Blogs are not going to stop growing. The ease of use and the ability for anyone, anywhere in the world to become a published author is uncanny and will be a driving force for years to come.

However, just because someone can write and publish posts on their blog doesn't mean that their blog will be visually appealing and that the owner of the blog knows the ins and outs to great blog design. So in today's article I would like to discuss some of the common blog design mistakes I come across and show you how you can side step them and benefit from beating them.

This is one of the main mistakes I notice blog designers make. They create something so visually appealing that it gets them into CSS galleries and showcase posts across the internet but they fail to realize they've not given all of those visitors a clear and easy way to find specific content on their blog. A lot of internet users are not as savvy as we are and will feel lost without a search box, and with it being such a small, yet powerful piece of the design, there's no reason you should disregard it.

How to fix this

Look for a place in the upper right hand side of the design to place the search box. This is the place that most search boxes show up on websites and the first place that most people will look for them. Turn a box in the header of the site into a search area or place the search box right inside of the navigation bar.

Another common mistake I notice people make are new blog owners. They've started a blog (usually on 'how to make money blogging') and are trying too hard to make money from their blog by placing 10+ ads on the page in the first days of the blog being open. Your content should be the main focus, not the ads and how you're hoping to make money with your blog.

How to fix this

Build trust and loyalty in the beginning stages of your blog. In the long run, you'll notice that this will pay off 100X more than just placing ads everywhere. If you do have to place ads on your site, stick to 1-2 spaces at most and try to make those spaces unobtrusive - a 468x60 ad after the first post of every page, 125x125 ad block (with a max of 4 ads) or a 300x250 ad block.

One of the biggest problems I have with blogs when I go to them is the hidden navigation. Why should I have to dig through a couple google ads and links to affiliates before I can find your category list? Why is it so hard to find out what topics you're writing on right in the top section of your website? Some blogs I have come across only list the pages and/or categories in the footer of the site - a BIG no-no.

How to fix this

Either above your header or right below your header, add in a bar that showcases your website navigation. If you don't want it to be a dominant point in your design, fine, but at least give it the normal navigation items that everyone will be looking for - home, about, contact and maybe a "topics" button that has a drop down of your categories.

If you're running a blog with more than one author, you need to make sure this is on your to do list for the blog design. When I come across a blog and see content that I like, I'd like to be able to easily read more articles by that author - but to my surprise, the owner of the blog doesn't care much and does not show who the author is or where I can find out more about them and what they've written.

How to fix this

There are many ways you can give your authors credit and showcase them a bit in the articles they write. Putting an author box at the end of the article is a great way to do this. An avatar, name and brief description with links to their other articles or personal website are a great way to give them the exposure they deserve.

This is something that I notice a lot with blogs that are older and have 6+ months of content. They write awesome content and publish on a regular basis, but there's one problem - there's too much content to go through in order to find the best content. Search boxes help and archive pages work well, but they just don't seem to give you the best content at the click of a button - which is needed in the fast pace, short attention span world we live in today.

How to fix this

A section in your sidebar for the blogs most popular articles is a great start. Another way would be to create a "hall of fame" page and manually add in some of your favorite articles you've written. You can also ensure the reader will continue reading your blog after their done with the article by placing a "related posts" section at the end of the article or even a spot that says something along the lines of "If you liked this post, you'll love these" - and have it show the blogs most popular articles.

Along the lines of the navigation tip above, this is another pet peeve of mine that I know hurts a lot of websites. Not having a clear about page or a place to contact you screams a couple of things right off the bat. One, you're telling the reader that you don't want to be bothered and you'd rather not be contacted at all, and two, you're telling the reader that you don't care if they have a question or if they want to advertise on your blog - it's just not that important to you.

How to fix this

The first thing you can do is place your about and contact links right in the navigation bar of your blog design. Another step you could take is to place an 'about box' right in the sidebar of your page or even placing an author box for yourself at the end of every article, letting the reader know who you are and how you can be contacted - on and off the site (don't forget about those social media profile links if you use them).

Picture this - you come to a site and find an article you really like. At the end of the article, you're thinking "wow, I really like this article and want to share it with my twitter followers", but there's no button to do this. You have to manually copy and paste the link (shortening it if needed) and typing out the article title. This is a big no-no and will ensure your content isn't shared very often.

How to fix this

There are plugins like the sociable plugin that can automatically add social icons into your theme for you for your readers to share the content. You can also manually code in the buttons if you want to give it a more customized look and feel. There are also digg this buttons and tweet meme buttons you can copy/paste into your theme. Just make sure you're doing something to help your readers share your content.

Your visual skills will help retain the visitors that come to the site, but you must start thinking about how you can actually get visitors to your site. SEO work can either drastically help, or harm your blog and in most cases I see a trend with blog designers where their coding skills just do more harm than good

How to fix this

If you're running wordpress, the first thing you'll need to do is ensure you're running the All in one SEO plugin. It's a must have for any wordpress blog and a plugin that will help do a lot of the work for you. Another thing you need to do is actually spend some time reading and learning about SEO. A website I like to frequent is SEOmoz. With tons of useful content and articles, you're bound to learn a thing or two.

Building a creative, unique blog design can be a great thing, but you need to make sure you're not sacrificing order and structure in order to do it. Readers generally will read your site from left to right, top to bottom, so if you've got 5 boxes across the page, all different sizes and all different colors/shapes, you're not doing them any favors in helping them read your content.

How to fix this

One of the biggest trends (I guess you can call it) lately is the use of grid systems like 960.gs or the 1kb grid. By using these grids it not only helps keep your content ordered and structured but it also allows your design to take many shapes and structures at a much faster pace - thus giving you the ability to customize your look even further without giving up the order that your content needs. You should also ensure you're using headings and lists inside your posts as much as possible. Making your content easy to scan will help a reader quickly look over the page and not dive into a 2,000 word paragraph with run-on sentences.

Coming across a blog with awesome content that you've never seen before is a great feeling. You feel like you have just hit the knowledge jackpot and you're about to cash in when you realize that there is no way to subscribe. Now, for the tech savvy people on the interent, most of us know that you could add /feed/ to the end of the url and 'usually' get an rss feed link. For those that don't, they're shit out of luck and can only bookmark the link.

How to fix this

At the end of every post, mention that your reader can subscribe for future updates to the blog, add an rss feed icon and email sign up box in the sidebar/header of your blog and mention your rss feed as much as humanly possible where you can. Make it visible and easy to find. Your readers will be happy, and your subscriber count will rise more than it ever has - I promise.

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