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More Next Blog»alphauseblog@ gmail.com Dashboard Sign Out about sponsor hire me wanderlust workbook adventures in lady travel greatest hits Freebies! Friday, January 6, 2012 The Blog Doctor: Making Your Blog Look Like A Million Bucks (Without Breaking The Bank) The Blog Doctoris a (semi) regular column in which I attempt to answer your blogging questions based on my 3+ years of experience. I can only tell you what worked for me - I'm sure others have done it differently and maybe better. Dear Sarah Von/Blog Doctor, I would like to know how to make my blog look better! I have zero web design skills. I don't need anything too complicated, but I would like my blog to be cuter! Are there any tips you can share, or maybe web designers or templates that are good for someone on a budget? Thanks! Now, I cannot claim to be an expert - I'm a writer, not a designer. But 90% of everything you see onYes and Yes(the layout, my calendar, my ecourse materials) has been my doing. Soooo, if you don't find those things eye-searingly ugly, you can take the following pieces of advice. Note, I cannot promise that these tips will make your blog capitol B Beautiful.But they will definitely make it way, way less 'homemade looking' *Accompany each post with an image - preferably an awesome one Nothing makes a blog post pop like an awesome photo. Where do you find 'em? I love weheartitand visualize. I embed the link to the original source in my photo. If that's not something you're 100% comfortable with, Kyla wrote thisawesome post on photo sourcing ethics and shortcuts. * Resize photos so they're the same width as your text column Your awesome image doesn't look nearly as awesome when it's tiny and floating above a giant sea of text. Make your image the same width as your text column, forpetessake! You can do this by going into the html or by resizing them in Picnik. * Full-justify your text column I used to write for a newspaper so I am a diehard fan of full justification. That doesn't mean supporting every stance you take (though you totally should). That means that the edges of your text column is straight on both sides. If your text column is 'left justified' it'll be 'ragged' on the right side. If you're using Blogger, the justification icon is the ninth in from the the right on your posting dashboard and looks like a bunch of lines. You want to choose the one that looks like a square box made up of lines. * Find an an awesome template/theme There's no excuse for using ready-made templates when there are approximately a million resources for free, fancy looking templates. Behold! Blogger templates, Wordpress templates, Tumblr templates. * Resize the buttons on your sidebar so they're all the same size So you want to promote the blogs you love by adding their buttonsto your sidebar. Aren't you sweet? But, if you've got ten different buttons of differing sizes, things can get a bit hodge-podgey. Resize the buttons in Picnikand you're good to go! * Use social media icons that match the rest of your themeIf you're rocking a mono-chromatic blog, an orange RSS button or a blue Twitter bird can look a bit out of place. Never fear, there are 8 million different social media iconsyou can use! Or if you prefer, you can spell out the social media platforms and create your own buttons. * Resist the urge to over-design Chevron squiggles and textures and shadowed fonts, oh my! Once you discover the wonderful world of templates and photo editing it can be a slippery slope down to this. Resist the urge, my friends! You are stronger than the gif! Some of the most gorgeous blogson the internet are also the most simple. * Remove any of the following (These are my personal design pet-peeves, so feel free to disregard if you feel I'm a Snotty So-and-so) * Auto-playing music * Gifs * Pop-ups * White font on a black background * Anything that scrolls across the screen * Blog posts with centered text *Use some of these awesome tools/platforms/websites Picnik- edit photos, add text and stickers, all without signing up for anything or downloading anything Scrapblog- themes, stickers and backgrounds for free or very cheap Pugly Pixels- tons of free and cheap downloads Gimp- like, Photoshop. But free. And not as good. FotoMix- for collages and photo editing Big Huge Labs- make mosaics, add 'Polaroid' or 'stamp' edges Color Lovers- color trends and palettes Now you! Share your favorite design shortcuts and tools! Labels: blog doctor, blogging, design 31 comments Sabrina 1/6/12, 6:34 AM This is such a good post! I feel like I am always fiddling with formatting. I really should just settle down, leave things alone! Thanks dude! Reply Stefan, Sarah and Lukka 1/6/12, 7:26 AM Awesome and simple. You just answered a lot of what I didn't know how to do. Now I'm looking forward to update my blog soon. I also hate all the pet-peeves you've got, too. I go so far as to not even read a bit of a blog if it's got music on it. Bleh. Sarah M Reply Kate a.k.a. The Secret Goddess 1/6/12, 8:59 AM Just began a new blogging adventure and haven't made all pictures for ads and links same size - and it shows as awkward. As for the justification... wordpress has me stumped - I don't seem to find a button for that at.all :( Thanks for the great tips - especially the no white font on black background - can't stand that - causes such awful eye fatigue to try and read. Reply Stacey @ Heres to Life 1/6/12, 9:23 AM Awesome info! Thanks so much! Reply Rae 1/6/12, 9:54 AM This is such great info. I've been googling this stuff for a week and haven't found anything this useful. Thanks, Sara! Reply Kimmy Bird 1/6/12, 10:00 AM Such great advice! I just full-justified my latest post, and it makes a world of difference! Reply Mollie @ Jennings Brae Bank Farm 1/6/12, 11:18 AM I have to agree with others, full-justified looks great. I just did that to a few posts and it was such an easy improvement! Thanks. Reply Julie 1/6/12, 11:50 AM YES! YES! YES! I loove all these points, specially the one about getting rid of auto playing music, ugh, I hate that stuff. Reply Melanie Taylor 1/6/12, 12:10 PM Love the tips! I've already used two of them. :) Reply Lesley Myrick 1/6/12, 12:13 PM Sarah, I didn't realize how much of a difference full justification would make. BLOG DOCTOR FOR THE WIN! Fun fact: my captcha to submit this comment is catights. Cat tights? Really? Reply CJR 1/6/12, 12:46 PM Thanks so much for the advice! I particularly found the full justification tip very helpful. I'm responsible for a nonprofit's new blog ( http://starlightmidatlanticblog.wordpress.c om/) and changed the alignment and it looks a million times better! Thank you! Reply MelanieK 1/6/12, 10:27 PM Another good online image editor I have been using is http://pixlr.com - also like Photoshop though not as good, but pretty good. And free! Reply Kimberlee 1/8/12, 1:46 PM Thanks for sharing! I'm trying to revamp my blog so I'll have to check out some of those sites :) Reply Meg 1/8/12, 2:04 PM Thanks to your great tips, I decided to spice up my blog layout a bit and I think I'll try justifying my blog text. I think it might make things look a bit nicer. Reply Eyeliah 1/8/12, 6:15 PM oh no! 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