WordPress receives a lot of love from the blogging community, but Blogger.com is still a perfectly viable blogging platform for the majority of people.
In an effort to help those devoted Blogger users, we’ve gathered up the best of our lists about tools, themes and shortcuts for your preferred platform. Take a look through and you are sure to find something that will help you, even if you didn’t know you were looking for it!
Tell us what you think of these and any we might have missed, and let us know about your Blogger blog in the comments.

Free Template Resources

5ColumnTemplate.Blogspot.com – This site only offers one template with five variations, but it isn’t every day you see a five column theme for any blogging platform, and it is actually pretty clean in presentation.
AllBlogTools.com – A collection of over 100 templates from an assortment of a lot of smaller designers. You can look them up by layout, color, subject matter and so on.
Blogger-Templates.Blogspot.com – Keeps a small selection of top-notch Blogger themes up and running.
Blogger-Templates.Deceblog.net – A small selection of unique themes for Blogger accounts.
Blogger-Templates-Directory.Blogspot.com – A large directory of Blogger templates, links to resources for further development and a whole lot more.
BloggerTemplates.org – Doesn’t seem to have been updated since it originally launched, but all of the templates still work, and have a lot of resemblance to WordPress themes.
BlogspotTemplates.Blogspot.com – Several pages of Blogger templates with tips on how to use them.
BlogspotTemplate.com – Right around 100 templates for Blogger of varying styles and colors.
BlogTemplates.Noipo.org – A small selection of graphical and text based templates for your blog.
BTemplates.com – Features a wide assortment of over 600 free Blogger templates that can be browsed by category, tag, number of downloads and so on.
Carl Galloway’s Blogger Templates – A small selection of some fairly unique templates that haven’t been updated in some time, but are still fully functional.
FinalSense.com – Offers over 300 templates for your Blogger account. Have just about every theme and color combination that you can think of.
FreeBlogger-Templates.Blogspot.com – Focuses heavily on simplified Blogger templates that make for the easiest reading possible.
FreeTemplates.Blogspot.coms – A blog dedicated to bringing you nothing but free Blogger templates. Nicely categorized, and easy to browse.
FreshBloggerTemplates.Blogspot.com – It has been a while since this site released any new templates, but their designs are very clean and still in working order.
Gecko & Fly Blogger Templates – Offers many Blogger templates, most of which are in a more “classic” style, as well as tutorials on how to tweak your blog even further.
GoSuBlogger.com – A large selection of free templates that mix original work with converted WordPress themes.
Isnaini.com – A large and varied collection of templates for use on Blogger, along with a detailed tutorial on how to properly insert them into your account.
JackBook.com – Besides offering a large selection of free templates, with a heavy saturation of video game inspired themes, JackBook also offers tips and pointers on better SEO for your blog.
OurBlogTemplates.com – An odd mix of nearly 200 free templates for you to use and with a dash of reviews of DSLR cameras.
PannaSmontana Templates – Numerous free templates for Blogger, but the site is entirely in Italian. Thankfully it is well designed and you can find your way around.
Public-Template.Blogspot.com – Features a mixture of free templates for you to download, tutorials on how to make your own, and admiration for templates they enjoy.
Simple-Blogskins.Blogspot.com – Offers a handful of free skins for your Blogger account.
Template-Godown.com – A site specializing in converting WordPress themes to the Blogger friendly XML format.
WP-Themes.us – Yes, the name points to them being all about WordPress themes, but they also provide a nice selection of free templates for Blogger.
Yanku-Template.Blogspot.com – Offers some very slick looking, free, Blogger templates of the 2 and 3-column varieties.

Premium Template Resources

ChicSassyDesigns.Blogspot.com – Offers up pre-built templates you can buy, will design unique themes and offers background images for sale that you can build your own template around.
PaperbackDesigns.Blogspot.com – Offers free themes and sidebar badges in addition to doing custom designed templates for a fee.
SuckMyLolly.com – A mixture of free and premium themes for your Blogger account. Very colorful in design and lacking the traditional Blogger look.

