I spent many years being deeply concerned with design. I am a very visual person anyway, and for a long while, nothing made me happier than a beautifully designed website. As time has gone on, I have cared less about design and more about what has actually been written. But that doesn't mean design no longer matters - on the contrary. If you really want to show how much you care about your readers, your niche and your blog, your next step should be concerned with what your blog actually looks like.
Arbitrary or Relevant?
The look of your blog should reflect the impression you want to give across. If it is for your company, then somehow ensure that the blog carries the brand, even if it is just the colour scheme or the logo. For an example, the blog of Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, carries a similar, albeit simplified, look and feel to the main Sun Microsystems website. If the blog is more related to your interest, theme it to that interest, for example Slacker Astronomy which is quite clearly a blog on...well...astronomy. The more relevant the design, the more likely people are going to understand exactly what your blog is all about as soon as they arrive. Don't make things hard for your audience - you want them to stay.
Templates - what to do and what not to do
Most of us don't have the CSS or design skills to build our own blog design from scratch. Unfortunately, because many of us lack those skills, we feel we are stuck with the default template. For instance the visual difference between The Coffee Lover's Blog and the Salsa Tiempo Blog are non-existent, despite one blog being about the life giving brown liquid which makes each morning worth getting up for, and the other being about a type of dance. This is the default template for Wordpress which is fine, but if you want to take your blog to the next level, is probably worth moving away from.
Before any of you cry 'but I have no idea how to create a template', you don't have to if you don't want to. The internet has spawned hundreds and thousands of terrifyingly talented people who have worked hard on creating templates and put them out there for you for free. Wordpress Themes has something in the realms of 2300 themes you can download and use, and some of them are incredibly good. To use one, it is a simple matter of downloading the theme from the site, and then uploading it to your themes folder on your server and applying the theme. Voila! Instant web design. It couldn't be easier.
Thinking about your purpose
It is easy to go a bit crazy over some of the free themes out there. But before you choose one, think hard about what is going to make life easier for your readers. Is grey writing on a black background really going to encourage your reader to come back? Is the stunning header image of butterflies and flowers really appropriate if your readers are young, male, rugby fans? Does the colour scheme clash with your logo?
Sometimes, simple is better. Andy Beard opts for all white. This makes his text easy to read and his widgets really stand out. Many others brand themselves by just using a header, leaving the rest of the page plain such as the West Indies Cricket Blog or Get Rich Slowly. Bear in mind, your readers will come back because you have great content, not because you have the best design in the world. The design is just the hundreds and thousands on top of the icing on the cake. It can make it look that much more appealing, but it certainly doesn't make the cake.
RSS Readers: Suddenly Everything is Even
Without a doubt, spend a bit of time with your blog design so that it works with the image you want to put across. Ensure that it fits with your own or your company ethos. Make sure it looks professional and gives some idea as to what you are about, and also ensure that it doesn't hinder ease of reading or usability. However, do bear in mind that this may be enough to encourage people to spend more than a second or two on the site, but chances are, after seeing it once, they may never see it again.
I read all of the blogs I have subscribed to through Google Reader. Google reader strips everything away so that all that is left is whether or not the content is good. I can't tell the difference between one blog or another except by title and writing style. It is rare that I click to see the actual post (RSS Feeds that only give me part of the post tend to be skipped over pretty quickly - they have to have some serious linkbait titles to get me to read more). If I am not reading on my desktop, I am reading on my mobile phone which has the same effect. So the beautiful design becomes nothing but words...
So do I, or don't I?
So, bearing in mind the effect of RSS Readers and mobile phones, is it worth changing the look of your blog? In my opinion - yes. It shows that you are serious about the blog. It shows you have thought enough about your topic to theme the blog to that topic and you care enough to make the change. It may only be a small thing, but when you are jostling with millions of other blogs out there to get people's attention, isn't it worth doing that little bit extra to make you stand out?
The final post in this series will be Advanced Blogging: Stepping Away From Your Navel - Guest Posting
Thanks to BiggerPictureImages.com for the image
Read the rest of the series on advanced blogging
- Advanced Blogging: Your Blogging Strategy
- Advanced Blogging: Constructive Conversation With Your Readers
- Advanced Blogging: Building Regular Traffic and Doing Something With It
- Advanced Blogging: Stepping Away From Your Navel - Guest Posting
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