Recently, several well-known companies have tried to revamp their brand by creating a fresh, new logo – and as you learned from companies like The Gap, it’s not always perceived well by their customers.

Many advertising professionals advise against changing your logo unless you absolutely have to. That’s why it’s important to take several factors into consideration before entering into a full redesign. Ultimately, it comes down to your choice – after all, you know what’s best for your business and your readers.

Logos that will blow your mind!

credit: logo pond

9 Things to Consider Before Redesigning Your Logo

1. Ask yourself “why?” – Before engaging in a redesign, ask yourself the following questions:
2. What is the business rationale behind the redesign?
3. Am I unhappy with my current brand?
4. Am I doing it to expand to a new market?
5. Will this help me gain more readers?
6. Will it provide SEO value?
7. How will this affect my readers? How will they feel about a new design? Ultimately, whether or not your new logo is successful comes down to your readers and if the new design matches their perception of your brand.
8. Do I want a full redesign, or just an update to make the logo more current?
9. Engage the people that matter – Don’t be afraid to ask the most important people – your readers Some experts recommend using a social tool like Facebook to survey your readers about a redesign, as they can shed light on their perception of your brand.

6 Tips for a Successful Redesign

Deciding you need a redesign is only the first step of many, as there are several factors that could make or break your new logo. Consider the below tips for a successful redesign:

1. Make it memorable – Hopefully, this is the only redesign you’ll ever need to do, so make it memorable and something that will last for years and to come.
2. Stay away from trends – Just like fashion trends, design trends come and go. When redesigning, stick to design basics and don’t follow something that’s popular only right now. Who knows what could happen in the coming years?
3. Listen to your readers – As we mentioned above, don’t be afraid to ask your readers what they’re looking for. Is there a certain part of your logo – the font, the colors, etc. – that is especially valuable to them? If so, this should be the anchor of your redesign.
4. Work with a professional – If you have the budget, work with a graphic designer or design firm to recreate your logo. Make sure the person understands your business needs, your personality, and most importantly, how you want to be perceived by your audience.
5. Avoid drastic changes – Unfortunately these are sometimes necessary but if you can, avoid drastic changes at all costs. Your loyal readers may be alarmed or feel alienated by such a change. Instead, try to leave a few elements the same to help your readers feel comfortable.
6. Be patient – A new logo design takes time; don’t expect it to happen overnight. Be patient with your designer and don’t settle for something that’s just “okay.” You want your new logo to be perfect, so remember to be patient.

4 Common Blog Platform Logo Design Restraints

Stick to the correct measurements – Many blogging platforms have certain size restraints and pixel requirements to stick to. Read up on these before designing to save yourself time and stress:

1. WordPress – As with Tumblr, the optimal logo size varies based on the theme you choose. Many designers recommend an image between 400 and 500 pixels wide, although you should do specific research based on your theme.
2. Blogger – One of the ways Blogger lets you customize your site is to add a “favicon,” which appears to the left of the URL bar. To add your logo as a favicon, create it in .png and .jpg format at 16 x 16 pixels.
3. Tumblr – One of the greatest benefits of Tumblr is that as a user, you have endless themes to choose from. However, optimal logo size changes with each of these themes so don’t create a logo with a certain measurement and expect it to work with every theme. Before creating a logo, research the specific size constraints for that theme.
4. Posterous – When creating a Posterous blog, you can choose from several different themes. After deciding on your theme, read the user forums to determine the best size for your logo. Also keep in mind that your logo may look different on other peoples’ screens based on which browser they’re using.

The above tips can help pave the way to a successful logo redesign that not only helps build your brand, but is also something you and your readers will love.

