Ways to Improve Your Blog – Design and Appearance

We all know that looks count. It is especially true when it comes to blogging. People will instantly make a decision about your blog as soon as they see the first page. So what can you do when it comes to design and appearance?

This is Part 2 in an eight part series from the article 99 Ways to Improve Your Blog from the blog Traffic to Your Blog written by Steinar Arason. Please check out all of the posts in this series: Content, Design & Appearance, Functionality, Marketing, SEO, Networking, Subscribers and Making Money.

Change Themes

When was the last time you changed your blog theme? If you use WordPress there are thousands of free themes that are available to use. Give your blog a fresh new look by finding a new and improved theme.

Buy a Premium Theme

If you are interested in upgrading your theme and you’re willing to spend $50 – $100 to do so, a premium theme may be a good choice. With premium themes you get a well-designed and highly functional theme, plus the support of the designer.

Pay for a Custom Design

Stepping up a notch from a premium theme, you could pay a designer to develop a customized theme just for your blog (or you could design one yourself). If you are serious about making money from your blog, this may be your best move.

Get a Logo Designed

Another way to enhance the look of your blog without going through a re-design or buying a new theme is to simply add or improve the logo. You can run a competition at a forum to have designers compete for your money, or if you are willing to pay more for a better product you could hire a professional logo designer.

Use Images in Posts

One easy way to improve the visual impact of your posts is to include images. You can use the advanced search at Flickr to find photos under the creative commons license, or you can pay a few dollars for an image at places like iStock Photo and Stock Xpert .

Change Your Color Scheme

Another way to give your blog a fresh look is to change up the color scheme. This can be a pretty simple process that only involves some changes to your CSS file. If you need some help finding the right color scheme, visit COLOURlovers or Color Schemer .

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Design and Appearance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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