5 Tips to Help Make Your Blog Simple & Slick
2 Comments Published by Terrace Crawford on 4/2/11 at 12:01 PM.
I get asked to critique blogs all the time. While I don't consider myself an expert... I certainly enjoy the work I do and know what has worked for me. If that makes me an expert, I'll take the title.
Today I'll offer 5 tips that I think will help you make your blog simple and slick:
1. Pick a theme: What do you think my primary colors are for my blog? Take a look. I've got 3 primary colors running on my blog. This is something that people notice. Your colors and theme should be consistent on your site.
2. Customize it: Branding yourself is important. One way to do this is by customizing your site in simple, yet slick ways. I started doing this by just customizing my header. Make sure people know WHO they are reading. I visited a blog yesterday and it took me 7 clicks (count 'em - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) clicks to find out WHO was the author\contributer to the blog.
3. Go BIG: If you have 14 different fonts on your blog that's 13 too many. Try to stick with one primary font. Additionally, if you want readers to find your blog easier to read just increase the font size a bit. The font size on my blog use to be so small. Then I learned that people really like larger fonts! Go big or go home. Wait... that doesn't work here. Or does it?
4. Keep it simple: Keep your blog posts short. Don't clutter your site. Use readable fonts. Run with a stripped down layout. These are things that make your blog simple... and simple is best. Recently a well-known leader asked me about my blog. He said of the blogs he reads he likes mine the best. I quickly asked "why?!" (especially after he named off the blogs in his reader). He replied "your blog is simple."
5. Make it slick: My favorite blogs to read are those who mix it up a little. I do this on my blog also. Often you'll read a text post, sometimes you'll view a video, and occasionally you'll see pictures or slick graphics on my blog. Whatever you do... just make sure its organized... and visually appealing. Feel free to mix things up... just remember that slick is the keyword. Make it simple and slick!
Labels: design, social media, Technology
Love the post. I'm sure these are only 5 tips of 1,000 you have!
Question for ya: You gave measureable numbers in the first three tips and nothing in the second two. So "what is short/simple?" and "how much variety in posts is enough/excessive?" I'd love the experts opinion.
Great stuff!