TBGT: Blog Designs

Disclaimer: This post does feature affiliate links. 

Now that we’ve got our names and hosts, it’s time to talk about a design. Your blog design is one of the most crucial parts of your blog. You need a great balance between design and content to win over new readers. I’m talking about design first because a great blog design is what will keep people on your blog. If you have great content, but a bad blog design will send people running away, never giving your content a chance.

There’s several ways to go about making sure your design is awesome, but part of it depends on your platform, so I’m going to break it down.

Blogger:

If you know anything about graphic design and/or HTML/CSS, you can probably design your own blog. Even if you can’t, blogger has a great template designer that lets you pick where you want your sidebar, or what color you want your links to be, etc. For the most part, blogger has it all figured out. IF there’s something you don’t like with the template designs (like those silly white boxes around pictures), pinterest is your-go-to-gal. I have plenty of tutorials about design on my blogging pinterest board.

So, say design isn’t your thing at all. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered too. If you’re willing to spend a little bit of money, there’s tons of people you can buy designs from. For the cheaper end of the scale, you can buy blogger pre made templates. 17th Avenue Designs on etsy that are fantastic, or there’s envye.com which is run by the Wonder Forest, which is a blog I love. Sarah, who blogs over at Venus Trapped in Mars, also does design at Social and Chic.

To rock blogging, you need a great blog design. Share on X

WordPress:

WordPress is a bit tougher. I know absolutely nothing about wordpress designing, so all I can really tell you is a few of my favorite designers. I got my blog design from Restored 316 designs, and it’s the Sprinkle Template. Envye also has wordpress designs (most are converted from blogger) and so does 17th Avenue Designs. Another one of my favorite designers is Chelsea Oliva from Olive and Ivy Designs. Chelsea has been so incredibly helpful with all my wordpress questions the first month I’ve been here and I am so grateful for her!

If you’re looking to design your own wordpress blog, honestly, your best bet is going to be pinterest on what your next step is. I honestly don’t know much about the back end of wordpress! If you have any tips, be sure to share them down below!

Do you have any favorite designers?