Pro Blog Design

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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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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Blogging Bits is the blogging advice site run by Mohsin. What sets Blogging Bits apart from the hundreds of other meta blogs is the style he writes in.

You won’t find another site quite like it. If it suits your tastes, you may find his advice more interesting to read than some of the more dry alternatives.

The blog was redesigned not long ago, and his comments here have certainly earned him a review, so here goes.

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We’ve talked a fair bit about personal blog design this week. Conveniently I came across a fantastic personal blog yesterday, by Yichi from Beijing. The design of his blog, Vikiworks, is one that all personal bloggers could pick up tips from.

What Has Been Done Well?

• Personal elements. The header and left hand side of the blog contain a wealth of information about Yichi, all wrapped up in the design. The PSP? Apple logo? Yankee’s hat? Even the date of his birthday! It all tells you a little more about who Yichi is, and what his interests are.

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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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In the hubbub of blogging advice and tips, personal blogs often get overlooked. Business blogs seem to take all the attention, even though there are a good deal more personal blogs than business ones online. This seems to have extended into design advice as well but let’s change that.

What makes personal blog design unique?

To answer this, ask yourself: what makes a blog a personal blog? The answer: anything and everything! Your personal blog can be whatever you want it to be. It’s yours. The level of freedom you have with your content is unparalleled and that same level of freedom extends into your blog’s design.

That is what makes personal blog design unique.

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Image by Thiru Murugan There are some obvious dangers to using a template, like malicious coding and such, but there is another, not so obvious danger. What if your template causes your blog to vanish into the blogosphere? What if it makes you boring?

The very best looking template in the world is the very worst template you can use, because everyone else is already using it. If your blog does not stand out from the dozens of others in your niche, how will your readers remember you? And if they do not remember you, why will they come back?

The key to successfully using a template is to make it your own. The great thing about a template is that the bulk of the work is already done, but the finishing touches are still up to you. You need to make enough adjustments to make your version clearly distinguishable from the original.

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