Blog design has come on by leaps and bounds lately, but it's left one blogger wondering if we should be focussing quite so much on our blogs' beauty versus their personality. Emily, who blogs at Baby Rambles (@babyrambles), writes:
Blogs are improving their looks. When I started blogging a few yeas ago, most of the blogs I read had an amateurish layout like mine. My blog still has that amateur look, but many out there have smartened up. And with the huge amount of themes and looks available to download into your blogging software now, it can be a full-time job just keeping up with the latest templates and widgets and making your blog look perfect.
I’ve come across a couple of new bloggers recently who are very concerned about how their blog looks. This is understandable when you see the high standard of some of the popular blogs. One thing I’ve learnt in blogging (and parenthood) is patience, I’m not sure you can have a perfect looking blog immediately. And I don’t think it’s the most important thing either.
I’m not saying a blog’s appearance doesn’t matter. If you use a strange font or a nauseating colour scheme, then people are unlikely to hurry back. But the most important thing on your blog is your content.
Good content is highly subjective and it could be words, photos, videos or whatever you want to put on there. You know your content is working when people read your blog posts and comment now and again. This is a sign people are connecting with what you’re producing. It’s hard to consistently come up with something people want to read, all of us suffer from “blogger’s block” from time to time. However we’re all quite short of time and I think the time spent on your blog is much more worthwhile if you’re putting content first, then appearance.
It may surprise a few new bloggers to find out that some people will read your blog but not actually visit it. By subscribing to your blog people can read your posts and see your photos via their e-mail or a reader, they don’t actually visit your site and marvel at that sparkly new blog header you were tinkering with until 1am. They will read your posts if they like what you’ve come up with that day.
By all means work on your blog’s look and layout. You can also call on the services of the ever-helpful Liz of Violet Posy for a blog makeover. There are other professional designers out there who can help too. But it’s no use having the best-looking blog in the blogosphere if you can’t think of anything to put on it or if no one knows it’s there.
My advice to new bloggers worrying about their blog’s appearance is to start with a simple, clean, easy-to-read template and then spend your time blogging. Read other blogs and connect with other bloggers. Then when your blog’s more established you can have a re-think about how you want it to look. Or you could just continue with the amateurish look just as I’ve done!
-Emily is a mum of three who blogs at Babyrambles.
Photo: 1982 Miss Blackpool Heat by JohnBurke via Flickr Creative Commons license
About Jennifer Howze
Jennifer Howze is the Creative Director and co-founder of BritMums. She blogs about family travel at Jenography.net, tweets at @JHowze and Instagrams at @JHowze. Previously, she wrote the Alpha Mummy blog at The Times and as a journalist has contributed to The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, The Wall Street Journal, Travel & Leisure, Budget Travel, CNN.com, Allure, SELF and Premiere, among others. She won The Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Federation of America for a health article in Seventeen magazine.
Mañana Mama
Saturday 19th of March 2011
Thanks for this post Emily - I'm really happy to see this voiced. As a design doofus, I have no alternative but to focus on content. Also, as a non-commercial blogger with limited time, if I don't focus on writing there will NEVER be any new posts! In this position, it does get easy to feel left behind though, so I'm really pleased to see an apology for content - thanks. The way I see it, my favourite blogs are like books written in instalments, so the design should perhaps augment but never interfere with the delivery of the content (and the voice of the thing). ~M
Kelly
Saturday 19th of March 2011
I'm that person you mention, I read all of the blogs I follow via google reader on my phone and only visit the blog if I want to leave a comment. So the only ones I see are the ones that have written something that has engaged me enough to want to comment. Then I might notice how beautiful it is!
Deer baby
Friday 18th of March 2011
I agree that content matters first and foremost but I do think looks matter too, or at least something that's easy to navigate. Personally I'm put off by lots of bling and umpteen badges and distractions but that's just me. I'll keep coming back for good content. I'm due a makeover but haven't got round to it yet.
Becky (MummyNotes)
Friday 18th of March 2011
I do agree that content is key to a successful blog (or any site for that matter), but I do think it's important for your pages to look tidy at least. I've seen too many blogs where things are all over the place, with widgets and plugins breaking sidebars because they're too wide or a horrible mish-mash of colours distracting me from the content. If a blog looks too messy I don't like to stick around, which could be a shame because the content might be fantastic. I do try to see past such things initially, but it means the content has to impress me quickly or else I'll give up. Maybe I'm being a bit harsh, but I'm a very design-focussed person so it perhaps stands out to me more than the average reader.
Crystal Jigsaw
Thursday 17th of March 2011
I agree; good content is what brings the readers back not the design. I've visited some horrendous looking blogs recently, pink background with stars, stripes, spots, all different colours, flashing, and they take absolutely ages to get on the blog itself. You can hardly read what they write because of all the interference around the sidebars. I'd much rather click on a well written blog with nice photos and good content, than one that's colourful, imaginative, full of links with rubbish content. CJ xx