Blog Templates and the Art of Blog Design

The increasing popularity of blogging as a means of Internet communication cannot be denied. Millions of individuals have turned to blogs as places in which to proactive unfettered self-expression, while many corporations have turned to blogs as places to keep the public up to date on their latest products and services.

Their rising popularity has made blogs the latest Internet marketing tool. Blogs are rapidly making inroads on the advertising once reserved for banner ads and links which were so common on heavily trafficked websites. Links were not only used to advertise on websites; they were also embedded in newsletters and other marketing emails.
on newsletters and marketing letters sent to the members of their mailing lists.

People love to read blogs. They will read the blogs of people they know; they will read blogs of people whose writing they enjoy; they will read blogs on their favorite subjects; and they will read blogs to get information about things they might want to purchase. So many people read so many blogs for so many reasons that there is some concern about blogs replacing news organizations as the most popular news sources.

While blogs have yet to prove their merit as news sources, they are already receiving attention for their value as product review sites. There is always a chance that you’ll find a blog which is paid to post favorable reviews, but thousands of bloggers will simply state their opinions of products or services based on their personal experiences.

Blogs are becoming more and more recognized for their advertising potential, and Internet marketers have devised several strategies to increase their blog traffic. Traffic is the key to sales, and your blog’s traffic will grow if you put a few of those strategies to work.

First, you can add your blog to affiliate programs, which will include it in the category best suited to its subject matter. You can also spend some money to have your blog advertised in other on other well-trafficked blogs or sites, but if you haven’t been blogging very long, you should probably wait a while before taking this step.

Before you get serious about trying to make money on your blog with advertising, you’ll need to build your readership. You can do this most effectively by having a blog with an attractive design and a user-friendly layout, which will come with the blog template you choose.

Sites like WordPress which provide free blog hosting also provide standardized blog templates, which have a few customizable features. If you go with one of these blogging sites, take full advantage of the custom features so that you can make your blog’s appearance as distinctive as possible. These features will allow you to do things to build your blog traffic.

First, use the customization features to change the appearance of your banner. The banner is one a blog’ most the most standardized aspects, but by adding your won graphics and your blog’s title, you can make your banner unique among the millions of other blog banners. You can either make your own graphics or find some inexpensive ones online.

If you are posting photos on your blog, use the blog template’s photo editing feature to choose attractive borders for them. The borders will emphasize the photos, and add visual impact to your blog’s design.

Use the blog template’s graphic editing tool to add a favicon before the URL on your address bar.

There are many sites which offer free skins, textures, and background you can incorporate into your blog template; just make sure that they have compatible coding. They will give you blog a look not possible by sticking with the offerings of your blog template.

Once you have transformed your blog template so that your blog is as unique as you can make it, you can begin adding other features to attract more traffic. If you connect your blog to a variety of RSS feeds, anyone with a newsreader will be able to keep up with your latest posts, and visit your blog if they see an interesting title.

You can add streaming audio, mp3, or a playlist to your blog, so that your readers can enjoy some music while they are reading your latest offerings.

Finally, if you are ready to start advertising and have registered with AdSense, be careful that the ads are not positioned so that they distract from your posts. Your readers come to your blog because they want to read what you have to say, and they won’t like it if ads I interfere with that.

Tags: Blogging

Popularity: 6% [?]

Share This