Simple Ways to Improve Your Blog

I'm a little bit of a perfectionist when it comes to blogging, so I'm constantly tweaking my layout and trying to find ways to make it more user friendly. So I thought I'd share with you some of the little ways you can improve your blog:

- Leave a friendly message for your commenters. I always love it when I visit a blog and there's a little message there from the blogger when I comment - it just adds a personal touch. Go to Settings, Posts and Comments then type your message in to the 'Comment Form Message' box. 

- Steer away from your default Blogger Design Settings. If you're like me and use a simple blog template, it's good to change the font colour, font size and font etc... One of my top tips is to make your Date Header and Footer backgrounds transparent as it gives your blog a cleaner look.

- Use Clear pictures, not blurry small ones. Blogging is on the whole a very visual experience, so you want to make sure that you try and use the best quality pictures.

- De-clutter! When it comes to blog layouts, less is more. Remove any excess gadgets you don't need, and try to stick to a colour scheme.

- Add Attractive Social Media icons. I love hopefullhoney's free sets here and her tutorial on how to install them is here.  

 - Have a go at using simple HTML in the format of your posts. You can learn some simple Html in my tutorial: 'How To Use Basic Html On Your Blog'

- Add 'Read More' to your posts. This is a great way to make your blog appear less cluttered and to attract readers to your posts. This can be done by clicking the icon that looks like a ripped page (To the right of the movie icon) when you make a post.   

- Add a link to another of your posts at the bottom of your page/add a popular posts gadget. I like to add a 'If you liked this, you might also like..' link at the bottom of my page of another post I've done that's relevant to the one I've just written. Similarly adding a popular posts gadget attracts readers to your other posts. 

-Try adding the pages gadget and putting it below your header. This is a great gadget as readers of your blog can navigate around easily and is perfect for About Me and Contact pages.  

- Adjust the amount of posts per page. This is a great way to make your blog more user friendly. Go to settings, Posts and comments, 'show at most..' and select the number of posts you want to be seen. I chose to have four on posts per page on my blog.    

- Try using sites like POLYVORE. It's a simple and effortless way to put together images of clothes/homeware/beauty products in a magazine style way. 

- Make a bloglovin' account. Most fashion/beauty bloggers have one and it's a great way to find new blogs and for people to follow you! Sign Up Now!  

- If you have Instagram, consider adding an Instagram feed. You can add an instagram feed in the form of a slideshow or grids of your pictures, get it here.

- Try and make a schedule for your posts: For example do posts every Wednesday and Saturday rather than just randomly posting two posts a week.

- Lastly and most importantly, don't be afraid to be yourself. Beauty and Fashion blogging is intimidating, everyone seems to be gorgeous and have perfect blogs, so sometimes it's hard to be confident with your blog and who you are. But the best thing you can do is not feel too self conscious about your blog posts, and show off your personality and voice. After all it's your blog, so remember to share with the world what you love and you think, not just what you think they want to hear. 

Have you got any tips? I'm sure a lot of you do most of these already but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading :)

If you liked this you might also like, 'Break That Creative Block! 30 blog post ideas'