I used to think that all of things listed below are obvious, but the deeper I’m browsing the Web, the stronger I think they are not obvious at all. I’m using Wordpress, there are many reasons why I think that is so much better than any other software for blogging. Check the list, I divided it into 3 smart sections - (Template, Functionality and Blogger’s habits). If you can’t fix those things, it seems that you have to change your blog software to Wordpress, or it’s time to write it on your own. Well, I must say that when I was writing that post I found on Blogging Pro information about another article in that topic published on Search Engine Land. Anyway, I hope some points below will be useful for you. In future I will post here another article - about optimizing a blog for search engines.

Section One: Template

Colors are one of the things that matter for your readers’ comfort. First - do not use the strong contrast. Your readers will suffer when they must read with template based on strong contrast. Good example for explain how you have to do not use that ugly solution on your blog might be the chess. Do you really think that chess are black-and-white? Well, you are totally wrong. There are 2 colours of course, but no strong contrast - Chess are light-brown-dark-brown. Why? There is one important reason - strong contrast is totally illegible. So, which color scheme you have to get? Based on bright background and no garish colours of course! I’ve lost 2 hours in order to find any great dark template and now I’m forced to say that every dark template sucks. Exemplary Chaotic Soul sucks, too.

All right, but nice colour pattern isn’t all that you have to remember about when you choosing/modifying/making your own template. Other important thing is an order of displayed content. Your readers have to know where they will find menu section, links to feeds, tags, and every information they need. It’s really important issue - if guests of your blog will be confused by design mess, they will never back to your blog. Luckily, providing all content in order is hard to obtain as well as it’s rewarding. Sometimes bloggers write great notes, but they are using template that totally sucks. Fortunately, my poor eyes don’t have to suffer with that mess - they provide full RSS feeds, or I’m going to play with CSS in my browser.

Being a Blogger doesn’t require being a Webmaster. Most of free templates are made by professional designers who have a custom to check their works on different browsers. But sometimes every Blogger wants to add something, like Google Adsense blocks, and then he is forgetting to check his blog in IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari. Adjusting template to MS Internet Explorer is fun as hell, indeed. I only can recommend to validate your blog with W3C Validator, and correct all errors, but if it will not help, you can still suffer and search for solutions only on forums (official message board of your blog software, Wordpress for example).

Section Two: Functionality

Title of your blog must be short and smart. On the homepage it has to include Name of your blog, as well as it needs a bonus addition. I think some phrase like Apple’s Think Different might be a great idea, also you can use here keywords that you think are important for Your Blog. Second thing I must write about is the dynamic title for any page. If you are Wordpress user, I recommend Optimal Title plugin for it. The best solution will be title section based on scheme below.

(Post title) (word “on”, or separator like “»” ) (Blog Title)

Navigation on your blog must be perfect. Besides the menu (described below!), you have to share link to Homepage, Previous and Next Entries (recent posts?), Pages, Archives, Searcher on every single site of your blog. Your readers hate to play with browser’s address bar to go to other entries. It makes them angry and close the browser tab with your blog, perhaps.

Everything in your menu section must be on opportunate place, especially for your readers comfort. Categories, Tags, Recent Posts, Comments, Adverts, Links, and Widgets (like Flickr or Mybloglog) must be provided not to make navigation awkward for readers, all right?

It is good idea to get so much better way to share archives of your Blog - not only by months. For example, list of most popular and most commented posts, and links to posts sorted by categories, and links to recent posts, and so on. Giving a smart list of all entries might be nice a idea, too (wordpress plugin). Also, there is one another way to take advantages of your blog archives. Just show list of related stories below every post. If you are Wordpress user, that plugin provides it. I think it’s the most effective solution to make your new readers interested in your blog’s content.

I wish exile to hell for all invasive ways of showing the ads on Web. You can put the ads where you want, but DO NOT make reading difficult, ok? I will try to use AdSense Deluxe Plugin for advertising on this blog.

I suppose all of you already know why the links to bookmarking services are advantageous for your Blog. All right, for those who live in cave and don’t know - they will help you to make your blog more popular. It’s nice idea to give your users opportunity to bookmark by one click, but I must say that putting one hundred icons of social bookmarking services (RSS readers, too) is very BAD idea. Good solution might be here playing with buttons to AddThis service (as you well see on Florchakh Dot Com).

Some Bloggers are having problems with facing the tagging. You have to know that tags is able to work as categories, but categories is not able to work as tags. Use the tags only as way to specify ALL things you are writing about, and categories to provide an order in navigation, or you will make mess. Put the tag cloud into your sidebar, people really like it. But remember, they are far far away from being in love with five hundred tags cloud. Ultimate Tag Warrior, the best Wordpress tag plugin has one great feature - it shows suggested tags when you write a post.

Do not use Capcha, or other tokens that make angry your readers. If you are Wordpress user, use standard Aksimet plugin, and if you will still get 20 spam comments each day - some question with short answer might be here great solution. There are a few ways to fight against spam, so I think I will write about it in future.

Section Three: Blogger’s habits

Writing under a nickname is a little bit fun, but if you want to become popular, then your posts will have to be reliable. Really. Share a little information about yourself in About section in your blog. Also, you can share your photo, if you think you are not ugly blogger.

Always link to source of information, and other bloggers. We are the Bloggers, we are making things better, we are linking.

Make public your e-mail address, or contact form. Your readers need it to send e-mails to you. Spam robots need it, too, so share it as a colour picture, or as a form, like this one.

Share only full feeds RSS. Partial content totally sucks, and makes people angry. I really don’t like it, other people don’t love them, too. There are many other ways to encourage your readers to visit your blog, linking to older posts - for example. Great feature might be an idea to put the ads into your feeds. Feedburner has great advertising program, but there is one BIG problem - you must have something about 800 readers on your counter.