Thursday Thirteen #3
Thirteen pieces of rather opinionated commentary on blogging and blog design inspired by my reading hundreds of different blogs during NaBloPoMo:
13. If you use a banner header that takes up more than 1/2 the depth of the average monitor, you'd better have exemplary content-it is annoying to have to scroll down a lot before you get to the good stuff.
12. Your content window should be at least as wide as (or wider than) the sidebars that contain your badges, advertising, blogroll, etc.-people are coming to your blog to read your content, not your that of your advertisers.
11. White text on black background is unreadable by people with older eyes. Try light grey text, or a dark blue or dark brown background, especially if you have intended readers over 35 or so.
10. Don’t ever use text smaller than 6 point for content-it’s too hard to read.
9. Don’t put text over a busy background image, especially if there are parts of the image that are a very similar color to the text that is going to go over it--your words will get lost in the shuffle.
8. If your blog format only displays the first 200 characters or so of an entry and the reader has to click on a cut to view the rest, make those 200 characters count. Readers aren’t going to click through to read a whole article if the intro doesn’t grab their interest.
7. If you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo, where lots of anonymous people are likely to read your blog-post at least some content that isn’t locked during the month.
6. If you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo-open your comments. You can always use character check or moderate or screen your comments. Not all readers are willing to sign up for a Google account AND a Blogger account AND an LJ AND a MySpace AND (I think you get the point) just to be able to comment for one month.
5. If you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo-put any soft porn or porn you post behind a cut! The only thing that the reader knows about you before they get to your site via a blogroll is the site name. They don’t know the theme of your blog is page-a-day beefcake or cheesecake photos.
4. When you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo-provide the link to your blog itself, not your Etsy store, not your (locked) profile, not a flash-animated front page where the reader has to watch a mini-film (or advertising) before clicking on a button to enter your site.
3. If you’re going to put music on your site make sure the reader can turn it off if they wish, and make the button to do so easy to find. People may be reading your blog for the first time somewhere where music is not appropriate.
2. Put the Pay-Per-Post badge somewhere prominent, so the reader can choose to read your advertising posts or not, as they wish. And if you’re participating in NaBloPoMo, it would be nice if you had some content that wasn’t paid product reviews…
1. Don’t use IntelliText links. Just. Don’t.
13. If you use a banner header that takes up more than 1/2 the depth of the average monitor, you'd better have exemplary content-it is annoying to have to scroll down a lot before you get to the good stuff.
12. Your content window should be at least as wide as (or wider than) the sidebars that contain your badges, advertising, blogroll, etc.-people are coming to your blog to read your content, not your that of your advertisers.
11. White text on black background is unreadable by people with older eyes. Try light grey text, or a dark blue or dark brown background, especially if you have intended readers over 35 or so.
10. Don’t ever use text smaller than 6 point for content-it’s too hard to read.
9. Don’t put text over a busy background image, especially if there are parts of the image that are a very similar color to the text that is going to go over it--your words will get lost in the shuffle.
8. If your blog format only displays the first 200 characters or so of an entry and the reader has to click on a cut to view the rest, make those 200 characters count. Readers aren’t going to click through to read a whole article if the intro doesn’t grab their interest.
7. If you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo, where lots of anonymous people are likely to read your blog-post at least some content that isn’t locked during the month.
6. If you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo-open your comments. You can always use character check or moderate or screen your comments. Not all readers are willing to sign up for a Google account AND a Blogger account AND an LJ AND a MySpace AND (I think you get the point) just to be able to comment for one month.
5. If you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo-put any soft porn or porn you post behind a cut! The only thing that the reader knows about you before they get to your site via a blogroll is the site name. They don’t know the theme of your blog is page-a-day beefcake or cheesecake photos.
4. When you sign up for the blogroll/randomizer at a big site like NaBloPoMo-provide the link to your blog itself, not your Etsy store, not your (locked) profile, not a flash-animated front page where the reader has to watch a mini-film (or advertising) before clicking on a button to enter your site.
3. If you’re going to put music on your site make sure the reader can turn it off if they wish, and make the button to do so easy to find. People may be reading your blog for the first time somewhere where music is not appropriate.
2. Put the Pay-Per-Post badge somewhere prominent, so the reader can choose to read your advertising posts or not, as they wish. And if you’re participating in NaBloPoMo, it would be nice if you had some content that wasn’t paid product reviews…
1. Don’t use IntelliText links. Just. Don’t.