ActiveRain gives the "Green Light" on Customizing - ActiveRainCustomizer.com

It’s here. Version Two of the Active Rain Blog Customizer - complete with ActiveRain's approval.

As many of you may know, I recently found a way to customize ActiveRain blogs. The original approach required knowledge of CSS and HTML. This led me to create the ActiveRain Custom Blog Generator. It gave users the flexibility to create customized ActiveRain blogs without having to edit CSS. While it did make things easier, it still wasn’t "Realtor proof." Incorporating images was cumbersome and there was no way to preview the new look of your blog. At first, I didn’t really think much about it. After all, this was just a side program I wrote over the weekend. And, trust me, I am not a programmer! But, the comments kept pouring in and more and more people were contacting me with questions – including the guys from ActiveRain. I called them back, nervous that they would be sending me a C & D. Their response was quite the opposite. ActiveRain loved the concept so much they wanted to partner on the project.

If You’re Going to Do It - Do It Right

Now that I had the okay from ActiveRain, I quickly began to think about how I could really make this a valuable tool. I reviewed all the feedback and suggestions from my blog and started developing Version Two of the Custom Blog Generator. Keep in mind, this new website is still in Beta. But, feel free to use it and give us your feedback. Below are a few new features that you will notice with the new version.

Your Own Control Panel

You now have the ability to "save" your design theme. This means if you want to make an edit to the design of your ActiveRain blog, you just login to your Customizer Control Panel and make the change. Your existing design settings are automatically loaded. When you have completed your edits, you simply click save. You no longer have to paste the updated code snippet into your ActiveRain Blog!

Image Uploading

One of the most requested features was the ability to upload images. The ActiveRain Customizer now does exactly that. You select a graphic from your computer and the system handles the rest!

Blog Color Preview

The ActiveRain Blog Customizer also gives you a real time color preview of your blog. This means that you can design your blog without having to continually go back and forth between your blog and the Control Panel. And remember, even if you decide to change a color later on, you can login and make the change. Your ActiveRain blog will instantly update with the new color – without having to paste in a new code snippet.

Let Me Know What You Think

I would love to get your feedback on the new version. In the coming weeks, we will be wrapping this project up and handing it off to ActiveRain. They liked it so much; they want to make this an official ActiveRain feature!

We are still calling this a "beta" version so let me know if you encounter any problems. And remember, if you want to stay updated concerning enhancements to the New ActiveRain Customizer, just click here to subscribe to my ActiveRain blog.

Thanks,
Brad