Blog startup resources and observations on starting your own blog
What is a “Blog Design” anyway? Blog design controls the entire presentation of your blog brand. Sure, you can start with a simple and free blog template for your design and you’ll find many locations offering free blog themes or templates. Your blog theme gives your blog character and the right level of professional or personal branding to make your blog unique to your blogging purpose.
Many people start their blog with a free blog theme or even the default blog design presentation. A “blog theme” or “blog skin” which is the same thing as a “blog template” are the files and graphics that make up the template page structure for the presentation of the blog. The blog is actually run dynamically from a database. So instead of making new pages on your site each time you post to your blog, the blog cms (content management system) utilizes the blog template to present your pages and data.
You can easily change the blog design anytime by installing a new theme or template. Most blogging platforms allow you to change your theme with a few clicks. For non-hosted blogs, you’ll just need to ftp your new blog theme files to your server and enter your blog administration to select and install the new theme and any additional options for presentation. Your blog design also accommodates your “blog widgets”, a more modern feature of the blog template that allows you to quickly add html and third party script to run the interesting elements of the blog sidebar like social tools, photo gallery links, advertising, and much more.
As your blog matures you’ll likely want to hire a blog designer to create a blog theme or design that is specifically unique to your own blog. If you begin to make significant revenue with your blog, you’ll probably want to have a blog designer give you a fresh look and style updates on a regular basis.
One of the most popular features of a blog is the ability to quickly change the blog design. When you do settle on a blog theme or design, or if you have created your own blog design, be sure to ask for honest feedback. Some of us just don’t have an eye for that perfect design and there are plenty of talented designers that could easily make your blog look great with a little creativity and an understanding of your blog theme concept and goals.
The 'Starting a Blog' blog provides tips and observations related to the site purpose of providing new blog startups with information about beginning a blog. This blog is also utilized to demonstrate recommendations and ideas. Blogs are also becoming excellent personal, business, and corporate communication tools. Come learn with us!
Dallas
February 24th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
There are also some great blog design tools online - One of my favorites is the Wordpress Theme Generator. The tool allows you to preview your colors, fonts, etc. and then download and share the new theme. http://www.yvoschaap.com/wpthemegen/
Nice work yvoschaap.com!