Picking your blog layout and theme is important. You need something that appeals to the masses, while connects to your personality and works within your niche.
That’s a lot of work, right?
The good news is it isn’t that difficult. Depending on the platform you use, you may already find themes created for blogs within your specific niche. Then you just need to do a little customization.
Need help getting started? Here are three tips for choosing your blog layout and theme.
Browse Through the Readymade Themes
Most content management systems and programs already have themes. They have their own, and individuals are creating others on a regular basis. Some are free themes to download with minimal customization, while others do require a small payment.
Remember this payment is tax deductible from your business since your blog is for business.
WordPress makes it really easy to search for different themes. You can pick for a certain blog layout (such as one or two columns), by colour or even by niche.
Think About Screen Resolutions
When picking colours, it really is important to consider the screen resolutions. Red on your screen could look orange or brown on someone else’s screen.
It’s important to remember this to avoid colours clashing.
You also need to think about people being colour blind. Avoid doing reds and greens together, as a red/green deficiency is the most common. One colour with black (or white if you choose a darker colour) is best for your blog.
Pick one that works with your niche and shows off your business’ personality. It helps people get a feel for who you are.
Avoid being Too Cluttered
It’s really easy to start putting a lot of columns in and trying to fill up the space.
Some white space is a good thing—yes really. It gives your reader’s eyes a chance to break from all that text. Try images and videos too in your blog layout.
Don’t put too much into your columns. You don’t want people scrolling for ages to reach the bottom of your blogs because of all those little widgets and additions. They won’t do it.
All your important information needs to be above the fold. That’s where people are more likely to look and will only scroll if they find your blog helpful and engaging.
Too much information won’t make them want to look more. It will make them want to click back.
Picking the perfect blog layout and theme can take time. You may find that it requires a bit of trial and error at first, as you learn more about your audience and what they like. However, following the above three tips will certainly help you get the perfect one sooner.
Re: the fold – people will scroll beyond as long as you give them valuable information. See http://moz.com/blog/life-above-and-beyond-the-fold. This is obvious in the case of mobile devices!
For mobile devices, yes. There are still people who expect the important information to be on one screen when it comes to computers, especially with larger monitors. It’s still best to have the important information at the top.