I started out as a blogger on blogspot.com with one of the simple, prepackaged theme options that blogger provides when you create an account. Over the years I’ve spent a great deal of time hacking the HTML code on blogger to make each blogspot blog unique. Since I have no formal training it took me quite a while to mold my blogs into final form. Eventually I abandoned blogspot for wordpress and a whole new world of design freedom, but I realize that paying for web hosting and tinkering with wordpress is not for everyone. Blogspot is still hugely popular thanks  to its ease of use and free hosting. So, it is no surprise that blogger templates are finally getting some attention from the open source programming community. Now, there are hundreds of great theme templates available for blogspot! You no longer have to stick to one of the half-dozen blogger templates, now you can make your blog design better reflect your blog content and personality.

There are several websites online that offer blogger templates or provide lists of the best templates and I think the best are: B Templates, Pyzam, Blogger Buster, and Mashable. Once you find your “perfect” template all you have to do is upload the template file under Layout->Edit HTML. Be sure the backup the previous version of your blogger template first in the event that you are not happy with the results. Personally, I’ve found sometimes there are bits of code missing from free templates which means you have to give up on the template or  hunt down and implement the extra bits of code (often as a “gadget” in the page elements section). I recently tried my hand at using a downloaded template over at oucch.blogspot.com and I was quite happy with the results.

Images from Yummy Lolly and Chic Sassy Designs