What To Consider When Designing Your Blog

Although there are lots of beautiful templates out there that you can pay or download for your blog, I always think designing your own template is a great way to express yourself and your brand through your blog! However, many people get confused or stuck when it comes to thinking about what they want their blog to look like, and hopefully I have created a guide for where to start when designing your blog, for the first time or another time!

Think about your HTML skills.
The first step to creating your own template for your blog is to assess your coding knowledge. Known as HTML, it is what creates your design and makes it look how you want it to. It sounds simple, but making sure you don't make out your coding abilities to be more than they are is the first step. I'm all for aiming high, but coding is one of those things where you either know it or you don't. Thankfully, there are loads of online tutorials to teach you everything you need to know, so a research of them is always a good thing.

Decide on a colour scheme.
Personally, this is a biggie. Your colour scheme should reflect your personality, however it should also be considerate to your readers and their preferences. Try sticking to a white, or neutral toned background and stick to two or three colours for the whole of your template. For me, the colour scheme is a pink, grey and black which is what works for me! If you want to inject more colour onto your blog, think about your photographs too, and inject some of your personality into them!

Create a 'mood'board.
Something I always find useful when I am stuck for blog design ideas is to hunt the internet and my favourite sites to create a design board of what I would want my site to look like. Some inspirations of mine are Maddy Cane, From Roses, Lynde Avenue and Bloomin Rouge. They all have a pretty pink and white style theme and personally I love it! Do your research on existing blog templates and use it as inspiration for your own.

Remember, don't ever copy anyones blog design or template because that isn't original at all. Just use other people's templates to help inspire you to create your own!

Your readers.
Although you are the focus of your blog, it is important to consider your readers in the blog designing too - after all, they are the ones who will be on your site! Run a reader survey, a poll on Twitter, or ask them for opinions when you design your site to make sure everyone is happy with your new design. A reader once said to me that my template was too white, so I tried to incorporate some more colours into my design so they could have a better reader experience. Little things like that make the world of difference!

What do you consider when designing your blog?