Monday, July 15, 2013

What makes a blog appealing? Book Blogger Challenge Day 8

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The Book Blogger Challenge is hosted by April at Good Books & Good Wine. Stop by her blog to sign up for this fun blogging challenge!!

Today's Challenge is: 15 Bullet Points of Things that Appeal to You on Blogs:

I would really like to change my blog design to be a bit more visually appealing. I want to change to just one sidebar and increase the width of my blog post area. Also, I’m thinking of keeping the header but changing to a more simplistic white background. I have NO idea how to do this, so these changes will have to wait until I switch to Wordpress at the end of this month.

Have you checked out Booklikes yet? I love the way the blogs look on there, I would love to change my blog layout to something very similar.

In the meantime, these are the 15 things that appeal to me on blogs.

  1. An appealing design with a pretty header or a simplistic design.

  2. Prominent follow buttons

  3. Easy to read font

  4. No Captcha

  5. Long reviews/posts broken down into smaller paragraphs

  6. No music!!!

  7. Minimum advertisements

  8. No pop-ups

  9. Posts with personality!

  10. An interesting discussion topic

  11. Content other than memes and tours

  12. A tab to browse reviews

  13. Good grammar and spelling

  14. More words than images

  15. Reviews with substance, that contain an honest opinion about the book and are not simply rewording the summary or gushing love or vitriol.

19 comments:

Lizzy said...

It took me forever to come up with 15 things and you just sprouted off things that I didn't think of but they're so obvious!

Yes, yes, yes x 15.

#1, #9, #10, #11, #14, #15 - were in my 15 bullet points too. :)

Donna said...

I had a hard time coming up with 15 too. But yes, 15 was the most important of all of them. I love to find reviews that I can trust to be their opinion and not just a promotion.

Lectus said...

OMG! Maybe I should do this meme today becaue YEEESSS! to all of the above, especially #3, 5, 11, and 12.

I walk away from blogs that require to register to leave a comment.

Lectus said...

Oh, and I noticed you are reading Quarantine. I loved it! Book 2 just came out.

Unknown said...

I don't think I have the captcha turned on. I am not sure though. I despise captcha.

Donna said...

@Lectus Read

I just started Quarantine based on a recommendation from April @ My Shelf Confessions It started off promising enough! Plus now there are two of you whose opinions I trust recommending it so I'm sure I'll enjoy it!

Donna said...

@Bridget Jackson

Nope Bridget, no captcha on your site. I just commented :)

Spiced Latte said...

#5 <-- YES! I think my mind goes blank when I try to read big paragraphs of a review. It's so much easier to read few sentences.
Awesome list!

http://spicedlatte.blogspot.com/2013/07/15-days-challenge-day-8-what-appeals.html

Fiktshun said...

I love how design is at the top of so many lists! And that personality is important, too.

I love clean lines and minimalist design, too. Though my blog is anything but. I am looking to have that as a swapable alternative.

I also prefer smaller paragraphs. I go against what's "right" to create smaller two-sentence paras sometimes just to make it easier to read/more visually appealing. I can't read large paragraphs of text on a computer without losing my place or interest.

And I love a mix, too. Not just tours and memes and promo posts. Or at least if they are tours and promos, I like to see them not just be the cut/paste, but ones that include the blogger's thoughts and opinions. It's why I'm visiting the site.

I don't mind more images than words, unless we're talking reviews. But I don't like too many animated gifs. I get dizzy.

And I prefer, if there are ads, that they make sense to the blog. I've seen a few doozies on blogs for things that I couldn't imagine a book blogger wanting or needing. So I kept asking, WHY!?!

Donna said...

@Ellie M.

Me too Ellie. I tend to ramble on in my reviews so I try to separate my long-ish posts into bite size pieces!

Donna said...

@Fiktshun

Rachel, I definitely like a mix of different things on a blog. There are such an over abundance of tour posts and memes that they become overwhelming when scrolling through Bloglovin. I'm excited when I see a review or discussion post!

Unknown said...

Then only time I am ok with pop-ups and they aren't really pop ups is when you are talking about something and add a link that goes with the topic and you leave it with the option to open it in another window so the reader can come back and keep on reading your articles/post.

Ellie @ Ellie Reads All the Books said...

No music seems to come up in many lists. I never even thought about it since I work on the computer with sound off, but I fully agree to this point :)

Somewhere Only We Know said...

OH GIRL! AMEN ON THE NO MUSIC PART! Sorry I'm not yelling at you, but geez that's annoying to me! You just never expect music to start playing. It scares the bajeezus out of me because my speakers are usually on like full volume!

Thanks for stopping by earlier!

Sandy @ Somewhere Only We Know

Alexia Boesen said...

I need to transfer some of my review posts into an archive (possibly tabbed)Oh and I am SO with you on the grammar & spelling thing.

Donna said...

@Alexia Boesen

I sometimes forget to transfer reviews posts into my archive too. Your comment reminded me that I need to do that with my most recent reviews.

Donna said...

@Sandy Farmer

Ugh I hate being startled by music blasting at me. I'm usually wearing headphones when I'm browsing blogs, it's a weird habit of mine (see quirks) so the music blasts right in my ear and scares the crap out of me. I loathe it!

Donna said...

@Lil Berry

Pop ups are definitely a pet peeve of mine unless, like you said, it's because I click to go to another page and it opens in a separate window.

Tanya @ Rantings of a Reading Addict said...

I didn't get 15 on mine but reading your's I see a lot that I missed. Especially that music one. I don't like the funky cursors either. Simple and visually appealing.

<a href="http://ReadingAddicted.blogspot.com>Tanya @ Rantings of a Reading Addict</a>

FTC Disclaimer - I do receive some books directly from the authors or publishers for review purposes. Each review posted is my own personal opinion and any books I accept are not guaranteed a positive review. I do not receive monetary gain from reviewing those books I accept.
I include affiliate links to Amazon in my reviews and other posts. Those links will take the reader to Amazon.com and I do receive a small percentage of each purchase.