Friday, July 13, 2012

Five Tips for Blog Design: and a Tardy Lemming

"Blog Design: 5 Tips To Make You Look Like A Pro"
danielcassady, on Dragon Blogger (July 8, 2012)

"Anyone can start a blog. I mean that. You don't even need to have a fancy laptop or an internet connection. All you need is an idea, and it doesn't even have to be a good one....

"...But what many new bloggers don't realize is how important it is for you blog to look good, to be easy to read and navigate.

"What I'm talking about, after all this time, is design.

"We've all been to websites or blogs that we thought we're going be worthwhile but turned out to be a mess of dark blues and neon yellows, blogs that we would have loved to read but couldn't because the content was overtaken by images and sound effects.

"I don't want you to make those mistakes, and with these 5 simple tips I am going to help you avoid them...."

The guest post on Dragon Blogger could have been shorter, but so could many of the Lemming's posts. It's a fast read, though, and a pretty good refresher on blog design.

Someone starting out should, in the Lemming's opinion, read what danielcassady has to say: and read other 'how-2' posts and articles. The basic ideas in "5 Tips" are good, sound advice: the details are, again in the Lemming's opinion: a matter of opinion.

For example, Dragon Blogger has a 'banner' ad above the post: but "5 Tips" says ads should be kept in the sidebar. This isn't 'poor design,' and danielcassady has a valid point: make posts easy to find on the page, "...so that your readers can focus on what they came to you for, the content." The banner ad wide, but short: and Dragon Blogger posts have a largish, bold, titles. That sort of 'over the post' advertising doesn't get in the way of readers.

Of course, that's the Lemming's opinion.

Here are the five points: each comes with a few sentences.

  • Who Are You Talking To
  • The Box Exists For A Reason
  • The Curious World Of Images
  • The Details Are The Key
  • Ads
This isn't the ultimate guide to good blog design: but it's a pretty good post.

Finally, about "and a Tardy Lemming" in the title: This post is about four hours late. A couple hours ago the Lemming realized that this isn't Thursday. It's been like that all week.

Sort-of-related posts:

2 comments:

Dragonblogger said...

I accepted Daniel's article because I liked it even though my own site didn't follow some of his recommendations. I consider myself more of an experimenter and my ad sizes went through 12 different iterations over 4 years and the current configuration maximizes my AdSense revenue.

Thanks for highlighting this article, it is the first time a guest poster got some decent attention :)

Brian H. Gill said...

The Lemming is (finally) realizing that comments didn't get attended to. Sorry about the (excessive) delay.

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