Well done you have a blog, and you’re writing it frequently. But it looks awful. Slap!

So what can you do? Read on…

Start with a decent theme – If you understand CSS etc really well you can make your own, if you’re a complete novice, shop around online for themes you can buy  and install yourself. It’s really easy to do, and there are loads of tutorials online to show you how. If you’re in between a newbie and a pro, then take the most simple theme going and adapt it, that way you wont have to write any new code and but there is a wide scope to play about. Just make sure it looks unique and memorable, brand it for yourself.

Be careful with background images – Obviously this will be determined by the design of your theme, but the best thing to remember is to keep it uncluttered and light. White or pale colours work best, there’s nothing more horrific to human retinas than white text on a black background. Don’t use photos or busy patterns with the text directly on it. If you want to use a photo or pattern background make sure the text etc has its own background so it is easy to read your content.

Stop widgeting so much - games and other widgets on a blog are all well and good until it becomes like some sort of drugs habit. Keep them and adverts to a minimum, don’t crowd your blog with rubbish, as the main focus should be the content. Lots of adverts and widgets make a blog look spam-tastic, terrible and quickly forgotten!

Content, content, content, content, content, content, content, (mushroom mushroom) – No but seriously i know we go on about it all the time, the most important thing on any site is content. Read pretty much every post we write about for tips on writing the content. As for design, make sure your content is the main focus. Don’t crowd it with rubbish!

(Text) size matters – Use decent font sizes, colours etc and make it easy to read without a nuclear microscope. No-one has one of those, and if they do they aren’t going to set it up to read your blog.

Scrolling - Should be up and down, not across. It’s a blog not the Bayeux Tapestry!

Distracting animations – should be banned. There’s nothing that makes anyone click the ‘X’ in the top corner of the window quicker than a blog full of  blinking text and ten million glittering gifs looping around. And cursors which turn into something designed by a pre-teen who’s had too many sweets should be banned on punishment of having ‘I love High School Musical’ tattooed on your forehead. You are excused if you are under-12, but then they probably know better.

Keep things tidy – Use the HMTL code to keep everything neat and tidy, make sure text doesn’t overlap out of various areas and keep everything clean. And have a bath, nobody likes an unclean blogger.

Identity – If you have followed all the other rules your blog will have one. If not you’re doing it wrong! Start again.

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