Blog Appeal

Your homepage is like the outside of a home.  Some homes have fantastic “curb appeal” while others don’t.  Blog Appeal is VERY important, just like curb appeal is important to a home.  You may think… “well, I’m not selling anything, I’m just blogging about my life.”  If you want to capture readers, blog appeal is important.

The one thing I hate to see when looking at homes that are for sale are untidy yards!  This goes for blog homepages as well.  You don’t have to have all the cutie fluff that some blogs have, but it is IMPORTANT to have a clean neat site.

If you have columns, make sure that your blog buttons don’t go over the lines.  This is a tell-tell sign of a person who MAY be unorganized which leads to clutter reading for their followers.  You may say… “well, I don’t know how to do all that technical stuff.”  Point well made.  There are SO many free tutorials and software programs out there you don’t have to be tech savvy {You can also email me with your questions, and I will be happy to help}.  If you paid a designer to do your site, ask them to help you with keeping your buttons straight.  This is part of their job in designing a blog/webpage.

Some sites scream “I’m desperate for followers and so I will throw up any and all buttons.”  There is no need to be a desperate blogger.  Your goal in blog appeal is to decide on a theme and layout for your blog/webpage.  Stick to the theme!!  If you are blogging for friends and family, a 1,2 or 3 column layout is plenty.  If you are an information site (ie. Reviews, giveaways, resources, etc.) you should have a layout with multi columns but also white space.  What is white space?

White space defined- In page layout, illustration and sculpture, white space is often referred to as negative space. It is that portion of a page left unmarked: the space between (it’s NOT always white) graphics, margins, gutters, space between columns, space between lines of type or figures and objects drawn or depicted. ...

White space keeps you blog clean and easy to read.  Thus, you have happy followers eager to come back to learn more.

Evaluate your blog.  Are there old links that don’t work anymore?  Delete them.   Is the design old or boring?  Brainstorm and come up with a new design.  I look at our blogs like this… a home needs an outside coat of paint every few years, our blogs may need a new design or even just a new header.

I will be writing a series of Blog Appeal.  I will share with you tips, tricks and finds to make your blog/webpage have more Blog Appeal.