Design ElementsAs mentioned above, you'll get to customize the appearance of your blog when you create it with a blog service. Most major blog services offer various themes, or templates, that you can use to select the layout of your blog. Once you choose a template, you can further customize your blog's appearance by choosing a new color schemeand organizing your posts into categories.
Making choices about your blog's appearance will be easier if you already have an idea about how you want your blog to look. Look at blogs that you find visually appealing. Ideally, these blogs should also have similar subject matter to your own— after all, a design that works for a political blog may look strange on a photoblog. However, this isn't essential. You can use any blogs you like as design inspiration. Once you've found blogs whose design you like, the next step is to figure out what they have in common. You can then use those design elements in your own blog. |
Deciding How Much Time to CommitUsing a calendar to schedule two posts a week
It's hard to get people to read your blog if you don't update itregularly. While it's easy to be enthusiastic about your blog and post frequently when you first get started, you may find it harder to keep up with posting as time goes on. Having a posting schedule can make it easier to find time for your blog. How you create your schedule is up to you. Some people work best with a very strict schedule, and may prefer to set aside a little bit of time every day to work on their blog. Others might be happier choosing a loose schedule. With this type of schedule, they might post twice a week, but not always on the same day or at the same time. When you're deciding how much time you want to commit to your blog, make sure to consider all your other commitments, and berealistic about the amount of time you actually want to spend writing. Remember, blogging is a hobby. If you treat it too much like a chore, it may become less enjoyable. Using Drafts and Scheduling PostsYou can also manage your time by writing drafts of your blog posts ahead of time, then posting them at a later date. Most blog services even include a feature that lets you schedule saved posts. Once you've scheduled a post, it will automatically be published at the time you specified. Scheduling posts can be a good way to guarantee that you post about the same number of updates each week. |