Are you going mad ?
Designing and redesigning your blog?
What do you do ,with your blog first?
Should you have a blog facial first?
Maybe a hair spa would be better.
Chatting with my BFFs I realized we all love our blogs ,to look pretty.
It’s where you are everyday.
It’s your face in the digital world.
It’s obvious you want that glow.
Head to toe of your blog
Content
Traffic
Appearance
The courses about “how __made six figures on 6 days is making you depressed.
News flash.
Everyone is on the same boat.
Trying to know the secret sauce to make the perfect Blog.
If something has worked for you.
Will it work for me?
Nobody really knows it all.
Blogging is a reflection of life itself.
You have your strengths .
Some weaknesses.
But everyday when you get up remember 3 things
1)Your own self hosted blog is your online real estate.That’s Big
It’s huge !
It’s a piece of the internet which you own.
Not a renter.It’s yours forever ,if you want it to be.
It’s your chance at digital immortality.
2)Doing it the right way .A basic framework.
Some rules are same.
Valuable content
Traffic
Monetization
This is behind 90 % of blog dreams.
Time is precious.
If you want the best use of your time don’t constantly fidget with your blog.
We all do it .We waste entire days changing themes, colours and fonts.
It’s like online shopping.
Addictive.
Not productive .
But after saying all this ,I still wrote this post.
The number one reason was:
The answer my blogger friends gave.
Simple question .
What’s the one thing you need help with on your blog?
Mayuri was bang on
“How to dress up your blog” making it aesthetically appealing .”
The million dollar answer.
Aesthetics!
Women love pretty blogs .
Samjoth says
-
Blog attire
-
Blog logo
-
Blog colours
-
Blog layout
-
Blog design
-
Blog theme
This is the difference between “what a man wants & what a woman wants”.
Interestingly both want the same.Only in different words.
I decided to find out the secrets behind a “glowing blog “.
Copybloggers ,Pinch of yum and Amylynnandrews.com are popular blogs .
Have a look at their blog design.
From top to toe this is my” Blog to Beautiful ” :Part 1 ,in my mompreneurs blogging journey.
Step 1
Set up your mood board for the blog.
It will have the colours for your blog.
Make a secret Pinterest board to pin all your favourite blog pics.
Then see what you like most about each if them.
Is it the colours?
The fonts ?
The graphics everything?
Step 2
Get a great theme
My favourite free themes are twenty sixteen , Easy Blog,Oslen.
Check out this amazing resource for free responsive themes.
Before August 2016 I had no paid theme.God had other plans .
Pat Flynn gifted his amazing ,SPI Pro theme in August to me.Life changed.
How my blog looks now with the SPI theme
While choosing a theme :
Is it for a blog ?
Or a business website
This survey says bloggers are the third most trusted source of information .We come right after friends and family .
If that’s the case we have tremendous responsibilities .
3 things which are most important for your blog theme:
#It should be simple
#It should be mobile responsive .
This can’t be ignored at any cost.
#It should work across all browsers.
Want to know more?
Be careful you remember about colour and psychology.
Women like Blue purple green.
Men like Blue Green and black
Pink is a safe colour
You are safe with blue and green it seems .
Plus these colours show authority and trust.
But when it comes to food blogs,blue is a strict no no.
Read about it here
How to Use the Psychology of Color to Increase Website Conversions
5 Cs of Blog design
- Clean
- Clear
- Capital
- Consistency
-
Color
While choosing colour we steal from interior designer tricks.After all your blog is no less than prime real estate.
The rule of 60-30-10
Primary colour 60%
It should cover most of the blog space which is visible.
Secondary colour 30% It should be creating a visually striking contrast to the primary colour.
10% is the accent colour.It’s role is to complement either of the other two.
But what if you want more colours?
.It’s your blog after all.There’s no style police around.
But the more colours you have.
The more distraction it creates from your content.
The heroine is always the content.
The rest is supporting elements.
The trick is to create a cohesive theme for your blog .
Want to define a particular area?
Use different shades of your top 3 colours.
Background dark or light ?
Try reading a blog with a dark background and light fonts .
Then one with a white background and black fonts.
The second one is easier.
The best way to make your blog float ,is to have lots of white spaces.
Avoid the long text blocks .
Break it up into readable chunks .
Read this 10 Blog design dos and don’ts
You have a theme and a colour scheme .
Now what ?
What do you need next for your brand?
Step 3
You need a favicon.
It’s that square thingy ,which shows in the browser when a website is open.
You need a favicon because it’s your brand identity .
It can also be your logo .
It should be unique to your brand.
You should have it copyright protected.
I am still confused about what I want here .So I use my face as a favicon .You can see my peeping on your browser .
That takes care of unique and copyright for now.
Tina and me are gifting our Thankful Thursday
first prize winner a custom favicon for her blog .
Your blog is your online face.People unfortunately do judge a book by its cover.
Hope these tips help you on the way to a better blog design
Takeaway
So this weekend do 3 things
Check your blog theme .
Is it ticking all the boxes.
Get your colour codes and mood board ready.
Make a custom favicon for your site.
Next week some more info to make your blog beautiful .Inside out.
Stay Thankful .Stay happy.
I am blogging daily throughout November with #NaBloPoMo
(The featured image is by Chaitra of pink pot. )
This was the featured post at Bloggers Pitstop