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Blogging Central 101, Part 5: Learn the Code!

Your blog can (and should!) reflect your personal style, and interests. Since there are many people using a particular template, whether it is one provided by Blogger or from an external source, you will want your blog to truly be uniquely yours. One way to accomplish this goal is to learn to create the coding in your template. There is a vast amount of free information online that will help you learn different types of coding. They range from very basic to advanced, so you will always find something to suit your particular needs. Here are just a few:

Learn some basic HTML: One HTML site geared to beginners is Lissa Explains It All, a site written with children in mind. It is very easy to follow, and does include advanced HTML as well. This site has been online since its author was 11 years old, and she is now in college. Other resources:
See this Blogger Help resource, the Barebones Guide to HTML or w3Cschools HTML Tutorial or HTML Goodies for help with learning basic html coding skills. This skill-set will be necessary when you need to edit your Blogger template. There are also many resources for learning CSS and even Javascript online when you are ready for those; you can find them by doing a search using Google or your favorite search engine.

As your skills develop and improve, you can add CSS: W3Schools CSS Tutorial
The Complete CSS Tutorial

and Javascript:
Javascript Tutorial
Page Tutor
Javascript Tutorial for Novices

Later, you can even use javascripts such as the ones from Dynamic Drive,
Hotscripts or many other such sites on the web.

Contacts in your blog: An Important Note About Spambots and How to Avoid Them:
One important reason for learning to code HTML has already been noted in this tutorial: It allows you to add links of all sorts to your blog, so that both you and your readers have access to the sites you link to. One such link you are likely to want to add is an e mail link, to allow readers to contact you if they have questions. You may want to set up an e- mail account specifically for your readers to use to contact you; this will help keep your regular-use e mail in-box from overflowing. One note of caution: You will likely want to take steps to encrypt the e-mail address that you place on your blog, to prevent it from being harvested by spam-bots. You can do this by using the E-mail Riddlertool from Dynamic Drive. If you would like to create a button for G Mail or one of several other e-mail services, please refer to my tutorial for making a G Mail Button in this blog for detailed instructions and needed resources.

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posted by Angelsong @ 10:31 AM