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How to Make Your Blog Look Attractive in No Time

Posted By Guest Blogger 11th of November 2014 Blog Design 0 Comments

This is a guest contribution from Daniel Glickman of Emaze.

Appearance matters.

How your blog looks when visitors first visit has a powerful effect on their interpretation of the quality of your content. However, when designing your blog, it may be difficult to know what’s most important. Is it better to look professional and risk looking like every other company blog, or to focus on being unique so that you stand out from the rest? The truth is, neither is most important – what’s most important is creativity.

Communicating creativity shows that you are not ordinary. It shows you are capable of thinking outside of the box to deliver fresh content that offers something different than the rest. This is valuable no matter what niche your blog is in, so how do you capitalize on creativity and start making your blog look creative in no time?

Step 1: Understand creativity doesn’t equal off-the-wall.

Creativity doesn’t mean sharing purposeless viral dog videos or snazzy online presentations just because you think it will make you stand out from your competition. In fact, this is the opposite of creativity. Creativity is working with purpose to do what everyone else is doing in a unique way.

Even the most professional website can be creative just by taking a different approach to classic design. In fact, the best instances of creativity come due to the element of surprise. If your audience expects you to use a certain font, create advertisement campaigns similar to those you have in the past, or make the same offer as every other blog, you won’t be creative if you serve them what you want. For instance, if every business blog in your niche is offering a helpful marketing manual or white paper, be creative and think of what else you can offer. Once you understand what creativity is, you can outline what creativity looks like on your website.

Step 2: Outline what creativity means to you.

To determine what creativity means for you and your blog’s brand, there is no better place to look than around you to see how your competition is succeeding – or failing – at being creative. Some questions to ask yourself…

  • What similarities do you see across other blogs in your niche?
  • Do they all share the same content or have look-alike landing pages?
  • Is there one that is distinct among the rest?
  • What are they doing right – do they have a killer video advertising campaign or a logo you can’t get out of your head?
  • Where is there room for improvement? Are you a travel blogger and notice every other blog has great photos, but few videos or presentations? Or perhaps you notice all the other startup’s company blogs have generic logos or that everyone in your niche is sharing the same content on social media. Find weak spots among your competition to identify where to begin.

Use this to decide how you will bring creativity to your blog. Of course, your plan can (and should) evolve as you see what works and what doesn’t, but starting here is a good place to begin.

 

Step 3: Start communicating creativity before audiences ever reach your content.

Think about how many opportunities you have to plant ideas about your brand in your audience’s head before they even reach your content. To start, think of how they get to your site. How can you make your advertisements more creative, either by integrating creative touches within the ad content or using creative methods to reach new viewer? How is your blog’s meta-description language different from the others who come up in Google search results? What do you do that screams, “Come to my blog over the rest!” Integrate creative tactics for every step of your blog, including those leading to a visitor landing on your blog.

And of course, remember, landing pages matter. A lot! A creative landing page is one of the single most important moments for sticking your brand in your audiences’ mind. Integrating videos and highlighting focus keywords through design and font are all great ways to catch your audiences’ eyes.

Step 4: Don’t forget the little touches.

When creating a brand image, every little thing matters, and it’s important to ensure that they all fit with your desired message. Creativity doesn’t have to be grandiose – it can be as small as a rare social media link graphic or a dash of humor in your About Me page. Creativity is all about catching the visitor off guard – and making everything different is over-the-top and can defy this purpose. For example, pay attention to your logo to ensure it’s in line with the rest of your branding, and then add an unexpected touch of color to your color scheme or pick a unique font for standout content on your landing page. Creativity relies on little touches that draw the viewer’s eye and set you apart. Just like putting too much content can create an impression of clutter, so too can adding too many details because you think they are “creative.” Creativity is best when subtle, which is what makes it so powerful.

 

Step 5: Look at every piece of content you absorb through a creative lens.

When looking at others’ content online, start seeing the world through a creative lens. Notice what makes you pay attention and ask yourself why this company or advertisement was able to grab your focus. Chances are, you’ll notice a large part of it is due to good old creativity.

Let creativity funnel into every aspect of your blog. Use original marketing techniques and social media posts so you continuously communicate your ability to re-imagine the typical ways of doing things. An audience’s perception of you often comes from many different sources – an amazing Tweet you shared, a great logo, or an awesomely different landing page – every piece matters for creating the whole.

Daniel Glickman is the CMO of emaze. He loves analyzing marketing data and building strategic and tactical plans. 

About Guest Blogger
This post was written by a guest contributor. Please see their details in the post above.
Comments
  1. For me the most attractive blog for me is ViperChill. I have loved its simple and minimalist design that focuses more on content and not on ads.

    Minimalist design always wins the attractive contest!
    What do you say about it?

    • Hey Arbaz,

      Minimal is great. I think it makes it easier to focus on a call to action. I know it may seem adding a ton of things to your site seems nice but in all reality it makes it tough for people to choose what to do.

