7 Useful Design Tips for Beginner Blogs

Bloggers and webmasters are always keen and worried about their blog’s design.They tweak the templates,change the colors,adjust the css and positioning and take every possible means to ensure that the blogs looks good in the eyes of the readers. But at some point of time the design and the feel of the blog can be really disturbing if you are committing design mistakes.If you are a beginner and have just started out , here are some useful design tips and suggestions to improve your blog’s design.

#1. Use a Clean and Simple Theme

The first thing you Do after you have started your blog is choose a theme. If your blog is hosted on WordPress or Blogger there are Plenty of themes to choose from. Just Google around for WordPress themes or blogger templates and you can get hundreds of Free themes that you can use in your blog.But before choosing a theme keep in mind that it should be simple and clean.

Do not use a theme with heavy graphics,eye catchy colors or Images. Sure they look ” fascinating ” but after some days they will start distracting your readers attention.If the reader is disturbed by your graphics or other design elements he wont stay in your blog to read your articles.Thus it is recommended to choose a clean and simple theme for your blog.

#2. Use White Background and Black text

How many blogs you have seen use a dark background ? Can you easily read the content or text on a Dark background ? Reading articles on blogs having a dark background can be really difficult at times and is not recommended.

Hence it is always advised to use White or a Light background and Dark or Black text.Users want to read your content and they do not visit your website to see the design skills you have.If you make things difficult for them they wont come back even the second time to read your articles.

#3. Keep the Main Attention on the Content Column

This one is no brainer and should be followed at all costs. You should keep the content column the main focus in your blog. The content column should be wide enough ( e.g 600px ).If you have a two column template keep the content column to the left and the sidebar in the right.
Also do keep in mind that the content should begin immediately after your templates header. SO start the content section as early as possible so that the user need not need to scrool all the way down to read your posts.

#4. Use Minimum Advertisements and Widgets

You should Avoid distractions at all costs.The most disturbing and distracting affair in a Blog is advertisements and widgets. So keep the advertisements to a minimum and if possible do not use them within your content.Using advertisements embedded within content makes it hard to read your article all together and readers may feel disturbed. Result : they will stay away from your blog and go elsewhere.

The same is true in case you are using too much of widgets in your sidebars.Using too many widgets will eventually slow down your blog and above all it takes the focus away from the main juice : your content.use widgets sparingly and use them only when you need them , not because it adds one more functionality in your blog.

#5. Use large Font size and Proper fonts

I have seen many blogs playing with their fonts every now and then and they think it looks “cool”.Believe me nothing can be more irritating than using obtrusive font styles. Choose between the standard fonts like : Arial,Verdana,georgia etc. and the size of your font should be more than 12 px (at least). Using low font sizes to save space is a crazy idea.It creates a very bad impression to your first time visitors.

#6. Avoid horizontal Scrollbars

Nobody will be interested if they have to use a horizontal scrolbar to read your articles and posts.You should take utmost care while designing your blog template so that there aren’t any horizontal scrolbars.The scrolbars may occur in differeent screen resolutions( e.g 800 X 600) which is unavoidable but in all other screen resolutions it is recomended to check and say No to scrolbars.

#7. Have a Unique Logo and favicon

The first thing that comes to a readers mind about any blog is its logo.A good logo creates a solid brand and makes your blog remembered in your readers minds and hearts. So create your own blog logo and make it unique. Don’t just use text to represent your blog’s name.

Similarly you should also try to create a favicon for your blog. A favicon is seen in the browser address bar , in RSS feeds and its again a style element that brings clarity and brand value in your blog.