How-To-Blog:Layout

 Welcome to part two of my How-To-Blog series.  If you missed it, part one is located over here.

In today's post I am going to go over layout, design, some faux-paws of design and give you a list of awesome designers whom offer their quality services at competitive rates in case you are lacking in the graphic-design-talent department. Don't worry about it if you are, they make their packages fool-proof.

So you've done it. You went somewhere and created a blog. Now you need to dress it up, give it some clothes and let your freak flag fly. Ok, while that was an awesome alliteration I have no clue where I was going with that.

Design:
Every platform has "templates" that you can pick from and most of them let you customize it to your taste.

Examples of Templates

But there are always restrictions and sometimes that isn't what you want. I can't abide blogs where I can tell what template they are using. *cough*tumblr*cough*  Honestly, I am put out by it. Every time I go to a new blog I want to see a different layout. I don't want the same layout everyone  else has and you shouldn't either.

You can try doing it yourself. It is definitely fun to play around in graphics programs like Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop but it can be costly. That is how I learned. I just goofed off, read tutorials on how to do certain effects, e-mailed bloggers and asked them how they did certain things, if they would write tutorials on how they did this or that and learned from that. I spent a great deal of time on Lissa and there was LOTS of trial and error. That is the lengthy and time consuming way of doing things but it is cheaper and you will ALWAYS be happy with your layout because you designed it the way you wanted it and will only put it up when you are 100% satisfied.

You will always at least have one main frame. You should probably put in navigation so people can get around because hopefully you'll have more than one page. That can be put in a header or a sidebar. If you have no clue what any of that is I have created this image to help you with terminology. It varies from person to person and these all have multiple names but these are the common terms: header, Footer, side bar(s), main frame.

The image should be self-explanatory. For example my present layout has a header, a right side bar and a main frame. You will always have a main frame. Whether you have a header, footer, one side bar or two will be completely optional and up to you. I have my navigation in my side bar but you can put that in your header if you prefer. I do not have ad space at present but it is common to sell ad space in your sidebars and have your navigation as part of your header.

You'll then want to add graphics (for example a header, or a button for people to post on their blogs) and color to your blog. One thing I can caution you about do not make a website that looks like these: Google Image Search Results For "Bad Web Design". I'm sure you can figure out why those are all terrible ideas. If not, click on some of them and find out why but be warned some have horrible flashy backgrounds that will prompt seizures so if you are prone to them best to just take my word for it.

But if you are like me and get lazy or don't know what the heck you are doing you can also pay someone to design your blog. There are several designers on Etsy that you can find. Always go with a designer that fits your vision. Every graphic artist has a style.  Find a few blogs that you love the design on, they will most likely credit either themselves or who designed their blog. You can go with something premade or custom. For a custom order you will have to tell this person what you want. They will have their own questions but to get started write out a short paragraph of what you want your blog to look like. Describe to them a little bit about yourself; if you like tribal tell them. If you hate orange but love teal tell them. Give them links to websites with layouts you adore, especially if they designed any of them. These are visual people so pain them a picture. They will go over things like links, headers, navigation, ect.

Designers:
Here are a few designers who I love. If you don't know what you are doing, want to invest the money into your blog and want a kick-ass blog design then these are definitely for you. They are in no order of favoritism so visit them all and see if they strike your fancy.

1. Seven Thirty-three:  Very big on Chevron print and I love it.
2. I Rock So What: Jess makes ridiculously cute graphics. Truly.
3. Sweet Faerie Designs:  Carrie, is who I got my social media buttons from that I absolutely adore
4. Veda House:  I love minimalism right now. I love how simplistic, clean and vibrant all of their designs are.
5. Breanna Rose: Again more minimalism. Told you I loved it.