Things to Consider When Designing and Working with Your Blog
Hi, have you ever heard, ‘simple is more’ or ‘keep it simple’? These are my golden rules I try to live by and work.
Link Up Parties has provided me the opportunity to visit other blogs. Not every blog is the same. Although there are similarities. The following are my observations and experiences while visiting other sites. Although I am just one person/visitor, others may have the same experiences. A perspective a blog owner should consider.
The blogs I enjoyed the most were simple and minimal. Those attracted me and the content kept my attention. I personally can be easily distracted. Pop up’s and advertisements right in the middle of a blog post was a huge distraction. My tendency would be to skip thru the article, just to get to the comment section to say hi and add my name and website address. Some of the comment sections required me to log into WordPress.com or Blogger or even into Google to add my comment. I don’t use either of those services. The blogs that had this requirement, I did not leave a comment.
Bigger, darker text is easier to read. Simple menus make navigating through the blog a better experience.
Part of having my blog is to meet other bloggers. One of the pages I enjoy going to is the about page. I like to know who I am visiting. For safety reasons, I understand why one would not like to give out too much information. However, a first name would be nice. Have a ‘blog’ name. Please be realistic. For example, my name is, Debra. I could have used Diane. For children, a name other than the real name, but please, don’t use x, y or z child!
Having a contact page is important. The blogs that required a sign in to comment, I would instead reach out to the blog owner using their contact page letting them know I enjoyed their site. I did not want to be one who link up and not thank the hostess.
A home or blog page for posts in chronological order is very user friendly. When I visit the links on a link up party, I will go to look at the about page. After reading about the owner, I like to go back to the linkup party. Without a simple navigation menu with a home or blog page, some sites posed a real challenge to return to the party.
Nice images are important to have. No need to buy a fancy camera. Phone camera’s can take beautiful pictures. However, pay attention to lighting, composition, sharpness. Quality images will add a professional element to your website.
I understand some blogs are an income source and need to generate revenue. The sites I appreciate are the ones who used the footer and/or side bar to place the advertisements. Pop ups are very distracting. Consider placing the Subscribe Form in the side bar or at the bottom of the page.
Good customer service and common courtesy. Should a post engage with visitors visiting and commenting, return the favor and click the link in your admin section to their page and leave a kind word!
Things to Consider When Designing & Working with Your Blog post is about observations that I have made while visiting other blog sites. When you have visited other sites, including this site, what are some of the good things you experienced and what are the least liked?
WW Update:
Since Start Date; -20.8lbs
Take Care. Best wishes, Debra
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Such great advice, Debra! You’ve touched on a lot of things that we wish we’d understood better when we first started blogging a few years ago. Thank you!
Hi, Laura. They say hindsight is 20/20!
Take care and best wishes.
Hey Debbie, I’m popping back over to let you know that I’ll be featuring your post at Sweet Tea & Friends August Link-Up.
Thank you so much, Paula! I am honored. Thank you for visiting
Take care and best wishes.
Great advice here Debbie. I like to check out peoples about pages too. And And pop up’s, ad’s and especially video ad’s are really distracting for me. I too will sometimes go the a persons contact page and comment or send a note of thanks for linking up to Sweet Tea & Friends if their comments are already closed by the time I get to reading and leaving a comment. Great thoughts and insights here.
And, I appreciate you sharing these tips with Sweet Tea & Friend’s this month dear friend. I’m so happy you’re here.
Hi, Paula. one habit I believe we all bloggers get into, is forgetting to review our own site through a visitor’s experience. About once a month I open my site not signed in as administrator. While visiting my site I like to check each page for missing images or broken links. It was on one of my visits I discovered I had missed replying to a visitor’s comment on a post. Once I made this discovery I changed my admin setting to approve all comments. Now I know I have read and responded to each comment!
I hope you are doing well. I sure enjoy hearing from you!
Take care and best wishes.
I do that all the time too, visit my site as a visitor to make sure everything’s working.
Hi, Paula. Good practice. I appreciate it when I visit!
Take care and best wishes.
