Successful Blog Design

Posted on June 24, 2008

You don’t want your visitors to miss reading your quality posts because of a poor blog design?

Maybe you just need to pay some attention and time to make your blog design an outstanding one.

You have to make your blog design unique and perfect if you want to gain an advantage against other blogs in your niche, if you succeeded in making your blog design appeal to your visitors, it’s more likely to make them interested in staying and checking your blog posts.

A blog design is the first impression your visitors get before getting deeper into the blog content. Most people aren’t patient enough to wait till reading the content, instead, they just take a snapshot of the whole page when they visit a blog, if they didn’t like the layout or how the pages look like, they simply leave and try looking for another one.

Determine your blog design needs

Don’t rush into designing or choosing a template that you like without paying attention to the nature of your blog, what is suitable to other blogs might not be suitable to yours.

It’s important to identify the subject of your blog to be able to know who are your visitors, by knowing your visitors you can start designing a blog that matches their taste and looks interesting to them.

Check what category your blog is lying under, personal, business, fashion, babies & kids, women, games, etc, then, the whole picture will be more clear and you can start to think about your blog design needs.

2 Column vs 3 Column layout

I know it’s a little bit confusing when it comes to thinking about the appropriate layout to use for a blog. I put here few guidelines that may help.

Choose 2 Column layout if:

1- You expect your posts to be long. Sidebars take up more space, so, for long posts it’s better to assign a wide area for your content, 2 column layout fits in this case.

2- You don’t need more than one sidebar.

3- You want your pages to fit in small resolution like 800×600.

Choose 3 Column layout if:

1- You need 2 sidebars in your blog pages.

2- You need to have a centered content where you can have a column on either side of your content area.

3- You expect your posts to be short at sometimes, 3 column layout assigns narrower content area than that of the 2 column layout, this will make it rare for your posts to be shorter than the sidebars. Sidebars overextending the content area should be avoided.

Blog Design elements

Let’s feature some of the blog design elements that really make a difference when added to your blog pages.

Icons

Try using icons for your sidebar links like categories or popular posts, don’t add many icons and keep remembering that less is better.

Borders & Background colors

Borders add an interesting effect to your blog design. You can apply it to your content area, sidebars or any other specific block in your pages.

You can use colors to make contrasts and attract readers attention to specific areas on your blog, try using different background colors for some blocks or columns, it gives much life to your blog and makes your pages look rich and well organized.

Images

Much text makes your blog pages look dense and uninteresting for your readers. Take your blog posts to a new level by adding images but not too much, keep it simple inorder not to ruin the real content of your blog.

Feel free to contact me if you need any help with your blog design.

Comments

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

10 Comments so far

Barbara Swafford, on June 25, 2008 at 7:55 am

Such great advice.

I personally like three column theme/template. It gives me more space to share popular posts, recent posts, blogroll, etc, and since my posts are usually fairly short, it works great.

Barbara Swaffords last blog post..Blog Posts - Are We Our Worst Critic?
admin, on June 25, 2008 at 10:41 am

Hi Barbara,

Thanks for giving an example of how a 3 column layout works.
Dr.Cason, on June 25, 2008 at 11:03 pm

Great post and just what I need!

I’m always looking at way to clean up my blog. I like my theme but I want to change to color of the sidebars.

I think I’ll have to dig into the CSS yes?

I cleaned up and tightened the categories and tags so they are more interesting and streamlined but I also want to change the font or at least make it bold so it stands out a little.

I’m thinking of taking out the recent comments area. It clutters it up and I don’t think people are really going to it.

I’m struggling with the related posts and what others are reading. i can’t seem to see it. I think I have to hack into my loop. Right?

Dr.Casons last blog post..Have You Found Your Get Away Location?
admin, on June 26, 2008 at 4:26 am

Hi Dr.Cason,

I think your sidebar colors are fine and matching well with your header too.

You might be right at changing the categories font, you can increase the font-size alittle bit, don’t forget to increase the font-size for the categories links and the post title as well, I think it will make the page look much better.

Try replacing the recent comment area with your popular or recent posts list, it will be more helpful and interesting to your readers.

What do you think about changing the font-color of your blog title and setting it a little bigger as well?

It would be great if you digged more into CSS, you will find it so interesting and it should help you in making a lot of attractive changes.

Thanks for your inspiring comment, you are always welcome!
David | beplayful, on June 26, 2008 at 2:39 pm

Thanks for helping me think about my blog design. I’d really like my logo to blend better with the background, but for that I think I need to learn html…

David | beplayfuls last blog post..The Colours of Everyday Life
admin, on June 26, 2008 at 3:33 pm

Hi David,

For your blog to blend with the background, you can change the background-color to white or either to change the background of logo to the one of your header background.

Feel free to contact me if you need any help with it.
Dr.Cason, on June 26, 2008 at 7:45 pm

Such great tips! I’ll have to look into CSS. I think I tried the font for the header once but was looking in the wrong spot!

Thanks for looking at it. It always helps to have a fresh eye.
Dr.Casons last blog post..Bali Flickr Mosaic
admin, on June 26, 2008 at 11:12 pm

Hi Dr.Cason,

I am interested to see the changes you can make with CSS! Best of luck with it
Sara, on June 28, 2008 at 3:24 pm

This was seriously helpful. I’m contemplating going from a standard design to a more customized one. I feel like I’m walking a very thin line between being fully functional and having helpful features and staying true to a simple style. I do like the idea of using a few icons, since it means less text for readers to scan.

Saras last blog post..Your Life Is a Sculpture. Keep Chipping Away.
admin, on June 28, 2008 at 6:08 pm

Hi Sara,

I have a few customized icons that can match different blog designs, you are welcome to contact me anytime if you want to use any of them.