Tools & Tips
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Content is King. Google doesn’t look at your design. Many visitors will often read your content from their favorite RSS reader.
So really, how important is Blog Design for your business?
Does it affect your traffic? Does it affect your subscriber base? Does anyone care?
In short – Yes!
Here’s a few observations made while surfing the web (Hey, I do A LOT of surfing!)
I should also mention that I’m not even talking about things like floating angels, snowflakes that follow my cursor or background colors that automatically change every 30 seconds thanks to the wonders of javascript (for these sites I’ll stay around only long enough to laugh for a bit, then surf elsewhere). The following is a reference for bloggers who are actually trying to succeed online but may be using their blogs default template or a poorly designed alternative.
- The search engines don’t care if your site looks any good, but I do and you’re writing for me not Google. If you’re not writing for me then I’m not coming back anyway.
- It’s about perceived value. If I hit your site and see you’ve clearly put 0 effort into your design, I’ll automatically question how much time you’ve put into your message. I may still read your post depending on how I arrived, but I’ll be reading with a filter that didn’t need to be there in the first place.
- There’s no shortage of competition out there. So unless you happen to be the # 1 voice in your industry and provide indispensable information with every post, which is unlikely, give me a reason to stay, not a reason to leave.
- The package may not make the product (see next point), but it can certainly break it.
- If you break new design ground you may generate a temporary buzz but if you have nothing to say your creative wonder of a blog isn’t going to convince me to come back a second time.
- If your site uses yellow, red, pink or other light font colors I can’t read it… I’m partially color-blind and you just lost me.
- It doesn’t matter if your regulars use RSS feeders unless you WANT a soapbox. Your job as a blogger is to keep people coming back to the SITE. You can’t have a conversation if your readers stay at arms length so give them a friendly place to come back to!
- There’s something to be said for image. You don’t go to a dentist with discolored, cracked teeth or a chiropractor who sports a cane and you generally wouldn’t buy from a sales man dressed in a speedo! People are coming to your blog with certain expectations, understanding those expectations and exceeding them is better than the alternative.
- Don’t design for your tastes (unless you’re an historically proven trendsetter). Let me put that another way: I don’t care that you really like yellow and black; the colors of wasps, bees and danger signs don’t belong in large quantities on your blog template!
- This won’t apply to all blogs, but I read a large sampling of business related blogs and this one is for those bloggers. If your blog template NEVER changes, you obviously aren’t trying new things or testing the results and I’m going to question your online business savvy.
- Having a great looking blog doesn’t mean you need to break the bank hiring a designer. There are literally tens, if not hundreds of thousands of completely free template designs out there if you’re using a blog platform like WordPress. (see here or here)
I’ll end with a caveat and final thought
My Caveat
A lack of a unique and trendy Blog design shouldn’t hold you back from starting a blog. At the end of the day, it’s your message that brings people in, not your design (unless you are a blog about design). That being said, a sleek design should be at the top of your ‘To Do’ list once you get the ball rolling!
My Final Word (for today)
If you get involved in a redo of your blog template, don’t forget your priorities; a blog’s template should always serve to Enhance the presentation of your content and never overshadow it, and what’s really important in a Blog template is speed, accessibility and clarity.
Do you have any great tips that I haven’t covered here? Or do you disagree with any of my advice? Let me know by leaving a comment!
Tomorrow I am going to try and sneak you some information about an upcoming release… maybe screenshots even… but so far I haven’t been able to get my hands on them yet, so today I thought I would answer a couple quick techy questions I hear about our blog regularly…
What blogging software do you use?
Wordpress!! (and love it)
Do you Ping?
Of course. We were tagging and pinging before any marketer created the term to sell an info product.
You could ping manually with one of the following services:
Pingomatic
Pingoat
PingTheEmpire
Or, take advantage of the built-in Wordpress ability to automatically ping for you (a little time consuming when posting) by adding any of the following lists into the Update Services field on the Wordpress Options >> Writing page:
Elliott Backs list of 50+ pings
A List in Warrior Forums
A compiled and organized list of the above sources
What Plugins do you use?