I like these tips, too, Debra. I have the same experience with pop-ups and ads that cover the content. With some blogs, I feel like I’m being assaulted. ha ha Others are placed more discreetly and are more reader-friendly. I have chosen not to monetize my blog mainly for this reason, even though I blog as part of my memory-keeping and photo-solutions business. My blog has a lot of information, but I try to keep it well-organized and clean-looking so that it’s not too visually distracting because of the things you’ve mentioned here. Visiting from Gma’s Photo Generic Linkup #11.
Hi, Jennifer. To be honest I never thought about all of these until after I began doing the link up parties. Visiting sites and seeing all the different themes, designs is what got me to thinking what I did ‘not’ want my reader’s to experience. Seems like I am tweaking my site a lot! Thanks for dropping by and sharing your thoughts.
Take care and best wishes.
Good tips for bloggers to consider. Another important element is an About page which you use to introduce yourself to your followers.
Rena
http://www.finewhateverblog.com
Hi, Rena. Yes, the About page! I like to read about the person behind the blog. Thanks for visiting and commenting!
Take care and best wishes.
Lately, I’ve been making an effort to visit every link in my link party and leave a comment for those who have linked up. Although I don’t always receive comments on my own blog, I seriously enjoy interacting with other bloggers. Unfortunately, I’ve been experiencing difficulty leaving comments on some blogs because my virus protection blocks their comment section.
Your post was insightful and raised some important considerations for designing and managing a blog. Thank you for sharing your wonderful insights and joining us at Crazy Little Love Birds link party #6
You are most welcome, Stephanie. When I wrote about the experiences while visiting blogs, I was hoping I would get some feedback on visitor’s experiences while navigating thru my site! 🙂
Take care and best wishes.
Yes, great advice. I dislike when blogs are so full of ads you can’t actually read the text. I understand that people need to make money, but I like to keep my ads to side and bottom of my posts so people can find my blog easier to read.
Hi, Anne. It is very nice to meet you! Your crystal candles are very pretty. I had inquired about shipping.
Take care and best wishes.
Some people do make it hard to comment on blogs with pop ups and having to sign in. I am signed up to most of the commenting systems but still find some that I have to log into and I don’t really want to give people more information than they need. I think my blog is pretty simple but only because I have no idea what I’m doing on the technical side of it. lol What I’ve noticed lately is blogs where it’s hard to find their latest posts, I click around and can find their top posts or seasonal one’s but not one written yesterday. x
Yes, Kim, I agree. Your site is easy to navigate and I appreciate that as a reader! Thank you for giving your thoughts on website planning.
Take care and best wishes.
I’m like you in that I like simple blogs without pop ups. I appreciate that some bloggers are blogging to make money but positioning ads makes a lot of difference to how I perceive a blog and I really don’t like the little videos. I really wonder how many people actually click on the adverts.
One of the things that bugs me most is recipe blogs that have the recipe right at the end of the blogpost. I appreciate that they do that for SEO reasons but being able to click straight down to a recipe makes a huge difference and is much more likely to make me stay and read it 🙂
#MMBC
Hi, Catherine. Those little video’s are rather bothersome. I really do not know a whole lot about SEO, but I use the WordPress App Yoast SEO which I would think could help with those recipe posts. When I added this post, I was hoping I would get someone to give their review of my site! 🙂
Take care and best wishes.
I did a 5 part series on this a while back and most recently combined all parts into a recap post. The 5 individual posts were some of my most popular posts. However, I don’t think most bloggers really care about any of this and their sites prove it. Thanks so much for linking up at the #UnlimitedLinkParty 130. Pinned.
Hi, Dee. Yes, I did see your posts. After reading yours and with visiting links from the parties, I, too, noticed how some sites were more pleasant experiences and some not so. This post is from my experiences and thought it may be helpful for site owners to be aware of. Hopefully no one will be offended, just a point of view to consider. At least I would like to think I am normal and others may have the same experiences 🙂
Take care and best wishes!
IMO, those that might be offended probably have sites that need some work 🙂
Agree.