How to Design a Blog - Part-II (Layout Design)

Hi there,

Today we will learn about designing the layout of Blog.

First, we should know that what are the parts of a Blog (as per design matter). There are mainly Four parts of a layout i.e. Header, Footer, Blog post and Side bar.

Header -

This is the place where you can see your Blog's Title and Description. You can also put up any image to look it better. For example you can create and show your Blog's LOGO on Header.

Footer -

Generally we all should use this to write about our contact us section, copyright message and Links to our profiles on social media,

Blog Post - 

How to design a Blog ???

The all articles that you will write in your blog, will appear here. You can modify it by displaying 1 - 7 post on a page, if you choose more than 1 post, then it will show that no. of post with short description and then the reader will click on his/her desire article. If you set it up on only 1 post to display then, It will show only latest Post on the home page and the reader can use the archives to go for other articles, however, you can manage which post to display on home page. (It's a trick, I will explain it later)

Side bar -

I think this is the most powerful weapon to get success in blogging. As Neat as your side bar will, your blog get as much as success. Most of people use side bar to display archives and Adsense Ads only, but I think it is a great place to interact with your readers. Before setup a side bar you should make a list of things which you want to display on side bar. There can be so many options, you only need to choose the right one.

Here we go. You setup your Blog's Layout. But, wait a minute, If you need my opinion to design a good layout then you should read the below matter:

You all are smart enough to use Header and Footer, but when it is about post and side bar, you should be aware of wrong things. Inblog post Always show at least 5 posts, So reader will read all the titles of your article at a glance. Suppose you set up only 1 post on home page, a reader visited your blog and he/she did not find something as per his/her interest then it is 90% of possibility about closing your blog instead of browse for other articles, but if you setup at least 5 posts on home page, may be one of them touch the reader's interest and after reading that article he/she will definitely browse for more useful articles posted by you.

You Should also display a comment box below your article (you can show/hide this box from post settings), If you show the comment box, it will too easy for any reader to write their opinion about your article. It could be both things, some people will appreciate your work and some could show mistakes. The both things are very useful to be a successful blogger. The appreciation will give you positive energy to write some thing more interesting and more useful and you can use detractive comments to improve your skills, Just need to know where you made mistake (This will be a good teacher).

Side bar is a place where reader interact more than other places, Readers search for articles (they know the article should be listed here). So you must set up your Blog's archive on Blog's Side bar. You should set up a search bar also to helping reader to browse your blog easily, because some time it takes time to search for what they are searching, may be they don't find it while your blog have, so in that case this search bar will help them to find anything easily.

You must setup a subscription tool, if any reader liked your blog they will search for this tool to subscribe your blog, this will send email to reader about your newly published article, so they would come again to your site and read what you wrote this time. Yes, itgenerates more visits.

If you take care of these easy things than you will never fail in blogging and you will be definitely a Successful Blogger.