Getting It Right
Getting it right can take time – both in life and in terms of blog design. Since I launched Travel Blissful in August and moved away from WordPress.com I have experimented with different themes. This post is a way for me to “think out loud” and share my thoughts about how Travel Blissful will develop in the future.
Finding the Right Blog Theme
My first theme looked fresh and clean, but I changed to another one because I want more of a magazine style. When I had that I realized the site looked a little too messy and changed again. I know of a few other bloggers with this same theme, including Steve at Asian Ramblings. The last thing I want to do is imitate anyone, so it’s important to give the site an individual look. That’s what I intend to do.
Choice of Colors
I need to consider the colors. How do they match? Are they appealing? How about the color of the banner ads? Since it’s Christmas time, I think the red titles combined with a wintry header image shot in the ski resort Engelberg looks good. I still haven’t made up my mind regarding the background color. The grey works, but something colorful may look better.
Advertising
I want to offer advertising, banners in different sizes and locations. At the same time I don’t want to clutter up the site with too many ads. A couple of relevant, quality ads are good. Too many can annoy. Balance is key.
Categories
Since I have more than 20 categories (excluding sub-categories), I can’t place them all in the navigation bar. Two lines of categories would look too messy. I chose to show only non-destination categories, hence Africa, Asia, Australia & Oceania, Central America, Europe, Middle East, North America and South America can only be seen if you scroll down to the Categories widget. At least for now.
The Look
Apart from choice of colors, the look of the site also depends on how well the content is arranged. The MooTools featured slider under the navigation bar works, but I need to fix the boxes below. I would like them all to be aligned rather than in different sizes. Hopefully I can solve that, or perhaps make the boxes wider and order one after the other as opposed to two next to each other.
Personality
I want to give the site a more personal look. In the coming weeks, and months, I will make some changes. In the sidebar, I plan to add an Aside with a current picture of myself (can’t stay camera shy forever!), perhaps a short bio and a brief text about Travel Blissful with a link to the About page. What else can I do to give the site a more individual appearance? Include more widgets in the sidebar, change the About page, add more links under My Content.
RSS Subscription
If readers wish to subscribe to the RSS feed I want to make it easy for them. I would like to make a big subscription form and place it further up in the sidebar, if possible under the navigation bar or under the 300×250 banner.
Links
I have a page with links to different great blogs. Initially I considered having all links in the sidebar, but realized the blogroll would be too long. So I chose to feature the blogs I read most often.
Video
If possible, I want to make the video player bigger. The videos will include feature films that take place in one or several destinations worth visiting.
Header
To make the site look good, the length of the header does play a big role. Many bloggers choose very small headers while others opt for a larger.
Footer
The length of the footer is also something to consider. Some bloggers go for a large footer, like GoMediaZine.
Title
The title is one of the most important aspects of a great site. As you can see I still work on that one.
As said above, getting it right doesn’t always happen at once. Sometimes I know exactly what I want, other times I need to experiment with different methods until I find the right solution.
–
Update: When writing this post, I used the PNT The Gazette Edition by WooThemes.
I like the look… and I agree it takes time.
As far as layout, think about what you’d want to read: what information does someone really want? What do your readers use? Can you dig into your blog stats to figure out what people actually click on? (for example, do you need the tags right there under the title?)
You could increase the size of the RSS link (I should do that myself), make the categories under the header picture stand out a bit more, and yes, personalize it a bit more.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of your personality injected into the site. I’ve found that by doing so myself (I was reluctant for a long time) I was not only able to connect with more people, but my writing flowed better. I found my voice and was really able to fall into my niche.
Designs are the type of thing you spend hours on and just when you get it absolutely right, time for an update!
I really like this new design (from Blissful Travel) and can’t wait to see the changes as they progress
Thanks for the tip Taylor. It’s important to think about what info the readers use and prefer. Re the tags, good point. And you’re right about the categories.
Great to hear making the site more personal worked that well for you Anil. Hope it’s the same for me
I like the magazine style theme that you are using.
@Debo Hobo, Thank you!
I think this is one of the hardest parts about creating a new blog – selecting the look. You want it to convey a certain feeling, a certain part of you, and unless you go with a custom designed look, the generic ones usually have something missing.
What I like about your blog look is that it is clean, easy to read, and with the menu bar at the top, easy to find things. I am excited to see what you do going forward!
@Gudrun, Thanks for the input!