The Internet is ever-growing, anything can be posted, changed, or even turned into a blog. There are blogs on endless different topics like, cute animals but also weird animals and the strange things they do. This can lead to hours spent mindlessly searching the internet for a blog catered to exactly what someone may want or someone could even use Stumble Upon. A site which can allow them to search thousands of blogs and websites at the click of a button. Even though there are so many blogs out there they are not all good blogs.
Bloggers must be careful when designing a blog because visuals play a huge part in the readers experience. Visuals can determine if the blog is seen as a creditable source, they can set the mood of the blog, and ultimately draw in readers. In an article about beautiful things posted by the New York Times, Lance Hosley mentions the “Golden Rectangle” which is a rectangle where if you remove a square from it there will be another rectangle and so forth. The “magical” proportions Hosely discusses are found to be visually stunning and draw people in. This “Golden Rectangle” can be found in many famous blogs that are pleasing to the eye including; Tumblr, National Geographic, Stereogum and, the Desmog Blog. All of these blogs have very blocky designs with only rectangles and squares. They seem to avoid circles yet the blocks don’t distract from the content of the blog. All of them have something else in common, they are multimodal using digital media to draw reader’s eyes to the different articles and content they have. There is something about the way these blogs look that gives them a trustworthy feel when the visuals have nothing to do with the actual validity of a blog. Since visuals will either draw in of deter readers content is what will ultimately keep readers returning to a blog, content must be interesting or if it’s a boring topic make it interesting! For example Hyperbole and a Half writes about proper grammar, a somewhat boring topic, but keeps people reading with her use of comics.
In addition it is important to keep the blog organized can mean different things. Like it can be categorized, or follow one specific subject. Too many topics can be overwhelming and stand on the line between social media and blogging. Buzzfeed is one of the blogs that has many topics organized into categories and sections with a homepage that hosts the most popular stories from each section allowing readers to explore from there.
These suggestions are just that, suggestions blogs come in all different categories, colors, and confirmations but whatever blog you choose to make just remember, as some might say, if it exist there is probably a blog about it.
Photo: Mike Licht, Flickr, “Blog OMG”