Blogussion » designing

What Every Blogger Should Know About Design When Buying a Theme

Seth — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:47 +0000

Getting a new design for your blog is both time consuming and expensive. There are many great options for free themes but too often these themes do not have very many features and require a lot of extra work.

Purchasing a theme from premium theme designers or paying for a custom design can not only give you many extra features but also allow you a unique and useful user interface.

Getting a design is much more than choosing colors, uniqueness and price. There are a lot of important design elements you should know about before getting a new theme. Here are your most important areas of interest as well as a buyer’s checklist.

Fundamental Design Elements

There are a few very important things to consider when evaluating the design of a potential theme. Some of these elements are often misunderstood so I will point out the what is usually left out of posts about theme design.

We all know that features are important and themes with jquery or admin panels add extra customization to your blog theme, but lets go back to the fundamentals.

White Space

In the image above all you see is the words. The “whitespace” is exactly what the name implies.. the area around the image that is white. Now to categorize as whitespace an area in design does not have to be “white”, just clear of any text or images.

Whitespace is important in design because it focuses the eye on to what is important. A good example of how this doesn’t work is when you go to a site and the design’s background is intense with a collage and millions of colors. The text or image you are trying to highlight never even gets any attention. Here’s an example of zero whitespace:

In the bad example you can tell that the words are there and we even could accent the text with either a drop shadow, outer glow, or stroke around the text to make it more appealing. But can you see how without whitespace your eyes are too busy.

Your eyes are taking in all of the background and trying to work out the text from all the other interesting images.

If you had an entire pack of with no whitespace then very easily you could find your blog with no readers, little click-throughs, and no brand. Actually you would have a brand.. you’d be the blog everyone remembers not to go to.

Avoid any design that does not have enough whitespace around important areas like the logo, navigation menu, and content area. Trying to make your theme busy only leaves your site empty.

Eye Tracking

For the avid readers of Blogussion I apologize, this next part is a repeat idea from a post last week, Your a Blogger Not a Crackhead! Its about finding a design that highlights the things that are most important to you.

The number one thing is your logo which brands you and should include near by your navigation menu and then your conversion tools. Your conversion tools are your subscriber boxes, products, ads, etc. Whatever your goals are for your blog is what your conversion tools should be pointing too.

Let’s look at the examples of good eye tracking to remember what it is.

The Eyes #1 is the area your eyes first see on a page and the Eyes #2 is the second area your eyes then go to. Eyes#2 is the area that you are trying to get people to see. In our blog its about converting people to subscribers.

Clean Content Areas

In one of my favorite posts on Blogussion, Alex describes some of the best ways to style your content area. If you have some time you should definitely read the entire article because Alex does an amazing job at breaking it down – Stellar Tips for Styling Your Content

To highlight some of what Alex said here is one of his main points:

Headings Matter – Alex talked a lot about headings because they really do matter. They draw attention to your post and bad headings with unattractive fonts or the wrong typography (text) can quickly scare away your readers. Be sure your the headings in any blog you are looking into are clear and clean looking. They should be prominently located on the page for maximum results.

Typography

Your text is the primary instrument for gaining more traffic and keeping readers. We talked yesterday about how to write powerful content and have previously talked about the importance of good content, but now I want to talk about the typography (font design) of your text.

Typography is the intricate design of the fonts you are using on your blog. Although there are plugins to add extra font features to any wordpress blog, the original functionality of the blog theme you are using makes life a lot easier.

For example Thesis theme comes with over a dozen options for typography. Other feature rich themes do too. The key is many of the free themes don’t and unless you have the patience to setup a complicated plugin then you should look into typography early on.

For the best practices of good typography, and to learn what all of the most popular blogs are using for their sites, check out Smashing Magazine’s Typographic Design Patterns

Wrapping It Up

In the coming weeks we have more design posts planned to help you not only get the best design features on your site but also teach you what to look for.

We hope you enjoyed learning more about web design and be sure to look at some of these fantastic resources.

How A Blog Can Kick Start Your Freelance Business

Alex — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 15:34:56 +0000

Freelancing has become the dream job anywhere. With the economy still stinking and good jobs become harder to find, many have turned over to freelancing to keep their income streams flowing.

But just because you can declare yourself as a freelancer doesn’t mean it will work out for you. You have to be able to do a lot of things and make some tough decisions. Freelancing is a great job, but it requires more effort at first so you can get your name out there.