Tips & Tricks for Template Design

Firdamatic Template Generator – Allows you to generate 2 or 3-column templates by just filling in the blanks with your answers.
PhotoshopSupport.com – Tips for designing your own Blogger template, using Photoshop.

Fresh and Modern Blogger Templates

Aspire – A rustic look and calendar in the sidebar make this blog template perfect for history bloggers and traditional food bloggers.
Cat – Glossy, shiny; great for a web 2.0 centric blog.
Decorativo – Easy on the eyes, great for a literature-themed blog.
Erudite – I love the templates at this site. This particular one is very clean and can be easily customized.
Feminina 1 – Pink background and one for the girls. In fact, you will see a lot more pink in the Feminina series.
Flower Pink Border – If you’re up for something different, try this combination of black and pink.
Gemstone – Very nice use of the header area and a good color combination.
Genesis – A three-column dark color theme with nice header tabs and sidebar header buttons.
Glass – Another personal favorite of mine, creates that “wow” effect right from the start.
GossipCity – A three column template that will give your blog that metro look with stars and shines.
History channel – A template based on the History Channel.
Jeans – A template that looks like your faded jeans. Quite nice if you are a cowboy. Or like cowboys.
Leia – A popular template in three column. There are header tabs, and a big blog description space on the right-hand side.
Looter xp – A simple black and white design with some striking effects.
Mosaico – A template design in mosaic style.
Navideno – A eye appealing treat with a fruity flavor.
O2 – This is a popular WordPress template ported to Blogger. It is a three column template with a bigger sidebar on top of two mini bars on the right hand side.
Rainbow Garden - Would you like to have your post decorated nicely with the garden flowers? This is the template for you then.
Red Girl – Quite a nice theme with a red background and an unusual style. You can put your picture in the header.
Bloggerized AdSense – AdSense-ready template, not too shabby looking.
iPlantilla – Another Mac-themed template with a very clean look.
Secret – Nice hand drawings. And quite a unique design that is definitely striking.
Simplicity 2.0 – This pink color template looks classy and very feminine.
Styleicious – A nice color combination again with blue and black on this three column template.
Terra Firma – A nice WordPress ported blog with space for Adsense in the header. Orange and green combination makes it looks fresh and bright.
1024px – A simple two column template on plain white background without much color, but with great readability.

Beautiful Blogger Templates

2-column templates

Andreas02 – Lots of tab links above the header. You can showcase the description of each active tab on the header.
Andreas08 – From the same author of the one above. The header is ready to be customized with your own picture.
Agua – A minimalistic, clean template giving a pure white look.
Cajas – A blog title in a header that looks like the Blogger navbar and five menu links with multi-color backgrounds that take the place of the traditional blog header.
Colibri – This reminds you of a garden, doesn’t it?
Dead – This one can be described as heavy metal/rock style – sinister and dark.
Eclipse – Another dark theme that brings werewolves to mind. An enchanting template for the dark souls.
Emire – Beautiful color combination but I wish there was more width for the post and the sidebar.
Hada-negra – A beautiful template – seductive and pleasing to the eyes.
Integral – The most striking visual details on this template are its rounded header and the green and sky-blue color combination.
K2 – A popular WordPress theme cloned for Blogger.
Minyx – A template that looks like an invitation card. Good use of space in the header.
Natural – If you are the artistic kind, this one will be a feast for your eyes.
Neoneon – This is another unique design – rectangular sidebar boxes and spiral main body.
S08 – A blue color body on a darker blue background – you might have thought it wouldn’t work, but here it is.
Vertical – As the name suggests, this is a vertically designed clean template. You might want to throw in some more code and utilize the space below the blog title better.

3-column templates

Andreas4 – Another popular WordPress template by Andreas cloned for Blogger. The template can be used as a bare bone structure for customization.
Autumn Grass – I like the color combination and the vertical menu links in the header. There is also sufficient space there for ads and videos.
Butterfly Magic – Another beautiful color combination, or shall we call it just another butterfly effect :-)
Columnas – This theme’s peculiar design stands out from the rest of the templates in this list. Nice and clean.

