Ahoy, blogarinos! Today’s Blog Salad post comes from Michelle Rafter, which is convenient because I’m I’m guest-blogging over at her blog, WordCount: Freelancing in the digital age. I’m sharing my interview with NYT bestselling author and world-class blogger Gretchen Rubin, on the topic of Search Engine Optimization.
You’ve heard the expression the clothes make the man.
By the same token, design makes the blog.
You may have great stuff going on your blog. But bury it in 8 point white-on-black type, scrolling headlines, overbearing ads and confusing navigation and nobody will be able to tell.
Since there is no Stacy and Clint telling writers and bloggers what not to wear, we’ve been left to our own devices, and the result’s about as pretty as a pig in a potato sack.
I was never more conscious – or self conscious – about blog design than when I decided to move my blog, WordCount: Freelancing in the digital age, from the safe but visually boring haven of the free WordPress.com blogging software to the relative wilds of hosting my own site.
Along with the freedom that comes with a self-hosted blog – nobody dictating what you can or can’t say or sell - come decisions that get made for you when you use a free blogging service. One of the biggest is deciding how your blog should look. I’m no graphic design genius, so when it came time for a new wardrobe I hired someone to do the tailoring for me. Working together, it took Ron and I the better part of a month of on-and-off again work to come up with a design scheme that fit my requirements, looked good and got people to come to the site and stay on the site.
Almost eight months into the redesign, I’m still pleased with the outcome. Along the way, I learned some lessons that could prove helpful for writers or freelancers of all types contemplating starting or redoing a blog.
If you want to make it onto the best dressed list, you’ve got to:
1. Tailor your blog’s design to its contents - If you blog about videos or have a lot of other multimedia content, tailor your blog’s design to play it up. If your blog is heavy on text, make it easy to read by using a font size that’s comfortable for reading and dark type on a white or light colored background. No matter how chic it looks, in my book white type on a black background is harder to read – if it wasn’t, there’d be a lot more books, magazines and e-books printed white on black instead of the opposite.
2. Use the right color – Color can say a lot about what a blog is all about. Do you write about serious stuff? You might want to steer clear frivolous tones like powder blue or pink. On the other hand, if you blog about pregnancy or parenting, pastels or other soft tones might set just the right tone.
3. Minimize the bells and whistles - Moving graphics, scrolling text, flashing icons makes a blog look cluttered, amateurish and very 1999. Too many social media share buttons or buttons that are too big or conspicuous are the 2010 equivalent. A little goes a long way – nav bars, share buttons and other tools don’t have to be in your face, just positioned so readers can easily see and use them. And save the interactive elements for snippets from YouTube embedded into blog posts.
4. Copy what you like – You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Look at websites or blogs you admire, whether they’re national media properties or your best friend’s blog. Dissect what it is about them you like – the typography, color scheme, layout, navigation elements – and come up with a design aesthetic. Use that to come up with your own design, or if you’re having someone else design your blog, share what you like with them. Be able to articulate what it is about something that you like or don’t like so they understand where you’re coming from enough to be able to recreate it.
5. Include graphics. Even if your blog is all about the words, it’s visually appealing to break up text with color, photos or other graphical elements. Apart from the aesthetics, images get picked up in search engines, which can help increase page views and put your blog higher in search engine rankings.
6. Customize. A self-hosted blog isn’t for everyone, but using free blogging platforms such as WordPress.com or Blogger doesn’t mean you can’t accessorize. Free blog services add new design templates all the time. You can dress up plain Jane templates with widgets and plug ins to give them that couture look that separates them from off-the-rack fare.
Got some of your own secrets for dressing your blog for success?
Lots of good advice here. Love the idea of a best-dressed list for blogs!
Wish I had known all this four years ago when I started blogging!
Some of it I did instinctively, but would have loved to start with WordPress.com. Now it’s a bit late to switch for someone who is technically challenged like me.
Michelle always has good info and advice, as anyone could tell from reading WordCount.
But don’t discount Blogger entirely! It can’t compete with WordPress.org (self hosted) but I think it’s more powerful than WordPress.com.
I know what I DON’T like…I have more trouble coming up with what I DO like, especially if I were to go the host-my-own route…but I should really check out the latest templates available on blogger…they may have come out with something new that I like even better…
I think that’s rock-solid advice from top-to-bottom.
Then again, my blog utilizes a random mix of colors on the front page each time its loaded. It’s always black text on gray for the posts, though, so I guess I’m not being a total hypocrite by agreeing with you on #2.
I’d add one thing to the list… Make it yours. Ideally, the design should tell people something about you. That includes the way you handle customizations, the graphics you use, etc.
BTW, you two had a good exchange. Both posts were great!
Alexandra: It’s never too late to change, especially if you have someone helping you. Most popular free blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress.com have features that let you import data from a different platform. It might take some extra work, but it’s really not that difficult.
Carson: You make a good point about making a blog reflect its proprietor. Before I redid WordCount, there’s what I thought about (which I should have had in the original post, but honestly, was too bushed to add last night when I wrote it):
1. Since I do a lot of reporting as well as opining, I wanted something that looked fairly newsy.
2. With a tagline like “Freelancing in the digital age,” the design had to be fairly progressive – to me that meant a clean look and typeface that was futuristic looking without being too space age.
3. Since I do a lot more writing than anything else (graphics, video, etc.), it had to be fairly easy to read. This is one area I’m not 100 percent pleased with; I’m doing a design refresh later this year and am thinking about changing to a slightly larger font for body copy.
4. Colors had to be serious and strong, to make the relatively serious nature of the writing I do. I’m not a mommy blogger – not that there’s anything wrong with that – so I wanted to avoid soft colors that might be associated with writing about lifestyle issues. I also listened to what Ron had to say about what colors work best together, are easier to read, etc. And I looked at some of my favorite online pubs for what colors they used. The green color that’s in my logo is something I was drawn to over and over. When I realized it was also the color of a favorite sweater, I knew I’d found the one.
Michelle Rafter
Thanks for the article, Michelle. It makes me realize I’m on the right track. But it is time for me clean up the clutter on my blog again. I am extra glad I got rid of the scrolling text element before participating in the blogathon.
Smart move!
Michelle