Taking your blogging seriously means taking your design seriously
There are a lot of great blogs out there, strong voices, up and coming leaders in niches, and superb content. Bloggers who really reaches out to their readers, makes an impact, and gains while doing so - be it actual ad or sales revenue, getting spinoff gigs or services, or just by building the brand.
It still baffles me that so many great blogs look like shit.
It baffles me even more that they look like shit because they still use some free crappy theme with a hacked logo at best.
Don’t get me wrong here, there’s a bunch of great free WordPress themes out there. However, most aren’t good, and besides, the whole point of changing from Kubrick with the rounded corners (or whatever’s the default one in your blogging platform of choice) to something else, is of course to distinguish the blog.
You can’t do that if you’re one in a million.
Great content and great voices need at least a decent design, otherwise you’re just obstructing your own brand. I get it that not everyone can afford to hire me, for instance, but there are designers charging less as well. Although the old truth still applies in many (most?) cases - you get what you pay for - what you get is still a great leap forward in terms of managing your brand.
Even if it’s just hacking a decent free theme beyond recognition, bending it to your will, and adapting it for your brand, it’s still a necessary step forward for your brand. You could do it yourself, if you’re so inclined, but chances are you’re just making it worse, with a theme hack that looks amateurish and crappy. Still, it shows you care, and that’s something.
If you’re serious about your blogging, you need to be serious about your design as well. It’s a symbiosis, content and design, and you want to care for both.
Related reading:
I couldn’t agree more!! and if anyone out there needs design services.. let me know!!! [wisdump edited this comment by deleting unrelated links]
By Jesse Thomas on November 14, 2007 9:14 am
Thanks Jesse.
A piece of advice. Posting comments on blog is a great way to get both visitors and potential clients, but doing spammy comments with unrelated links isn’t. Actually, most people get pissed off by it.
I’ve written a blog post on tooting your own horn. Check it out.
By Thord Daniel Hedengren on November 14, 2007 10:27 pm
This post is awesome. I know so many awesome bloggers that really love their designs… but they fall short & I have to read them in feed view (because it hurts my heart). Cool concepts that just don’t adhere to the principles of design. Most of the time it’s not the overall look and feel, but the typography and layout that kills it. There are tons of nice WordPress themes out there but only a few with nice type. A great starting point for any blogger is to start with one of these and then modify it. Not everyone can afford a designer, but some small improvements can really go a long way. Oh.. and keep it simple.
By Samantha Warren on November 26, 2007 5:23 pm
Most blogs look like crap because 99.9999% of the bloggers out there aren’t designers, don’t know the first thing about design, and just want to write. I agree that the more professional your blog look the more seriously you’ll be taken, but that hasn’t stopped some blogs (like Atrios or Scoble for example) from becoming very popular with less-than-professional-looking blogs.
In blogging, the writing is the thing. Yes, putting it in a nice wrapper is advisable, but not the first thing you should worry about. You should worry first about finding your voice and turning blogging into a habit. Once you’ve done that, then invest in a design.
By Kevin Lawver on November 26, 2007 6:18 pm
Playing devils advocate — it depends on the purpose and nature of the blog; like with most things, it just depends!
A blog can either be a business asset or a personal outlet –for many people, a blog is a self-expressive outlet. A blog’s design should be reflective of the person. A blog design (much like a MySpace design) is more like a highschool “TrapperKeeper” than a resume cover letter. Sometimes is the perceived ugliness, chaos and clutter that actually define the blog in the first place.
It baffles me that it baffles you that so many blogs look like shit. Go to a parking lot sometime and see how little people care about the care/shape of their vehicle (probably one of the most expensive purchases they make) — or just people watch in a crowded mall one day — don’t you ever wonder, “did that person even look in the mirror when they left the house”?
I am a designer — so it pains me when I see ugliness on the web, but sometimes you just have to try and understand the perspective of the publisher.
By Martin Ringlein on November 27, 2007 6:17 am
Thanks to the joys of syndication, I could care less that your blog looks “like shit”, because the first time I visit and I deem your content worthy of my time, I’m simply going to click the RSS icon and enjoy it in my news reader, where it will look exactly the same as everyone else’s site. I’d wager that many of the sites I’ve followed for years have redesigned multiple times with me none the wiser since I never open them in my browser.
Of course, if you only give me partial feeds, then I’ll get irritated and delete you, forgetting you ever existed…but thats another discussion.
As Kevin said, its about the content. Design - in my book - is secondary, if not tertiary.
By s.g. chipman on November 27, 2007 6:59 am
Content is, as Kevin said, king, but sometimes the design of a site is a large piece of what constitutes its content. If you’re a designer, and your blog looks like garbage, that reflects on your ability to create.
If not, then a standard look to your blog will probably work quite well. There’s some degree of importance in having your site NOT look like every other site, just for sake of helping your blog stick in the minds of first-time readers, but that is certainly secondary.
On the other hand, if you intentionally add things to your blog that make it ugly, load slowly, and distract from the content (read: most widgets), it calls your taste into question.
By M. Jackson Wilkinson on November 27, 2007 8:23 am