Cultivado – Neat, floral, elegant – this one’s perfect for writing on life, philosophy, thoughts, poetry, love and the like.
Dark Ritual – A nice theme which somehow reminds us of the Adams Family.
Erudite – A neat three-column Blogger template with the black color header and the orange color RSS icon gelling well.
Green Marinee – A long time favorite of many bloggers ported to Blogger. Great use of space, and a nice color combination.
Hemingway – A beautiful dark template – one column for the post body and three column on the footer.
Illacrimo – A beautiful clone for Blogger from the WordPress theme Illacrimo, though I feel there should be a way to use more space currently taken by the date-display on the left of the screen.
Informativo – A similar template to the Columnas template above but with the header, for the less-unconventional bloggers who wants to stick with the proven.
Minimalista – Another great port from WordPress to Blogger.
Minyx 2.0 – A great template without pictures; good use of available space.
Pizza – Don’t be dissuaded by the pizza theme if you are thinking of using this for a different subject blog. The template is highly customizable. The unique element in this template is the header which has been divided into two parts. You can display your blog logo or title on the left-side header box while using the other box for whatever you like.
Pro – A different looking search box, menu links above the blog title, and the graduated blue header background in a unique design makes this template unique.
Puerto – Somehow this template makes the post body look grand and majestic.
The Hobbit – If you are a fan of Tolkien, this one is for you.
Neo – A 3 column template that reloads in parts allowing faster reading and surfing.

4-column templates

Neosapian – The contrast between black and red is striking. The second right-hand sidebar can be widened further and the red header can be used subtly for ads or to display more information. You decide whether to change the current header image or not :-)
Qwilm – A simple looking great design that can be customized to a great extent.

Unique Blogger Templates

Digg – Do you have a burning desire to make your blog look like Digg? This theme turns the normal voting buttons into the dates of your entries and is just a bit of fun. The designer is Turkish, and the download is in his native tongue, but easily understandable.
Dream Light – Artistic and in your face, but maintains readability with ease.
Fly Net 02 – A very business-like template that gives you a 4-column header for information as well as a flash intro – if you want it.
iBlock – Versions of this template are available just for the iPhone/iPod Touch or you can keep the feel for a normal browser if you like.
Night Club – Made for actual nightclubs, but easily changed. Great for music enthusiasts, DJs, party promoters and more. It’s rare to see a black theme for any blogging platform that is actually readable, and this one handles it beautifully.
Nyoba – Nyoba gives you three columns as well as two Google AdSense units in prime locations, with an easy to change header image.
Retro Mac OS Theme – Are you ready to kick it old school style with your blog looking like it escaped from a 1980s Apple? This is your template!
The Girl – Available in multiple colors with different headers, it very much has a “WordPress feel” to it. If you prefer the convenience of Blogger, this would be a good theme for you to merge the two.
TotuliPink – Pink templates tend to be loud and hard on the retinas, but this one works quite well without making you want to run for the hills.

Miscellaneous Blogger Tools

AvantBlog – Post to your Blogger blog from your Palm or Windows CE device.
Back up your Blogger Blog – A comprehensive tutorial regarding the backup of your Blogger data.
Blogger Status – Stay up-to-date with the latest Blogger updates and so-on with the official Blogger blog.
Google Macintosh Dashboard Widgets – A quick way to post to your blog via the OS X dashboard.
HaloScan – Integrate trackbacks into Blogger.
w.bloggar – Windows application for integration with your blog, which includes several features web-based editors don’t offer. Manage various Blogger accounts efficiently.

230+ Keyboard Shortcuts for Top Web Services

These shortcuts work when editing posts:

control + b – Bold
control + i – Italic
control + l – Blockquote (when in HTML – mode only)
control + z – Undo
control + y – Redo
control + shift + a – Link
control + shift + p – Preview
control + d – Save as Draft
control + p – Publish Post
control + s – Autosave and keep editing
control + g – Hindi transliteration

For more keyboard shortcut commands, see the Official list of Blogger shortcuts.

