Today’s post talks about the importance of your weblog design and its over-all impact on your blog. This post also shares some simple, useful and practical tips that will help you improve your weblog design and help you generate more traffic to your blog.
Weblogs: Uses And Purposes
Weblogs have increased in popularity since it was first introduced. Many people have started to create their personal blogs to express their thoughts and feelings. Internet companies have also started their corporate weblogs to inform their customers and clients about their latest product news and reviews.
Because of this, blogs are also being used as internet marketing media. Before, internet marketing is done by placing banners and links on popular websites, such as news and information sites. Links were also included on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.
Many people spend time reading blogs. People read their friend’s blogs, their favorite author’s blogs, blogs on topics that they are interested in, and blogs on product reviews. With the increasing popularity of blogging, it is even feared that people rely on blogs over news companies (newspapers, television networks etc.) to get the latest news.
While getting news reports from blogs isn’t always reliable, some people look for product reviews through blogs. In some cases, this is more dependable. While it is true that some media persons are being paid to write good reviews about a certain product, blog writers write about their actual experiences on products and services from a company.
Since there are many people who read and start their own blogs, blogs are a good medium to market a product. With the increasing blog traffic means increase in product sales and ultimate… profit.
Weblog And Traffic
To increase your weblog traffic, there are several ways you can do to achieve this (i.e. SEO, exchange reviews, press release etc.). You can also have your blog advertised in popular websites like Problogger and Copyblogger. This, however, will cost some money and is not advisable if you have just started blogging. Start advertising when you have accumulate a considerable number of useful posts to make sure that your visitors have something to read.
Naturally, anyone who has just started his/her blog will want as much traffic as possible to increase advertisements and blog revenue. When you have increased traffic to your blog, you should try to keep you visitors coming back and continue improving your blog to ensure continuous traffic growth.
You can do this by offering informative, useful or amusing content presented in a good weblog layout and design. You may develop your blog’s content or you can pay for the services of a web content writer to provide you with the blog articles. This is only advisable when you are starting your blog to accumulate more posts to offer your visitors.
Your layout and design plays a crucial role in the overall impact of your weblog. While most of the companies offering free blog hosting services offer pre-selected templates/themes, there are also some that allows customization that if you utilize this feature correctly can increase your blog’s traffic.
Stand Out From The Crowd - Useful Weblog Design Tips
Here are some simple, useful and practical blogging tips to help you make your blog stand out from the crowd.
Customize Your Blog Banner
The banner usually has the most generic designs that are common to the blogs from a blogging company or service. You can personalize your banner by placing an image with the dimensions of the banner. You can also edit the graphic so that it will also include the title of your blog. You can combine graphics and text to improve the overall appeal of your blog header.
Alternatively, you can hire the services of freelance graphic designers online for as low as $10. If you have enough time, it is advisable that you try using free online image editors or just try to learn how to use Adobe. This will be useful in the long run, especially when you decide to go full time.
Personalize Your Images or Photos
Of course, most of the photos that you will be posting will be your own. However, if you don’t customize the photos before posting them, you may miss maximizing the enhancing benefits that graphics can add to your posts. Adding photo borders or watermarks can help the photo stand out from the page.
It can also add to the design of your blog. You can choose a standard border or you can also create your own border which can be best associated with your blog’s template or theme.
Use A Favicon
Don’t you think sites with icons on the address bar before the website’s URL are cool- Many people do. These favicons add a professional look to the URL. These can easily be done with less efforts. Here’s a simple guidelines of adding a favicon to your blog.
Spend Time To Look For The Right Template, Layout, Background, Texture and Skin For Your Blog.
There are tons of websites that offer free blog templates, layouts, backgrounds, textures and skins. You can make use of these so your blog will not look generic like most of the blogs pre-designed themes. Both Blogger and Wordpress users have a huge selection of free themes to choose from. You just need to spend time and be patient to look for one that you like.
Offer RSS Feeds To Your Visitors
RSS feeds (comment or post) are a cool way to inform your readers about the latest updates in your blog. Offering RSS feeds also help improve your blog traffic in the long run and as soon as you are able to accumulate a considerable number of readers, opportunity to monetize your blog improves as well. There are several tutorials on RSS feeds that are available online if you wish to learn more about it. Here’s an example to start with.
Personalize Your Weblog With Audio
Not only does audio personalizes your blog; it also keep your visitors coming back. You can try having streaming radio stations, mp3 file or play lists loading with your blog. Unfortunately, adding audio to your weblog is oftentimes annoying to most blog readers. You need to exercise extra caution when you decide to embed audios in your weblog.
Go Easy With Advertisements
If you have signed-up with Google Adsense, which I am sure you would most likely do, make sure that the ads are conveniently placed and that these will not hinder your readers’ ease in accessing the information on your blog. One of the common mistakes done by bloggers is to place too great emphasis on their advertisement, which oftentimes become obtrusive to their readers.
These are only a few of the things you can implement to improve the over-all impact of your blog. While these can be helpful to attract more readers and improve your blog traffic, there so much more you can do to achieve the same. Always remember that improving your blog and increasing your blog traffic is a continuous process that needs some efforts and investments.
What else can be done to improve a blog’s design, lay-out and traffic? Do share your other tips through the comment.
Thank you for your time. 
