Tuesday, September 26th, 2006...6:06 am by Leroy Brown
Your Blog’s Theme Doesn’t Matter
Read that carefully – and I’ll say it again so it will sink in. Your blog’s theme doesn’t matter. If you’re a new ( or new-ish ) blogger, you truly need to take these 5 words to heart. Let’s face it – most of us are very busy people. We have to juggle work, family, children if we have any, and our online ventures. We only have a small amount of time to spend on blogging. I’ve seen many bloggers fail simply because they spent a vast amount of their blogging time tinkering with their blog’s design. Perhaps they switch themes often, or write their own from scratch, or just play around with the CSS code.
The problem is that the more time they spent playing with the design, the less time they spent writing content. There are 0 blogs I read because of their design. There are dozens I read because of their content. So remember – when making the decision between changing your theme or writing a solid post, write the post. Every time.
10 Comments
September 26th, 2006 at 8:16 am
So true. As long as the look is clean and easy to read and navigate, the design isn’t so important. I blogged about something like this a few weeks ago. If you’re curious, I can post a link (I don’t want to spam you!).
September 26th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Ray – feel free to put up any links you want. You’ve been around here long enough so I know I don’t have to worry about you doing anything goofy. No worries.
September 26th, 2006 at 11:58 am
Good. Order Viagra Now!
Just kidding. Here’s a link to that post: How are you spending your blogging or writing time
Thanks!
September 27th, 2006 at 10:23 am
HAH Maybe I should keep my eye on you
Great post BTW – it goes more in depth than mine. Good stuff.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:29 pm
I disagree – a somewhat original and maybe even nice-looking site design is indicative that a blogger is willing to go that extra step to make their blog stand out.
While you might know that you’re dedicated to writing good content, to a passer-by, it not only makes you yet another person using so-and-so particular stock theme, it sometimes gives off the impression of laziness. Sad but true.
Also, I was able to design my site without my content suffering too much. Things definitely picked up after I fixed up everything in IE6 though
October 11th, 2006 at 7:41 am
Yvonne,
You’ve got a very good point, actually. The theme on this site just screams that I’m a lazy SOB. The top image is of horses, for crying out loud. What in the world do horses have to do with blogging? Not much, unless you’re blogging about horses, which I’m not.
I don’t have any natural design skills to speak of, beyond the very very basics. I can take an existing theme and tweak it a little bit to my needs, but as far as creating a new theme from scratch? Count me out. It’s way over my head. Don’t get me wrong, i could do it for sure, but it would take far far too long. If you’re a better designer than me, and you have an artist’s touch, and you’re a CSS guru, then by all means, design away. The design can catch your readers’ eye, and that could turn them into a loyal reader. My point was merely not to waste away all your time fiddling with little things that no one would ever notice, besides you of course.
Now, if this blog is every profitable on any sort of level, I’ll gladly pay a professional designer to give it a makeover – I think it needs one badly. Unless there are any volunteers willing to work long hours for no money and little glory?
October 11th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
Yvonne: I think we all actually do agree on this one. A good, clean site layout will keep readers from instantly hitting the back button. If a blog is difficult to read (I really hate the very dark ones with small print or any myspace with all the clutter.) then serious readers won’t return.
On the other hand, content must also be good enough to draw those precious readers back.
With that said, I think a few tweaks here and there on a standard theme or template can be just enough to make a blog look good and stand out enough to attract attention. The key is injecting a sense of who you are.
BTW, Yvonne. Your blog is really sharp looking. Good work!
October 11th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
Looking again at my response, it might’ve looked like I was saying that people with non-professional designs really ARE lazy. I have nothing against people who use stock themes!
You’re right, a good design isn’t nearly as important for a blog as good content is. I was just trying to say that if the person has the drive, the time, and is willing to teach themselves PHP and CSS and whatever, then they shouldn’t be afraid to delve into it.
Besides, if their good design keeps readers, it might be enough to encourage them to improve their writing
October 24th, 2006 at 5:18 am
I guess this comment won’t ever get read, ’cause the post is so old, but Yvonne linked it, so here goes anyway…
I’m all for a great looking Blog, but as a newcomer to the scene, with very limited Blog-saviness, I don’t know how to, and I don’t give a shit about having fancy bits and pieces all over the place – I just wanna write, read other stimulating thoughts and exchange ideas (and occasionally the odd bit of abuse).
Mr Brown, your post is the right way to go … it was inspirational and inclusive in that the focus is on encouraging thoughts and ideas, and everyone has those.
Great-looking sites are … well, great, but not essential.
October 24th, 2006 at 6:00 am
Donkey,
I read each and every comment that comes across – doesn’t matter if the post is 1 day or 1 year old.
It sounds like you’ve got the basics down – it’s all about what and how you write. Prettiness is what it is, but generally not worth the effort. Once you get nice and famous, then it’s time to hire a professional designer to worry about all that stuff. Until then, write away
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