Getting it right can take time – both in life and in terms of blog design.
Since I launched Travel Blissful in August this year and moved away from Wordpress.com I have been experimenting a bit with different themes. This post is just a way for me to “think out loud” and let you know 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 wanted 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 I believe it’s important to give the site an individual look. That’s what I intend to do.
Choice of Colors
What I need to consider is the colors. How do they match? Are they appealing? How about the color of the banner ads?
Since we’re moving towards Christmas, I thought the red titles combined with a wintry header image shot in the ski resort Engelberg was a good choice.
Still haven’t made up my mind regarding the background color. The grey works ok, but perhaps something more colorful would look better.
Advertising
I do 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 be annoying. Balance is the key.
Categories
Since I currently have more than 20 categories (excluding sub-categories), I obviously can’t place them all in the navigation bar. Two lines of categories would look way 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 ok, what I need to fix is the boxes below. I’d 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. I did consider a blog layout, but thought this style looked better.
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) similarly to how Cheryl on Planet Pink n’ Green did, 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’d 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 at this time I have chosen 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 or countries 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, like Christine at Almost Fearless, opt for a larger header.
Footer
The length of the footer is also something to take into consideration. 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 am still working on that one. Either I will just add “Travel Blissful” or “Travel Blissful – wherever you are”.
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.
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Update: When writing this post, I was using the PNT The Gazette Edition by WooThemes.
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Taylor Davidson
1 year ago
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.
Anil
1 year ago
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
Erica Johansson
1 year ago
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
Debo Hobo
1 year ago
I like the magazine style theme that you are using.
Erica Johansson
1 year ago
@Debo Hobo, Thank you!
Gudrun
1 year ago
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!
Erica Johansson
1 year ago
@Gudrun, Thanks for the input!
New Design….Again. | Travel Blissful
1 year ago
[...] of you might remember my October post Getting It Right. I wrote about the process of finding the right blog theme and how I wanted Travel Blissful to [...]