Imagine you have a shop along a street called the World Wide Web. And along the road are row and rows of shops selling various things from widgets to dog collars.
It’s a busy street and people are passing by every second of every day.
You’re selling red widgets and you want to get noticed among all the other shops that are selling widgets too. But how do you get them to notice you?
You paint the roof red, the walls green, the door yellow and the windows pink. You hang up a sign in Comic Sans font that says “Wonderful Widgets.” Beneath the sign “Get the best widgets here” was scrawled in Curlz font.
You wait. And you wait. And wait.
No one is entering the shop or even peering inside. What seems to be the problem?
You’ve made the best widgets in town. You’ve poured your heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears in what you’re offering. You’re damn sure it’s worth the price. Heck it’s worth every second of people’s attention.
But here’s an idea, having the best content and product on offer will make people stay in your store, but your design may very well determine if they open and enter the door.
Wait a minute…
!Let me make it clear, content is still queen (or king, whichever floats your boat).
Between laboring over your blog design and producing quality content, content should always win.
Let me repeat that: Writing valuable content should always be your top priority.
But when you can, spend some time to tidy things up and prettify things a bit so that:
you can make a good impression on your audience especially those who are visiting you for the first time
it will be easy and pleasant for your readers to consume your content
I visit a number of blogs and websites on any given day and I see this time and again: great content and products suffering from gaudy blog designs. The moment I see one, I almost always click away.
But don’t just take it from me.
Take it from the experts who have been pioneers in the blogosphere.
When I started blogging back in 2005, I only knew about a few blogs and visited them regularly to learn how it all works. The blogs I did follow had key things in common: they all had great content and they were all pretty good looking.
From the standpoint of a blog visitor, their design gave me the following impressions:
They were professionals because their blog was well – designed.
They had a distinct brand and personality because they had a signature look.
They cared about their audience because their site was user friendly and easy to navigate.
Needless to say, they all made it big.
Now think about that for a moment. Take a few seconds to evaluate your blog.
Does it look professional?
Does your design reflect your brand and personality?
Does your layout and navigation make it easy for your readers to find your content?
If you answered no to these questions, it’s probably time to reevaluate your blog’s design.
It’s a busy street and people are passing by every second of every day.
You’re selling red widgets and you want to get noticed among all the other shops that are selling widgets too. But how do you get them to notice you?
You paint the roof red, the walls green, the door yellow and the windows pink. You hang up a sign in Comic Sans font that says “Wonderful Widgets.” Beneath the sign “Get the best widgets here” was scrawled in Curlz font.
You wait. And you wait. And wait.
No one is entering the shop or even peering inside. What seems to be the problem?
You’ve made the best widgets in town. You’ve poured your heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears in what you’re offering. You’re damn sure it’s worth the price. Heck it’s worth every second of people’s attention.
But here’s an idea, having the best content and product on offer will make people stay in your store, but your design may very well determine if they open and enter the door.
Wait a minute…
!Let me make it clear, content is still queen (or king, whichever floats your boat).
Between laboring over your blog design and producing quality content, content should always win.
Let me repeat that: Writing valuable content should always be your top priority.
But when you can, spend some time to tidy things up and prettify things a bit so that:
you can make a good impression on your audience especially those who are visiting you for the first time
it will be easy and pleasant for your readers to consume your content
I visit a number of blogs and websites on any given day and I see this time and again: great content and products suffering from gaudy blog designs. The moment I see one, I almost always click away.
But don’t just take it from me.
Take it from the experts who have been pioneers in the blogosphere.
When I started blogging back in 2005, I only knew about a few blogs and visited them regularly to learn how it all works. The blogs I did follow had key things in common: they all had great content and they were all pretty good looking.
From the standpoint of a blog visitor, their design gave me the following impressions:
They were professionals because their blog was well – designed.
They had a distinct brand and personality because they had a signature look.
They cared about their audience because their site was user friendly and easy to navigate.
Needless to say, they all made it big.
Now think about that for a moment. Take a few seconds to evaluate your blog.
Does it look professional?
Does your design reflect your brand and personality?
Does your layout and navigation make it easy for your readers to find your content?
If you answered no to these questions, it’s probably time to reevaluate your blog’s design.
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