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Design of Your Blog
By admin | October 22, 2008
I am writing this in bed,eating my toast and having a cup of tea (well I am in the UK!). I am also writing it before I go off to my day job. One day I will give up that day job..
I actually spent yeterday with someone who is going to help me with the technical side of all of this. I was surprised how much I have actually learnt over the past few months, some of it at considerable cost it has to be said!
Anyway he actually liked the look of this blog. I realise that blogs are a matter of personal taste and I think of this blog as a way of writing down what I learn and what you might want to read about. I like the uncluttered look.
On that note I have looked at my last few posts which have been about what a blog is and why you my want to have one. I thought I would just put a few thoughts in here about design.
This is a wordpress blog, there are however other software packages available and most of them are free. The great thing about wordpress is the amount of themes or designs available. I personally like clean themes and I dont want to clutter it up, but your personal taste may be different. Have a look at other blogs to get some ideas.
Type something into google and add blog on the end and see what you can find. Have a look at other blogs and get a feel for what your like before you even get a blog up. If you have an idea what you might want, it will be easier to find it.
A blog is essentially a website and it requires the same attention to detail as a website. You will have to make decisions about colours,layouts,fonts and whether you want to advertise or not.There are a variety of templates but if you or anyone you know has some basic programming skills, they can be customised.
Colors and Layouts of a Blog
This is the most obvious consideration. You may like clashing colours but they are very difficult to read. Think of the background colour. You can also use blocks of colour, pictures or textures but my personal view is to keep it simple and aesthetically pleasing.
There are a number of different layouts. Have a look at the ones that you like. Try and get a format that is easy to follow. You want to get repeat visitors, the ones who get a headache looking at your blog are unlikely to return!
Fonts Used in a Blog
You will find a huge number of available fonts, text sizes and colours to choose from. Consider choosing a font which works well with the overall design of the layout of the blog and suits the subject matter of the blog but also a common font. I personally like verdana or Tahoma but try a few out.
Also bear in mind the size of the font and your prospective readers. The text size and colours of the text should be carefully considered particularly if your readers are likely to be of an older age group! I was surprised to get an email yesterday from someone offering copywriting services which had pink text on a grey background. Sounds nice but really difficult to decipher, quite apart from the fact that the text size was really small.
Inclusion of Advertisements in Your Blog
Do you think you will want advertising on your blog, hoping to make some money from adsense? Then you need to consider where they are going to go. At the side, at the bottom? At the top? Do you want htem to be discrete or obvious? Will you have enough space for them in the template you are thinking of using?
These are just a few basic thoughts for you to mull over.Hope it helps
Til next time
Jane
Topics: Internet Marketing, Newbies, blogs | 1 Comment »
October 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 am
Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..
Matt Hanson