Since my Do's and Do Not Do's of Blogging were so popular, I'll continue the series, and share more bloggy wisdom. Remember, these aren't laws, just advice.

Today let's focus on your template. There are millions of blogs, but only about six templates. And four of them are ugly. Personalize yours! While a fancy template won't make your content any better, it will help set you apart from other bloggers. There are easy ways to tweak it that don't require much html or CSS skills.
The first is color. Go into your template, and you will find a bunch of instructions for the colors of your text and background like this: color: #xxxxxx. The six digit code is called the hexadecimal value, and can be changed to anything you like. Here is a hex chart. Experiment, but try not to damage your eyes! Dark text on a light background is best. Make it easy on your readers- if it hurts, we won't read it.
You can also add a banner like Gotthammer's, or a picture, like my bears (made for me by Sarah How). So make something, or commission if you lack artistic talent. Don't steal. That's rude and illegal, even if no one will throw you in jail. Next, upload to an image hosting site. Although I like Flickr, their terms of use don't allow their bandwidth used for webpage elements. But Photobucket allows it.
Alright, now grab its URL (right click and choose "Copy image location") and insert it into this html tag: (img src="URL of image here") where the "( )" are replaced with "< >". Usually. In CSS you use round brackets . . . and getting it to appear where you want is tricky, too. Uh, rather than try to explain it, since every case is different, I recommend this CSS tutorial, or this one. Troubles? If you're nice I'll help you.
Or you can browse the free templates offered at BlogSkins, but this doesn't really personalize your template, just makes it slightly less common than the blogger stock.
Alright, that's all for today! Have fun!