Comments on: Does Blog Design Matter in an Age of Feed Readers?

By: Mobile PC

Mobile PC — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:01:24 +0000

Blog design does matter for most of blogs but for really brilliant ones it doesn’t matter because readers love posts of the blogger anyway.

By: 11 Ways to Spring Clean Your Blog

11 Ways to Spring Clean Your Blog — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:09:40 +0000

[...] New Design [...]

By: Best of Feeds - 45 links - programming, blogging, humor, blogs, geek, tips « //engtech - internet duct tape

Mon, 21 May 2007 23:06:49 +0000

[...] Does Blog Design Matter in an Age of Feed Readers? (problogger.net, 7 saves) [...]

By: » Auf die Autobahn, Blogpiloten.de - Weblog Update Weekly

» Auf die Autobahn, Blogpiloten.de - Weblog Update Weekly — Thu, 10 May 2007 11:57:40 +0000

[...] Ben Yoskovitz, Darren Rowse, Ralf [...]

By: Fast Links Collection - Num 48 | MondoBlog

Fast Links Collection - Num 48 | MondoBlog — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:48:15 +0000

[...] Quanto è importante il design di un blog nell’ era dei feed reader? [...]

By: Greg O'Byrne

Greg O'Byrne — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:37:12 +0000

A good design should enhance the experience.

By: Ana

Ana — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 04:51:40 +0000

Yes! This is something I’ve been arguing about with several of my well-meaning mentors who’ve been trying to convince me that design doesn’t matter, only content does, etc. Design *matters*! I love a beautiful, well-designed, user-friendly, content-rich site. The design will attract a reader’s eye, and the content will keep them there. That’s what I want for my first site and blog. And if that means taking the time to learn HTML, CSS and all the other bells and whistles, that’s what it’ll take. It’s my business, I’m taking it seriously. Darren, you’re a gem.

By: Maria Langer, the Official Web Site* » links for 2007-01-24

Maria Langer, the Official Web Site* » links for 2007-01-24 — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:49:09 +0000

[...] Does Blog Design Matter in an Age of Feed Readers? Darren Rowse at ProBlogger.net shares some thoughts on blog design and feed subscibers. A good read if you were thinking of slacking off on design because of high subscriber numbers. (tags: webdesign blogging blog RSS feed article advice) [...]

By: Maria

Maria — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 14:32:43 +0000

Yes, I think design does matter.

Like you, I also use RSS to find posts I want to read. In many cases, I then read the post in my Web browser window. Once on the article page, I’m more likely to read all of the content, link to it, and leave a comment. However, if a site’s design is poor and difficult to read or so full of advertising or other junk that I have difficulty following content, I’ll read the whole article in my feed reader without linking or commenting. That said, I think that the number of subscribers should not be used as an excuse for poor site design.

By: Samuel Nova

Samuel Nova — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 20:32:21 +0000

See, some people left comments here. Guess they all went to the site :-)
I don’t know about other readers, but I’m using an web browser based RSS reader (Let us call it Bloglines). When I see there are new posts on Problogger.net then I read the headline, maybe a few lines and then if it got any interest for me, then I open that post in the another tab and moves on to next entry in the feed. When done with the feed then I do read the content of the posts, all from the site. So I do get to the site and if the design would have been something annoying, well, then I would not return.
Another thing, you can also just send out summary of the posts in the feed and then if people want to read it, then they have to go to the site (FeedBurner can help there). But even if it is an interesting post and you give it all in the feed, then people might want to go and check out the comments.
So I vote for design is important.

By: Transmission Content + Creative, Mark Goren, New Marketing Coach » Blog Archive » The reader’s perspective

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 02:40:41 +0000

[...] • Problogger answers: Does Blog Design Matter in an Age of Feed Readers? [...]

By: RSS al 100 per 100 at web-comm.net

RSS al 100 per 100 at web-comm.net — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:50:15 +0000

[...] Ha ragione Darren Rowse a sostenere che gli RSS readers non sostituiranno i web browsers ancora per un po’ di tempo e le sue argomentazioni a riguardo mi sembrano piuttosto convincenti. Tuttavia a chi, come me, si tiene aggiornato sopratutto grazie ai RSS feeds mi sento di dare qualche consiglio prendendo spunto anche dai trucchi suggeriti da franticindustries. [...]

By: Blogworks

Blogworks — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:57:54 +0000

Every time I’ve redesigned one of my blogs, click-throughs and revenues from that blog have improved. In my experience, it’s one of the best ways to improve AdSense revenue. Ad placement was one area of improvement, but I think a better-looking blog gets more respect and more time from its readers.

By: Tyler Ingram

Tyler Ingram — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:42:32 +0000

I like the design of a site over the RSS feed. Sure I subscribe to feeds that i would read on a regular basis but I am always going back to the site and reading past posts or reading comments.

Layout is a big thing. If it is easy to navigate, the content is displayed and not obstructed by ugly ads (there are ugly ads out there) and if it is layed out nicely I definately will come back to it.

Besides if I see a feature on a site that I like, I will look at using that feature on my site and i would then use the other site as a template. So it has to be easy to read and easy on the eyes.

By: Martial Development

Martial Development — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:29:28 +0000

I wrote about the benefits of web page vs. feed a few weeks ago. Long story short, feeds just aren't that great.

By: Barb

Barb — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:20:38 +0000

I think blog design matters. I subscribe to the ones I enjoy through my browser. I tried feed readers and found that’s no fun; I enjoy seeing from where the material is coming. Some blogs are total turnoffs because of their design.

By: High Desert Wanderer » Blog Archive » Does blog design matter?

High Desert Wanderer » Blog Archive » Does blog design matter? — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:25:47 +0000

[...] Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger had an interesting post yesterday called Does Blog Design Matter in an Age of Feed Readers? [...]

By: UKStevieB

UKStevieB — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:54:41 +0000

Like most of you I only use my reader to peruse, I like to go to the actual site to read an article I find interesting, so for me the design matters.
I think it is also good to have a nice design for your site for your own mental benefit, in that you “feel” better about it, just as you feel good to have a nice home to invite people to.
Also, just as you would want visitors to your house to feel happy to come again, so to you wish for your site readers to feel they would like to visit another time. Obviously a nicely put together blog will help in this.

By: Rhea

Rhea — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:53:28 +0000

Great topic. I ‘ve been wondering the same thing. I think that although a lot of folks are using RSS readers, I also know that anyone I speak to among my friends (all computer users) have never heard of an RSS reader. Also, my target audience, baby boomers, does not likely contain a large number of RSS readers. So to my mind, design will continue to matter for a long time to come.

By: Andreas

Andreas — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:44:53 +0000

Yes. I think that design is one of the more important parts of a blog (css designer). But if you take a look at successful blogs (problogger.net), great looking design is perhaps not what makes them successful blogs, it is their content. I think however that users will still browse the web and read blogs in their browsers, I do ;).

I like design very much, and perhaps i spend to much time designing my blog. I think it’s really worth having a site that users feel comfortable reading, so take some time learning xhtml and css and you can do almost whatever you want with your blog when it comes to design.

Great design also adds a feeling that the content or the rest of the site has potential. The first time i visited technorati, i really though, these guys are focused on what they do because they took time aside to design their site.

Good post Darren.