ADD CUSTOM ICON TO YOUR URL

Adding an icon to your url address distinguishes your blog/site from the many others out there on the web. If you look above, at my site, you should see stars next to my url. This icon appears when my site is accessed and also in the favorites folder of any readers. This article will provide you with the information and steps needed to add you own icon. This information will work for blogger and I cannot guarantee it will work for other platforms.

CREATING YOUR ICON: The first thing to do, of course, is find an icon that suits your site or create your own. It is important not to choose an image with too much detail because it will become a blur. The less detail the better. Simple shapes or a couple letters work best for this. If you have your own graphics program you can create your own. After designing your icon just export the image as a .ico file no larger than 20px by 20px. If you do not have a program that will do this, another option would be to go to flavicon . There you can either download one of their stock icons, or flavicon will also convert a graphic to a .ico file for you. The last option I have for you is to read my SPECIAL OFFER at the end of this post.

UPLOADING YOUR ICON: After you have your image, it's in the .ico format, no larger than 20x20px, you now have to upload the image to the web. The image needs a web address in order for it to work in blogger. I use Google Aps. In Aps, when you go to "edit web pages" there is a scroll box on the right. This has a list of any images or documents you have uploaded. If you use Aps, just click browse in this box and find your .ico image on your computer. Once the file appears in the box just click on it and you will find the image url in the address bar. If you do not have a image hosting service, sites like flickr hosts images. I'm sure a Google search will provide you with several file/image hosting services. Your image must be uploaded to the web and have a url address in order to move on to the next step.

ADDING YOUR ICON TO YOUR BLOG: If you've been able to conquer the above tasks, this step is smooth sailing. First just add your image url to to code below. Just substitute your image URL for the "add icon url". Be sure to leave the single quotation marks. . Then you will have to add the < > symbols at the beginning and end of each of the two lines. Blogger won't let me past the entire code for some darn reason. Spent an hour and still couldn't do it.

link href='ADD ICON URL' rel='shortcut icon'/

link href='ADD ICON URL' rel='icon'/

Once you have incorporated your image url into the code above, log into blogger, go to layout then edit html. The HEAD tag with <> around it should be right at the beginning, so you should not have to scroll down. Just past your code directly below it and save template. You're done.

You will need to restart your browser and it may take a few minutes for server to make the change, so don't panic if your icon is not there right away. Wait a while, then if it does not appear, go back and make sure your code and image url are accurate.

Now, about the SPECIAL OFFER I mentioned earlier. I am a Graphic Artist and use CorelDraw 12 for my design purposes. For the first 15 people to comment on this post, I will design a flavicon for you in the proper format and specifications, then email it to you for upload, absolutely free, no strings. Just leave a comment. The only condition is that you either provide me with a piece of clipart to go by or specific details of what you want the icon to look like. Remember, simple is more in this case. Be sure to leave an email address and allow me 24 hours to get the image to you. I hope many of you will take advantage of this offer. Most sites charge for custom icons.