HOW TO ARRANGE BLOG POSTS ON YOUR SITE EFFECTIVELY FOR READERS

Although this post might seem irrelevant to my blog for some time as I am trying out dew things to get the blog in a better shape,If you have the posts arranged categorically correct on your site then you can have a variety of readers reading your particular section though one page only.This requires some initial planning but once you are ready then the blog seems excellent to you itself in the first place.Following are some ideas on how to get the tricks right for your blog.

1.Interlink to the earlier posts

This is an excellent way to help readers reach out to the other posts which you think can supplement readers on the entire topic which they are interested in.In a way this also helps in search engine optimization for your blog (particularly for that post).

2.Rookie area

If you have a particular section for the beginners in the blogging world,then it may add that little x-factor to your blog with targeted visitors approaching your blog.I am looking forward in getting this section of blog archive ready on my blog ready in near future.

3.Posting regularly on blogging basics

It is always important to revert back to basic stuff once in a while to get new readers on your blog plus keep your regular readers also interested.

4.Long term readership

Try having some guest post about basic blogging tips if you think you have had enough of those stuff by yourself.By this way you are developing long term readership as well as loyal friends for your site's future.

5.Advanced section

If you think that there is something special that is required to be conveyed for readers who are in the blogging for some time now then try having a section for advanced steps in blogging for them to make go to that one step ahead.

Ideas mentioned above are possible through constant research about various topics, good amount of content on your blog archive and seriously good writing style.Its also a fact that you cannot keep everyone happy.So do not try and keep everyone happy and interested who comes to your blog because believe me you cannot.Try improving you blog each day with something to add to your blog every once in a while.

Read more »

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS BLOG DESIGNS --- PART 3

This is the final part in the series effective business blog redesign.You can refer back to part 1 and part2 of the series for more details. Remember this is a republished article originally written by Cameron Chapman.

5. Make Provisions for Other Content

While most business blogs still focus primarily on text it’s important to make provisions for rich multimedia content. You never know when you might want to expand your blog to include podcasts, slide shows or video content. Even something as simple as including images in a post is sometimes overlooked in the initial blog design. Think about the types of content that are commonly incorporated into blog posts and then think about how you can best serve those kinds of content within the design. Even things like making sure your main content column is wide enough to properly display images or video shouldn't be overlooked.

6. Make the blog a Reflection of Your Company’s Values and Personality

The design of your blog should reflect your company values and corporate culture. A company with a traditional take on things should reflect that in their blog design. A company that’s hip and modern should have a hip and modern blog design.

Besides these important points some other key factors to be kept in mind while thinking of blog redesign are:

• Paginate comments if you regularly get more than 10-20 comments on your posts.
• Separate your comments from your trackbacks (incoming links to blog posts from other website).
• Include a gravatar image for your commenters.

Blog designers, however talented, cannot change your corporate DNA. Work with them towards a presentation that is inviting, open and flexible while accurately representing the values and style of your business.

Read more »

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS BLOG DESIGNS --- PART 2

This is the second post post in the series "effective blog designs".In the previous post I have discussed the merits of Typography and readability.Here in this post I am going to discuss about nest two important facts:

3. Establish a Hierarchy of Site Elements

There’s a definite hierarchy of design and content elements in any blog design. You just need to make sure that the hierarchy your design establishes is the one you intended. In other words, make sure that the most important parts of your design and content are most prominently displayed.In most business blogs the two most important elements are going to be the main content and the header, which should include branding for the company. Make sure that when you look at the design of you blog that those are the two elements that stand out among all the others. Make sure, too, that hierarchy within elements makes sense. Your blog post titles, for example, should stand out over any subheadings contained within the posts. Elements within your sidebar should be arranged in a manner that makes sense in terms of usability (for example, the navigation of your blog should appear above any blogroll links you choose to incorporate).

4. Don’t Forget Comment Design!

Almost every business blog wants to foster communication and discussion with their visitors. After all, an engaged readership is more likely to come back on a regular basis and more likely to be loyal to your company.The comment form on your blog should be easy to use and make it apparent which fields are required (most often a name, email address, and the comment itself). The comments should be arranged and formatted in a way that clearly separates each comment. Make sure that the typography—the size and contrast in particular—make it easy to read the comments. You’ll also want to decide whether you want your comments to appear in chronological order or in a threaded manner (where replies appear under the comment being replied to). If you want to foster conversation among commenters, then the latter option will almost certainly work better. If you mostly want your commenters to converse with your authors, then the former might work better. Differentiate your author comments, too, to make it easier for readers to see an author’s responses to other commenters. Of course, if your authors rarely or never comment (which isn't a good thing), this becomes irrelevant.

The final part in this series is due next when another two important facts about successful business blog redesign will be discussed.

Read more »

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS BLOG DESIGNS---- PART 1

This is a republished post originally written by Cameron Chapman

The design of your business blog has a huge impact on how it is perceived by your visitors. A great design instills trust, makes you more credible and invites your readers to participate. A poor design can make your blog and your company look unprofessional.

