Patrick CurlBlog Design is Crucial to Earning Money Online…
This is very much an opinion piece, as I’m sure many people have many differing opinions on this matter.
What is a good professional blog design?
For a professional blogger - monetization is paramount. Many might say this is selling out. To be able to Blog full-time, and devote more energy into blogging, is the goal at hand, am I right?
You also need to let your visitors know up front what your site is about. Yaro Starak, and pretty much every blog guru out there will tell you, that you need Pillar Articles.
Pillar Articles, are huge blog posts that get lots of attention, these are the posts that make it on Digg. They don’t always make it to the front page, but they do get perhaps 40+ Diggs, or a bunch of stumbles.
These are the best of the best - these are what your readers are coming to your site for. These are the meat of your blog, and if you don’t have any yet, then you might as well, close down shop, sequester yourself for a weekend and write up a few. It’s recommended that you have at least 5 Pillar Articles.
I recommend that you write at least 1 per week, at least for the first 3 months you’re blogging. After that you can lay off a little - but you have to be dedicated.
Once you have some great articles, also known as flagship content, you absolutely must post them out in the open for everyone to see.
As you can see, I use the popularity plugin by Alex King, to show off my most popular articles.Â
Advertisers want to be seen!
It’s pretty simple, those advertising on your site want exposure for their blog, product, website, or brand.
For direct advertising sales, it is best to put the ads above the fold. Don’t go overboard 4-5 ads should be plenty, 8 would probably be max. Unless your design supports it well.
Personally, my choice for ads is the 125×125. It’s nice and sleek, and fits most designs pretty well.
If they Subscribe - They Will Comeback (hopefully).
Next part of a good design, again in my opinion, is to have a good call to action subscribe area. (I’m still tinkering with one for my new layout..)
It is also a good idea to make sure your bases are covered, when it comes to getting subscribers.
You should have the following:
 An easy link to your feedburner feed. (I highly recommend using feedburner.)
A Link to your comments feed. Some people like to read the comments as well - don’t neglect these people.
An easy subscriber box so they can subscribe by email if they don’t have a clue what a feed reader is.
Your subscriber count. Show it bold, and show it proud(unless you have less than 100 or so). The more subscribers you have, again the more clout your website has.
Another tip is having a good catchy graphic icon is a great way to attract attention to your feed, and get subscribers.
Additional Nuggets of Wisdom(ok, so they might be chicken nuggets, but who doesn’t like chicken nuggets?!)
 Other than these basic principles, you want to try and make your blog not look too cluttered. If you’re going to use widgets be sure that they appear neat and orderly.
It’s better to go without the newest awesomest widget, if it makes your site look like crap.
Take these words in stride, I’m not perfect, and as I said this is open for opinions - as everyone has their own style, what say you regarding this topic?
Another thing to be aware of is the SEO of your theme, this isn’t as much a concern though as there are plugins that help with seo. my favorite SEO plugin is: wpSEO.
Another great seo plugin, that is highly recommended by many bloggers is: All in One SEO Pack.
 What say you? (My beloved readers & fans!)
Speaking of the topic, how do you think my site compares with A-listers like JohnChow or John Cow, Problogger.net, Shoemoney.com - etc? I’m always open for suggestions!
Also stay tuned, as I will be posting some of the best of the best professional themes that I come across.
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