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Blog Design - First Steps

Today I want to talk about blog design. As I browse the Web, I stumble on many different blogs, most of them ugly. It’s understandable that people can’t design web pages, but with many free descent templates available, there’s no excuse for ugly looking pages. All I can say - if you don’t know how, get a free or buy a template, or hire a professional.

Finding The Right Blog Template

A blog template is the format in which the blog will appear and how it can be used. If you are designing your website and want to include a blog, you will want to choose something that will serve your needs and not just look good on the page. You first need to decide the use your blog will serve.

Will you use the blog to communicate with customers? Will you use it more of a log to track your thoughts and new ideas? Regardless of what you use it for, you will want to find a blog template that suits your needs.

Finding this blog template is not going to be hard. More then likely you will find so many that you won’t know which to choose. In order to find a blog template that’s right for you, find a website that has them and browse. There is no better way to find what you want then to see one working. How is it set up? Do you like the initial appearance? Do you like how it works? Is it easy to use?

When you have found something you like and know what your looking for, take a tour of the many sites that offer blogs and different templates. You can often find several for free on most sites. Take your time to find the blogger that offers the best solution to satisfy your needs and wants. Doing all of these things can lead to the perfect blog for your website.

Using an Agency to Design Your Website

Hiring an agency to create a custom web site design can be a huge benefit for your business. Most people will not return to your web site without having an agency designed web site. In order to achieve ideal results, it would work to your benefit to hire a web design agency because the best possible outcome for the company’s profits will be produced.

In order to broaden the increasing amount of customers, web agency designs will benefit and increase the marketing horizons. On top of reaching more people, having a web design agency create your web site will give your business a more professional and credible reputation. First impressions are sometimes the only impressions so a web design agency will work to your benefit if you wish to compete with other companies with similarities and services.

If you want your web site to be more unique and creative it may be beneficial to have a custom web design as opposed to a business web design. Custom web designs will benefit your business and will stick out in the minds of the potential customers. You will be able to focus your web design on a clear objective.

There are numerous web design software programs that are on the market but none of them will produce a unique design because of the common templates used. A design agency will take your individual and professional preferences and show iton your web site. To get an edge in such a competitive business world, a web design agency is a must.

The agency will benefit your web site by allowing you to have a great deal of input and creativity to your design. This uniqueness will stand out to potential customers and give you an advantage over your competitors and benefit your bottom line.

However, if you still want to design your own blog template, here are some tips that could be helpful:
1. Keep it simple

The master advice. Don’t use many different fonts and colors. Pick few fonts and a color scheme, and stick to it.

2. White background

Except if you’re in some unusual industry where colored backgrounds are in, forget about it. Most of the third-party images you will insert in your blog posts are made for the white background, making their appearance on some other-than-white background, well… ugly.

3. Clear navigation

Usability is important in blogs, as it is in regular websites. Don’t complicate too much. There are dozens of plugins available which tempt you to install them and add some additional elements to your navigation. Resist the temptation and leave the navigation alone.

4. Don’t let the social bookmarking ruin your design

I’ve seen many sites that add social bookmarking (del.icio.us, digg, etc) buttons to their design even if it looks awful. If it can’t look good - forget about it. Use text links instead.

5. Make sure that user knows what’s a title

This seem too obvius, right? However, I’ve seen blogs where it’s hard to know what is the title and what is the content. They put the title in some heading boxes and one can not determine where post begins and where it ends.

Albert
Blog Designer

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