How do I make my blog like other book review blogs?

[Haley Gottardo]

I don't mean the background/layout. I only mean the posts.

How do I customize my posts so they have a layout?

How do I add "You may also like" followed by other posts (at the end of the post)

How do I box text and have it a different color from the background?

What is the "In My Mailbox" meme?

How do I make submission form for contest/giveaways?

How do I pick winners randomly when their entry was a comment and another entry for a tweet?

HTML advice anyone? Can you give me a code for something because I don't feel smart enough to figure it out myself. I'm an artist, not a computer programmar.

I also don't have money to pay for premium stuff, and I'm not supposed to use my credit car to buy anything online.

 

 

Example of blogs that have formats:

 http://ficbookreviews.blogspot.com/

http://www.goodchoicereading.com/

http://thebookbutterfly.com/

~Haley G

http://breathlessbookreviews.blogspot.com/

[Cindy Bailey]

If you have a google account, you can make your own documents by choosing the" DOCS" on your home page, it's a great way to do contest forms...are you on blogger?

 

[Tricia]

Check out the Blogging Tips group on this network!

[Carrie Roberts]

You can always go and look for some free blogger templates.  There are many decent ones out there than where you can probably get most of your design wants.  If you learn just a little basic html, it will help you a lot.

Here is some code from the goodchoicereading.com site:

.post-body blockquote { 
line-height:1.3em; 
background-color: #CCCCCC; 
border: 1px solid #000000; 
padding: 17px;

This is for your quotes to be in color, the #CCCCCC is your color code, which you'd have to change to whatever color you want.
Also, you have to figure out where to put it in your code.  On this site, it was between .post-body and .post-footer.

You can go to Random.org and have them randomly pick your winners.

[Laura]

To add,"You Might Also Like" go here - http://www.linkwithin.com/learn?ref=widget

"In My Mailbox" is a meme in which you showcase all of the books you recieved for that week (or whatever period of time you choose). If you got ARCs, library books, bought any, etc. you would do that in an "In My Mailbox" post.I believe The Story Siren started that...but i could be wrong...i know she definitely participates.

You can use Google Docs or Rafflecopter for giveaways - they may or may not randomly choose.

You can do a lot for free. Check out cutestblogontheblock for some really nice layouts and designs. HTML is pretty easy to pick up - and quick google searches can help as well. I use these sites: http://html-color-codes.info/ http://www.quackit.com/html/codes/html_marquee_code.cfm http://www.web-source.net/html_codes_chart.htm http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_examples.asp

 

Hope this helps!!!

Laura @ My Enchanted Bookshelf

[Jess]

I learned everything about HTML a few years ago from http://www.lissaexplains.com/ , The site was orginally made for kids so it is easy to follow and understand.

 

I belive most bloggers use Google Docs to make the forms. Google Docs > Create New > Form

 

I've never tried making a form so let me know how it goes !