Customize your Design. This is what we had out of the gate:
We log in to our TypePad account and find the Design area, which looks like this (for now):
From here, we can easily change the theme, layout and sidebar content. We begin by choosing Change Theme. We then find this screen:
Choosing Custom Theme, the page presents several options (each opens in a pop-up window).
We’re going to set up the blog 2-column, sidebar on right and set the page to be 700 pixels wide (500 px content area, 200 px sidebar area). On this site, we’re also going to begin with a blank canvas, if you will. No background color or images — yet.
Beginning with the General Page settings, we set the background color using either the palette or typing in the hex color. We’ll choose a white background for now, and change the colors of the hyperlinks. We also choose the pixel width of the page:
Saving the changes, we navigate back one page and then move on to the Page Banner:
For a banner, we took a few photos of the gallery. We’ll make a banner 670 pixels wide (allowing for the Typepad default of 15 px of padding) We save the image to our computer, check mark the box, "Use this banner instead of…" and upload the image.
Save changes, back one page, moving on to the Weblog Post and Sidebar Items settings. Have fun here, it’s mostly font types, sizes and colors:
When you’re done here, Save Changes
Republish your Weblog:
And let’s see what we have:
We’ll eventually move on to an Advanced Template, adding styles and implementing some SEO-type strategies (hyperlinked titles; keywords; description; customized footers) – but we’re still a few steps away from that.
Previously:
- Introduction
- Purpose Driven
Elsewhere:
– Get Started with Typepad
– Typepad Knowledge Base: Getting Started
Follow Mike Sansone on Twitter or Facebook or on Google+
Find Your Social Media ROI
I hear it from a lot of business owners: “Where is the ROI with all this Social Media?“ If this is a question you ask yourself, maybe we should work together a bit more. We can work together solo, or via a professional learning community. Find and increase your ROI. There is a “there” there.
