In case you guys haven't noticed, my darling Typing Tiara recently received a beautiful make-over courtesy of the talented Ishita of The Reading Fish. I'm so in love with the design and cannot believe I was ever thinking of doing it myself as I know very well that I never would have been able to transfer my vision from my imagination to the screen so well. So I'd like to start this Tiara Talk off by thanking her for all of her hard work and patience.
With that having been said I want to talk about the reasons why I did it. The first and foremost reason being that I know the bland design provided by blogger wasn't doing much for me, so if I didn't like it obviously it wasn't drawing attention to my readers. I was just another faceless blogger that would probably be gone within a few months, never to post again. Or something like that.
Looks aren't everything but first impressions do count for something. When a reader happens upon Typing Tiara I want them to be intrigued, I want them to like what they see so they don't just click past and continue on elsewhere. I want Typing Tiara to be noticed, to stand out amongst the hundreds, thousands of other blogs out there lurking in the blogosphere.
How did I decided to do this? Well, obviously, one of the first steps I took was a make-over. I wanted something bright that matched the overall theme of my blog to catch readers' attention. Some other things that I felt were important were to have an About Me page, complete with picture, that could give readers a feel for who I was as not only a blogger but a person. I feel like these pages are really important for a blog, I want to feel as if I know the person that I'm reading these posts from. I feel like these things are important for building a repertoire with my readers, I want Typing Tiara to put her best foot out there but I want it to be mine too. Typing Tiara is my baby after all.
So darling readers, followers and fellow bloggers my question to you is as follows: What do you look for in a blog? What do you expect of your own?
I look for quality and something that reflects the personality of the blogger.. both of which you do well :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Arianne! :]
ReplyDeleteMy blog layout is pretty simple -- the only thing that's changed from the classic Blogger template is the header and button (both made by Jenny from Into the Morning Reads who is AMAZING <3). It makes a difference though.
ReplyDeleteI love pretty stuff in general - blogs, books, furniture, etc. So when I see a blog with a layout I like, I'm much more likely to actually stick around -- horrible, but true as well.
I like clean layouts, usually with a bit of colour. I can't stand fonts that are too hard to read and I'm not usually (there are exceptions) a fan of black backgrounds since they get hard to look at after a while.
Anyways, I'll stop rambling now :) Great post!
Sonia
I look for clean and organized. I don't like a ton of blinking or sounds or a million and one things in the sidebars
ReplyDeleteI love your design! :)
Love your design, Sonia! It's so simple and cute. I agree with both of your points: I greatly prefer pretty blogs and I like them simple. If there's too much going on I just can't take all of it in and it draws focus off of what the blog is there for, at least for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Michelle. And thank you! I'm pretty much in love with my new design, exactly what I wanted for Typing Tiara.
ReplyDeleteI tend to look for honest reviews. If someone never gives a bad review I'm suspicious (I have a blogger friend who just doesn't finish books she doesn't like and that's okay). I also tend to look for books in common.
ReplyDeleteDesign isn't as important to me because I read on google reader so I don't see the design most of the time. Sometimes over design that isn't very readable can be a turn-off though.
I'm a practical sort I suppose. I'd like to make a new header for my blog but my photoshop no longer works on this computer (newer mac, older photoshop, sadness) so I try not to think about it very often.
I haven't really used google reader for much at all. I usually sign up for blogs that have the e-mail function so I can read them on the run from my inbox, otherwise I would never be able to keep up with other blogs.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your input! :]