Further Business Logo Design Resources:

Logo Design for Entrepreneurs: 17 Ways Your Logo Impacts Your Business
10 Ways Logo Design Makes a Small Business Look BIG
Logo Design for Bloggers: 32 Ways Your Logo Builds Your Readership
14 More Logo Design Articles

Business Blog Logo Redesign – 19 Tips to Make a New Logo for your Blog is a post from: Blog Godown

This is a design trend shared by Natalie Clive.. You too can be part of this great knowledge sharing community. Take a look at our guest blogging guidelines

Whether it’s fashion, interior design or graphic art, colors play an essential role in any form of design. Choosing the right color combination can make or break a website, outfit or decor. One sure way to make good color choices is by knowing what colors are ‘in’ this year. Here is a breakdown of the four most prominent ‘in’ colors and how best to utilize them in whatever field of art you are working with:

Honeysuckle

This is a bright reddish/pink tone created by Pantone, Inc. Pantone is famous for its color of the year selection. Honeysuckle is a great tone and can mix well with a variety of other colors. Recently it has made a huge splash in the fashion world. Famous figureheads, like Michelle Obama, have been seen wearing this vibrant color. It is also commonly appears in graphic arts because of its eye-catching hue. Beware that honeysuckle, and any form of pink for that matter, is mostly associated with female-related products and services.

Pair with: other shades of pink, citrus yellow, navy, gray, lilac, dusty blue

Vintage Wine

Many are saying that this deep reddish/purple/gray color is the new black. Although Benjamin Moore, a paint company, is the one who is touting this new color fad for 2011, it has quickly been picked up by all industries, including the fashion industry. It can also be seen in the typeface of magazine covers, makeup and accessories.

Pair with: black, grays, navy, citrus yellow, violet, honeysuckle (if you are feeling bold)

Citrus Yellow

Said to reflect warmth and sunshine, this pastel yellow color gives a cheery and light feeling. ICI Dulux, a European paint company, has declared this to be their color of 2011. Examples of its use in fashion can be seen in all of the biggest fashion shows of the season. It is also incredibly versatile and pairs well with all the other colors that are popular this year.

Pair with: honeysuckle, navy, other shades of blue, vintage wine, plum, gray

Plum

While not a color declared by any of the leading color companies, plum deserves some recognition. It has become an increasingly popular color for weddings in 2011. Since billions of dollars are spent on weddings each year, it’s worthwhile to analyze the influence of color on such a lucrative event. Weddings encompass all aspects of art, from fashion, to design and even graphic art on invitations and wedding videos. Paired with an off-white or neutral color, plum can be striking while still setting a romantic tone.

Pair with: white, cream, champagne, citrus yellow, sage green, silver

Color trends are fleeting. Who knows what the ‘in’ colors will be next year. But in the meantime, it can greatly benefit fashionistas, interior designers, and graphic artists to implement some of this year’s hottest colors. Especially since our minds are subconsciously trained to be drawn to the latest trends(remember the fluorescent colors from the 80s?).

4 Colors That Are ‘in-style’ This Year is a post from: Blog Godown

We’ve probably all heard the term ‘micro website’ or ‘microsite’, but how many of us without a web design degree actually know what it refers to or what the purpose of such a site is?

A micro website is a small separate website that is linked to a primary website. Micro websites can be a terrific approach to online marketing because they are easily and quickly established, and can be entirely dedicated to advertising one specific product, function, special offer or service.

One of the main distinctions between micro websites and their parent sites is their specific purpose, as opposed to the broader focus of the main website. Because they are separate from the main website, they can be used to distinctly promote one item, while offering all of the web design features of a larger site that can be used to create a specifically branded image for that product or service, which may differ slightly to the feel of the parent website.

Micro websites can be tailored to target a specific demographic or designed to only be active for a set period of time, as well as provide users with a unique and striking online experience, but they also come with their own set of demands in terms of web design. Here are four web design tips that are important for successful micro websites:

1. Avoid Clutter

Because of their highly focused nature, it’s extremely important to avoid cluttering the web design of micro websites with unnecessary information or all advantages of the format will be lost. The only information that should be provided on micro websites is that which is specifically directed at the target audience and for the desired effect – most commonly to heighten the visitor’s interest in the product or service being advertised, and to inspire their interaction with the site, for example, by purchasing the product on line, by sharing the information with their friends or entering their own information into a sign-up form that can be stored in a database for future marketing. For this reason, web design for micro websites should not contain too many irrelevant images, fonts, or additional applications that do not direct visitors toward completing the desired activity.

