BlogHer - Your Blog is Ugly - Do You Care? - 5 Reasons Why You Should Care About Blog Design - Comments

oops

redstaplernation — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:44:09 -0500

I meant today was my 4000th hit. Not had 4000 hits today.

Although THAT? Would be cool.

Wordpress rocks on

redstaplernation — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:43:15 -0500

I moved to Wordpress from Blogger in March of this year, and have had so much more fun with the designs and flexibility. Mucho more traffic as well! 4000 hits today - in 4 months. That's ridiculously more than my poor little Blogger blog.

Converted to Wordpress from Blogger

ecstewart — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:37:34 -0500

I've been investigating blog hosts and like what Wordpress has to offer -so I just made the switch this week.

I rather like the fact that I can add 'page' to my blog to enable some add'l content people seek.

I've written a post about my reason to switch here:

http://creativegoddess.wordpress.com/2008/07/14/studio-news-official-new...

I'd love it if you guys could swing by and take a look and let me know what you think. I'm still working on the CSS to make the text easier to navigate and other small modifications.

http://creativegoddess.wordpress.com/

Many thanks!

Lisa, Creative Goddess
----------------------------------------
Creative Goddess
CalligraphyPets

This is a great point. Image

The Flirty Girl — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 18:16:42 -0500

This is a great point. Image is important for branding and a lot of bloggers I know miss out on a branding opportunity when they use a template in it's original format instead of customizing it or hiring someone to customize it so that the visual transition is seamless, or at least cohesive, when a client or reader clicks over from a company website to the company blog.

I know not everyone knows HTML, but on Blogger there are a few click and build options in the Layout section that could be taken advantage of by novices users to begin customizing their blogs :o)

Thanks!

monawea — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:44:18 -0500

Thanks for commenting Joy. Appreciate your input.

Mona Weathers (monawea) is the Founder of HerProBlog.COM, a website dedicated to helping women blog professionally.

thanks

cleverlyeleanor — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:47:09 -0500

I admit I'm unfamilar with WordPress so it's really not my place to compare. Seems like you have experience, and there's definitely a possibility that I'll make the move sometime in the future. I've also been checking out HerProBlog.com for marketing tips > I am excited for more suggestions to implement.

Thanks for checking out my site, I apprieciate it.

:: 3daintydelights.com

You did a great job with your Blogger blog

monawea — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:42:11 -0500

I think you did a great job modifying your Blogger blog. Blogger is a great place to start and I wasn't suggesting that is people should not use this platform.

I got started with Blogger and used it for over a year before I started using WordPress. As soon as I found out that self-hosted WordPress offered thousands more options in themes and plugins I decided to teach myself how to use it.

Many people don't like WordPress and never change over and that is perfectly fine as well. It has more has to do with preference and your blogging goals.

Thanks for commenting ;o)

Mona Weathers (monawea) is the Founder of HerProBlog.COM, a website dedicated to helping women blog professionally.

I didn't say Blogger was bad

monawea — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:23:10 -0500

Hi Bob,

I just want to be clear on some things. I didn't say using Blogger was bad. I said I didn't prefer it because you have less control. Yes, you can modify it as much as WordPress but you are basically at the hands of Blogger. A self hosted blog gives you more control.That being said Blogger is a great place to start and I usally recommend it to brand new bloggers.

I also never said my blogs are perfect. There is no hierarchy suggested. The main reason I wrote this article was to encourage people to think about how their blog might be viewed by other people. HerProBlog.COM is just one day old and I know it still needs improvement.

I am aware of the 12 logos on the site and have actually good reason why they are there and do plan on changing it in the near future.

The popup is nothing to be afraid of. It's just a reminder to subscribe to the blog. Many very well known respected blogs use popups. It only popsup on the first visit.

I do appreciate you letting me know about the confusion with the comment area. I plan to fix that as soon as possible.

Mona Weathers (monawea)is the Founder of HerProBlog.COM, a website dedicated to helping women blog professionally.

Re: Agreed

bobafifi — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:32:17 -0500

Hi Eleanor,

I think the gray is OK for the visited links, but some version of purple would be better from a usabiltiy point of view (though that probably would mean changing your current color scheme). Unless there's a compelling reason not to do so, sticking wth conventional link colors is my preference. One other thing is the splash page for http://3daintydelights.com -- I know these once were very popular but nowadays, I find them to be in the way. Would much prefer the redirect to go straight to the blog.

anyhow...

-Bob

Agreed

cleverlyeleanor — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:12:49 -0500

Thanks Bob, I totally agree with the link color suggestion. I think I am going to make them darker today. What do you think of the visited link color? It's light gray, which is difficult to read as well, but I want to differentiate it from the main text without having it another color. Don't want to get too color crazy (although I might already be there).

Eleanor

:: 3daintydelights.com

Re: Your Blog is Ugly - Do You Care? - 5 Reasons Why You Should

bobafifi — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:48:09 -0500

Hi Mona,

I just had a look at your blog and to be honest, I find it difficult to understand the hierarchy. There seems to be far too many uses of the logo on the home page (I count twelve), Firefox threw up a pop-up alert (not a good sign), and because the comment area below each post is equidistant to the post above, it's confusing which belongs to which. Nice idea for a site though.