Just as with regular website design, there are certain best practices you should keep in mind when working on the design of your blog. The best practices of regular website design still apply, of course, but there are also important blog specific considerations:

1. Don’t Insist on Your Blog Design Matching Your Website Design Perfectly

So many business blogs try to shoehorn a blog into their existing website design. That’s fine if your website has a text-centric design that’s similar to a blog design to begin with. But many great business websites don’t resemble blogs at all. In those cases, it’s important for your blog design to echo your website design, but it doesn't need to match it perfectly. Your blog design should instead repeat elements like the graphics or color scheme, and should incorporate similar typography.

2.Focus on Typography and Readability

Since blogs mostly revolve around text content, it’s important that your design makes that content easily readable. This means using a font that’s suitable for reading onscreen, as well as having proper contrast and a font that’s large enough.As a general rule, dark text on a light background is more readable than light text on a dark background. Just look at white text on a black screen for a few minutes and then look at a light surface. You’ll see black bands super-imposed on your vision for up to a few minutes. The same effect doesn't happen with a light

background and dark text. You also want to limit the number of fonts used on your blog. Ideally, use one or at most two fonts in your design. Instead of using more than two fonts use multiple weights and styles in the fonts you choose to add diversity to your typography.

Next part will reveal the next 2 important details to watch out for a successful blog redesign.

Read more »

THE DO'S AND DON'TS OF WEBSITE REDESIGN

This is the rewritten article published by Richard James originally.

So it's time for a redesign of your website, and you want to do it in a way that will cause the least disruption of service to your customers and will also maintain your brand identity.

There are a number of different reasons why a business may want to redesign their website. Often a company has grown so much that the original website design no longer serves the needs of their customers.

Or, the original website may have been thrown together hastily just to establish a website presence, like putting up a sign in front of your brick and mortar store. Now, the time has come to re-evaluate your website and see how well it's really serving and informing your customers, and how well it’s advertising your company’s brand.

When you are redesigning your website, don't rush. And don’t skimp.

You don't want to have to go back and keep tweaking things and adding that one element that you forgot, or taking out a bunch of elements that you now realize are distracting and irrelevant.

And you don't want to pay so little for your web design services that you end up with a poorly designed, hard to navigate website.

When you are getting ready to embark on a website redesign, make sure that you communicate your needs to the website designer. You will want to discuss the scope of the project, how many pages you will need, what type of information that you want to convey, what type of audience you will be speaking to - conservative, creative, younger, older, students, race car fans... this will have a huge impact on the look of your site.

You will want to decide if you are going to have a static website or if you are going to update it regularly with industry news or company news, and if so, who is going to do the updating - you or the web designer?

And finally, here are some factors to consider in your redesign, that you will want to discuss with the design company that you hire:

Do you need to completely change the look of your website? You may want to do so if your website is poorly designed and not pleasing to the eye, and if it does not contain any logos or color schemes that are consistent with your company's overall brand. If your company does use a logo and a specific color theme, and those are already in use on your site, at the very least you will want to have your web designer incorporate those into your new design.

How SEO friendly is your website? Many website designers use images where they could be using text. Search engines can not "read" images so important phrases that would help to make your site easier to find on the internet - say, "Colorado cosmetic dentists" - will be unreadable to the search engines. So make sure that you hire a website designer who understands search engine optimization as well as design.

Look over your current website to determine what works, what should be kept, and what needs to go. First, put yourself in the mind of a new potential customer who has never been to your website before and knows little or nothing about your services. Does the top portion of the home page, the first area that a potential customer sees, clearly communicate what your company does? The Jacoby and Myers website, for instance, says "Jacoby & Myers Law Offices" - and underneath that is the tagline, "America’s Most Familiar Law Firm". Potential new clients immediately know what services the company provides and they also know the company’s USP - unique selling proposition.

Now look at the website as if you were a regular customer returning to the site. Is it easy for your customer to find what they need? Is it easy for them to place a new order or contact customer service, or do they need to search for the links that will allow them to do so?

Read more »

How to have a landing page for your website

Although I am an engineering student ,I had the blogging habit from the start of my school days but of course used to do it in my personal diary.All the days events used to come in a concise form.But now its easier for the people to share their experiences to others through blogging.Let me tell two things that are really important for any blog to be successful-----

1. Brilliant writing style so that people enjoy what you have written.We all share experiences and everything is from the heart but still it is highly important that we should focus on our writing skills and grammar.The way we present ourselves to the other readers is what matters and let me tell you that not all are really good at this.You can write several lines of scrap in your blog which if some read and get annoyed then might not return to your blog even if you have improved later on.I am the present example of that .the readership is out now and I have to build my readership once again.but I am sure that I will gain it once again.This is all about the writing skills.

2.Lets concentrate more on this one as this one is also really crucial.This is with reference to your blog or website design,layout and the landing page of your site.I would like to say this at the start that this things are very important but this might still not give you immediate results you are looking for as it requires some patience and some experimentation from your side so that end up giving a nice and fresh look to what you call is your website.I f you do not have any specific liking about any colour then try to keep the background as white as possible as it creates a sense of eye catching and promotes the surrounding elements in the blog as well as your posts very well to your readers.Another thing to understand is that it does not necessarily mean that you cannot have a different background.You can have something in light as background like green or blue but never anything else other than this.Or else this creates a irritation in the minds of readers.

All these things are made to you public by me after a lot of research and I myself have gone through all these troubles and want to suggest that others don't make the same mistakes that I have done.Improve yourself and be a better blogger.

Read more »