[ Read all the posts in the Blogging 101 for Pastors series here. ]

One of the questions I was asked about recently as part of the Blogging 101 for Pastors series is "How can I make my graphical header look better?"

You're not always stuck, of course, with the headers that are provided to you by your blogging platform's templates (i.e. Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, etc.).

But if you have some photo editor, like Adobe Photoshop or Paint, you can create a cool header for your blog pretty quickly.

I'm not going to get into all the details of how to replace the image, because I spent way too much time preparing these graphical examples (which you can download here).

Here are some general guidelines for blogging pastors graphical headers:

• On finding photo backgrounds -- I went to stock.xchng for the leaf photos below. That's a great site for photos, but be sure and use only ones that don't have restrictions ... you'll need an account, but most of the photos on that site are free! Also, try iStockPhoto (paid service, but awesome photos!).

• On fonts -- I used common fonts found on most computers and those popular with Web 2.0 logos, such as VAG Rounded, Helvetica, Arial Black.

• On colors -- See these color generators for some neat color schemes.

• On sizing the graphics -- Generally over 700 pixels at 72 dpi

Here's some examples of headers I did for fictional blogger Pastor Pete:


Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due: I used this incredble, awesome, fantastic site for three of these graphics. Download the Photoshop files and have fun!

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