Comments on: Is Your Blog Design Holding You Back?

By: buster

buster — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:57:14 +0000

Well, its clear – nice design attract people

By: kim

kim — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:35:14 +0000

I just found this awesome blog and post. I am a website and blog designer and I couldn’t agree more. If people decide to design the blog themselves, I always recommend that they take time to look at the big picture before deciding to design any kind of look and feel; target audience, strategic goals, planning, writing for web, functionality, usability, accessibility, lead management, etc. A good design can only come about once these items have been considered in the planning and discovery phases of your project.

If they don’t like the idea of strategy and planning part, they should hire an experienced web designer instead. Yes, these people cost money. And so they should. They have years of real-world experience that a stay-at-home mom can never match. A web designer should be charging anywhere from $40-$80 an hour for freelance. If they aren’t, they probably don’t have the right experience and are trying to undercut the real designers.

Here’s my advice for choosing a designer. Evaluate their real-world experience, references, portfolio and style. It also helps if they can produce successful case studies of their past work to show conversion rates and ROI. I wouldn’t recommend hiring a web designer who hasn’t designed a blog before and/or doesn’t blog him/herself. In my experience, designing a blog and designing a traditional website are two different animals. Remember, it’s a matter of tools vs. talent. Anyone can buy Photoshop and Dreamweaver, but not everyone has the true talent to get you the ROI and traffic you require.

By: Improve Your Blog: Usability : The Blog Herald

Improve Your Blog: Usability : The Blog Herald — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 06:08:41 +0000

[...] on most blogs. Labeling your About, Contact, and other Pages, as well as your post categories, is not the time to get creative. Keep them clearly labeled in the traditional format to make it easy for people to the typical [...]

By: pelf

pelf — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 11:28:01 +0000

Hmm.. I guess that’s why web designers and consultants are so expensive in the first place..? Why, they help you triple whatever you wanted to achieve in one month! LOL.

By: Phil Gerbyshak

Phil Gerbyshak — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 15:45:29 +0000

Yep, it sure is. I’m working on that though. Thanks for the reminder Lorelle.

By: starleads

starleads — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:05:08 +0000

That explains the importance of designs for itself. A good design gets 50% of teh job done.

By: Wendy Piersall

Wendy Piersall — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 21:30:24 +0000

HUGS to you. Thanks for the mention! You’re the best blogging lady in the whole wide world.

By: Edrei

Edrei — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:05:31 +0000

I’m noticing that too though. Ever since I designed my new blog design to suit what I’ve researched about blogs and my readers, my referrals have almost doubled in number. I wonder though what I can do to further help that, or have I done all that I can. It’s hard to get someone to help me out on this, most of the time it’s a trial and error job for me.