Blog Design For Dummies

The average blogger does not typically have experience with design or coding, but that shouldn't deter them from having a professional-looking blog design. This friendly and easy-to-understand guide provides you with the tools you need to establish a creative, unique, and aesthetically memorable blog without having to learn how to code beyond some basic CSS. Whether you're looking to write for a major brand, become a brand ambassador, sell a product, acquire new clients, advocate for a cause, or simply tell a story, you'll find design tricks, helpful techniques, and invaluable advice for creating a great-looking and functional blog.

• Provides the tools you need to understand what makes a successful blog from a design standpoint

• Teaches you CSS coding that can be used to create an effective blog design that gets noticed

• Helps you make design decisions regarding colors, fonts, and imagery

• Places special emphasis on providing your readers with a site that is easy to use thanks to smart navigation

Blog Design For Dummies empowers you to make smart and creative adjustments to your blog so that you can be the proud owner of an effective blog design that gets noticed!

Auteur

Melissa Culbertson is a marketing communicator and blogger who shares blogging tips and blog design consultations at Momcomm.com and conducts Content Brew, an online course in social media content creation. She has been a featured speaker at Type A Parent Conference.

Contenu

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started with Blog Design 5

Chapter 1: Recognizing Components of a Well-Designed Blog 7

Chapter 2: Applying Core Design Principles 23

Chapter 3: Getting to Know Your Blog (Even Better) 35

Chapter 4: Establishing a Style Guide 47

Part II: Choosing the Visual Design Elements 59

Chapter 5: Gathering Design Ideas 61

Chapter 6: Selecting Fonts and Colors 83

Chapter 7: Developing Your Overall Blog Layout 105

Chapter 8: Customizing Your Header, Footer, and Background
131

Chapter 9: Customizing the Design with Coding Basics 155

Part III: Designing for Easy Navigation and Interactivity
171

Chapter 10: Navigation and SEO Basics 173

Chapter 11: Laying Out Your Navigation Menu and Sidebars 191

Chapter 12: Making Content Easy to Find 215

Chapter 13: Increasing Ability to Share and Interact 227

Part IV: Creating Design-Friendly Content 243

Chapter 14: Designing Main Pages of Content 245

Chapter 15: Working with Images 265

Chapter 16: Incorporating Design into Your Blog Posts 291

Part V: The Part of Tens 299

Chapter 17: Ten Places to Extend Your Blog's Design
301

Chapter 18: Ten Well-Designed Blogs 311

Index 323