I don’t claim to be an expert by any means! But I have been doing this very seriously since last Summer and in the beginning posts like these are what got me through! If it wasn’t for The Story Siren’s tips and Presenting Lenore’s very informative posts I would have been completely lost. I have been getting a few questions lately and some bloggers asking if I had any tips, so I thought I would do a series of posts! I want to talk about some of the things that have worked for me and some of the things that haven’t. Let’s start at the beginning.
In my opinion the core of your blog is your design. People see your header before they ever read your posts and as much as we all hate to admit it we judge things by their looks. So I think it’s important to have a unique design. Something people will remember. There are lots of ways to go about this. You can get free backgrounds or freebie templates from tons of different sites and they are easy to install. Or you can get a custom made design from a number of sites but these aren’t free 
Or you can make your own but this requires a little html knowledge(but not much)and a lot of patience. Whatever you decide make sure it reflects you and your blog.
Also try to avoid templates that are hard to read. Such as a bright background and a light font color. Anything that is hard on the eyes. This may just be a pet peeve of mine but I love a organized and clutter free blog! But I’m a little anal lol.
Here are some sites that will help you out with your design needs:
Freebie Templates and/or backgrounds:
The Cutest Blog on the Block
Blogger Templates
Hot Bliggity Blog
Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates
Custom Design Sites:
Parajunkee Design
Berries and Cream
Sneaky Momma
Use Your Imagination (I couldn’t not add my own! I have some freebies too)
Design Tutorials:
Blogger Buster
Sneaky Momma
The Cutest Blog on the Block
Blog Bulk
Here are some quick tips to improve the look of your blog and it’s accessibility:
- Keep your Followers widget close to the top. That way it’s easy for people to find and follow!
- De clutter your sidebars! If you don’t need it get rid of it! It makes your page load faster and it means less distraction from your posts!
- If you want to give your blog a new look fast edit your colors! You can change the whole look of you blog just by going to Layout and Fonts and Colors
- Add a search bar! There have been many times I have wanted to link to a bloggers review but I couldn’t find it because there wasn’t a search bar!
- Word verification? To have or not to have? I didn’t have it for a long time but then I started getting 5-10 spam comments a day. I added it but now I have noticed that my comment numbers have dropped. Where I used to get 20+ now I only get 10. So I took it back off and I already got a spam comment. Oh well! It’s up to you! Readers and commenters don’t like it though.
That’s it for this post! I hope it helped someone out there out! The next time around we will be talking about getting followers!! So stay tuned for that!
Great post! Thanks for all the tips. I added a search bar on my blog
I dont mind word verification, I know it is annoying getting spammers so I take the extra two seconds to fill it it.
Thanks for the post! I went back and cleaned up my sidebar and moved my followers closer to the top.
And I have to admit that I do comment more on blogs that don't have word verification.
Great tips! I tried the search bar, but it doesn't pick up any of the posts from my blog!
Yeah, that's the same problem I had … added a search bar but it only picked up my last post or two, it was really odd … although, I used to have one a while back and then it worked just fine. Maybe it clashes with specific templates or something.
Thanks so much for the tips! I redid my whole blog and dowloaded a new template and fixed up my blog.
Great tips Lori, you make my blog beautiful
And as for the word verification with comments, here's my opinion.
As someone who comments alot, if you have word verification then PLEASE set your comments to a pop-up window. If it's on the same page then after you post your comment you have to scroll back down to the bottom of the post and enter the verification and submit your comment again. Alot of times I've not even realized my comment wasn't posted because of this problem.
Angel, that is really annoying. I think most people don't realize that it does that.
A personal pet peeve on mine is when someone doesn't even have a "followers" thing. I like to use that for viewing blogs and chances are if it isn't there, I won't book mark the blog and since I won't be following, I won't be reading it either.
Great tips Lori!
Thanks for the tips-I've already implemented some of them and I plan to keep polishing my blog with some of the others. I really appreciate the help!
Great tips! I'll definitly use these!
Great tips! I agree that if you have word verification you need it to be a pop up. If my computer is being slow I often have to just walk away. I prefer pop up window for comments if your using blogger anyway.
Oh, and I agree with WonderBunny. Seriously people really need to have the followers thing up. If not then no following from me!
Great post! I have a very similar drafted post on my blogger dashboard
I think the point with the word verification is important. It's so annoying, and it keeps on creating longer and longer words where the letters are a bit hard to identify.
I hope you don't mind me asking this, Lori. Can I ask you what you think of my layout(particular the colors)? I'm a bit afraid that the content of my posts are a bit hard to read(even though it is dark).
This is so useful. I just started my blog a couple of weeks ago and am keen to know how to improve it so posts like these are great. I will certainly add a search bar – something I hadn't even though of before.