4 Bloggers You Need to Be Following

The best source for blogging tips is people who are already succeeding at it - other bloggers. And among all those other bloggers there are some that dedicate their time to blogging about blogging (say that three times fast). With such a saturated niche it's hard to know who to trust. So, I've got 4 of my favorite bloggers to follow if you want to make your blog successful as well. 

1. Helene In Between

Also known for relocating with her husband and two dogs to Germany Helene is a wealth of blogging knowledge. She shares how to make a full time income from blogging and is an example of how it can happen. Not only did her blog allow her to move abroad, but landed her an episode of House Hunters International on HGTV and a profile in People magazine. 

2. Melyssa Griffin

She's all about turning your small business goals (including blogging) into reality. This covers everything from creating a product, gathering loyal fans, and connecting with people like yourself. Melyssa also regularly interviews other successful bloggers on her podcast Pursuit with Purpose. 

3. By Regina

Regina is killing it on Pinterest and for good reason. She blogs about building your online business and creating the content your audience is looking for. Her writing is also down to earth and relatable.  

4. The SITS Girls

Although this site is known primarily for their platform that connects bloggers with sponsorship opportunity, the SITS girls were originally a blogging resource. They still create a lot of great content that's sure to be valuable to any new blogger. 

The Best Places to Get Beautiful Blog Themes

One of the fastest ways to improve the look of your blog is to buy a premium blog theme. If you have a few hundred dollars laying around you can hire a designer to create a custom theme for you, but for the rest of us there are premade themes. These themes are still created by web designers, but at a much lower price point - generally between $20-$100.

Upgrading your blog to one of these premium themes not only gives you more functionality, but will also make your site look more professional. 

The sources on this list are primarily for Wordpresss themes because it's my personal favorite blogging platform and the choice of many professional bloggers.

1. Creative Market

This site is my favorite source for blog themes and anything else you might need for your site, including; fonts, clipart, business card templates, stock photos, and Photoshop brushes.

The only blog themes that you'll find here are tailored for Wordpress, but in my opinion the best quality themes can be found here.

2. Theme Forest

Theme Forest is for strictly, you guessed it, themes! You'll find a lot of the same designers listing their items here as on Creative Market, but they have a nice mouse over feature that makes it easy to preview designs. 

3. Etsy

We all know Etsy is great for finding handmade earrings and home decor, but there it's also a great place to find premade blog themes. Along with Wordpress you can also find a good selection of Blogger themes here. 

4 Ways Psychology Can Improve Your Blog Design

If you any of the design work on your blog (and who doesn't?) there are hundreds of articles giving tips on how to do it correctly. But, how many of those are based on individual preference and how many are rooted in science? Psychology has always been an interest of mine and I recently picked up the book 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk. Even if you aren't a web designer there are a lot of things you can take away from this book to improve your blogs design and here are 4 of my favorites. 

1. Eye Contact Creates Connection

One of the most important things to include on a blogs landing page is a photo of yourself. When you're choosing with photo you want to use make sure you choose one where you're looking directly at the camera. Eyes are the most important part of the face (even newborns prefer to look at them) and can go a long way when it comes to making a connection with your readers. 

2. Keep the Important Stuff at the Top

We know that humans have short attention spans, so keep the most important parts of your blog "above the fold" on the top half of their screen. You want to grab their interest before they even start scrolling down the page. 

3. Don't Get Too Weird

I know you want your website to be unique and stand out, but make sure you aren't making it too different. Viewers have a certain web page layout that they have gotten used to and when looking at your site they will be looking for the same visual cues. For example, most websites have a navigation menu near the top of the page, so readers will institutionally look to the top of your blog when looking for it. Don't make your blog difficult for your readers to navigate or they won't stick around for long. 

4. Give Readers Visual Cues

If you want your blogs visitors to do something, ie. click a link or a button, make sure that it's obvious. Add shading and drop shadows to buttons to make their purpose obvious and make hyperlinks a different color from the rest of the text so they stand out. 

How To Create a Style Guide for Your Blog

But, before we get into how to create a style guide for your blog I want to touch on why it's important in the first place. Part of blogging is being able to define your brand. Some of that has to do with your content, but a lot of it has to do with your visuals. They are readers first impressions of your blog and they need to be consistent. The goal is for readers to recognize your graphics before they even click over to your blog.

1. Start with Your Logo

We all know that your blog needs a logo, so this is the easiest place to start. You don't have to be a graphic designer or pay a lot of money to get a good logo. In fact, one of my favorite places to find logos is on Etsy. Just search something like "premade food logo" or "minimal logo design" and you will get a ton of results. These designs are usually very affordable and there are literally thousands of options to choose from. 

2. Choose the Best Colors

Now that you have a logo it's time to figure out what color scheme you want to use for your blog. Most likely your new custom logo will have at least one color (other than black), making this an easy task. Don't choose more than 2 or 3 colors or your site design will end up looking disorganized and hard to look at.

3. Pick Your Fonts

Just like when you picked out your logo, most of the font work has been done by bloggers before you. Similar to when you decided on colors you want to limit your blogs design to 2-3 fonts. The easiest way to find tried and true font combos is to head over to Pinterest and search for "font combinations".