Lately, I realized that the best blogs were those with the most simple designs. Having a cleaner design doesn't make you a wittier writer, but it simply allows more time for writing, and less for design issues.
Of course, we all have different objectives for our blogs, so the word simple needs to be contextualized to our individual needs. For example, on HyveUp, I need to:
1. Clearly state the purpose of the blog:
It's only after seeing thousands of different blog banners that you understand which ones work. I like the blogs that contain an intriguing twist in their name or tagline. We all like puns for example. Hence if you want to keep things simple, just figure out a memorable name/tagline for your blog, and display it front and center.
2. Clearly link to a page with more info about me:
I blog to connect with my industry. So far, it works pretty well. For example, if I were to write a blog post about a new Web app, there are great chances that a member of the team will find my post and drop a comment. That person will probably want to check out a little about my background, to see who is talking about him. Connections start here.
3. Display my social networks:
Up until recently, I didn't want to see social widgets on my site. My blog community isn't very big, and the widgets reflect this reality, hence the preference not to display it. Today, I realize that, by letting those widgets hang there, a community will steadily grow. So I put them back on my site. I will also display badges from blog directories, because in the long run they help me fulfill my blogging objectives.
4. Display ads:
My traffic is not really monetizable as of today, but I work in an industry where I need to understand how online advertising works. So I work with a few ad networks, observe how each of them work, and look at what generates clicks in general.
5. Display lots of different links to grow pageviews/visit:
I am not the only one blogging on HyveUp. Other members have joined me in this quest. To leverage this volume of content being generated, I need to display intra-blog and cross-blogs links. I also want to publicize my sympathy for given bloggers by sharing their links in my sidebar (and hopefully find reciprocity).
I searched the best blog templates who would fulfill all my blogging needs in a simple manner and simply found Think Simple. I have uploaded the Think Simple template to this blog:
I really like the simple design! The header stands out and gives a mood to the blog. There are two columns, one that I keep for links, and one that I use for ads and social widgets. The post width is not large enough though. The minimum standard should be 480, to fit Youtube embeds' default sizes.
But if you are starting a (Blogger) blog and share the same blogging objectives, I recommend the Think Simple template: It's light on the code, easy to read, and easy to manipulate. The grey background color of the middle sidebar is a simple design detail that makes the blog look very sophisticated.
What do you think?
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