The Importance of a Good Blogging Template

I absolutely hate it when I go to a web site or blog only to be disgusted by the design of the site. There are sooooo many sites out there that hurt my eyes to look at, and this obviously has a negative effect on the reader. I, as well as many other readers, click away from the site as soon as possible, so as not to get a headache. Which brings up the point that it is very important to have a nice looking blog.

So how do you get a nice looking blog? – Well if you want an idea of what I think is a nice template/blog, then you can look at Teen College Education.org.

This design is simple and easy to read. A very important factor is the specific colors that are used; they are gentle on the eyes. Vibrant colors are bad. Next, the layout is simple.

I have the posts right under the header with a sidebar on the left. What one puts in the sidebar is always up to the specific blogger, but I have some popular posts, categories, and advertisements.

There are a few other things, but these are the most important, because they lie above the page break. That means that the reader does not need to scroll down at all to see these boxes; they get the most views. With this knowledge it is important to put the most important elements of your blog above the page break.

Next, having a navigation bar helps a lot with aiding readers. I cannot stress how important it is to have a navigation bar! I have gone to sites that lacked this element and had to manually go through each page in order to find what I wanted. People are lazy!! The less you make them work, the better turnover you will get from them. A nav bar does not have to be anything complicated, but just make sure that it is effective and easy to use.

Most importantly, be organized. It is impossible to find anything on a blog or web site that is not organized. A good template will help organize all of the material that is on it. Blogger, WordPress, and other blogging platforms provide standard templates for bloggers which are all great.

There are other websites which also can make custom templates for a price. I found mine for Teen College Education.org on Google for free. There are a few links at the bottom of the page that go back to the original site, but it is a fair price to pay.

So if you want to attract readers, have a nice looking website/blog!

-Andy

Please check out my blog at http://teencollegeeducation.blogspot.com/. You might get some ideas!

Let me know what you think and comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

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3 Tips for Designing An Effective Website

Content is king there is no doubt about this content is what drive traffic to our blog. However there is another aspect of our blog that we need to pay attention to.

The Design whether or website is for fun or money making we need to give some thoughts to the design of the website. This can make or break the success of the website.

Before you digest this post I must remind you that I am not a professional web designer. I am just a simple self proclaim blogger who shares his experience and knowledge with his fellow bloggers.

Here are some simple tips you need to remember when creating an effective design.

(1) Structure: The format serves as a good design making sure that your content is well organized. Your readers will appreciate and understand this. This can be done by using wireframes and grids. This will give your website a consistent look and feel and also saves you design time.

(2) Content: This simply applies to the information that will make your subscribers easily understand what you are saying and what your website or blog is about. Mainly in order to satisfy your readers you have to come up with a content that will provide them all the information they need. Having well said and explained information will help you to turn out your readers into subsequent subscribers. Or if you are selling a product to make them become buyers.

(3) Navigational structure: This is very important as this allows the users to navigate their way through the entire website. A visitor should never find it difficult to find their way around your blog. All pages should lead back to your main page. Your readers should never be lead away from your website or get trapped while trying to navigate around it.

When designing your website always design with your visitors in mind. Although it is important that we design to be found by the search engines. The user must always be at the forefront of the project.

Another good idea is to limit the amount of graphics. A high amount of graphics can make your website loading slower. This can be a turn of for your visitors.

Follow these tips and if you find them very difficult there are always the possibilities of hiring a professional web designer.

Now it’s your turn feel free to share your comments and suggestion your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Gary Lawood popular known on the internet as Lawmacs and his blog is Lawmacs.com. He is a full time dad and full time employee working as a Retail Unit Manager with a diploma in computer studies.
You can follow Lawmacs on Twitter @lawmacs and on Facebook.

Stay tuned and subscribe to my blog via RSS to get more great posts like this one. Your comments and ideas are welcome! Please leave them below in the comment section.

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40 Premium WordPress Themes for FREE

I came around this wonderful resource for WordPress themes on problogdesign.com which you can download, customize if you like and use for FREE.

These templates include such useful features like:

• flickrRSS Plugin support
• feedBurner subscribe via email support
• A lot of advertising spots (125×125, 120×600, 300×250)
• Integrated banner ad management;
• customized gallery page
• Social Bookmarking Options
• And much more …

Check them out here and I wish you a lot of fun with this enormous count of high quality templates to choose from!

Stay tuned and subscribe to my blog via RSS to get more great posts like this one.

Your comments and ideas are welcome!

Please leave them below in the comment section.

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The Importance of Blog Design

Blogs have increased popularity over this past months. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their blogs to inform consumers on the latest product news and reviews.

Blogs are also being used as internet inbound marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.

A lot of people spend their time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs to get the latest news.

While getting news reports from blogs isn’t reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.

One of this services which bring together the blogger and the advertises is BlogAdMonky.com BlogAdMonkey.com is a blog review service that connects advertisers with bloggers willing to write paid posts about their services and products and increase website traffic.

Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product.  With the increasing blog traffic means a possible increase in product sales.

The blog traffic can be increased by joining affiliate programs and sites, which will list your blog under a certain search category or name.  You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites like Google AdWords or AdBrite.  This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging.

A writer who has just launched his first blog want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements on the site.  Also, some advertisers pay every time their link is clicked or the page that has their link is viewed.

When you have increased traffic on your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and recommending your blog to friends and colleagues. This can be done by having informative or amusing content and good blog layout and design.  You may develop your blog’s content or you can also acquire the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles.

If you use WordPress than you can go here to select and download a WordPress template for FREE http://www.wordpresstemplates.com/

The blog’s layout and design also plays a big role.  While most of the companies offering free blog hosting offer pre-selected templates, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.

Here are a few tips to make your blog stand out from the millions of blogs out there that have standard designs.

Customize the banner

The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize this banner by having a graphic with the dimensions of the banner.  You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog. In this case, you can create your own graphic or you can purchase professional looking graphics online for less than $10.

Personalizing photos

Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own.  However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits graphics can add to the page.  Adding photo borders can help the photo stand out from the page. It can also add to the design of your blog.  You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be associated with your blog’s templates.

Add a favicon

Don’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL are cool?  Many people do.  These favicons add a professional look to the URL.  These easy to do using photo or graphic editing softwares.

Check out blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins from sites

There are sites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins.  You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs hosted by the service provider.

Include RSS feeds

This is a cool way to inform people with newsreaders about your blog headlines.  Tutorials on RSS feeds are available on the internet.

Audio makes your blog more personal

Not only does audio personalizes the blog; it can also keep your visitors coming back.  You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or playlists loading with your blog.

Advertisements

If you have signed-up with Google Ad-Sense, which I am sure you would like to do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog.

Try using these tips and you can definitely increase and retain traffic on your blog.

Best wishes,

Dragan Mestrovic

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