How to Design the Perfect Blog for Your Business

As I alluded to in the post, 2 Reasons You Must Keep Blogging at Your Old Blog When You Move to Another Domain, getting a professionally designed blog hosted on your own domain is the best way to go if your blog is an integral part of your business.

“But,” you may be thinking, “I don’t know anything about designing a blog. How do I know what to consider?” Following is a checklist of considerations I took into account before contacting a firm to design my new blog.

Checklist for a New Blog Design

Purpose: One of the first things you need to figure out before you decide on a new design for you blog is what purpose your blog serves for you. Do you want to get more newsletter subscribers, sell more ebooks, presell a teleseminar, establish yourself as an authority in your niche, etc.

You may want to do all of this. But, what is the MAIN purpose of your blog — to sell, pre-sell, inform, etc.

Whatever it is, it will figure into the overall design of your blog because it will affect which links you put where. For example, I write and sell ebooks on freelance writing. I have new titles coming out about once every three months.

My blog is an integral informational, pre-selling tool. I knew that I wanted to grow my subscriber list for this purpose, so I put into my blog design that I wanted visitors to be able to subscribe via an RSS feed, and by email. This will go to the top left of my blog – in a prominent spot.

Other Factors to Consider in Your Blog Design

Columns: Many blogs use a two or three-column design. You need to think about how you want to organize the text on your blog(eg, where to put the most popular posts section, the recent posts, where to place advertising spots, etc.) . This will help you decide which layout to use.

Colors: I have a website and I wanted my blog to match that, so the colors I chose are navy and white . Other things to consider when thinking about color is your niche, type of business you’re in, the demographics and psychographics of your customer base, etc.

For example, if you run a joke site, then fun, whimsical colors like hot pink and lime green might work. For a financial site, more conservative colors like burgundy and navy apply. For a landscaping site, hunter green and white are good choices.

Interactivity: What do you want your customers to be able to do when they’re visiting yoru site? How interactive do you want your site to be? I asked for several different features that encourage conversation, eg, trackbacks, list of relevant posts and most popular posts.

All of these encourage visitors to hang around longer, speak out, give feedback, interact with others, etc.

These are just a few of the things you need to think about when you’re having a blog designed from scratch for your business.

At every juncture, ask yourself, “Does this contribute to my overall goal; my overall purpose for running this blog?”

If the answer is yes, then you’re on the right track.

Don’t Even Think About Moving Your Blog Without Reading This First

FYI, if you’re thinking about moving your blog from one platform to another, check out what I learned in the post 7 Things You Must Know Before Moving Your Blog.

Good luck!