All of the plugins we use can be found on Jim Westergrens excellent blog.
Of course there are no end to useful plugins and I recommend searching for ones that may be useful for you (Search Google for Wordpress Plugins!)
Do you get a lot of traffic?
Oh! Now we’re getting personal 
Actually we do alright, and fluctuate between 1500 and 3000 unique visitors every single day.
In fact, you can see exactly how many people are reading this blog right now, by checking out the ‘Visitors Online’ plugin at the bottom of our menu down the left hand side of the page. Generally we see 20 to 50 people online at any given moment.
Did you submit your blog to directories?
Yes and No. The SEO strategy I’ve used is a longer conversation than I have time for in this post, but yes I’ve submitted to directories in the past.
I HAVEN’T paid for a single submission though. There are too many useful free sources online to worry about paying for any one in particular (this is a general comment & how I have pursued SEO for this blog only… not a strategy written in stone!)
I am more of a linkbait (& Linkbaiting) fan, than a Link Ninja (& Link Ninja v.2) fan although both should be pursued with equal vigor
Did I miss anything? Have any other burning questions?
Just let me know and I will do my best to get them answered!
I just read Chris Browns holiday post on branding your business by updating and honing your message to match your target market.
It’s a great post in so far as it briefly outlines information that every business owner should be thinking about.
Outline of the post:
1. Develop your benchmark
2. Compare your organization to the various competitive choices available to your target market
3. Analyze your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats)
4. Focus on the Opportunities
5. Identify your message
6. Time & Money. Layout a timetable & identify your budget
7. Implement the branding tactics
And let me add two more:
8. Seek customer feedback
9. Rinse and Repeat
We have a lot of exciting projects in the works for 2007 and I’d love to spill my guts, but right now most of it is all very hush-hush
But I CAN tell you about the first new feature of 2007…
Shopping Cart Buttons!
While we’ve always provided text links for you to integrate your shopping cart into your website, you now have a selection of Shopping Cart Buttons to choose from within your account too.
Available from both the Cart Setup menu and each products Details page, you’ll now find a selection of Shopping Cart Buttons available for your use either globally, or on a product by product basis.
Simply select your preferred button type and your eCommerce account will provide all the code you need for integration in a simple cut-and-paste format.
And of course, your product links will always remain available in the same format you’re used to seeing them.
I know we’ve had a lot of requests for this in the past and I’d love your feedback once you take a look in your account!
Welcome to 2007 and my first post of the new year!
Hope everyone had a happy and fun holiday season.
We have a lot of really exciting things in the works for our merchants in the coming year but I thought I would start off with some good advice for 2007.
I get a lot of people asking for eCommerce and online marketing advice and am happy to dole it out whenever possible; and there’s certainly no shortage of good advice online if you look hard enough.
In fact, it seems there are new online experts popping up weekly lately and more good advice, good products, good tips & tricks on a daily basis by the end of 2006.
And that got me thinking about a problem over the holidays…
Not about WHO is giving the good advice; there are plenty of experts who know what they’re doing out there.
The problem I see people encounter more often is NOT a lack of information, but an excess of information.
There are so many experts spouting good plans and methods that your average person trying to make a living online becomes inundated with so many options they don’t know where to start. Or worse, they start too many projects and set themselves up for failure.
My advice for 2007 is to understand that:
There’s More Than One Path to the Top.
There really isn’t ONE single way to do this right. Most experts have found a unique blend of techniques that worked for them and it’s your job to pick the techniques that will be easiest for you to implement, and leave the rest for other people (or at least for another time!)
Once you’ve picked that ONE good technique, concentrate on it until you get it to work for your business and it starts producing measurable results.
And only when you have perfected that technique, when you have polished it into a hands-free system that can work independently of you, should you even start thinking about the NEXT one.
It will be significantly more profitable for your business to perfect one technique than to try out a dozen.
Good luck in 2007.
Wishing everyone a profitable year,
Michael Valiant
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