2. Avoid Flash

Avoiding Flash applications is a good idea in any web design, but particularly important with micro websites, which should keep the use of unnecessary applications to the very minimum. Although it may seem that Flash-based micro websites have the ability to make the product or service stand out from online competitors, Flash websites are not the ideal choice for targeting the most potential customers because they don’t operate on most mobile platforms and are far from being search-engine-friendly

3. Do Use HTML

While Flash is a web design ‘no no’ for micro websites, HTML is the script of choice. HTML has been around since the beginning of the web design industry and remains the most accessible methods of creating and publishing information on the web. Because the web design of microsites is predominantly directed at providing specific information regarding one thing only, they need an easily accessible format to carry them up the search engine rankings and ensure they reach the greatest amount of target audience members.

4. Do Include Keywords

Because a micro website is so small, it is more important than ever that strategically chosen keywords and key search term phrases are distributed throughout the written content of the web design in a relatively high density. This will ensure that the micro website has a good search engine ranking despite its size. Professional web design companies will be able to carefully achieve the appropriate keyword placement in a micro website to maintain the marketing message while focusing on search engine optimisation.

Four web design tips for micro websites is a post from: Blog Godown

After all we were just looking at a bit of color, a few pictures, some content and fancy fonts, right? Boy it sure didn’t take long before reality set in. Although doing your own web site is entirely possible, and there are many new businesses on the web that have self built web designs that are pretty impressive. It has its pros and cons. Here are a few of pros and cons and a few things to avoid thrown in for good measure.

PROS:

You save a ton of money:

Having a website professionally designed is certainly not cheap especially if you are going to be establishing an ecommerce site. If you are a computer novice and feel that you are a fast learner, then setting up a basic business site may be a good start, however it would not be wise to tackle a complicated website as a starting point.

You keep the control:

When you build and design your own website you have total control over it. This means anytime you want to change or add to it then you are capable of doing it. It is always wise to keep your website fresh by constantly adding new material  and features. You have the freedom to do this when the keys are in your hands.

Grow when you want:

You have the opportunity to have your website expand. If you are doing well in a specific product for example, then you can do the expansion yourself and not have to put out money for a professional web designer every time you want to add more features and pages.

Change your mind:

If something is not working then by having designed your own site, you can totally restructure it. If you were in a maintenance program with a web designer you would be facing extra costs for this and might be waiting few days for the designer to be available for you.

CONS:

Patience:

You need a whole bunch of patience. Building and designing a website is a learning process that never ends. If it were as easy as what one first thinks then there wouldn’t be so much web design companies on the web.

Experience:

Going it on your own is a trial and error experience. Relying on professional web designers means that you are benefiting from their past mistakes. All the mistakes you would be facing on your own, they have already made and learned from. They have gained a great deal of experience of what to do and what not to do. In addition to this they have also learned what works and what doesn’t.

Rankings:

Most important though, professional web designers and developers usually know a bit about what it is going to take to get your site up in the search engine rankings, and this is critically important to you. Perhaps in time you too would be able to do this with your own site building. You have to remember though, time is money in business, and can you afford the time?

A few extras…
If you do decide to design your own web site, then at least try and follow the lead of the Pros. What you may think looks great as far as graphics, colors and fonts, just may not cut it in the world of the web 2.0.

The same applies for your content, what may be interesting to you just may not be what someone else wants to hear. A mixture of professional web design and SEO Companies can make the difference between a business succeeding or failing in the world of online businesses.

Pros and Cons of Do It Yourself Web Design is a post from: Blog Godown

If you think of your website as an online business, you have take care of the design, because it is an important part of branding and increasing visibility. This is a guest article by Ben of logoinn. You can be a part of this amazing community by following our guest blogging guidelines.

When you run an online business, you come across different types of designs that work together to make your business a success. However, if you lack in creativity and originality, the same designs will cause extreme damage to your business. These designs are: Logo Design, Web Design, Brochure Design and Banner Design.

Each design plays a significant role in enhancing your brand image and, thus, each design is crucial to your business success. You may not need all of them initially. However, whenever you create any, ensure that it depicts professionalism and creativity.

So, let’s now discuss how these designs can make or break your online business.

