Even though it seems like the Internet has been around forever, it's really just been about 15 years that most people have been online in some way in North America. Various universities, government agencies and businesses were online earlier, but most of us didn't venture out until somewhere around 1996 or later. As life would have it, I had the opportunity to explore the internet back in 1993. Everything was new, and over the next years blogging became a staple of Internet content and it remains so today.
If you have come here, you recognize the power of writing, have a value for blogs and are probably interested in making some of your own writing accessibe via the web. But to make the most of online access and the attention of your potential readers, you should be considerate of a number of important concepts. These ideas are considered "givens" for many people who have been online for years, but to the person entering the online blogging world, these might be fresh thoughts.
Before listing the top design considerations and things to avoid, let me say one thing- write original content. Many people think that blogging, websites and social media will somehow magically bring an audience. Others try to use the web to market and hock their wares. None of these tacts have staying power. People ultimately understand value- they aren't interested in marketing, they are interested in unique content. So whatever you do, in developing your blog, or site, if you intend to build something of value, you must build unique content. Remember that. It will save you a lot of pain later on.
Now, assuming you have something worthwhile, unique and interesting to contribute via a blog, there are some basic design and content considerations you should make sure to attend to. I examine them below.
Design considerations:
- Clean - Keep things fairly clean, use white backgrounds, keep crisp focus on each page, and try not too have too many distracting things to draw attention away.
- Images - use nice, clean, well lit photos. Your photos don't have to be professional, but if they aren't, they should be impressive to people. Anything that smacks "amateur" means you lose credibility and readers. In my opinoin, no page should exist without some photo or visual. Even if it just anchors the text to a location around the photo.
- Social Media - use social media connectors. Quick buttons for liking/sharing/etc to Facebook/twitter, etc. Needed in this day.
- Simple Main Page - Nice front page banner/marque rotator. Make it CLEAR that when people hit the front page, they know exactly what the 2-4 things are that they can do. Easy, quick, one click.
Things I'd avoid:
- Freak show - Images in banners that rotate too quickly. People like change, but they don't want to feel like a site can't sit still long enough for them to drink in one page before it moves on. Make sure the time lapse of any photo rotation feels gentle enough to be interesting, but not constant motion.
- Ads - doubleclick and google ads. Ads aren't bad, but I wouldn't put them on a new site. I think they can serve a purpose once a site has some presence. And if that is the case, placing them might help to fund the site. If you are just starting out, however, I am guessing you don't enough traffic that the ads will bring in enough revenue to cover the site costs. I think ads generally degrade site value, especially when they don't relate to the site content. I'd remove them if it were me. If you feel storngly that you want to have ads, perhaps ads of related content, then you might add them once your site has more traffic would make more sense.
- No Touch - Be careful of having a site with no interaction. Leave ways for people to comment, feedback, or otherwise engage with your site. Not everywhere, but where it makes sense.
Some overall thoughts about sites, from my experience:
Purpose: Stay to your goals! As you develop an online presence, consider one very important question-- What is the purpose of the site? If it is to get to know you (as you mentioned), perhaps articles that include a bit longer entries where you are sharing your heart a bit more than a couple of sentences might be helpful. Be always wary of returning to the question--What is the purpose of the site?
I have found personally that I have gotten off target occasionally on websites. I have a tendency to try to do too much on a site, and sometimes to do things that I hope will impress people. That is why it is important to return to the question --What is the purpose of the site? If you keep asking yourself that question before adding each new part to your site, then you can help use that question to be a filter for keeping things off the site that might be nice, but don't pursue the real goal of the site.
Authenticity and Ethos: keep the site authentically you. Do things that represent who you really are. For example, I have been a software developer for years, so some of my site occasionally includes posts about software formulas that I have developed to help other coders. It might be quirky, but its me, and its a nuance that give the site my personality. Likewise, I love movies, music, books and eating out. So I have over a 100 reviews of various movies, music, books and restaurants on my site.. I keep things to what my personality and skill set can express, and hopefully in a way which is encouraging for others to know about. I don't talk about things like "being a handyman :)", because, well, I am not much a home repair or fix it guy...
Fresh Content: keep new content coming. The life of a site is in its ability to continue to breathe out new content. Be who you are, but keep a steady trickle of fresh new content adding to your site. Don't overextend, but do something manageable. If you can add a blog post once a month, do it. If once every couple weeks cool. Be careful not to start off doing one blog a day, because (unless you are marvelously prolific) most people can't sustain that without it being part of their occupation or daily routine. I'd err on the side of caution and shoot for something like a post every 2 weeks or so, maybe even once a month. That gives you time and thought to make each one work.
Re-use: As often as you can, re-use writing and work you may have done for other purposes as core content for your site/blog. If you are a student, re-use strong papers or articles that are especially well done and offer some value to others. If you are a professional and write for your job, cull writing that is applicable and useful to others. This does many things, not the least of which is to save you huge amounts of time. Consider even that you may already be writing emails or encouraging documents suc has outlines to share in small groups or other contexts-- all of which may be good seeds for a post on your site. (for example, this very article originated from an email reply to a person who was asking about the topic--- re-use! Gotta love it!)
As you develop your blog/site and gain experience with your readers, don't hesitate to try new things. Returning to this list of ideas, however, may help guide you to see if your work is continuing to reflect your original purpose and do so in a quality manner.
Happy Blogging!
Kim Gentes
Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 9:14PM
Reader Comments (2)
Kim,
This is a great post, thank you! I've been blogging for a couple of years but have only this year started taking it more seriously. I love writing, and part of the reason I haven't written much in the past is that I haven't had a clear purpose in my mind what the site was about. I didn't know what to write about. I think I tried to over-complicate things, and I would sometimes sit down and try write about stuff I didn't clearly / fully understand, which left me frustrated, so I wouldn't write anything. I'm no academic, and I was trying too hard to be one (writing about Theology especially).
This year I realised that my blog is about me; the things in life I enjoy, the questions in life I'm asking. Basically a blog about where I'm at which hopefully might encourage others or even help them along.
I have a free wordpress blog and messed around with hosting a wordpress site about a month ago. I liked it (only really for the FB 'like' button - not available on wordpress.com) but couldn't justify the money to host a site when my free blog (though it's attracting more visitors) isn't really getting any comments (I find that frustrating too!). I keep messing with the themes and have just changed to a free them with a grungy look and a black background. On your advice I'm going to change back to something simple (and white!) and leave it like that.
Thanks for the post - it's been most helpful.
Ryan
Glad it has some things that strike a chord with your Ryan. As I look around my site, I see I am in violation of a few of my own rules in places. It is definitely tough to stay focused, clear and not over clutter. I checked out your blog. I like it. Good vibe. Plus you write pretty raw, which a lot of people like. It makes them feel at ease knowing someone else will dare to be honest, even if they find it tough. (your article on parenting has some elements of all of that, and I think people will find that refreshing.). Anyways, good work. I'll check in on your blog as you continue. thanks for the note.
kim