Blog Inspiration 101: Awesome Blog Designing Tips for Bloggers

Whenever I’m starting a blog, I do my best to make it look more appealing and professional for my visitors… But why? Well, people will take you WAY more seriously when you have a nicely designed blog. However, I never want to spend much money on it. Keeping costs as low as possible is one of my key values. Typically, when you meet a designer and tell him/her to do a new design for you, he/she will most likely charge you more than $1000. And the end result will probably be much different from what you expected. When you are like me, don’t have time and motivation to learn to code or have no designing tools and skills, follow these tips:

On Finding Images

For images, go to fiverr.com It’s a cool marketplace that offers ANYTHING for $5. And the good thing is that there are loads of really good designers who can make good looking images, headers, and logos for your blog and they will put to shame the sites that supply free images for blogs. It seems like a good deal, right? True. Another great marketplace is called ThemeForest. It’s a go-to place to hunt new themes and design elements that are affordable and professional.

On Getting Design Ideas

To get some ideas for designing your blog, go to https://wordpress.org/showcase/ or just Google for “100 great blog design examples”. Check some of the blogs you like and jot down all the things you would like to add/change on your blog. If you really like some of the blogs you see, save the link.

On Briefing the Developer

The next step requires some budget, but don’t worry. If you don’t have motivation or money to invest in your blog’s design, you can also lurk around the free themes or learn some of the basic WordPress coding. Here’s what I usually do: I look for a WordPress developer and tell him/her EXACTLY what I want for my blog. In that way you will save a lot of time & money and the result will be much better.

A) Tell the developer what you would like to change/add to your blog

B) Show some good examples from similar blogs you like

C) Tell what colors and fonts you would like to use

If you complete steps A to C, you will most likely not have to pay more than $200. On the other hand, if you want the developer to build a customized design from ZERO, you will have to spend approx. $1000, if not more. Finding a great developer can be a headache and you should quiz them on search engine optimization blog basics to make sure they don’t make a mess. If you put some time into it, you will find an affordable as well as professional developer/designer for your blog. Keep in mind that you always check their background and previous work!