Logo Design

Logo Design is also known as brand identity design and, thus, it helps you create your brand identity. In simple words, it gives your business a face through which your business gets recognition. If you create a low quality design, you will make your business look unprofessional. If you create a high quality logo design, then you will make your business look credible, trustworthy and professional. Thus, it is crucial that you get this design right, because it’s not something that gets changed often.

Web Design

If you own an offline business, then you will work hard to organize your office or decorate your shop to attract visitors and win their trust. The same approach should be adopted when you create your business web design. It’s your web design that represents your online office as well as depicts your taste for quality. If you don’t create your web design professionally, then you will only make your visitors leave your website and go to your competitors. So, ensure that your web design clearly depicts your business model and builds your credibility.

Brochure Design

Brochure Design is the best way to share your business story with your market. You can create one design and use it both online and offline. However, to make your story look effective, you need to make the design look elegant and professional. If your brochure is sitting on a rack with a bunch of other brochures, then it’s the role of the design to attract your market and have them pick it up. Only a high quality brochure gets picked up and read. So, ensure that you don’t take quality lightly.

Banner Design

In today’s world of marketing, we mainly hear about SEM and SMO. Even though banner advertisement doesn’t get much coverage nowadays, it is still a powerful way of bringing traffic to you site. Find a relevant portal and ask them to display your banner there. However, people will click it only if they will think that your banner looks professional. If you don’t design your banner professionally, it will be hard to win the trust of your market and make them click your banner.

So…How Can You Create A Top-Notch Design?

If you want your business to look professional, then you must hire a professional designer. An amateur designer won’t be able to give a professional look to your business. Thus, don’t take any risk. Hire a professional designer, always.

How Can Different Designs Affect Your Online Business? is a post from: Blog Godown

First of all, what do you think a perfect business website is? Well, to me, if your business website takes your financial worries away, then it’s a perfect business website. This way you don’t have to work for anyone, you don’t have to worry about attending office everyday and you don’t have to worry about being punctual either. A perfect business website helps you earn bread and butter and gives you complete peace of mind.

Having said that, now we need to discuss that which vital elements ought to be incorporated in your business website to make it perfect.

It Must Be Appealing As Well As Relevant:

This is a misconception that you just create a website and it will start making you money. It’s a completely false notion. You have got to make your website attractive if you seriously want to win the trust of your market. Secondly, ensure that your website design is relevant to your business model. This may be a challenge that cannot be handled in house. If this is the case, you may consider bringing in a web agency to handle the bulk of the design work.

It’s the quality of your web design that tells your market that your products will be of high quality as well. If your design is of low quality, you won’t be able to win the trust of your market. So, ensure that you make it attractive as well as relevant.

You Must Provide User-Friendly Navigation:

How much time would you spend on a site where you will see hundreds of confusing links all over the page? Well, you won’t spend more than a few seconds. The same thing will happen to you if you don’t create user-friendly navigation. Your website visitors or potential buyers won’t spend any time on your website and will most likely leave in less than 10 seconds.

Ensure that Your Copy is Benefit-Oriented:

What converts your visitors into customers is your copy. Your copy must highlight  all the benefits clearly and concisely. It should tell your market why you should be trusted. It should entice your market to prefer you. So, you will need to take some time to write a compelling copy or hire a professional copywriter to do the job for you.

Choose a Readable Font Size and Style:

A lot of websites don’t care about their font-size. They make it really small. Small font-size is not easily readable. If you visit a website and find it difficult to read, then you will leave immediately. Your visitors will do the same thing if you don’t select a readable font size and style. Also, try avoiding grey font. Black is the best in terms of readability.

Strategically Organize the Content and Graphics:

Don’t make your website look like an unorganized place by having text and graphics everywhere. Organize everything in a nice and professional manner. Ensure that your website doesn’t look messy at all. Once you create the site, look at it and determine if it gives you a refreshing feeling or not. If it doesn’t, then you need to analyze your site and end the flaws.

So, these are some powerful tips that will empower you to create a perfect business website…for your business!

If you have any tips, please do share.

5 Tips for Creating a Perfect Business Website is a post from: Blog Godown

Is a Design Competition worth the risk?

This is a guest article by Ben Johnson of Logoinn. You can participate by taking a look at our guest blogging guidelines

A lot of small businesses have now turned to crowdsourcing and logo design competition websites to create their business identity at an extremely low-cost.

