Blogskins: ‘fashion’ for blogs?

Have you ever heard of a blogskin?

For those who are new to the term, a blogskin is basically like a new ‘skin’ for your blog, which is composed of HTML codes which you can paste into your blog template to complete the ‘makeover’. If you have downloaded a blogskin from somewhere else, you can also edit it using Microsoft Word or Notepad to personalize it (e.g. adding your own personal profile).

If you are a technology-savvy person, then making your own blogskins (either from scratch, or by ‘borrowing’ someone else’s codes and then editing it to put in a different background or features) should be easy. However, if you aren’t, don’t fret--blogskin-making tutorials are available all over the Internet. Just Google the words ‘how to make a blogskin’, or ‘blogskin tutorial’. A recommended site is http://www.sixseven.org/.

On the other hand, you can also download them from www.blogskins.com, where people post the blogskins they made onto a site for others to download, rate, and comment on. This site is made just for blogskins, and their homepage features Top Skins (blogskins with the highest download counts), Recently Submitted Skins and Skin of the Day (something of a great honour for members: the admin behind this site will select what they feel is the best blogskin submitted that day).

While installing blogskins might be a little hard for first-timers, or inconvenient if you just want a simple template, it’s a very good way of ‘dressing up’ your blog. ‘Accessories’ for a blogskin includes music (available on www.imeem.com), tagboards (little ‘boards’ where visitors can leave a message, with their name and URL- available on www.cbox.ws) and links to other websites.

Artistic or technology-savvy people (who don’t mind going through a rather tedious process to get used to the HTML) will love the concept of a blogskin and making or browsing for one to install.

All in all, I think that blogskins are definitely fun and interesting, and you should definitely check them out!

Image used is a screenshot from www.blogskins.com