Pro Blog Design

Comments are gold. There’s little a blogger loves more than to see a whole list of comments posted on his/her article. It’s great to know people want to engage with you, and they can add a lot to an article.

However, if comments are not done well, they can be difficult to read and follow, or even just downright boring.

What we’re going to do first is create a custom comment callback that allows us to specify the way the comments are output, then lay out the structure for the comment list and reply form, add extra functionality such as author-only styles, implement comment subscription options and spam protection, and, finally, we’ll add nice CSS styling to everything we’ve done.

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The blogosphere continues to expand almost on a daily basis, and as a web designer we often inform clients of the numerous benefits of attaching a blog to their site. It is always a great way to continuously update your readers as to what new developments are being made in your business and what to look for as they stick with you on this journey.

This in turn, keeps your site well trafficked by the online masses as new content is added on a regular basis. And while there are a plethora of points and elements that are vital when designing a blog, some take precedence over the others.

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Having a unique theme and adding personal touches to your blog is by no means a necessity, but it can really enhance and enable your site to stand out more among the blogosphere’s branded band of bloggers. Just like with any aspect of your brand, you want people to immediately make that association with you and your blog. This can easily be done with a custom design and the subtle injections of the person or persons that are behind the blog. If you are not in a position where you can create your own custom theme, do not fret, customizing a free or premium theme can work for your blog as well.

These attentions to detail tend to attract readers more than the impersonal feel that can be imparted by using a standard theme that lacks the personality and flavor of a customized one. So in this post, I have assembled 10 ways that you can easily adjust and tweak these details to give your site that distinctive edge that will help establish your blog’s presence. Start making your mark today to effectively strengthen your blog’s prominence, by working through the steps below.

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Wordpress is a great solution for creating blog, but that isn’t all it can do. The incredible power and simplicity of this platform allows you to create personal web pages or entire web sites in minutes, using all the functions of this environment with minimal effort.

With Wordpress, you can develop an entire professional web site (with or without a blog) even though you know just a little bit of HTML! Read on to see how.

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Downtime is one of those things that we all fear. Some of us have more reason to fear it than others though. A shabby downtime page can lose you valuable traffic.

A few hours ago I decided to check in on a promising new blog I discovered recently. I wanted to see how it was doing and the new content.

That is, until I read the homepage:

"We’ll be back very soon. Please hang in there."

That was the entire contents of the page.

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A few weeks ago I ran an offer where I would give 5 free tips on anyone’s blog’s design. The offer went down very well, and I’d like to share some of what I have learnt so far.

Every design is unique of course, however, there are some small flaws that I found to be common across quite a number of blogs.

The 5 Pointers

1. Take care with your logo. A fast-loading blog is important, but not everything is worth forsaking for its sake. In particular, a lot of bloggers have compressed their banner images to a point where pixelation around the letters is noticeable. Your logo is too important for this.

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In yesterday’s post I discussed how the design of a personal blog can be an enjoyable experience because of the many design freedoms it offers. The key with a personal blog design is to let your personality shine through.

There are a number of ways in which this can be done through your writing and commenting style, but it can also be done in your design. Listed below are just some of the different might use to go about making a design that little bit more unique.

• Header design. The blog’s heading is arguably the best place to be creative. Let your heading reflect who you are. What are your hobbies and interests? Why not put photos of them in your header?

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