Smart Bloggers on Design, Themes, and Branding

I enjoy tweaking the design and layout on my personal blog.  Unfortunately, not knowing much about css and html code has limited what I can tweak, but I don’t let that stop me!  I just find smart people who know what to do and are willing to share their knowledge!

Of course, it helps to have a great blog theme or basic layout before you start tweaking, though finding the right WordPress theme can be a bit overwhelming with so many choices.  As a WordPress newbie, I found this post describing where to look for really great themes helpful.  I also appreciated the reminder that colors, fonts, and images are changeable and shouldn’t be the basis of your decision.

Using suggestions from the post above, I found this “Elegant Touch” theme.  I like that it includes 3 columns, is widget ready, and supports Gravatar.  The design is fairly simple and clean, though I don’t care for the colors.

For tweaking a current theme or layout, Jo-Lynne (Musings of a Housewife) has 3 great design how-to articles:  “How to add a 3rd column in a blogger layout,” “How to design and upload a blog header,” and “How to design a blog button.”

I’m hoping to find time this week to use her step-by-step guide to make a few blog buttons.  As a visual learner I REALLY appreciate the way she includes examples with each step.

I have bookmarked her other two articles so the next time I want to add a 3rd column to a Blogger layout or change my header I’ll have a detailed guide to walk me through the process.

I’m also planning to use Sarah’s (Real Life) guide to make my current header a little sharper. A fuzzy header bugs me like it does Sarah; now that I have Sarah’s guide I can fix mine.  I definitely don’t want a fuzzy header to negatively impact my brand.

Even though design is only part of branding, it can have a big impact on what other people think about a blog.  In fact, thanks to a post at ProBlogger, I’ve been thinking a lot about branding. His example of asking a woman “what do I want to be known for” really hit home with me.  It’s a really helpful question when determining your brand and really speaks to the main issue of branding.

One thing I DON’T want to be known for is a bad blog design.  And thanks to these really smart people I can make sure that won’t ever happen.

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