Post Source: http://mashable.com/2009/01/16/blogger-toolbox/  

This tool is better than any other HTML Editor found online or available as a software, in the following ways,

1. It works Offline in any browser available
2. Takes less than a fraction of a second to show live preview
3. Is equal in size to a peanut i.e 2.32 Kb
4. Code is saved in browser if your PC shutdowns accidently 
5. You can go back several times using Ctrl + Z and go forward using Ctrl + Y
6. Can be used to test a code for Cross Browser Compatibility
7. It is free of charge thanks to MBT! :D

Downloading Instructions

To Download MBT HTML Editor follow the steps below,

• Click this link –> MBT HTML Editor
• The MBT HTML Editor window will expand. Now you can start using it Online but to work offline in it you need to save it first. To save it click on the file menu at top-left-corner of your browser and then choose “Save As”  or “Save Page As”. Select a safe location and hit enter, as shown below,

• Done!

Troubleshoot:- In IE a Security alert will appear, ignore it by right clicking on it and then selecting Allow Blocked Content

Instructions For Using MBT HTML EDITOR

This tool consists of two panes i.e left pane and right pane. See a screen shot below,
 

The left pane is the area where you add your code and the right pane is the area responsible for displaying a visual view of the code. The CSS code is added just between <style> and </style>  and the HTML code is added just below </style>

Playing With A Code

Lets now play with a code using our HTML Editor. I am using the Image Opacity Effect Trick here as an example.
The CSS code for Opacity Effect looks like this,

img {

filter:alpha(opacity=100);

-moz-opacity: 1.0;

opacity: 1.0;

border:0;

}

img:hover {

filter:alpha(opacity=30);

-moz-opacity: 0.30;

opacity: 0.30;

border:0;

}

Now to apply this effect to an image we will need an HTML code as shared below,

<img  class="Fadein"  src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMMj-BzrdAwJGf61ym3aBR9HfeQMNg35w__h-sHf-rdPU4H93lWQ9wQF49Hzg6AYPlHM1sHXETfVXJ3CS_Eaujid_HhFHggp8BYI6sP8kaY69Jz_puJwUF8tmI9hwisoavwS69Oq3gCS47/s400/DIGG.png">

Now The best part, add the CSS code just between <style> and </style>  and the HTML code just below </style>. Hit the Preview button and watch the dancing code in action in front of your eyes. You can now start the play!

See this screen shot,

Some Important Tips:-

• To go backward to previous changes, click Ctrl + Z
• To go forward to last changes made, click Ctrl + Y
• To get URL of an image saved in your hard drive suppose Drive F, open Firefox browser and simply type  F: in the address bar and hit enter. That drive will open and now simply browse to that image and right click on it and then click on Copy Link Location. Alas! you got the URL. Now use this URL wherever required during your offline code editing adventure.
• Once you are happy with the code that you prepared then simply paste the CSS code just above ]]></b:skin> inside your blogger template and the HTML code where you want the effect to be seen i.e post or sidebar

Hope this Tool will be of great use to bloggers and web developers across the globe. I hope you may find it easy to better understand and learn browser languages and implement them to invent new codes with new creativities. Do let me know how useful you find it. We played our part and now its your turn to spread the message!

Note:-

I have also created a tool that lets you change special HTML Characters to Entities. It lets you add HTML code to your posts and comment section as I usually do. Hope you will like it too. You can have a look at it by click this link –> Change Special HTML Characters To Entities

I wrote this article a while back that was pretty popular and wanted to share it with everyone here, especially the SEO minded newbies...feedback welcome.

"Blog commenting has long since been a highly used method for building backlinks to your website. Actually, it has been used and abused in the past so much that most blogs and search engines have completely discounted the value of comment links in terms of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value. Many blogs do not link out. Most have the nofollow attribute applied to comments and a great number of bloggers have turned off commenting all together.

Still, however, commenting on blogs can have great value if a blog visitor uses it for what it was intended for, as a means to encourage dialogue and idea exchange. Here are some steps that will help you to get your comments approved if you are a blogger or webmaster looking to comment so as to drive traffic and grow your indexed backlink count.

