What Is A Good WordPress Blog Design?
What would you think of your blog if it were the first time visiting it? Often, this is a question you should ask yourself, but I know all to well that it’s really hard to make a good decision about what you think and be consistent with what others think. From time to time, there is nothing wrong with asking your readers what they think about your current blog design.
You can even go so far as to create a poll that has a serious of questions that allows users to offer their opinions by choosing answers from multiple choice questions. Another idea is to simply write a post on your blog asking readers for their direct opinions in the comments.
Whatever method you use, encourage your readers to speak freely and also be prepared to grow some thick skin. Bloggers are usually very open with their thoughts and tend to not sugar coat things. Also, it’s a great idea to ask your readers to expand on their thoughts. While you’ll receive quite a huge share of comments or responses that say, “yeah, it’s a cool blog dude” or, “man your blog sucks!” it would benefit you to reply back and ask them to explain more.
The important part is even though the information isn’t very detailed, you did make a connection with that reader and asking them to expand further will more likely result in them doing so. With that being said here are a few blogs that I think have some really cool blog designs.
RyanShamus.com
Visit www.ryanshamus.com
CourtneyTuttle.com
visit: www.courtneytuttle.com
FullTiltBlogging.com
Visit: www.fulltiltblogging.com
Why Do I Like These Blog Designs
Look at it this way. None of these are going to win prizes for being the most well designed. Well, Court’s may… but that’s besides the point. My focus here really isn’t in cosmetics. While that is defiantly something of importance, I believe that there is something even more important. That is presenting the information that you feel is most important to your readers. All three of these designs do that.
With RyanShamus.com, within just a few seconds of visiting the site, you know exactly what he is about and what he can do for you and what you need to do to become part of his blog. With CourtneyTuttle.com, same thing… it is clear as day what Courtney is about and what action I need to do to get involved with being in kept in the loop. Lastly, FullTiltBlogging.com, I have actually used this same theme before successfully in the past. It’s a very clean, simple and well designed theme.
For Aaron, it fits his needed perfectly. There isn’t anything flashy and shiny that interferes with what Aaron values as being important to showcase to his readers. Aaron is recruiting and wants to build an empire of followers – which I might add he is doing very well with that – so that he can teach them what it is he wants to teach. His blog does a great job displaying what he does and how to get involved.
Whatever your objective may be with your blog, whether you’re trying to get people to sign up for a subscription form, click an advertisement or buy a product. You have to showcase the items or sections that are important to you.
One thing that you should not do is overwhelm your readers with too many options. If you have too many options you’ll spread your blog traffic too thin and create a situation that will be hard for you to analyse. Make your designs pretty but also keep it simple.
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6 comments
This is an excellent post. I’m new to the blogging world, and new to wordpress so consequently I see myself doing some serious working and reworking on a proper wordpress theme.
This is a good reference for me to look at while I am creating/editing my design as I approach what will soon be my final product.
Thank you for the great post.
To the general public:
“If you don’t like Garry Conn’s homepage design… wait five minutes.” \grin/
Garry, you’ve done it again, another winner!
You better can this one and offer it because I need it for one of my sites. Very cool!
Thanks.
Rich
LinkMoney.org
HI Garry,
While mentioning blog themes don’t forget about your SEOAdMax design. I have switched a number of my financial related blogs to it and it looks like it is going to work out really well.
My CTR rate has jumped to the 5.00% to as high as 10% range. The design is very clean with ads above the fold that blend in really well with the pages. Its a great design for the type of niche blogs that make up the bulk of my portfolio.
Thanks for the use of SEOAdMax. I’ve only used it for a few days but it sure looks like a winner.
I like the bloggingpro theme which fultiltblogging uses too however its very common for tech and blogging advice type blogs so it makes it more difficult for your blog to stand out in my opinion.
I’ve relaunched a few designs with my blogs and its clear that many people have different tastes on what is a good design and what isnt. Some like dark color schemes, some like light, some are happy with themes that are plastered with ads while others are not.
The big mistake I see new bloggers make time and time again is squashing their main content area up so thats unreadable just so they can fit in more ads and clutter in their sidebar.
I agree, I think tweaking and finding the perfect theme is one of the most important aspects of the blog. And like you said, it’s not just cosmetics, but how the information is presented.
I am still tweaking and always searching for that perfect theme. I need it to be functional and not too noisy, allowing me to put the focus on the content or actions I want to highlight.
@ Garry,
Thanks for the mention. I appreciate it!
@Kevin,
Thanks for pointing out many use the same theme I do. I have some ideas for a custom theme that will fit better with my goals–maybe it’s time to take that off the back burner and have someone create it for me!
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