I am not a blog designer but here are three critical rules regarding blog design:
- There are no 5 minute fixes. It always takes longer than you think.
- Never start working on your blog unless you have time to work on it.
- Never start working on your blog right before you intend to go to bed.
Dammit, if I didn’t break all three rules.
I knew that I have a problem with authority, but I never realized that included my own. I probably should have. How many times do I quote Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essay on Self Reliance.
Dammit, dammit, dammit. I have to go to bed and stop working on this. But the blogging mistress keeps singing her siren song and here I sit. There is a reason why I have two other blogs I am writing for- it is so that I can write.
Yet, here I am teaching myself how to fix what I have broken- learn by doing. At the moment I am going to learn how to go to sleep. This joint will be here in the morning, and if not, well I will have a lot more time on my hands now won’t I.
When designing a blog or a website its important to strategically plan. You need to consider what you want to talk about, and how to encompass the issues visually. take time to brainstorm and map out how you’d like to make your thoughts come to life.
I break all of these rules all the time, I wanted to patch my blog before bed (BAD IDEA) or install a new plugin (Even worse IDEA). I often blog right before bed, it is the only time I have to blog and ALWAYS stay up later than I intended when I blog before bed.
@Dragon Blogger I understand. I often blog late at night and have found that it is a guarantee for getting less sleep. No matter what I do, it always runs longer. So I have made a point to build extra time in just because.
Patches, plugins, heck I am dealing with that now. This joint needs serious help.
lol… I was expecting anything here.. but not the rules you’ve listed 🙂 awesome practical rules 🙂
@timsoulo Well, I like sharing/doing the unexpected. 😉 But on a serious note all of these “rules” are things that I think are important to be conscious of.
Looks clean. I do love a good, clean blog layout. 90% of any design tweaks on my blog usually get done at night, and they ALWAYS take much longer than I expect. Saying to myself, “Just let me do this one last thing to my blog before I move on to do xyz” is never really the LAST thing that I do before quitting.
@JW Moxie “We should mandate that saying “one last thing” is a curse that you can throw at others because it never is and it is never quick.
Yes, I like it better as well. See what you can do in 5 minutes? Now, about the comments being down the screen so far…..
@SeattleDad Hey James. I am working on it. As far as I know it only exists when people use Internet Explorer. But I hope to fix it regardless.
And, rule #4 – if you can afford it, hire someone to do it for you!
@BruceSallan If I was feeling more flush I might have considered doing that, but right now…. Besides, look at how much I am learning. It is painful, but I am learning. 🙂
I also like the new, cleaner-looking design. Last night, BTW, I had already turned all the lights off and was headed to bed when I remembered I needed to make a minor tweak to my blog. Ended up going to bed a little after 2:00 am. So much for critical rules regarding blog design.
@DadinTheCloud Thanks, I appreciate that. I completely understand how that minor tweak leads to something that takes far more time.
I already like the design better than the old one. Much cleaner. No stretchy images at the top of the page. Keep working on it Jack.
@Collin_K Thanks Colin, I appreciate it. I am pushing hard here, might end up buying a skin go with this but in the interim I am kind of enjoying fumbling my way through it all.