Wizard: Back where I come from we have superbloggers, journals of great popularity--where others go to become enlightened. And when they read them, they know much--and with no more content than your blog has...But! Theirs have one thing yours hasn't got! A favicon!
Here at Mofi, our chief chimps reads lots and lots of blogs and they can tell the blogspotters from the sailbloggers from the wordpressers long before they read the first word of your sweat-stained prose. How? That little icon on the page tab tells all.
The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way! Your blog's favicon can be as unique as are you.
Here's what you need:
- A basic drawing program (depending on what you want, Word might even do the trick).
- A bit of imagination, or
- A spouse, relative, friend or casual acquaintance with a bit of imagination
We'll discuss how to add a favicon on a Blogger blog. Wordpress users, see below. Sailbloggers...um...okay, well you may be stuck with that fetching blue and yellow vertical stripe graphic. As for the rest of you, specifically those who have access to the source code of your blog, this article will explain all.
Blogger bloggers:
Step 1. Draw something. There is only one requirement for a favicon; the space it occupies has to be square. Note: this does not mean the actual graphic has to be square, just that the field it occupies, the background has to be square. While .ico or favicon files are 16 x 16 pixels, you don't have to draw it at that size. Blogger will scale it down for you. 32 x 32 or 48 x 48 suffices as a happy medium between being large enough to see and small enough that you won't lose image fidelity when it is reduced to it's finished size. Once you are satisfied that your graphic embodies the ultimate expression of your adventure, perhaps even the very essence of your being, save it as either a .gif, .jpg, or .png.
Step 2. Go to the Layout Page of your blog.
Step 3. Locate the Favicon gadget in the top left corner. Click on "edit" to open it.
Step 4. Follow the instructions. If your graphic exceeds 100kb (which is highly doubtful), blogger will reject it with an explanation. Simply size it down and retry. Don't panic if it doesn't show up immediately, this sometimes takes a few hours or even a day or two. It should show up in the gadget box right away, however.
It takes a few more steps to accomplish this in Wordpress, but this video makes it look pretty straightforward.
And that's about the size of it, as it were. No more advertising your blog provider; now it's all about you.