There might be a few reasons behind it.

1) They can’t afford more than a few dollars.

2) They want dozens of designers to create dozens of designs for them, so they can easily choose one.

3) They don’t know the importance of a logo design.

When small businesses go to logo design competition sites to create their business identity, it becomes obvious that they don’t know how powerful this little piece of design is and how it can make their business look professional and attractive. However, if designed incorrectly, the same design will ruin your business image completely and you may not be able to undo the damage it will cause.

Simply put…Your logo design gives your business a face. If it looks professional, then your business will look professional, otherwise it will destroy your business image completely.

So, here are a few questions you should ask yourself before you start crowdsourcing:

How will You Determine that the Design is Original and Unique?

When you start a competition, dozens, if not hundreds, of designers will participate in it. How will you know that the designs are original? How will you determine that none of the designers actually gave you plagiarized work? There is no way you can judge that. Thus, you may end up promoting your business with a plagiarized logo. You won’t be able to create a unique identity for your unique business.

How will You Determine that the Designer has Not Created a Fake Profile?

If you like a few designs and feel interested in learning more about the designers who created them, then how will you know that their profiles are authentic? I mean, how will you judge that they didn’t copy other people’s designs in their profile? There is no way to judge that either.

Here is an Example of Cadbury:

Cadbury doesn’t need any introduction. It’s a successful company and they have the budget to hire the most creative designers. However, they still started a competition and offered a hefty amount to the winner (it was not a logo, but a design for wrapper). Designers from around the world submitted their designs and finally there was one winner. However, later it was found that the design was plagiarized. So, Cadbury gave the prize to the runner-up.

If a well-known company can face such a thing, then imagine how horrible it will be for a small business that will promote their products with a plagiarized design. Imagine the redesigning cost they will have to bear and then again get their new logo imprinted on new accessories like mugs, pens, business cards, etc. They will also have to discard the promotional items with the plagiarized logo imprinted on them. Just imagine the cost, burden and humiliation.

Plus, all small businesses may not have enough funds available to start all over again.

Is it worth taking the risk? You can very well answer this question now.

Can You Create Your Brand Identity by Starting a Logo Design Competition? is a post from: Blog Godown

Are you ruining your web design with poor navigation?

Veronica Davis is a freelance writer for businesses online. She writes for and helps businesses ranging from New York web design firms to real estate sites. Navigation is an important element of any web design. Veronica shows us the importance of good navigation in your web design.  Join in the awesome guest blogging club and take a look at our guest blogging guidelines.

How many times have you landed on a site, and you couldn’t find exactly what you were looking for and hit the back button? Whether it was a famous New York web design company or your brother’s best friend that did the design, they messed up by not making navigation a priority. They lost you as a reader, potential client or possible customer. While it may not be the most exciting aspect of web design, it is very much an important one. Any web design that doesn’t make use of easy and effective navigation will only cost you money in the long run.

Yes, there are countless ways that you can set up the navigation on your new site. While you certainly want to customize the navigation to your site’s design, you gotta realize that most sites do have a navigation structure that’s pretty similar. You don’t want to be too different. You don’t want your visitors to land on your page and not be able to figure out how to get to what they’re looking for. The gorgeous design isn’t going to be enough to keep them on your site if they can’t figure out your navigation structure quickly. No matter what kind of navigation your final web design will include, try to make sure that any destination on your site is within three clicks for your readers. This is the traditional “3 Click Rule”
While a poorly designed navigation structure will quickly turn visitors away, a good one will keep them on your site longer. That means more readers, more subscribers, more sales or more leads…whichever it is that you’re after.

Clearly, that’s a Link

Links should look like links. They shouldn’t look like the rest of the text on the page. They shouldn’t be hidden or hard to find. Of course, there will be sometimes when links that don’t look like links are effective and it fits in with your site’s design. If you’re going to do something like this, you need to make it very clear to any visitor.  Exactly where the links are and how to get around your site.

Consistency

Keep the navigation structure the same throughout your site. Never think that each page or each section should get its own web design and structure. It will only confuse your visitors, quickly sending them elsewhere to find the information that they were looking for.

