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06.23.09 Creating A Good Blog Starts With Good Layout Design  By
Stoney deGeyterIt's just a fact of life, good looking people get more attention. We walk through the checkout line in the grocery store and see half a dozen magazines filled with beautiful faces on top of beautiful bodies. A good looking woman walking through the mall is bound to turn a few heads. Commercials are filled with models that pass the schwing test. (Yes, I pulled out my 80's innuendo reference manual for that!) Our love of beauty isn't just focused on the human body. We love well manicured lawns, beautiful sunsets, and gorgeous building architecture. Some of us even go to restaurants where the food is pretty. Face it, we are very visual people. It strikes me as odd, that as much stock as we place in things that are wonderful to look at, we often don't take as much care with our blogs. I understand that it's not easy putting together a website that looks good. It takes effort, skill and often a good amount of money. So instead of doing what needs to be done we skimp. Blogs, on the other hand are far easier, it's just a matter of finding a good theme and running with it. But for whatever reason, that often doesn't happen. We dress appropriately for our jobs but our blogs are going to work everyday in beat-up sweat pants and unkempt hair. It may not be an ugly site, but it certainly ain't much to look at. This brings me to a humorous aside. Over the years I've talked to dozens of people who run crappy looking websites but they refuse to make any type of aesthetic changes to them. Why? Because they continue to get the rare compliment on how beautiful their site is. I've had this syndrome myself and it can be quite comical. All it takes is a few compliments from people who don't know any better (why trust the experts who do) and it's clear that the world agrees your site is the web equivalent of Halle Berry in the movie Swordfish. Believe me, it's not. I looked. Twice.
Looking good and having site appeal Having a good looking blog starts with having a good looking website design. It's amazing how easy it is to throw up a blog. But putting one together that is visually appealing to your audience is often another matter all together. There's more to a website or a blog than a header, side navigation, and a few images. What looks good varies from industry to industry so don't think this is all about being "pretty". You want to look good for the audience you are trying to reach. Pink and flowery doesn't work with a rugged outdoors blog. Hard-hats and burly men won't work on a blog about women's health. Well, maybe it does a bit, I don't know. The point is, you have to make your blog appealing to the audience it is intended for. You won't have credibility selling scientific papers with images of half-naked models used in your each of your posts. Of course you might sell more if you include the pictures in the papers, but still, your credibility will be shot, and you'll annoy your audience for having to explain to their wives that they only buy it for the articles. Continue reading this article. About the Author: Stoney deGeyter is president of Pole Position Marketing (www.PolePositionMarketing.com), a search engine optimization / marketing firm providing SEO and website marketing services since 1998. Stoney is also a part-time instructor at Truckee Meadows Community College, as well as a moderator in the Small Business Ideas Forum. He is the author of his E-Marketing Performance eBook and contributes daily to the E-Marketing Performance (www.eMarketingPerformance.com) marketing blog. |
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