Blogger Templates: 4.5 Million Blogspot Users are Lazy

Millions of Bloggers on Blogspot.com are either too lazy or don't understand the basic HTML tags.

When you create a new blog on Blogger.com, Google provides a default blogspot template that has three links in the side bar - one link points to Google News while the other two links (Edit-Me) are just placeholders for the blogger to insert his own hyperlinks (see screenshot)

But bloggers are too busy creating content and don't bother changing these "under construction" areas. There are 4.5 million pages hosted on blogspot.com that still have the Google News and Edit Me links [site:blogspot.com "Google News" "Edit-Me"]

<h2 class="sidebar-title">Links</h2>
<ul>
   <li><a href="http://news.google.com/">Google News</a></li>
   <li><a href="http://EDITME">Edit-Me</a></li>
   <li><a href="http://EDITME">Edit-Me</a></li>
</ul>

If your blog also falls in this category, my suggestion would be that you first read the W3 Schools tutorial on HTML and CSS. Once you have a certain comfort level with your blogger template code, throw the default blogspot template in the recycle bin and switch to a more professional design.

Fortunately, there are lot of good folks who have developed some beautiful blogger templates and they are providing them for free. Just download the blogspot template, paste it over your default blogger template and click the republish button. [more details]

Here are some links and resource for free Blogspot Template Designs:

» Free Blogspot Templates - Isnaini, an Indonesia based blogger template designer, has a good collection of 3 column template designs.

» Blogger Templates by Aman - A Singapore based student has some creative blogspot template designs based on popular themese like Desperate Housewives, Tour De France, Harry Potter and Yoga.

» Blogger Templates - Excellent collection of two column blogspot templates. Recommended.

» Blogspot Templates - Contains both text only and graphical version of Blog templates. There are also instructions on how to use Blogger templates.

» Blogger Templates @ Gecko & Fly This site has collected popular blogspot template designs from other designers and put them in one central location.

» Blog Skins - A huge repository of user contributed template designs and blog skins for blogger, Movable Type, Xanga and Wordpress Blogs. Users can rate and comment on template designs.

Want to design your own blogspot template ? Jennifer Apple has some tips on creating your own blog template from scratch using Photoshop.

Related: Guide to Remove the Blogger Navbar

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Reader Comments:

Actually, this news gladdens my heart. Why's that? People are so busy creating content that they've forgotten about appearance. Wow. You mean that we're getting to the point where what we say is more important than its appearance? You mean that the content of the character matters more than the color of the web page? Do you see where I'm going with this? That is in a single word, awesome.

Thank you for the nice compilation of blogger templates sites. I bookmarked most of them. I am also wondering how to add a description meta tag to my blog entries. I noticed that you have this on your blog. Did you write an entry to explain how to do this? If so, can you please post the link to this blog entry?

Keep up the good work, I read your blog on a regular basis.

russet shadows - that's exactly what i was thinking as i read the article. who cares that the things look the same? it is the content that is the most important thing. otherwise why would anyone bother reading or returning?

Thanks Amit for blogging about it. I think most users do not change the template because they are not familiar with html. I had changed my template few weeks ago, but thanks to you I got an excllent template at Blogger Templates, which I am using now.

Hi Amit, they might be lazy or could just be having problems finding the right template! Considering there are so many Blogger users I am amazed at how few good sites there are to help easily view and download templates; especially given that to change a Blogger template is so EASY!

Your list covers most of the best template sites I think; here is another one:
http://blogger-templates-directory.blogspot.com

Warmest
quicklode

Thanks for your post.
I have a new blog and need to change the templates...

Well, googling for that will show tons of blog skin sites...
and I'm too lazy to pick the best site of them :)

Hello,
first of all thanks for this type of good post on your blog because after reading i changed my blogs template.. and you are doing good....

Thanks,
http://www.zoomlab.blogspot.com/

Hey nice post .I was searchin for some new tempelates..Thanx

With the new Blogger, unfortunately all the old templates are now obsolete. And there just aren't enough new designs, which has led to people ending up with really horrible looking blogs.

The worst thing is that with the new Blogger, designing a template for public consumption is now a lot harder.

hi
i am a very simple blogger with very limited haves as just a PC. i have my own FLV files which i want to play on my blog without hosting them on you tube or such sites. but i cant even host them on my hard disk as i cant have my PC ON all the time to host it. so can i upload them on my blog and let blog spot host them and still use these standalone players to play it for my visitors. i am also not much versed with HTML but ready to learn it. please help me and my site. kindly do the needful and just drop a reply......

I did visit all of the above listed sites.They are providing templates with basic HTML & which support the old blogger.New blogger supports only XML templates.But they aren't providing any three column templates.SO I am looking forward to a great 3 column XML tempalte.I tried to make of my own at
my blog.But I personally fell its too simple

I have already made some changes(like adding new page elements and widgets)-- do you any better way to change template with existing widgets since i dont want to loss the widgets and i have made too many changes to replicate manually one-by-one.

appreciate your insight.
thanks/Yuva

Thanks Amit for these valuable blogger links.In past I had decided no of times to change or edit my blogger template but I always dared to do that , now I have bookmarked this link .

Amit, I am sure many of them don't know that default Blogger entries can be edited. And most them don't know HTML. Your tips will be a big help to them.

Hello, You have a good list of links to Blogger templates but i feel yours is nice template to especially when somebody has a larger blog has to display important post on the main page so that person visiting can have a good look on some of the best post.

I confess to being ignorant about how to create a new template, but I'll try to learn with those links. Thanks.

it has been a decent collection of templates.I have downloaded some of it and using it in my site.
Thanks guys :)

I absolutely HATE my current blogspot template but having the courage to make changes is sadly lacking, hopefully the html lesson listings will give me the courage to finally get a 3 page template.
Thank you so much.

must agree with the above statement about bloggers being lazy.And so much hype these days about making tons of money by just blogging, no wonder people are rushing to do it.Without any proper understanding they just jump in so they can start making money.Nothing comes easy in life.

I agree with the statement above this one. Everyones rushing towards blogging. Theirs so much information regurgitation and a clut movement on making money, how to make money blogs blogging for money. Regarding blogger templates I think they aren't any that are good yet. unlike wordpress ones. Blogger doesn't seem to have good templates this is merely my personal opinion, so far, they don't seem to have that professional feel and touch to them. For example all the above links to blogger templates with the exception of gecko and fly.

Quite frankly, I kept trying to chang e my template designs with limited success due to Blogger's inefficient W3C implimentions of their blog layouts. Thank you for the linking recommendations for Blogger layouts.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm gonna get a new template from one of those sites.

thanks amit agarwal for this link.

did u have any templates for blogger that made for adsense?

and it has optimization of seo too..

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Blogger Templates: 4.5 Million Blogspot Users are Lazy

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