Quick Links

There are many ways today to make the navigation on your site attractive, whether it’s with CSS, JQuery or something else. But there are a few links that should always be prominent and easy to find without having to use drop-downs, slide-outs or other fancy navigation. A good web design will always make it easy for the user to go the last page they were on and to get to the index or home page. Usually, you want to include a “back” button on each page and link your logo to the main page on your site.

Don’t Ruin Your Smashing Web Design with Poor Navigation is a post from: Blog Godown

Branding your website is an essential to build credibility and trust. Once you establish a brand, people start recognizing your website with it. Branding requires a name and logo that describes your brand (website). Selena narayanasamy from esvienne.com explains the importance of cohesive branding for your website. You too can join in by following our guest blogging guidelines.

Company recognition is an important benefit of any branding effort. Not only should your company branding efforts help your business to be easily identified, but also improve and maintain your reputation among current, old, and prospective customers. Unfortunately, many companies are not consistent with their branding efforts, especially throughout the internet and social media networking.  Are you cohesively branding?

Name and Logo

Effective social media and other online branding starts with a solid foundation – your business name and logo. Your business identity – who you are and what you do – should be summed up in your business name and logo. This is a core message you deliver to potential customers that helps them choose your service or product over the competition.

Simplicity is the Key

Creating a name and logo that is easily used across the board of social networks and other websites doesn’t have to be challenging. Remember, you want a logo that is easily recognizable. Your logo may be simply an icon of your business name. FedEx is a good example. Having a simple yet recognizable name and logo is essential for your online branding efforts.

Be Consistent in Using Your Name and Logo

Branding on social networks and other websites should be consistent. This is where many businesses fail in their branding efforts.

For a good guide to consistent branding, take Starbucks Coffee, for example.

Starbucks Logo

Starbucks Facebook Page

Starbucks Twitter Avatar

Do you notice that the name is included in the logo, and the logo is prominently and clearly used as the identifier for the business?  There is no need to add superfluous mission statements or catchphrases here. The name speaks for itself – it tells what the company sells, and by reputation alone it is recognized as a quality identity.

Notice, also, how the Starbucks logo is simple enough to be used on a business or gift card:

Starbucks Gift Card

How to Manage Changes in Branding

If you decide to update or change your name and logo completely, be sure you devise a campaign to make it clear to everyone. FedEx is another good example. When FedEx bought the famous Kinko’s brand of office services, it incorporated and combined names to create FedEx Kinko’s. Now, however, FedEx has changed the name to FedEx Office, eliminating “Kinko’s” altogether. Their new logo is now seen everywhere, including on social site like Facebook. Their message is “FedEx Kinko’s is now FedEx Office.”

Use FedEx as a good template when re-branding. Be sure to follow these tips as well:

• Send a Press Release – Be sure your re-branding effort makes the news. Write and submit a press release to help get the word out.

• Coordinate Looks – If you are re-branding, be sure it’s for a good reason, such as incorporating more simplicity into a single look.

• Make Social Announcements – Also be sure to announce your change not just once, but multiple times on your social media accounts and blogs. Make it clear to everyone how your new logo now represents your business.

When you are consistent in your branding, you are consistently putting your company’s best face forward online.

The Importance of Cohesive Branding is a post from: Blog Godown

Worst things that can annoy readers

This is a guest post by Chavah Kinloch, a WAHM (Work at Home Mom) of four young children – She’s an artist. You can regularly find Chavah at her blog, Creating My Reality, and you can find her here on Twitter. Be part of this community and check out our guest blogging guidelines

