How to Build a Website on Blogspot.com

Image by via CrunchBaseI am currently getting a new Blogspot Blog in place on Die Cast Collectables.
It is focused on Thomas the tank Engine and Friends to start with, later on I will expand the Matchbox Models of Yesteryear series on it as well.

But I wanted the Blog to look like a regular website instead of a standard Blogspot blogger blog...
So I was setting up this site, and thought that you might want to know how to do this yourself as well.

So here it goes:

• First get your blogger based blogspot site via your Google account.
• Choose a name that you fit the topic you want to build your website on.
• Get a good template for Blogger (I used the professional template from OurBlogTemplates.com )
• Upload and active the templates via "Layout -> Edit Html -> Upload a template"
• Now got to the "Page Elements" and choose edit in the Blogpost field.
• Disable the fields: Date:, Posted by: and At:, this way there is no longer any date related field in your blogpost page, other then the URL where it incorporates /year/month/.
• Now make sure you other Page elements fit to complete a website look, that means taling down the elements: Archive, Feed subscription links, Blogger Logo and Profile.
• Use the rss.xml link to set up a new page element via a Feed widget, and take the /rss.xml link after your blogspot url to fill it. Don't call it recent posts, but something like "Latest Articles".
• Use the Labels widget to create some kind of menu that is automaticly updated and set the title of the widget to "Main Menu".
  Please make sure that you use a little labels as possible! That way your Menu stays short and Google and other Search Engines will have a better understanding of what your site is about.
• Last but not least, start writing! have fun!