Blog Tipz

I’d like to take the time to highlight some great new magazine and multiple column templates now available for Blogger. The system is growing at a rapid pace, and by many standards is becoming just as advanced, without the hassles, of WordPress. Now, there isn’t nearly the level of flexibility and customization, especially for getting your theme and back-end working the way you want with Blogger, but it offers a fairly complete set of features and some of the most used widgets built in.

The themes below are all compatible with Blogger Beta, but they do require more initial work to setup than many other, simpler themes. However, don’t let that deter you from trying them out. Just be sure to create a backup of your current template and any customizations that may be lost, including widgets.

By definition, we have applied the magazine term to templates that have a two or more column, excerpt view or themes that features more advanced features. Ultimately, we wanted to create a small, but good collection of advanced themes.

Versatility Lite [Demo | Release Page] – A clean, unique template for Blogger that is fairly easy to setup.

WP-Premium Blogger Template [Demo | Release Page] – A red/brown/white theme converted to Blogger from WordPress. It features advertisement options, tabbed are for content, and more.

Revolution Church Template [Demo | Release Page] – Another advance magazine template with advertisement areas and plenty of areas for placing content.

Revolution Lifestyle Template [Demo | Release Page] – A free/premium theme that has been converted from a premium theme.

Revolution Code Blue [Demo | Release Page] – The complete set of “Revolution” templates, in gray, red, and blue varieties.

Firebug Template [Demo | Release Page] – A dark three/four column template with a built-in search box, RSS posts feed and RSS comments feed.

Charcoal Template [Demo | Release Page] – A dark/brown three three column template.

Funky Zine [Demo | Release Page] – With a unique, three column, widget-ready template, this theme will set your blog apart from the rest.

Magazine Template 3 [Demo | Release Page] – An advanced theme with plenty of unique features to empower your blogging.

Blue Steel [Demo | Release Page] – Featuring a unique layout for lots of content, there is a recent posts area, themed icons for sidebar widgets, post features and options, custom favicon, and more.

Statement [Demo | Release Page] – A clean two/three column template with a white and black color scheme.

Maggo Magazine Template [Demo | Release Page] – An excellent magazine template that consists of advertisement options, styled comment boxes, a built-in search box, and more.

White Space Template [Demo | Release Page] – A clean, gadgets-ready template for the Blogger system, with three columns, an integrated search box, and customized comment styling.

Imprezz [Demo | Release Page] – A vibrant, unique theme with good navigation menus, RSS subscription buttons, and more.

D’Bluez Template [Demo | Release Page] – A clean, blue and white template with a three column layout.

Arthemia Magazine Template [Demo | Release Page] – A converted magazine template with several unique features and areas for placing advertisements.

Vibrant Template [Demo | Release Page] – A WordPress theme converted to Blogger, with three columns, AJAX tabs, a stylish navigation menu, and with valid XHTML and CSS code.

Forte Template [Demo | Release Page] – A rather clean theme with three columns with a tabbed area.

Visionary Reloaded [Demo | Release Page] – A clean magazine theme originally designed by Justin Tadlock, re-coded for Blogger.

WP-Polaroid Blogger Template [Demo | Release Page] – A theme with Flickr photo slideshow integration, MyBlogLog recent blog readers widget, advertisement spots, recent posts list, and more.

Turn Out Mag [Demo | Release Page] – A template that has been converted from a WordPress theme.It features thumbnails automatic thumbnails on the front page, two main columns, banner advertisements and AdSense areas, an integrated search box, search engine optimized code, and a featured video area.

Ads Theme [Demo | Release Page] – An extremely popular template that resembles more advanced themes, with a three column layout and plenty of advertisement options, hence the name. It also has an integrated FeedBurner RSS and subscribe via email sidebar module, built-in MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog recent reader widgets, dynamic tabs, and a properly setup layout editor.

Zinmag Remedy [Demo | Release Page] – A two/three column template with advertisement options, extremely unique features, and a feature-rich set of options. There are quite a few steps required to get it working properly, however.

Bizmax [Demo | Release Page] – A three column, advertisements-ready theme with advanced features and a pleasing layout. Plus, the theme appears easier to work with than other themes (as not much documentation is required/has been posted).

Reflection [Demo | Release Page] – A three column, blue, white, and black template designed for showcasing your artwork, portfolio, or more. There are several features that you will have to configure when you install the template, but it fairly straightforward.

Schemar Magazine [Demo | Release Page] – A three column, search engine optimized theme with thumbnails on the main page, a featured video area, and plenty of additional features.

Business Ads Ready Template [Demo | Release Page] – A template suitable for businesses and it’s easy to setup.

Magazeen [Demo | Release Page] – Originally designed by Smashing Magazine, this is a unique theme with a unique thumbnail-based layout, and footer area.

Grid Focus [Demo | Release Page] – A clean, simple theme based on a popular WordPress theme. The template might not be magazine-styled per se, but it is ideal for placing lots of content.

Daily Inspired Template – Release Page – A clean, advanced theme that was released based on the Woork/Daily Inspired template. Not in use/no demo available.

Conclusion

We really only scratched the surface when it comes to the number of quality Blogger templates available. Magazine themes continue to rise in popularity as they provide a somewhat good layout when you really have to place everything on the main page. However, the layout might not always be best in terms of interface for your users to browse your blog – it is quite overwhelming if you don’t have an underlying structure using a magazine template.

If you have any further suggestions, if you’ve used any of the templates before, or would like to share your thoughts, please feel free to post your comments below.