1. Flash – Can we say 1990′s? No one likes sitting there while it loads and then having to click past an intro just to arrive to some more flashing photos.
2. Music – Please, please, get rid of it or make it optional to start. People will either click away as soon as they hear the music or go insane as they try to find the window that’s making that crazy noise.
3. More ad’s than content – If your ad’s are taking centre stage, you will get no credibility.
4. Pop up’s – I can handle pop up ‘join my mailing list’ ads but anything other than that means I will never again return to your site. In saying that though, let me at least read what you’ve written so I can choose whether you’re worth following or not.
5. Really Bad english – A little bit of error can be tolerated but if it is glaringly obvious that you’ve never had to speak english to communicate for the sake of survival, you should probably be looking to outsource your writing or write in your native language and use something like Google Translator.
6. Loooong Blog Posts – If it’s going to take forever to say it, break it up. Create a series.
7. Broken links – Check, check and triple check! Or install this if you use WordPress.
8. Making people register to comment – You’re likely to lose many commentors if you choose to go this route.
9. Spam – Take precautions with your blog to ensure as little spam as possible gets through.
10. Bad content – Reading a post about something we’ve read a hundred times before isn’t interesting.
11. Writing like a professor – No one wants a lecture!
12. Lack of images – Try to include a photo in each of your posts.
13. Caps lock – I can’t believe I still come across this. Caps in text is the equivalent to yelling, SO USE IT WITH CAUTION.
14. wRiTiNg LiK dIs – Wow. Just wow. Really? Need I say more?
15. Writing about how perfect your child is – I see this a lot as well. It’s great to be proud of your child, I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t be but make sure you don’t overdose your readers with how wonderful little Jamima is at everything. I mean goodness… I have four. I know the deal.
16. Your site is ugly – There are some extremely bad tasting blog and website designs out there! Search for a talented designer. I use Swish Development.
17. I click on a link I thought was part of your site and suddenly I’m somewhere completely different – A reader should only leave your blog if they choose to.
18. The design of you site changes on each page – Only use one template for your all over design.
19. Slow loading pages – Keep images small and minimise posts on your homepage.
20. I can’t read the first post on your blog without clicking through – This is a big pet peeve of mine. I want to be able to read at least one post by landing on your blog’s homepage.
21. There’s no search function for your site – Sometimes people come back for a specific post. If you don’t have a search tool they have to scroll through pages and pages of posts. This isn’t likely to happen so instead you lose the reader and a possible link back.

The 21 Worst Things To Have On Your Blog or Website is a post from: Blog Godown

1. Don’t Use Drupal User Pages as Actual User Pages

As mentioned, Drupal can be a great, flexible CMS that allows for efficient site building. However, this doesn’t mean that all of its built-in features are the best ones to use, the prime example being its rather cumbersome and ineffective “User Pages”. Drupal’s user pages are not nodes, and thus don’t allow for the different features that nodes would normally allow for. You can’t allow for user comments on Drupal user pages, for example, and you can’t use CCK on them either. Fortunately, you don’t have to use Drupal user pages as your site’s user pages. Instead you can simply use an actual node, and employ the Drupal user pages for keeping account information.

2. Take Advantage of Blocks

Drupal Blocks allow you to add a ton of neat sidebar features to current or multiple pages. These Blocks can contain things like similar links, “people who liked this also liked this” links, subscribe links, most bookmarked lists, etc. You can try adding such sidebar features as nodes, but you’ll run into trouble when you want to move the piece of text elsewhere on the site, like with a block you use for your Drupal site search.

3. Use the Theme Feature

Drupal’s theme function is a huge advantage and should definitely be used, especially if you’re just starting out learning the Drupal system. Themes allow you to run any function from a core or module file. By putting a theme in front of it, the function is over-ridden in your template file. This means that you are able to modify very easily the way a table or user name, or even a comment appears on your site.

4. Most of the Work Can be Done with Page.tpl

Most of a Drupal site (roughly about 80 to 90% of it) is page.tpl. Because the page.tpl alone is what’s going to determine most of your visitors’ first impression of your site, it’s important to focus your design attentions on it. The trick here is to simply treat the page.tpl as you would any other site. Start with a Photoshop layout that fits your vision for the site, then export different elements from the Photoshop layout over to the CSS and page.tpl.

5. You Can Override Core CSS Files

Drupal allows you to actually override core CSS files if you need to. If you would like your tabs to have a customized theme, or a theme other than the default Drupal one, you can insert your own style CSS that cancels out the system’s CSS, without having to delete the CSS file from the core system.

It’s also good to remember, as you start exploring the various features of Drupal, that it helps to also learn to follow the flow of Drupal. It’s a fairly comprehensive and intuitive management system once you get the hang of it.

Top 5 Drupal Secrets is a post from: Blog Godown