My Blog = My Life: Blog Design

We've talked about having a nerd blog, and how that can affect your ability to attract followers. Today I want to talk more specifically about the time you take with each post and what you need to do to make your posts look good.

Too often I visit other blogs and leave before reading anything because the posts themselves are visually unappealing or headache inducing. And I'd be willing to bet a lot of other people leave after landing on those blogs as well. The sad thing is, no matter how good they are, those posts never get read, and so I never know whether the blogger is worth reading or following.
So, today I want to give you my six big rules for making each and every post look awesome.

1. Break your blog post into readable paragraphs. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that will send me away from a blog post (or an email) faster than something that was written with few or no line breaks. Looking at a huge, solid chunk of text will make your blog unfollowable. Even paragraphs that are too large will be an eyesore. My advice, keep your very longest paragraphs to around 125 words and your average paragraphs to 40-60 words.

The very, very first thing that every blogger needs is a blog that looks good. I refer to amateur, quick template, easy setup type blogs as nerd blogs. Don't ask me why, I just always have. It has nothing to do with the people writing them, and everything to do with the blogs themselves.

To me, a true nerd is somebody who doesn't care what he looks like. He doesn't care what people think of him. He doesn't care that he's socially undesirable. He doesn't care that he wears outdated clothing. Nerd blogs are the same. They are blogs that took advantage of the quick and easy templates, have no special graphics, and when I arrive at those blogs, I don't think anything except, where's the X button on my browser.

Over the next several months, we'l be discussing (one item at a time), some of the many things you can do to make your blog look awesome. It doesn't matter if you use Blogger or WordPress or TypePad. It doesn't matter how much computer expertise you have (or don't have). It doesn't matter how much time you have. There's nothing you can't do to your own blog, and there are a bazillion little things you can do to make your blog look better. If you follow along, your blog will start looking superb.
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