Sep | 01 | 2010

Blog Usability: Navigation Elements

Posted by Guru as Design, Tips As I promised in my previous post I will be listing down ways you can make it easier for readers to look for the information they need in your blog. The truth is that this is all you need to do is give readers several options to navigate through your blog. This is very easy nowadays since most blog tools (Blogger, Wordpress, etc.) automatically generate the code for you. All you need to do is drag and drop and of course specify some fields. Some of the most common and useful ways to help your readers find the information they ...

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Aug | 24 | 2010

Blog Usability: Looking for Information

Posted by Guru as Design One of the great things about blogs is that they are updated really frequently, at least when compared to static websites. Because of the constant influx of new posts you can be sure that a blog generates lots of information. This is a good thing but just like papers that keep on piling up in your desk it can become almost impossible for people other than the writer to look for the specific information needed without specific instructions on where to look. With blogs the site structure is pretty simple since everything is organised chronologically. However this structure is virtually useless ...

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Aug | 17 | 2010

Blog Usability: Page Title

Posted by Guru as Design, Tips One of the most important aspects of blog usability is the choice of page titles. The blog name usually appears as the page title (Note that when I mention page title this means the text that appears on the tab). This is good practice since it will make it easy for your readers easier to find the tab that contains your blog in case they shift to another tab to browse other sites. However, in case your blog name is not that descriptive or somewhat cryptic what you should do is add a phrase to describe the contents of your ...

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Aug | 10 | 2010

Blog Usability: An Introduction

Posted by Guru as Design Blogs have a very basic design with the blog title/header, tagline, content, and sidebar(s). Despite the fact that most blogs basically make use of the same elements the difference between the feel of various blogs is very noticeable. Many blogs with just the most basic of elements use very straightforward navigation but end up really boring and offers no real choice when it comes to looking for more specific information. Some blogs are littered with too many ads and obviously exist mainly to generate profit. On the other hand, there are blogs that really do stand out in terms of ...

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Jul | 23 | 2010

Change your blog’s color scheme

Posted by Professor as Blog Tutorial, Blogging Tools, Design, Design and Themes, Templates, Tips colors

Example of funky colors. Colors could definitely enhance one's blog You can never get too creative when it comes to your blog. There are so many ways you could tweak it. If you like experimenting with colors, go ahead and try these sites. You could find so many color schemes that could suit your taste and the overall theme of your blog. Colourlovers Colourlovers is an awesome site! You could get all sorts of ideas for your blog because there are palettes available. You get to see new palettes, new colors and the ...

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Feb | 22 | 2010

Focusing on the Sidebar: Show me the Money!

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Monetization Last time I mentioned how the sidebar contributes to the blog in terms of aesthetics and usability (navigation), one thing I failed to mention though is that the sidebar can also be very important in terms of monetization. Obviously you can use the sidebar to insert all kinds of ads - from Adsense to the direct sponsor's banners. If you do choose to use your sidebar as a venue for blog monetization though I urge you to keep to the following guidelines: Think appropriate - Make sure you only put up ads that are appropriate for your readers. Obviously if your ...

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Feb | 18 | 2010

Focusing on the Sidebar

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Tips One of the most important aspects of blog usability is the sidebar. The sidebar is important because it contributes to your blog in two major ways - navigation and aesthetics. When choosing the type of sidebar to go with you have to make sure you always factor in both. Aesthetics - The sidebar should always complement your blog's over all graphical design. You want the colors to blend in, the proportions to work, and the format such that it will enhance your blog's overall look without taking the reader's attention away from the most important thing - your posts. What this ...

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Sep | 30 | 2009

The Importance of About Pages

Posted by Jimmy as Design, Tips How much effort did you put in to make your About Page? Did you even make one? The About Page is probably one of the most neglected pages there is, especially when it comes to the blogosphere. This is a big mistake because About Pages can be really useful. Some of the benefits of having a good About Page include: Searchability – If you are out to build your online reputation an About Page is another page where people can get to know more about you. It's another page crawled by search engines that will hopefully climb the rankings to be included ...

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Jul | 29 | 2009

Quick Tips For A Beautiful Blog

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Images While I like focusing more on content, I cannot deny the value of having an aesthetically appealing blog. Here are some quick tips to create a beautiful blog in terms of the visual aspect. Forget the clutter There are countless widgets and buttons out there. It seems to me that everyday, you can find a new one that you like and that you want to put in your blog. While widgets and buttons are cool and useful, beware of using too many of them in your blog. Doing so will only increase the clutter and take away from ...

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Apr | 10 | 2009

How To Make A Sticky Blog

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorial, Design, Tips Sticky blog? I am sure you pretty much know what a sticky blog is, but just in case you are not entirely sure, let’s take a moment to describe one. Let us say that you enjoy a sudden surge of visitors due to one reason or another. Certainly, you would be ecstatic the entire day. But what about the day after? And the next? Would those people still be visiting your blog? That is the idea of a sticky blog – you get to entice people to keep coming back for more. ...

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Design and Themes

Is Your Blog W3C Compliant?

Last night I checked my personal blog’s code hoping I can proudly display the W3C Validated Button. Since I use Blogger and do not really do anything to clean up the code (beyond adding Alt-tags to the images I embed) I wasn’t surprised at all to find that my blog contained lots of errors – [...]
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Wordpress Plug-ins

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Review: Logical Media

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Search Rank Drop and False Alarms

Happy Holidays!
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