that's me - Stephanie Boman!

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Who are you?

I don't want all my posts to be strictly writing-related, but this one is definitely directed at fellow writers who blog.

Is your blog working? I don't mean functioning, I mean, is it representing you the way you want to be? There have been many times when I've gone to check an author's blog and had a hard time finding anything out about them.

Here are the things I look for (this post will focus on general blog presentation, not blogging content):

Your name. Believe it or not, some people forget to display their real name. This of course depends on whether you want to be blogging incognito or not. But if you are a writer trying to network, make sure your name is easy to find, especially if it isn't in your url.

A way to contact you. I don't know how many times I've wanted to contact someone and have had to leave a message in a post comment to do so because there is no info on how to contact the writer otherwise.

Info about yourself. This doesn't have to be extensive or overly personal, but I like to know where you are in the writing journey and/or what your goals are. Are you published, agented, or just writing for fun? Genre is also helpful. Give us some background to know where you're coming from.

A picture of yourself. This is a personal preference, but I like to put a face with a name; I remember you better that way.

Other places to find you. Website? Twitter? Facebook? Give me links in case I want to connect with you in other ways.

As far as appearance, your blog doesn't have to be souped up to stand out. An attractive, simple template works fine. Whatever design you choose, make sure your blog is easy to navigate. Keep it clean. Your sidebar shouldn't be cluttered with awards and quotes and pictures that people have to scroll through to find your "about me" section. Keep it, and your "follow me", near the top. Make it easy for people to subscribe.

These are the basics. I've only got fifty lovely followers, so I don't profess to be an expert. These are my own personal thoughts on the topic. What else do you think is important in a blog appearance?

6 comments:

Candyland said...

Aesthetics and layout are important to me. Like if things are jumbled, I'm less likely to read. Same goes for black backgrounds (I can skim but it hurts my eyes). The way it looks definitely matters.

Rose Cooper said...

haha, I was checking on my blog with each thing you wrote! And I have all of those-all within the beginning of my side column too.

One major thing for me is the "follow me" for your blog. I find a lot of cool blogs that I would love to follow, but I have to seriously search to find their follow button, and by that time I either don't want to anymore, or I end up not finding it or give up looking for because I just don't have the time. So if someone wants followers, that's something you want to place where readers can easily find.

Nicole Murray said...

Sounds like a reasonable list to me, but it's amazing how many do not follow half of these.

Ella said...

I like these, the style should be based on content not on clutter details...which is what happened to me,recently! I will probably go back to my more basic style. Blogger upgraded, so I was having fun with my new appearance, but prefer a quieter style!

Thanks~

Ella said...

Oh, thanks for stopping by my blog; I love your daughter's name and what it reflects!

Unknown said...

I think you nailed this!!! I'm glad to know that I fall within all of those guidelines. As do you since you were so easy to contact!!!

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