(from Chapter 9, Anatomy of a Blog Page)

ome blogs are a pleasure to read and navigate. Others are a pain. No matter how brilliant your commentary, if the look and feel of your page is forgettable, plug ugly, or difficult to navigate, your visitors are less likely to return. There are no absolutes in the world of blogs, but a familiarity with the general rules of good online design makes it easier to break a few of those rules and still attract new readers. Whether you plan to use default design templates or employ formidable CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) skills to tweak your blog to your exact specifications, here are some useful things to keep in mind.

look around

Visit your favorite blogs. While the editorial content of the blogs will probably be the greatest unifying aspect, spend some time analyzing how each presents its content and organizes navigation. Take notes on unique or particularly graceful linking solutions or informational blurbs. Note color combinations that you find pleasing (or horrific). The smart grasshopper learns from those who have gone (and stumbled) before them.

have a plan

Before you touch the templates or tweak a line of code, draw up a clear set of goals. Is this a business-related blog or a personal diary? Do you want traffic or a committed and active community? Will you mainly be passing along links to other blogs and websites? Posting a diary? Writing for fellow politicos or niche enthusiasts? Clowning? Selling? How knowledgeable can you assume your readers will be about the mechanics and terminology of blogs? How much time do you want to spend maintaining the blog? The more honestly you answer these questions, the more successful you are likely to be. Use the answers to determine overall design and content decisions. You probably don’t want to launch with an edgy, controversial design if you’re trying to win over a stodgy local electorate. By the same token, the default template that comes with your blog software could make you look naive to a tech savvy crowd. Research, come up with a plan, and then try to stick with it.

broadcast your identity

The best bloggers let you know right away who they are. Earlier in this chapter, we emphasized how important your blog title can be to your online identity. Integrating these into the graphic logo that sits atop your page is worth a bit of effort but doesn’t have to be that difficult or expensive. Your logo can consist of a simple font treatment; that’s essentially what dispatchesfromblogistan.com uses, after all. You can integrate your own graphics or photos or do a web search on free or inexpensive stock photos or clip art. You could even submit your design needs to a service like Elance, where you browse portfolios and then allow designers to bid on your logo or blog design. In addition, some photos on Flickr.com are marked with Creative Commons licenses that allow use as long as you adhere to the various license agreements.

arrange links logically

Let the design of each page tell its own story. At the top, your banner and logo establish the mood and signal your intent. The arrangement of the other page elements fill out the storyline. Your blog entries are the heart of your page. Choose a typeface that reads well on any system; sans serif fonts like Verdana and Arial reside on most computers, display well onscreen, and scale well for visitors who prefer to boost the font size. Cap your entries with complementary, well-defined headline treatments; you can choose another font for these, or just embold your body type. Beneath each entry, your links to categories, comments, trackback, permalinks, and the like should be uniform, explicit and understated. Logic is the best guide when arranging links and information in side columns. On dispatchesfromblogistan.com, for instance, the lefthand column houses blog links to categorical archives and the blogroll, while the links on the right lead to pages related directly to this book. There are always stray links to biographical information, email, syndicated feeds, search, and whatever else you feel necessary to your goals. Think carefully about how often people will use them and what actions you want most to encourage. Keep your most important elements “above the fold.” Your page should feel like a short story, not a circus poster.

keep it clean

Even blogs devoted to naughty topics are well advised to keep their design crisp and clean. Visitors who find what they’re looking for are much more likely to become regular visitors. The tricks are simple. As in any good digital design, ensure that all your navigation links are obvious and easy to read. Limit the number of fonts. Choose a coordinated color scheme and stick to it. Avoid blinking icons or frenetic animated gifs. Of course include photos or even video in your entries when they contribute to the overall understanding and enjoyment of the topic, but don’t force them into service when the story can be told just as well without. Be cautious in including sound files. Many people find them annoying, particularly if they log onto your site at work or just after the baby falls asleep. Include a button for turning sounds off. Make sure that any graphic or sound element is compressed within a nanometer of its life. Who has time to wait? In a nutshell, include elements you honestly believe contribute your blog. Kill the rest.

be consistent

Consistency inspires trust. Long experience on the web has taught even a little onscreen confusion can send a viewer scuttling off to the next website. Once you’ve chosen your fonts and colors and graphic elements, be police-like in deploying them. Throughout your pages assign uniform styles to links, headlines, column headers, and side links. Keep terminology uniform. For instance, some call the chunks of text that you regularly publish to a blog “posts” and others call them “articles.” For the purposes of the book, I’ve chosen to refer to them as “posts” or “entries” throughout the blog and book. It’s not that the others are wrong, but particularly in a realm as murky as blogging, consistency makes it more likely that I’ll be understood.

design for interaction

Not all bloggers look forward to interacting with their readers; some choose to not include comments or encourage cross-linking. But unless you’re already a celebrity, you’ll benefit from the increased reader involvement, as well as the search engine pings that come with these interactions. The phrasing, design, and placement of your links to interactive elements all contribute to the activity level of your blog. If the link to your comment page fades into the background or your trackback link is poorly implemented, you lose.

provide clues

In general, websites no longer require much explanation. Four-year-olds happily mouse their way through mazes, and Uncle Nick sends ever more photos of his grandkids. Blogs, on the other hand, still contain enough arcane lingo and Rube Goldberg-like mechanisms that they intimidate some would-be blog regulars. You can boost the confidence of these readers by incorporating discreet explanations into your design. The permalink window could open with, “You will always be able to link to this entry using this permalink address.” If you plan to moderate your comments by requesting an email address as identification before allowing a post to be viewed, write a friendly explanation that assures your new correspondent that the address will never be made public and that you will never use it for any purpose other than comment identification. These tips could win you fans for life. Well, at least the life of your blog.

permalinked pages matter

Remember that most visitors may well enter your site via a permalink address rather than your main homepage. Links from other blogs or your syndicated feed lead directly to these subpages. Make sure that the display of the various page elements—the original entry, the trackback address, prior comments, the ability to comment—have a coordinated feel and that links are clear and obvious. Don’t forget links to your categories, if you use them, as well as your blogroll and any other elements on your home page that you don’t want your readers to miss.

test, test, test

Once you have your design in place, test it. Test it yourself, making sure all the links work and that you’ve made everything as clear as you can. Look at it in as many browsers as you have available and make whatever changes necessary. Next, ask a few friends to use the blog, preferably with you watching over their shoulder. Try to pick individuals who represent various experience levels. You might learn more from a neophyte than from a jaded blog regular. Resist the urge to tell them what to do or yelp when they press the wrong button. You will learn a great deal from this casual user testing. Finally, let the blog loose into the world and encourage feedback from your readers about the design. Be open-minded. Design critiques can be frustrating because they so often revolve largely around taste, but don’t react if you can help it. Listen. You will often learn. Implement. Revise. Refine. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.