How to Select the Best Blog Templates

Have you recently started your own personal blog to share your thoughts and opinions with friends and other readers on the Internet? Are you planning to start an organisational blog for your company to regularly give updates regarding products or services? Are you looking for blog templates to enhance the visual appeal of your blog?

In your foray into the blogosphere, it is important to keep in mind that the visual design of your blog is as important as the quality of your blog content.

Blogs typically have a standard layout. Many blogging software and hosts provide some typical blog design templates. If you want your blog to stand out and not be another copy of a monotonous design, you should make use of professionally-designed blog templates.

Well-designed templates can not only improve the visual quality of your blog, but can also improve its usability.

Read on to know about blog design and how professional blog templates can help improve the look and feel of your blog. Also read about selecting the best blog templates available over the Internet from providers such as buytemplates.net.

What are Blog Templates?

A blog or a weblog is an individual publishing space on the Internet where people can write about their opinions, knowledge and experiences.

There are different kinds of blogs such as personal blogs which have entries or posts from individuals and business blogs which are maintained by companies.

Blog templates are readymade designs for blogs.

Anyone wishing to start a blog or change the look of their blog can use a template for design. They can select a blog template of their liking and just add their own content to it to create their unique, custom blog page.

Free blogging software providers such as Wordpress and Blogger provide a classic blog template which implements a standard colour palette and layout.

A wide variety of design templates for blogs are available for download over the Internet. The templates cater to different themes, uses and platforms.

Different Types of Blog Templates

Blogging templates can be categorised according to the kind of content they are designed to display. The layout of the templates would differ according to the content type.

Here are some different types of blogging templates:-

• Standard Text and Image Template This is most commonly used where the content is predominantly text, with some images included. A personal blog with daily text posts and few images can use this type of template for its design and layout.
• Photo Blog Templates A photo blog is used by people who want to share their experiences, knowledge and skills mainly through images and photographs. The text content is usually minimal, used only to explain the images. A template designed for photo blogs would have layouts which focus on image display.
• Video Blogging Template Digital video file formats for the Internet include AVI, WMV and MPEG. In order to display these files on a video blog, the HTML embed or object tags must be used. A video blog template which includes HTML may not only provide appropriate layout, but also can make it easier for users to add video content without bothering about the HTML code.

Advantages of Using Well-Designed Blog Templates

Lets take a look at why it is worthwhile to select and use a well-designed blog template for your blog.

• Professional Design - Standard templates for blogs are only functional in nature and can make your blog look uninspiring. Making use of well-designed personal blog templates can create unique blog pages that express your individuality.
• Usability Some templates can be cluttered with links and not have enough whitespace. In another usability instance, if a white font colour is used over a black background, it may become very strenuous to read lengthy blog posts.
• Standards Compliance Your blog needs to follow accessibility standards and have valid HTML code. Using a template from a reputed provider can ensure standards compliance.

Elements in Standard Blog Design Templates

Heres a list of some elements available in standard blog design templates:-

• Title Header The header section of a blog usually consists of the blog title. The header appears in all the blog pages.
• Blog Posts In case of the main blog page, posts are usually listed in descending chronological order. This means that the latest entry is displayed on top of the list. The blogging software allows settings where all the blog posts are displayed in full in a single page. Alternatively, excerpts of posts can be displayed. To read the full post, the reader would be directed to the single blog post page. Templates may have layouts for both types of displays.
• Comments Readers of blogs can submit comments on individual posts. The comments are displayed immediately below the relevant post.
• Author Information In personal blog templates, a side section can display details regarding the blog author such as photo and biographical details.
• Archives or Calendar Blog posts or lists are displayed according to their published date. Typically, they are categorised on a monthly basis. The blog templates can display a calendar where the dates can be clicked for seeing relevant posts. The archives can be also be on a monthly basis.
• Tags The blog template may display a list of hyperlinked tags which indicate post topics.
• Blogroll A blog is all about sharing information and networking. A blogroll is a list of links to other blogs visited and recommended by the blog author.

Selecting Best Blog Templates

It is important to keep in mind the following aspects when selecting the best blog templates for designing your blog.

• Appropriate Design If your blog is intended to be a personal one, select design which reflects your personality. Organisations should select templates suited to the sector they are in.
• Importance of Archives If your blog is updated on a daily basis, a calendar element may be essential. If you have a large archive of posts, the archives section should be prominently placed. A search box can also be useful in such cases.
• Required Elements Make sure that the elements that you need are present in the templates. A blogroll linking to posts in other blogs is important.
• Usability of Templates Take care that the templates lead to blogs that are easy to use.

Buytemplates.net is a comprehensive resource for a large variety of blog templates such as business and personal blog templates.

The templates in the site are professionally-designed and follow prescribed web usability standards. Bloggers can just download them and add custom content. The site also offers customisation services for subscribers.

Browse through the blog templates available in buytemplates.net and select the best template suited for your blog.