Web Substance Meets Style

When designing for a blog, there are more design issues to consider than if you are designing a website. I’m not taking anything away from website designers–I happen to be one. Blog designers, however, must consider web design elements in addition to blog design elements. These things include but are not limited to:

• layouts to incorporate advertising space, widgets, personal information, tags, etc.
• common widget elements (tags, categories, calendar, blogroll, etc.)
• comments and replies
• knowledge of PHP and CSS
• specialized design elements (date icons, sidebar icons, sidebar separators, etc.)
• archives

Of course the list above is not exhaustive, and it should give you a good idea as to the additional work involved when designing a blog. This is why 90% of the bloggers out there (myself included) scramble to find and incorporate pre-made themes. Personally, I have struggled with this factor at my family blog for years. I’ve gone through multiple themes, only to find they didn’t really meet my standards or were not as easy to modify as I initially believed. (Generally, when choosing a theme, I’m looking for a layout–not design. I’m going to change most if not all of the graphics and I want a good skeleton to dress.)

So, for those of you looking for the perfect theme for your blog, let’s talk about choosing a pre-made theme. You’ll be surprised to find out what the first step is.

The First Step

The first step, surprisingly enough, does NOT begin by Googling “blog theme” or “free wordpress themes”. The first step doesn’t involve your computer at all. The first thing you need to do is compose your blog requirements on pen and paper. (Ok, I suppose you could do this on your computer, but don’t you miss using a pencil sometimes?)

First, write down what your blog is going to be about. Is it a personal blog? Is it a money-making venture? Is it a political rant? (Those are really popular right now!) Once you’ve clearly defined what your blog is going to be about, quickly jot down a few ideas for posts. Don’t think too hard on it–just write down whatever comes to mind. You wouldn’t believe how handy these notes will be when you are out of post ideas, or need a nudge to get your blog back on point.

When you’ve finished this first step (and it should take you more than 5 minutes), take a breather. Then come back to your notes and think about the blog elements that 1) are important to you, and 2) are important to your blog’s potential readers. These elements include, in no particular order:

• pages
• categories
• tags
• archives
• calendar
• comments
• popular posts
• interactive elements
• sponsors
• visitors
• feeds
• ok, you get the point

If you are a new blogger, the temptation to include every widget, gadget, and community badge will be overwhelming. That’s why you created the blog elements list–to keep you in check! If you are serious about your blog and gaining readers, it’s not what is important to you, like where your visitors are coming from, that matter. It is what will be valuable to your readers, like archives and comments, that is important. (Note: Personal/family blogs are the exception to this rule, and that’s only if you are going to have two readers–your mom and your grandma.)

This means you must resist the urge to include five different community “my friends” widgets, live traffic stats, translators, useless chat widgets, and a thousand Google ads. At worst, these will turn potential readers off. At best, they will be completely ignored. Instead, review your notes and focus on the purpose of your blog. This, and this alone, should determine what elements you incorporate. Let’s take a look at a good example:

Spoon Graphics

Spoon Graphics is a nice hybrid blog: personal graphic and web design services. As such, its main audience will be web designers, graphic artists, and possibly people interested in hiring for Spoon Graphics’ services.

On the blog’s sidebar you will find what the blogger deems important to its readers: Search, Feeds, Categories, Sponsors, Friends, and Resources. Then in the footer you will see the Top Tutorials, the Top Articles, and the Top Downloads. These are relevant elements for anyone visiting this blog. When they see a post they like, they can look for more. They can immediately search for a relevant term, or they can check out the categories for a topic they are interested in. Sponsors have a good position–not top billing, but still prominent. The footer provides more compelling reading for visitors looking to find additional content quickly.

Notice that there are no community badges on this blog, yet it still boasts an impressive Feedburner count of over 10,000 readers. There is no auto-playing audio. There is nothing that blinks, moves, or is otherwise completely annoying. All in all, an excellent example of a well thought out blog layout, which was then translated into a well thought out blog design.

I would like to point out that I’m not against using widgets or other interactive elements on a blog. I use them on my own blogs. You will find, however, that I do not use the same sidebar content in every blog and that I try to make sure everything in my blogs remain relevant to the audience I’m trying to attract. Readers for Web Substance Meets Style could care less how cute my kids are and don’t need to see my Flickr slideshows. My personal blog is full of, well, personal stuff. Flickr slideshows, pics of my über-cute kids, and so on.

What you should take away from all of this is that you need to determine what your readers will want to see and use. While you are really blogging for yourself the point is to get and keep readers. To do this, you have to think about their needs as much as your own.

And that’s step 1 to finding the perfect blog theme for your blog.

1. Determine your blog’s purpose and write it down. (Jot down some post ideas while you’re at it.)

2. Based on your blog’s purpose, make a list of the blog elements your blog will need.

3. Once you have your blog elements list, number the items from 1 to whatever, based on the order you would like them to appear.

Keep these notes handy. You will need them when you get to step 2–the actual search for the perfect theme.

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