For Better Blogging – Think About Your Blog Design And Layout

As a graphic and web designer I think very carefully about the way a website looks and feels. It is very important that the user gets the best out of your site. Blogs are abundant on the internet and many people are using them more and more as they get easier to use.

What blogging platform you choose is really up to you, there are WordPress, Blogger and Typepad to mention but a few so look around, however I personally would recommend WordPress.

There are 2 WordPress types of sites to go for, the free one is WordPress.com this is hosted by WordPress.com and they give you a domain name to use, however it is not your own domain, an example might be something like this http://www.yourname.wordpress.com. For the paid version you buy your own domain name and you pay to hosting a WordPress Blog with a hosting company. This is generally with WordPress.org and this just gives you much more control over what you can do with your blog. Having your own domain name gives you an identity with a more professional look and feel to your online business.

The theme you choose once you are in WordPress is important as there are so many, you can choose what WordPress offer or you can go to WordPress.org and find one that suits you.

Choose a theme that is clear and easy to read and follow and that uses the main colours, blue, orange, green, red and grey - light and dark, try not to use dark or bright coloured backgrounds where the text is white this makes for difficult reading.

Use a theme that has dark text on a white or light background and remember your blog is for one purpose to get your user or visitor to read it!

I have come across so many blogs that are appalling to use/read and this is simply because the owner hasn't thought about their readers. It's this simple if you find something hard to read, you stop and go elsewhere and this is exactly what you don't want your readers to do. It's unfortunate as there are so many built-in themes that you can use within the platforms of WordPress and Blogger. The trick is to make sure that your content is easy to follow, nice layout clear in blocks with date and author clearly seen and most important of all the titles of your articles are easily seen.

These must be very clear and stand out from the rest of the information. Be careful not to over load with information all given at the same font size. Headings and sub headings are important and helps your reader decide what they want to read. Above all make the experience that your reader has a good one and then they will return.

Here in the west people are trained to read from left to right and top to bottom so the right hand side of your site is where you want to place static content you wish your reader to see all the time, like advertisements and your social media info.

The better blogs that I have seen out there are generally uploaded themes from theme sites that are paid for. You can get free themes out there and there are some really good ones but you need to do your research. Get onto Google and type in your keywords and search for those themes. I would suggest look at here and see what you can find that suits you, your niche and remember my tips.

Now if you so wish you can design your own bespoke blog either do it yourself if you know website design or hire a website designer to do it for you. If you choose to go down this route you need to also follow the tips outlined above as well.

I have also placed a short video on this post and one of the premium blog themes you should look at, so have a look below.

So get out there do your research and experiment see what you like and get your blog up and running with a good theme and get blogging.

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