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Putting It All Together and Adding Design {Smaller Bloggers}

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Recap

We’ve talked about building a tribe and serving other’s through blogging and social media. We’ve also touched on commenting and honing your writing skills. All of these elements help to build community (or a tribe). In order to maximize your efforts, the goal is to be active in all aspects.

The tricky thing about blogging is, if you aren’t writing something that’s worth reading, the community efforts can be in vain. People want to rally around leaders who have something of value to share. Time is such a precious commodity these days because everything is screaming for it. How can you earn the time of a reader? What makes it worth it for them to stop and read what you have to say?

You don’t want to just slap anything down on the screen simply so you can get a post out there. Creating content and putting it together in a unique way takes time. The question remains, are you willing to put that time in?

Something important to keep in mind is that your ideas don’t need to be original, they just need to be uniquely you. They need to be told from your perspective.

“Do people really want to hear from me, what some other blogger has already written? Does what I write really matter?” Yes! Because those who are reading your blog want your perspective; your experience.

Design

I want to touch on design just a bit. I’m not a designer, despite the fact that I designed my own blog and business site. It’s too tedious for me and very time consuming. I don’t know design programs well enough to utilize their tools to the fullest.

However, I have learned what’s important to know about design and blog lay out.

Keep it simple. Too many colors and too much busyness is an eyesore and takes away from your content. A blog design should invite the reader in and be an enhancement, not a focus.

This also includes elements/widgets in your sidebar. Less is more. Display only what is most useful for your readers.

It is recommended that your subscribe button/form be above the fold. Above the fold is simply the part of your blog that is visible before you scroll down. It’s the first thing your readers see when they come to your blog.

You can go to this neat stock photo site called Fotolia and purchase graphics and backgrounds inexpensively. Or you could hire a professional designer.

Whatever route you choose, keep it simple, yet unique.

What design woes or questions do you have?

 photo credit

Comments

  1. After a year of really intentional blogging, I finally feel like I know enough to realize how much I do not know. 🙂
    Here are my questions: 
    Do you use Aweber or Mailchimp for your email responder?
    Do you use or have you thought about using OptinSkin to encourage more readers to subscribe to your emails?

    I do love the joyful smiles and togetherness in the images at the top of your page. They just make me grin whenever I visit.

    •  Hi Kim!!
      I use Feedburner to send out my feed. But I’ve heard of people using MailChimp and connecting their feed to that.

      And I had not heard of OptinSkin until now! It looks fantastic!! I do have a footer at the bottom of each post inviting people to subscribe, but I like this! (See, I’m still learning, too!)

  2. Great advice, Christin. I have an instructional site for people who use Blogger, and one of the biggest problems I see with bloggers is that they don’t put their name anywhere! It makes it SO HARD for newcomers, and I’ve actually “hopped away” from sites that have no author info.

    So above the fold with the subscriber element/gadget/widget — a HEADSHOT and a NAME.

  3. Thanks Christin. I needed this today. I often have a thought rolling around in my heart and brain and before I get to it, I read someone else’s post on the exact same thing. My competitive nature screams “It’s too late! You missed your chance! She got there before you!” when really I should be encouraged that God is speaking the same word to multiple hearts. It’s actually confirmation that the Lord is speaking to me! Thank you for encouraging me to not roll over and die to that word, but to make it come alive to my readers, in my voice. 

    What program or tool do people use to attach their custom graphic header to emails that they send out? I would love to make my emails more visually directive. 

  4. Thank you Christin, good advice and something to think about.  I know all about keeping it simple, especially because my blog is Simply Better.  I still struggle with what content to put on the pages and keeping the page looking clean and simple.

  5. I love by the motto, “Less is more.” Especially when it comes to blog design! I try to keep everything simple and clean. I think we often design our blogs the way we decorate our homes. While lots of colors and stuff looks good in a large living room, it’s just clutter and eye distractions on the screen of a blog. Simple is a lot easier said than done, though.

  6. I like simple. 🙂 Same goes with my home. We don’t have a lot in our home but I decorate with big things to keep the simple look. 
    Just like with a blog, a huge pretty header and everything else falls into place. 

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