subject: Pros And Cons Of Choosing Blog Templates
[print this page] Ever followed a link to a blog and then not been able to read it becasuse it was designed and laid out poorly? Well this was because of the blog template they used, and with all the templates available, it is in my opinion the fault of the blogger himself.
With how easy it is to design and publish you own blog nowadays, I point to this as one of the reasons for poor blog design. Everyone who has a blog thinks that they know the perfect layout and look for a blog of any kind. While some do, others clearly do not.
What follows is a breakdown of some good and bad things that you should keep an eye out for when picking a blog template. It does not matter at this point if you are paying for the template or downloading a free one. It also does not matter if you are using Wordpress, Blogger or another service to host your blog, as these are design points and have nothing to do with hosting or technical aspects of your blog.
"Flow: This is the main aspect that influences readability and how the page flows from one item to the next. Your template should not be too cluttered due to too many columns in the wrong place or too many ready-made AdSense boxes or pop-ups. Your eyes should naturally flow from one thing to the next and the better templates take this intp account at the design level.
"Widgets: Too many or too few can be a problem. Having too many makes the page look cluttered and the reader is not going to be able to find anything on the page. Remember that the readers are the most important part of a blog. You are writing it for them and are hoping for their comments. If the readers get a headache trying to navigate your page, chances are they will not comment on your posts, nor will they be returning anytime soon.
"Multi-Media: This is okay for some blogs - it just really depends on the niche of the blog in question. A TV fansite blog, for example, should have TV clips and commentary on those clips. If they do not have at least some clips, previews of episdoes to come, etc.. then they should not be a TV fansite. If however you are doing a book review blog then you should not have a huge amount of video or audio on the main page. You could have some multi-media matierial on the page. I think the main thing here, unless you are dealing with a audio or video niche in specific, is that you should keep the multi-media to a minimum.
These are just a few thing to keep in mind when you are designing your blog and picking out your template. There are so many templates to choose from out there - it is only a matter of spending some time looking for the right one for your website.
