Five Ways to Make Your Blog More Stylish

Recently, a new friend, The Clip Cafe, awarded me the Stylish Blogger award. Wow!Thanks so much! That's quite a compliment for someone like me who has a hard time with the concept of 'style'. And it's from a blogger who received this award X 5!!!

by Donna

Me? Well...I tend towards  the gawdy, ornate, and fluffy. And I'm a little chatty..just a wee bit!

Why be Stylish? Well, the problem is that even when you have great content, if it’s not well presented, fewer people are going to read it. That was my biggest problem the first six months of blogging at Comin’ Home. Good friends gave me some of these hints and it helped a bunch! 

Being stylish, gets peoples' attention..making them want to STAY and READ--which is what we want...right?

by Donna

Five ways to make your blog more stylish..

1. Find, Make or Buy an Attractive Header – Is your header eye-catching? Professional looking? Well drawn or photographed?  Does it convey your blog content in a glance? Never underestimate the impact of your header. When I finally got it right over the holidays, I started getting followers left and right. I was so shocked! I didn’t DO anything different, except change the header.  

Later, I shortened my header photo so that more of my blog info would show ‘above the envelope’ as Maria of Colour Me Happy talked about this week.  Either get a great photo banner off the web for free..or pay someone to design one. It will take your blog to the next level!  Debby at The Cozy Blanket found that out when she won a free blog makeover! Her blog  header is really cute!

by Rebekah

2. Use ONLY great photos – Brent Riggs says NEVER put a poor photo on your blog. Never ever. Better to borrow one and give proper credit than to post an ugly photo.  People love to see great photos on blogs and unless they are your friends, they will not hang around to read your post if the photos aren’t good. (Thanks Shona for cluing me in on this months ago.) 

Photos that are blurry, dark, or so small they can’t be seen are the most common problem on the average blog.  I’ve been working on this all year but I still mess up sometimes and put up a less than WOW photo thinking it’s necessary.   Practice taking photos, read and try lots of tips and before you know it yours will be great! Natasha of 5 Minutes Just for Me takes the most gorgeous photos! She exudes style!

by Rebekah

3. Less is More…Cut out the fluff – It’s SOOO hard not to add gadgets and blog buttons, blinkies, dark backgrounds, fancy or hard to read fonts and ornate, cutesy backgrounds. These things are fun or beautiful, but if you want a stylish blog, then keep things simple. Clean lines, more space,  white or light backgrounds, simple fonts and only two-three font styles at most on a page are what you need.  (...think stylish magazine) Rayanne of A Lovely Thought has this down perfectly. The fluff detracts  from the best part of your blog—the post. It slows your blog loading speed too. 

4. Use good spelling and grammar. It pains me to read old posts and see how careless I was when I first started blogging. I read, re-read, edit, and edit again and still manage to have typos and grammar errors—even now!  I need to slow down and take the TIME to let the post SIT a bit and then re-read it a half an hour later or so with fresh eyes.  Readers don’t enjoy careless writing.

by Rebekah

5. Edit what you write. Keep your paragraphs short and your words simple. Hard writing makes for easy reading.  This is my BIG problem~I’m a chatterbox. My posts are just too long and wordy.  My daughter of Life of Light,  is a great writer. She says so much with so  few words ! Her English teacher told her to cut her essay in half the first day, cut in half again the next day, and then again and again.  By the end of the week, she was saying what she wanted to in just a few great sentences!  Now, she writes clearly with little effort.

Ellen of The Essentials of Fabulous has a fabulous writing style too and would be worth a visit. I could read her blog all day..and just bought her E-book!  Try Copyblogger for the best blog writing tips.  I re-wrote my last two posts just to practice their advice. Editing helped a lot!

by Rebekah

Passing on The Stylish Blogger Award

I’d like to thank the Clip Cafe for this special award. I’m not sure if I’ve quite earned it yet, but I’m certainly working on it! She really DOES have a stylish blog! 

I’d like to pass this award on to other stylish bloggers I know. Some probably already have this award. And some may be 'award free', so I know they won’t be blogging about it, but I’d like you to get to see some of these ideas ‘at work’.  Get more blogging tips and links HERE.

 

My Favorite Stylish Bloggers

Andrea of The Freckled Bug

Maria of Colour Me Happy

Rayanne of A Lovely Thought

MaryAnn of Classic-Casual-Home

Ellen of The Essentials of Fabulous

Tracie of Fishtail Cottage

Shona of The Artistic Life

Debby of The Cozy Blanket

Natasha of 5 Minutes Just for Me
Kim of Home is Where the Heart Is
Laura of Decor to Adore (A New Reader!)

Wow..there were lots more but I've run out of time. Do enjoy your tour of stylish blogs! 

Hey..if I can be stylish..then ANYONE can! :o)