How to Make a Header for Your Blog

Here’s a post request that came through Twitter. Maria asked how to create a header for her blog. Creating a header is a tough thing. It’s not really something that can be taught or shown in a blog post. I will try and help by offering some tips on headers and explaining how to install a new header on your blog though.

Tips on creating a website or blog header:
• keep it clean
• minimal pictures
• make sure it fits
• don’t make it too tall
• make it look professional
• don’t make it look cheap

You want your header to be a good first impression of your blog or website, so make it good. If you’re not creative, or are not good with graphic design, hire someone to do it. There are designers throughout blogland who do a great job for $20-$50. Even better, you can check out Fiverr to find hundreds of people who will create you a header for $5! You can see their work and any feedback they have before ordering. Do your research there, find a good one and you’ll land a great header for $5!

If you do your own, here’s an easy way to do it:
1. Take a screenshot of your blog’s header and crop it out so you can see how many pixels it is.
2. Create a blank jpeg file of your exact header dimensions. You can make the new header taller, and Blogger will auto-adjust, however it will cut off the sides if you make it too wide.
WordPress users, you’ll find your exact header dimensions in the “header” tab under “appearance” in your dashboard. Use those exact dimensions.
3. Go to PicMonkey and open the blank file that you created.
4. From there, you’re on your own as far as creating the header. Use the tips above, familiarize yourself with the tools that PicMonkey has to offer and play around with it until you come up with something you like.
5. Once you have a header created, it’s time to upload it.
WordPress users, simply upload it under the “header” section and you’re good to go.
6. In Blogger, head to the layout section of your dashboard and click edit in the header scetion. (see below)
7. If you have an existing header image, click “remove image” and you’ll see an option to upload your new header.
8. Find the file on your computer and upload it.
9. For “placement” choose “Instead of title and description” if all you want to show in your header is your image (this is usually the case).
10. Check your blog!

That should be it! The tough part about this whole process is coming up with a header that you are happy with.

Get creative! Find out what works for you. You could very well upload a picture of yours to PicMonkey and put your blog’s name over top of the picture. That is what my wife did on her blog (see it here) and it works very well. Or put a picture on one half of the header. Or make if a couple of pictures. Play around with it and see what you come up with. Just make sure to try and keep the tips at the top of this post in mind.