Back in my first post when I moved the blog over here to my domain a few weeks ago, I asked you all for topics you’d like to see as I move forward and make Cover to Cover an even better place for book reviews, book news and writing tips. One of you lovely people requested tips on blogging in general.
While I would never call myself an expert (because I really don’t think there is a such thing as a blogging expert; blogging is so subjective) I do have a ton of experience blogging. Before I started Cover to Cover in August 2009, I wrote a personal blog that had over 700 subscribers. And before I moved my blog over here to WordPress and my own domain, Cover to Cover had 200 subscribers (everyone got unsubscribed in the move- sad face). Last year, I ran a blogging for beginners workshop at a university writing center.
And so this new feature was born.
I think I have useful advice about blogging and I’d love to share it with you and more importantly, I want to hear your advice too!
While my advice will mainly be targeted at book bloggers, authors and writers like myself, this advice really goes for anyone with a blog. Each week, we’ll tackle a new blogging topic; I’ll share my tips and then you’ll share yours in the comments and we’ll discuss. Sound good?
Moving on to today’s topic…
Layouts
- Keep your blog layout simple. I know it’s difficult, especially for book bloggers who love to share awards, challenges they are participating in, blog tour buttons and more, but keeping the blog layout simple is easier on the eye and makes the page load faster. You want to keep your reader focused on the actual content in your blog, and sometimes the applications and clutter on the side of the blog can be distracting. Consider adding a page or a post specifically dedicated to awards, challenges or buttons if you find your page getting too cluttered, but you know you’d still like people to view this fun information.
- Along with minimizing clutter on your blog, be sure to leave plenty of white space. Leaving white space is especially important to again focus your reader on the main content on the page. The white space makes the blog look less intimidating and more friendly to sit down and scroll through.
- Is there an easy way for a reader to contact you? Either dedicate space to a contact page or make your email address clear on the side bar. In addition to email, be sure to link to other places your readers can connect with you. I’m especially a fan of my cute little star social media buttons over on the right.
- For book bloggers, do you have a review policy? Make sure your review policy is in a prominent place so that publishers, publicists and authors can easily do their research to see if their book is a fit for you.
- I almost always read blogs in my Google Reader. When I find a blog I like, the first thing I do is search for that subscribe button. Make sure your subscribe or RSS button is also in a prominent place where readers can easily sign on up for your feed.
- Use bullets, subheadings or numbered lists. Readers may look at a chunk of text, feel overwhelmed and leave. Keep your reader interested by making your posts as simple as possible to look at; plus, who doesn’t love a good countdown?
- Now that I’ve moved over to WordPress, I’m impressed with all of the widgets I’ve been able to add to my layout to make navigating the blog even easier. I’m especially a fan of my new search button and categories drop-down list. These two applications make it super simple to find exactly what you’re looking for on my blog.
- Test your layout on various web browsers. It seems silly, but some blogs seem to have kinks on the many different browsers your reader might choose to use.
- Please, no music on your blog’s main page. We all like our own music and don’t necessarily want to listen to yours. I am always startled when I click over to a blog and all of a sudden music blasts out of my computer- or worse- I’m already listening to music and the blog’s song starts playing over mine.
- Use photos when possible. I’m guilty of not following this rule myself, but photos really do make a blog post more interesting to look at. Again, it’s all about not overwhelming your reader with so much text that they run away from their computer and never come back to your blog again.
What are some tips you’d share with other bloggers regarding blog layouts? Do you agree/disagree with my tips above? In addition, please feel free to suggest other topics you’d like to see covered on this new blog tip feature!
Pingback: Better (Book) Blogging and Beyond: Layouts | Jessica Lawlor « Blogging Future
Nice tips. I would say that my layout is kind of cluttered. I’m still waiting for this person to make me a layout. I’m not sure if they’re working on it or not. :/ Anyway, after that, I’ll figure out what goes where and what to throw into a page. . . because I noticed a while ago that my page is a bit laggy when scrolling up and down quickly. Whereas with some other blogs (like yours), they’re smooth.
How about… how to make & add an RSS feed to your blog? Are they actually important for a blog? I don’t really know exactly what they do or why someone would want to use it as opposed to email sub or GFC.
Ohhh, thank you for that wonderful idea. Girl, an RSS feed is my FAVORITE internet invention. It makes blog reading so much easier (in my opinion). I’ll explain on an upcoming Better Blogging post.
I hope whoever if working on your layout gets back to you soon. Not cool! I think the lagtime may be because of the things in your side bar. Consider creating a seperate page for all of the books you’re excited for and for some of those buttons. See if that helps!
I agree with just about all these tips! Especially the music/sound thing…it is so disconcerting to all of a sudden have random music playing when you visit a site (and worse, if it’s difficult to mute).
Oh, yes..the music is THE WORST!
Great advice. I know I try to keep my page pretty simple content-wise, though my background might be somewhat laggy. I might have to look into changing that soon…
Going along with not having overwhelming chunks of text, it’s also a good idea to craft shorter to-the-point paragraphs. I know I’d much rather read a book review made up of 10 or so shorter paragraphs than 4 super-huge paragraphs, even if they had the exact same content.
I think it may be the background that has you lagging. Consider making a special tab/page for all the apps you have on the sidebar.
I like your tip about paragraphs! I tent to write short paragraphs anyway so this definitely works for me 🙂
I hate it when blogs have music that automatically turns on. If I want to listen to music I have my own. And really it just reminds me too much of myspace.
Oh yes, Myspace to the very core! I hated that part of Myspace and I definitely don’t like it on blogs now.
Great post! I definitely agree on all of those points. I still need to make some little social media buttons for my blog. Maybe when the next Bloggiesta comes around. Definitely agree about music.. so annoying and I have the horrible habit of opening up 3 blogs at once or more… and then one starts in on the music and I go nuts trying to figure out which one it is.
Fantastic post! 😀
Thanks Kristen! My web designer made my social media buttons, but I know there are a ton of free ones all over the web. I love them 🙂 Makes it easy for someone to find you 🙂