      Thanks,

      Christopher Pontine

    • I say that if minimalist is what works for you then do it!
      …Unless you have a blog about victorian wallpaper designs.

  2. Nice points. Every bloggers much know these things. The first thing a person notice is blog’s design and then looks for the content. Site loading speed is important too.

  3. Hey,

    I am new to blogging and this is amazing article for new ones. Thanks for sharing this will help me alot !

    Regards

  4. I’m another person who usually prefers minimlist designs. A minimlist design shouldn’t stop you from being creative though, as you say in your post, there are plenty of opportunities to stand out from the crowd: language, colour schemes, fonts, headlines – and you don’t have to be a top-notch web or graphic designer to make any of these work for you.

  5. Hi Daniel. What is “creative” vs. “off the wall” depends on who’s looking at the website. You present good points for consideration when trying to be creative. The customer and the audience really need to weigh into the consideration. A creative design for a radio station or art gallery would seem off the wall for a law firm, for example. ha!

    I’m guessing it is probably best to stay conservative with things like navigation no matter what the customer and audience, just to be safe. What’s your opinion from what you’ve seen?

    Thought provoking article, thanks! :-)
    Rob

    • Hi Rob,
      Great Point. Some things are relevant to, well, you!
      For instance: At emaze.com we shy away from anything “off the wall just because it’s not the nature of our audience. My personal blog which I have not uploaded my design yet (CMOconfessions.com) will be much more risky in nature because its provocative in nature.

      One more point: Function trumps looks any day. People have to know to get around your site, they need to know what to expect and they need to understand what you are about. Can’t be to safe there!

  6. Yes..It is always important how you attract your readers at the first read only. it is always preferred to represent your content in a unique way.

    Great content ..thanks for great information.

  7. three simple words. UNIQUE INTERESTING CONTENT. anything that is “off the wall” (whatever that means) will either tire quickly or annoy the majority of people. Your blog should be easy to read, engaging and of a consistently high standard. Everything else is candy floss. People come to a blog for a reason. You, as publisher should be really clear in your mind what that reason is. And then go ahead and produce lots of it…

  8. Thanks for the great post. Your blog is a treasure trove of resources. Design really does have a huge impact on how I feel when I read through a site, and adding a touch of personality adds so much more interest.

  9. I totally agree with you I think,Attractive looking blog important for branding,customer etc.thanks for your great tips :)

  10. Every blogger should follow these way. These are valuable information for me,because i am now gooing to strat a blog for my website. I will try to follow these ideas and try to attract readers in the first view of my blog.

  11. This is very good topic. Everybody want to make your blog attractive. It help the someone to increase blog commenting and backlink. It also helpfull to promote the blog.

  12. As you mentioned here creativity word, so what about if you post an infographic instead of a long text blog. I love to post or share the infographic because I have noticed the huge difference in the click & view ratio after publishing the infographic on my site.

  13. Perfect Guide, Daniel.

    I think I am following 100% of your suggestions. :)

    A happy moment for me..

  14. If anything, blog readers will judge the blog based on the look alone before they read content. You are absolutely right about making a blog look attractive in order to attract more readers and traffic from search engines and social networks. It’s amazing how a nice looking blog template can increase the probability of the blogger earning more money from affiliate programs and having their content shared frequently one social networks like Facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn.

  15. Hi Daniel,

    Wear that creative lens to spruce up your blog. I did so with my current blog; I trashed my old one and even though carried a similar brand theme I needed to get clear on my design and direction. Enter my glasses, and the insight of a web designer. Getting clear cuts to the core of what you wish to achieve. All the BS and add ons and frills vanish if you want to talk to one ideal reader, or avatar.

    I went heavy on white space and light on ads. I plastered Selfies all over my blog – blogging from paradise, so want to prove it – and released all other elements.

    I added a tropical feel with green coloring and a palm tree through my banner too. All since I put on the creative glasses/lens you suggested in this fab post.

    Ryan

  16. Absolutely, creativity makes a big difference in the overall attraction. Though its a simple topic, if its presented in a bit innovative or creative way, it can won the viewer’s attention. Thanks for sharing.

  17. This post really helped me. Attractive blog attract traffic is the real key. Content of the blog comes in second place.

  18. Loved reading your article. I too have changed my blog to wordpress instead of blogspot. My goal is to write more in the new site and link back to previous posts so readers can find valuable content.
    I’m always looking to make my site better so thanks for your creative ideas.
    Teri Smyth

  19. Quick tips and quick result. very good post. Thanks Daniel Glickman

  20. in case of navigation or any other stuff the most essential thing to make is to make clickable stuff not too colorful simple and elegant, decent works actually work out perfectly
    thanks for your kind suggestions
    i am gong to implement them right away

    regards
    supreeth

  21. I prefer blogs & websites that have a lot of white space or light/pale colours. Much easier on the eyes than all black pages.

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