How does one get their name out there on the Internet? You can either make an embarrassing YouTube video that goes viral (not an ideal move for a freelancer), or learn how to market themselves. Not everyone can market, I know I still have ways to go before I call myself an “Internet marketer.” But I do know one great marketing plan for my freelance business that has gotten me a steady stream of clients since April 2008. And that one little technique is having a blog.

I will bet you didn’t know that your blog and your readers are the key to starting your freelance business. I had no idea myself, until I started Blogussion. Usually when making money from blogs are in mind, you think of selling advertisements, doing paid review or something else crazy.

If you can get clients to see your blog and want to work with you, then you will be earning money indirectly from your blog. I talked about this topic back in May, creating a reputation to earn money from your blog.

Setting goals on your blog that tie into freelancing

We all have goals for ourselves on our blog. To get 1,000 pageviews a day, or 100 comments on a post for example. These are all goals that effect the future of your blog. These are not goals that have an underlying impact on your business.

To really get where you want your business to be, like your blog, you need to set goals for yourself. Whether you set long term goals, or short term goals, have a clear vision where you want your freelance business to be.

These are a few goals I set for my freelance business, and I have made them all come true so far:

Earn high $xxx a week
Earn mid $xxxx a month
Create recurring clients
Set a fair rate for work, and always deliver my best

There are so many other things that you need to do for your business, but these are a few highlights from my experience.

Goals are set to motivate you and give you a great sense of accomplishment when you complete a goal. Keep these goals for your freelance business in mind always. I write mine down somewhere, and every time I look at them, I really feel motivated to get to work and earn my money for the day.

Setting up a freelancer friendly blog

Now that the basic ideas for how a blog can set you up for freelancing, I want to get into the fun stuff and talk about how to set your blog up for freelancing.

It’s harder than it seems to make your readers aware that you are a freelancer and blogger without getting too intrusive. But follow these tips I am about to talk about below. These are the ones I use, and I am earning pretty well for my age!

Introduce yourself

This is standard for any blog to have an about page introducing yourself. The trick here is to really go in-depth and be as open as you can be, within your own limits. Usually clients will want to know who they are working with, and if they can find information about you easily, they may be more inclined to work with you. Provided you don’t go too far and tell about your embarrassing moments in grade school.

Get your name out there

Again, just sticking to the regular blogging routine. Market your blog, and let your blog do all of the talking for you. Be as consistent as possible and never stop blogging. If you have been reading this blog for a while, then you will know that I say all the time to never give up on your blog.

Make your blog your best work

This is the part where having a blog really will make or break your freelance business. When you start your blog, whatever your talent is – make it show! If you design, make your blog your best work. If you are an SEO Consultant, get your blog at the top of all your keywords!

In about 90% of the emails I get for freelance design, the first sentence is always something like “I love the work you have done for Blogussion, and I want to get a design like it.” My client base has been so consistent to the point where I am creating a career for myself. All because I had a blog portraying my best work.

I have made some pretty great designs for people in these last few months, some that I didn’t want to give away! But, I still think none of them top the design here on Blogussion.

Show off your work, and even brag about it

Basically, create a portfolio. Some people actually start a whole other blog to display their portfolio, and others will do things a little differently. I have done this method in this post already, and that’s bragging about my business. I want you guys to know that I am having a successful freelance journey, and I don’t feel egotistical for doing it. If I can prove to you that I am really doing a good job with my freelancing business, then maybe one day we will work together on a project.

Don’t be afraid to do this on your own blog either. It can make a different just wait and see.

Promote yourself non-intrusively

Most of my promotion for my business is done at my other blog, and that’s where most of my emails get sent off. However, I do show off my talent a little bit at the end of each post here. Here are a couple examples:

A simple little message in the header is shown that I am available for freelance work

Find spots on your blog that will be noticed if you advertised your service on your blog. But don’t lose focus, your blog is still meant for blogging, don’t go overboard with promoting yourself as a freelancer.

What do you say?

So, I have gone over ways in this article to help you start a freelance business on an existing blog. What do you think of this topic, and how has your blog effected you as a freelancer? Let me know, I would love to hear from people in different freelance fields!

I am very excited as this is my 100th post on Blogussion. I have never hit this milestone before, and I want to thank all of you for sticking with the blog and reading my posts for all this time!