There is a lot of talk about what you write on your blog being all important (and it is!) – as you can imagine, this is going to be an area that we will be coming back to on a regular basis here at The Blog Coach.
However, it’s also important to make sure that the look and feel of the overall blog (including the individual posts) both support and promote the information that it provides. In fact, through careful use of graphics, we can influence the way in which people react to our blog and make it as easy as possible for them to take on board what we are writing about.
Make your Blog stand out from the crowd
The way your blog is presented also plays a key role in differentiating not only your blog, but also you and your business. After all, that‘s what we are looking to achieve in business, being noticed – so, any way which helps us to stand out from our competitors has to be positive.
I don’t know about you, but when I see blogs which, for example, run Wordpress but just use the basic template - you know the one with the blue box at the top – my first reaction is that there can’t be anything of value there. In fact, I probably write it off as a “splog” (spam blog).
Irrational and quite possibly untrue. Nevertheless I just think that someone who cannot be bothered to spend a bit of effort (or a few pounds) to “spruce up” their blog probably hasn’t spent much time on the content either. Others have told me that I’m not alone in this respect. So spend a little time on the design of your blog and your posts, and help the information that you are carefully putting together get read.
Caveat: try not to get too carried away. Remember that any graphics you include should not be there to distract your readers but rather to help them focus on the information and ideally encourage them to comment.
Some Graphics Sites to try
So where can I find good images to support the information in my blog, I hear you ask! Well, at one end of the spectrum, there are the files that come free with programs such as PowerPoint which offer both clipart and some photos which can be used.
However, these can often be a little bit ‘samey’ or not in keeping with what you want to communicate with your blog. There are, however, a number of excellent sites where you can find quality images covering a whole range of topics. Most of the good stock photos sites charge a small fee now, but the images are well worth it if you choose carefully.
Some sites worth a look are:
- www.dreamstime.com
- www.istockphoto.com
- www.bigstockphoto.com
- www.123rf.com
- www.canstockphoto.com
- www.sxc.hu
- www.fotolia.co.uk
- www.stockxpert.com
A word of caution: as with all images that you use off the net, do make sure that you follow any copyright requirements – the last think you want is to have issues with companies claiming ownership of images which you have used legitimately.
Other ways to break up posts
In addition to the use of images, there are of course many other ways in which you can help to make a blog more readable. Some you might like to consider are:
- break up the posts into manageable chunks
- keep paragraphs shorter than you might do in a written document
- use subheadings so that people can skim to the place and the information they want if required (better than them leaving the blog)
- use bullets where appropriate or indeed create a whole blog comprising of a list - while I’m personally not a great fan of these posts, they do work well
If you mix in some of these and incorporate images which help your blog’s look and feel, then you’ll be taking a big step towards encouraging people to read your blog and take on board the information that the posts contain.
Then of course, it’s just a case of writing something valuable …! 
Im just starting to write on my blog and i know its gonna take a while until it start looking nice, but whith this article i think ill be able to do it faster. thanks!