-Bob

Re: Blogger

bobafifi — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:23:23 -0500

Hi Elanor,

Nice blog! The light green font you chose for your link color I find too hard to read, but other than that it works. FWIW, I've been a long time user of Blogger as well. One of the perks I've noticed about Blogger (maybe because it's a Google product), is that posts are indexed in Google very fast, often just minutes after I post them. That in itself is a big plus.

-Bob

Blogger

cleverlyeleanor — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:22:49 -0500

I do want to say that I just completed a redesign under Blogger and I have yet to find a single thing that you can do in WordPress or TypePad that you can't do in Blogger. There are so many possibilities with Blogger that people don't utilize because html or programs like CS3 scare them. And that's okay, but the Blogger format is so easy to work with that people can just adjust elements as they want to, without fear that they are going to be blog-less while they do so. I changed my template to mimic what I see on other WordPress sites and I think it works fine.

:: 3daintydelights.com {cleverlyeleanor.blogspot.com}

Blog Reviews and Blogger Interviews

monawea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:59:44 -0500

Nancy,
If you are interested in having your blog reviewed or being interviewed, please send requests to hpbinterviews[at] gmail [dot] [com] or hpbreviews[at] gmail [dot] [com].

That goes for everyone. Anyone interested in having your blog reviewed or having yourself interviewed send requests to those addresses.

Mona Weathers (monawea) is the Founder of HerProBlog.COM, a website dedicated to helping women blog professionally.

Wish I could go to BlogHer

monawea — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:48:08 -0500

I will not be coming to BlogHer this year even though it's in my home state. Hopefully I will be able to make it next year.

Mona Weathers (monawea) is the Founder of HerProBlog.COM, a website dedicated to helping women blog professionally.

Your Blog is Ugly - Do You Care? - 5 Reasons Why You Should Care About Blog Design

monawea — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:22:54 -0500

Like most people, I suffer from a few pet peeves. I don't like the sound of nails scratching on a chalk board. I don't like it when other people touch my feet. Pulp in orange juice is gross. And bad blog design really bothers me.

It could be that I am one of the few people on the net that actually get an unpleasant physical reaction from bad blog design but my reasons, I think, you will find valid.

Unfortunately in both offline as well as online worlds, there is still a lack of user friendliness and usability. We have all visited physical stores that, for reasons sometimes unknown to us, don't leave us with a good impression. The same is true in the virtual world.

Websites with scrolling and blinking text (web 1.0 popular) and advertisements on every inch of the site give most of us a bad impression. It's a bad sign when you have to sift through "junk" to find the real content. Blog design should compliment your blog niche and encourage focus on content.

I am a firm believer in good content. So don't get me wrong and think I think blog design takes precedence over good content. I do however think that blog content is a the second most important aspect of your blog. For clarification, when I say blog design I mean the look, feel and overall appearance of a blog.

5 Reasons Why You Should Care About Blog Design.

1. First Impressions: First impressions are key. Rarely do we get the chance to make a second impression, especially on the internet. If your blog looks disorganized, cluttered, over monetized, extremely plain, or even too much like other blogs it could give people an undesirable impression. Within the first five seconds a visitor is on your blog an impression is made. Sometimes a really bad design is all the reason they need to leave and never come back.

2. Pleasant Experience: You can offer your readers a good experience or frustrate them with hard to find content. We should make it our goal as web publishers to offer our readers a good experience. We should not only offer great content but also a pleasant experience.

3. Returning Visitors and Feed Readers: If your goal is to just acquire feed readers then the importance of good blog design may seem unimportant. But it is important. First of all you should want people to visit your blog. The traffic received from visitors can increase your income (if that is desired), reader awareness of links you include on your site and increase blog comments.

4. Branding: Whether you realize it or not we are all visual people. Some of us visualize a lot and others not as much but we all can visualize things in our minds. Think about this. What do people see when they visualize your blog?
Good blog design is far easier to remember than bad or plain designs. Your blog can be remembered for having the worst design ever but if that is your goal then you are surely taking away from your content. Help your visitors remember your blog by offering them a design that is worth remembering.

5. Set the Standard: Have you ever visited a neighborhood where all the houses on the block had nice landscaping except for one? The standard set for that neighborhood is to have nice landscaping. Since nice landscaping is a desirable feature the one house that does not have nice landscaping is not meeting the standard and is an eye sore.
Blog design is continuing to improve within the blogosphere. The standard is already being set. Don't let your blog be an eye sore. Improve your blog design.

My hope is that these five reasons will help you to understand how design and usability can effect how your visitors view your blog. Though the design of your blog is not more important than the content, design is very important and should not be taken lightly.

Mona Weathers (monawea)

Founder of HerProBlog.COM - Helping Women Create and Maintain Professional Quality Blogs