As part one of my Essential Advice for New Bloggers series we’re talking about branding.  Last week we covered the importance of  picking the right name for your blog.  This week we’ll cover another critical component; your blog’s appearance.  Here’s why looks matter.

First impressions are largely based on appearances
When a reader comes to a blog for the first time, that person makes a judgment about the blog’s relative success, professionalism, and relevance before they read a single word.  Before they even realize it, a reader’s judgment is influenced by what the blog looks like.

A customized appearance is always better than looking like everyone else 
At the most basic level, let’s talk about the decision to give your blog its own custom appearance vs. using the  standard free template that is provided by Wordpress, Blogger, or Typepad.

The customized blog stands out as;

• Unique. One of the basic tenets of branding is uniqueness; proving to the reader that your blog is special and different and something that they cannot live without.  Start building the picture of uniqueness with how your blog looks.  It’s hard to sell yourself as wildly different when your blog looks just like 5,000 others.
• Serious.  Blogs appear and disappear with the wind.  A blogger who has taken the time to customize her blog stands out as someone who is committed and serious about blogging.
• Professional.  Every major blogger has their own design.  I cannot think of a single exception to this rule. The design may not be particularly flashy, but it is their own. 

No matter how amazing your blog’s content, if you host it on a default template, you will be beating your head against a brick wall to be taken seriously.

Visual design tells your story without you having to write a single word
Visual design is an amazing thing.  It impacts the feeling that people get when they come to your blog (peaceful, excited, energized, professional, welcome…) and it impacts the story that you’re telling about who you are and what your blog is about. 

So what do you do?  Basics of blog design for the non-designer
So looks do matter, but what do you do about it? Let’s move on to some basic principles for designing your blog.  Visual design is an art, a science, and something that you can spend four+ years in college learning about. So I’m not even going to pretend to cover everything.  What I am going to talk about here is the most basic of basics.

Here’s a secret that I’ve figured out.  You don’t have to have amazing web skills or a huge design budget to reap the benefits of a customized layout.  Start with a free template and make a few select changes to it in order to make the design your own.

1) Customize the header. 
This is the most basic, and most important, of all the guidelines.  The header is your magazine cover, your logo, your outfit.  It says who you are and what you’re about like nothing else. 

“Sure, but I don’t know HOW to customize it!”

Never fear.  Here are some beginner moves that you can use to create a basic customized header.

1. Write your blog title in a funky font.
2. Use your own image or a piece of stock imagery to jazz up your header. (I prefer Snap Village or istockphoto for dirt-cheap (like $1!) but high-quality photography and illustration)

A simple combination of the above two techniques will give you a workable header. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a work of art.  It just needs to be unique and to communicate what your blog is about.

(You can always hire a fancy designer after you make your first $100k.)

Here are a couple of resources to help you build your own custom header:

• How to make a blog header in Photoshop (Associated Content)
• I want to make my own banner/button; where do I start?
• How do I place my own banner on my blog? (great step-by-step instructions!)

If you don’t mind spending a little bit of money, there are a whole lot of people out there who design blog headers for reasonable fees.  Businesses Run by Humans is a great starting place for finding someone. Or, look around on your favorite blogs for design credits… often they’ll link to the person or company that did their design.  If not, email them and ask!

2) Customize the colors and fonts
Don’t go crazy here, as too many colors and fonts look unprofessional.  But starting with a basic template and then changing the default colors and fonts will go a long ways towards making your blog unique.

3) Consistency is key.
In branding, consistency is really important. Think of the major brands out there, and you’ll notice that they set a tone for what to expect.  Walk into a Target store and you know you’re in Target. Their logo stays the same, the colors, the layout of the store…

Building a brand for your blog is no different.  It’s good if your readers get to know you, internalize your brand, and feel comfortable on your blog.  The reality is that we are creatures of habit.  We don’t like change. Change your brand too often and you’ll start to hear from your readers that they don’t like it!

Once you have a look, stick with it.  Be cautious about changing your look and feel too often.  If you do want to get funky or seasonal, pick one or two aspects of your design that you will change, and keep everything else constant.  An example of how to do this is to change the COLOR of the font in your header, but keep the font itself (and everything around it) the same.

4) Minimize visual clutter
Every button, graphic, link, and flashy-moving thing that you add to your blog should have a purpose.  Avoid the temptation to put things on your blog just because you can.  Think of it this way: everything you add to your blog competes for your readers’ attention with something else.

That sassy award graphic you just added might pull your readers’ attention away from your list of latest posts.  Think about what you really want your readers to focus on, and take the rest of the stuff off.  As you get more and more clutter, consider whether you can move it to separate pages. For example, I’ve put all my award bling onto its own page so that it doesn’t distract from my main page.

Other good design resources:

• Important elements of blog design and layout (some really great tips here)
• Is there any free software I can use to make my own graphics, buttons, and banner?
• How color affects your blog (interesting!)

Now it’s your turn to weigh in… what visual design guidelines do you think are important for bloggers? 

See all 5 essential pieces of advice for new bloggers

© Jenny Blackburn. All Rights Reserved.

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Catch more of Jenny Blackburn’s humorous anecdotes on being a mom, a woman, and a whole lot crazy at Absolutely Bananas. If you have questions, anecdotes, or topics for “On Blogging,” email jenny[@]seattlemomblogs[dot]com.