How to Install a Google Blogger Template

How to Install a Google Blogger Template

Google Blogger it's still one of the easiest ways to host a blog for free with no ads and no restrictions on bandwidth. You can still use Blogger to host podcast or videos.
There are also still plenty of free and "freemium" templates you can use to customize the look and feel of your blog without having to rely on the default templates that come with Blogger. You can either use the built-in template designs, or install a template from an outside source. Mom bloggers can find well-designed Blogger templates with a search engine. Blogger Templates, for example, has a great selection, is easy to use, and has good support from the site owners.

You need to be careful about using some free Blogger templates found on the web. These can also include malware or spam links to other sites. Hence ensure you try to get a malware safe blogger template to use.

If you see links included in the template that you wouldn’t want on your blog, be sure to either remove them or use a different template.
This tutorial assumes that you've already started a blog on Blogger, you already have some content, and you're already slightly familiar with Blogger's tools and settings.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE USED ON THIS BLOG (TECH PRO BLOGGER TEMPLATE)

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How to Upload a Blogger Template Step 2: Unzip Your Template

To upload a custom template, you'll first need a template. There are countless sites with both free and premium Blogger themes.

Make sure the theme you download is for Blogger/Blogspot only. It's also a good idea to check to make sure the template has either been created or updated within the last year or two. Although much older themes will often still work, they may miss features or require more fiddling to function properly. 

Frequently themes are packaged as .zip files, so you'll need to unzip the file after you download it to your desktop. The only file you need is the theme's .xml file. Usually, it will be called something straightforward like "name-of-template.xml" or something similar. e "name-of-template.xml" or something similar. 

In this example, the template is called "Colored" and comes as a .zip file. The only file you need to worry about in this collection is the colored.xml file. 

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How to Upload a Blogger Template Step 3 Go to Backup/Remove

Now that you've found and unzipped your template, you're ready to start uploading. 

1. Log into Blogger. 
2. Select your blog. 
3. Select Templates (shown). 
4. Now select the Backup/Restore button. 

Yes, we know. That's the last place you'd search when you were looking for an "upload the template" button, but there it is. Maybe in future updates, they'll get around to fixing this user interface issue. For now, it is our secret handshake into template uploading. 

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How to Upload a Blogger Template Step 4: Upload

Now that we're in the Backup/Restore area, you should consider the "Download full template" option. Did you do anything to your previous template? Did you modify it in any way? Do you want to use it as a starting point for your own template hacking action? If you answered "yes" to any of that, go ahead and download the full template.

If you've pretty much got an out of the box default template that you never want to see again, ignore it. You don't actually need to download it at all. 

Now we get to the upload button. Go ahead and select it to browse for your file. Remember, we're just uploading the .xml file we unzipped in Step 2. 

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How to Upload a Blogger Template Step 5: Finishing touches.

If all went well, you should be the proud owner of a blog with a new template.

You're not done. Don't walk away. You'll want to preview your template and make sure it is displaying as you expect it to display.

Most templates also leave you with a lot of items that need to be cleaned up. They come with dummy fields pre-populated with menus and text you didn't create or don't want. 

Go to the layout area and adjust all your widgets. Depending on the age and the template design, you may not be able to do any customization through Blogger's Template Designer area. I've found very few custom themes that support Template Designer. 

Be sure to check the terms of the license you used to download your template. In many cases, you cannot remove the template author credits and stay in compliance when you get the template for free. It may be worth the $15 or so to purchase a premium theme with better support and custom features. 

The good news is that if the first theme doesn't work out - you now know how to upload new themes. Keep trying and keep exploring.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE USED ON THIS BLOG (TECH PRO BLOGGER TEMPLATE)

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