Find The Right Blogs. What good is commenting on a blog that doesn't teach you about your niche or is not related to you niche in a direct or supplemental way. The purpose of commenting on blogs is to interact with both the blogger and their visitors. If you have a website about a certain subject, find blog about that same subject or related subjects. By doing so, odds are you will find targeted, search-engine-driven traffic consisting of like-minded surfers looking to learn and interact. This is a great way to draw visitors to your own site and build your reputation.

Alexa Rank. Finding blogs with high levels of traffic is very important. One metric that you can look at when looking for blogs with high levels of traffic is it's Alexa rank. Simply go to Alexa Internet - Website Information and enter the URL of the site in question. Do this for all of the sites you are researching and comment on the ones with the lowest Alexa rank. In this case a low Alexa rank is a good thing because it means more traffic.

Use Your Real Name. The days of spamming blogs with keywords are over. There is really no need to use keywords in your comment or as your name when commenting. Visitors who read your comments should know your niche simply by the genre of blog that you are commenting on. This is not a complicated point. Just use your real name.

Add Value To The Article. If you want to get your comments approved, you have to add value in one form or another to the article. This means, of course, reading the article and learning something from it, provided there is something to be learned. Think of an insightful comment that actually adds to the discussion. Or, if you have a question about something in the article, ask it as your comment. This is a great way to get comments approved and solicit interaction.

Use Proper Grammar, Spelling And Punctuation. Nothing be-speaks a lack of professionalism more that poor grammar, spelling or punctuation. When you comment on blogs, you are not texting a friend on their iPhone, you are acting as an ambassador or representative for your company or website. These types of things stand out and can make the difference between getting the click and just getting skipped.

NoFollow Or DoFollow? As mentioned before, many blogs have added a nofollow attribute to comments on their blog. This has been an unfortunate necessity due to the massive amounts of spam comments that have over-run the internet. However, there are many blogs that have removed this now-default setting so as to encourage dialogue and reward legitimate commenters. I have done this to my own blog and have been happy with the results. Do spammers attempt to comment on my blog? Absolutely. Do they succeed? Absolutely not. Probably 90+% of the comment attempts on my blog are spam. Almost all get blacklisted, never to have the privilege opened to them again. With respect to the nofollow/dofollow debate, of course dofollow is better because your site receives search engine trust and reputation but do not avoid commenting on blogs that have the nofollow attribute applied. A nofollow link is far better than no link.

Be Wary Of Outsourcing and Software. Many of the comment attempts on my blog have been made using automated software. The bottom line with respect to commenting software is this. It is nothing more than an arms race between those who use it and search engines. There is a race between the software that spams unprotected blogs and the de-indexing of these blogs by search engines as well as blog owners who have given up and thrown in the towel by turning off commenting or deleting the blog entirely. At the same time, comments placed by software are almost never related to the subject, even when commenting by keyword. They stick out like a sore thumb and are a great way to get blacklisted as well as ruin your site's reputation on several fronts. Much of the same can be said about outsourcing comments. Remember this. No piece of software or hired commenter can or will give comments linking to your business, website or blog the care and consideration that is required by this SEO and networking tool. You can use a hammer to hit the nail on the head or break a windshield. The choice is up to you.

Bonus Tips On Finding Blogs To Comment On. You can use Google to find related blogs. Below are few examples:

"Add comment" Your Keywords
"Post comment" Your Keywords
“Write comment” Your Keywords
Your Keywords “leave a comment” / “leave comment”
Your Keywords “Notify me of follow-up comments?"+"Submit the word you see below:"
Your Keywords “Remember my personal information" + "Notify me of follow-up comments?"
Your Keywords "Notify me of follow-up comments"
Your Keywords “This site uses KeywordLuv"
Your Keywords "Enable CommentLuv"
Your Keywords "You can use these tags"
Your Keywords “Powered by BlogEngine.NET"
Your Keywords “Allowed HTML tags:"
Your Keywords “top commenter"

Blog commenting can be a great way to drive traffic if it is done correctly. The benefits of networking and building your reputation conceal great rewards that are discovered only if you play by the rules."