Many authors, especially those who are accustomed to writing in book format, or even in other “paper” formats such as magazines or newspapers, don’t realize that “online writing,” and particularly writing on blogs, requires a different kind of layout.

This post includes the following topics:

• How do different devices show your blog?
• Blog domain names
• Blog design
• Blog overall titles and taglines
• Blog content: Wording and images

The following are the topics I’ll be covering more indepth in separate posts in this series; I’ll add links as I post them:

1. Is Author Blogging Dead?
2. Blog or Website or Both?
3. Social Media
4. Author Blogs
5. Connections and Audience
6. Content Tips
7. Goals
8. Layout
9. Types of Posts
10. Specific Pages
11. Promoting Your Blog
12. SEO
13. Ideas for Posts
14. E-Mail Newsletters
15. Author Blogs: My personal conclusions – and series resource list

AUTHOR BLOG LAYOUTS

HOW DO DIFFERENT DEVICES SHOW YOUR BLOG?

Online readers are using a variety of devices—computers/laptops of course, but more and more, mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones—not to mention the quirks of the many different brands. Therefore, it is important to check out your blog’s appearance on different devices. Many of today’s blog platforms (and the themes they offer) feature built-in technology that theoretically does this for you, but it is still a good idea to check, from time to time, how people are seeing your posts on various devices. If you’ve been creating your blog for many years, and have not updated the theme you are using, you should definitely check out how your posts look, and determine if you need to update the theme you are using, or switch to a more mobile-friendly one.

BLOG DOMAIN NAMES

You will want to use a domain name that makes you easy for readers to remember and find. As an author blog, you will most likely use your personal name (or your pen name, if that’s what you use). Domains are most commonly “.com” but other popular ones are “.ca” for Canada (or whatever domain your country uses, such as “.uk” for United Kingdom), or “.net” for technology-related sites. If your blog relates to an organization, you might want to use “.org”, while if your blog is part of an educational institution, you might use “.edu”. There are other domains available as well. While most authors want a “.com” domain (and readers are most likely to remember that), it may not be available if someone else has already reserved it. In that case, you can consider one of the other choices.

As for using your name in your URL (site address, including domain), it is wise to include your first and last names, and quite possibly your other initial(s) in order to differentiate yourself from others who share your name. If someone else has already reserved your name, you can add an extra descriptor. As an author you might use something like usernameauthor or usernamewriter or usernamebooks. So, for example, my domain name for this particular site is normajhill.com (but if that was already in use, I might have used normajhill_writer.com or normajhill-editor.com).

If you have other blogs that focus on particular topics, you can use other names. Some of my blog domain names (with “a pen and paper mama” tagline—see below) are:

• penandpapermama.com (my educational site, plus “hub” for all my other sites)
• penandpapermamatoo.com (a collection of a variety of different writings)
• haidagwaiibuildingbridges.wordpress.com (a blog about my life on Haida Gwaii)
• pentictonpedestrian.wordpress.com (photos, stories, and poems about my town)
• normajhill.blogspot.com (reflections on my spiritual thoughts; an older site)

You’ll notice that some of the sites have “wordpress” in their domain names; that’s because they are “free sites” (other than the small annual domain fee). Most of my sites are on the “WordPress” platform, but one of them uses a “Blogger” platform hosted by Google.

BLOG DESIGN

The design of your blog creates the first impression for people visiting it, whether they go to the front/main website page (which may be an introductory page, or may be the top blog post), or a specific page or post they’ve arrived at through a link (such as the links listed at the top of this post which lead to the various posts in this series).

The front page (and often the other pages and posts as well) will likely include the following:

• Themes: Most platforms have many “theme” templates you can choose from, which vary quite broadly in their layout. Some are free; others have a cost. If you are technical, you may want to design your own special theme—or you can hire a designer to create a unique theme for you. While the different themes have different layouts, they also have different colour combinations you can choose from. There may also be a space for your logo.

• The site title and tagline (see details below). The title may be the same as the domain name (so the title of this blog is Norma J. Hill) or it may be something else that clearly defines the site in some way. For example, my penandpapermamatoo.com site has the title “Conversations, Reflections & Meditations” which reflects the variety of writings it contains.
  
  
• A banner: an illustration that usually runs across the top of the page/post and illustrates the general theme of the site. Not all sites have a banner across the top, but even if they don’t, there will almost certainly be at least one illustration (and possibly more) somewhere near the top of the page and/or scattered throughout it in appropriate spaces. Depending on the platform and theme you choose, you may be able to choose different banners for the various pages, or the same banner throughout.
  
  
• Author profile and author/avatar photo: Make sure it is up-to-date and professional. Ideally, your author photo (whether on the “about page” or on every page) should be of you … but if you really don’t want to include a personal photo, consider an image that relates to your blog topic. Generally, I’d advise avoiding kitten or puppy photos unless they’re an important part of your blog topic!
  
  
• Navigation: Almost all sites will have a “menu” which usually (but not always) goes across the top of the page (or post). This may include links such as “Home” (the front page, which may or may not be the blog page—your choice); a “Contact” page; an “About Me” page; and various other main divisions on your site. Sometimes there will be a “table of contents” type page, such as a “Site Map” or, as in this site, a listing of links to the articles in the blog, divided into specific sub-topics: check it out here: https://normajhill.com/writing-and-editing-articles/ . You’ll notice that on this site there are also menu links to pages with my “Editing Experience,” “Writing Experience,” and “Workshops” for readers who may be interested in hiring me for those purposes. What you include in your menu is up to you, but you should usually limit yourself to about 6 to 8 main menu items. If you wish, you can also have “drop down” menus from your main menu items. In my https://penandpapermamatoo.com/ site, I have drop-downs for many of the main menu items (just hover over the main menu name, or click on it to go to a page of links), since the site is a collection of many stories, poems, and articles on different topics.
  
  
• On the side margin(s) and possibly on the bottom margin, you may also include items such as a “follow” button, an “e-newsletter subscription” button, links to your social media accounts, short clips from your recent posts, archives of your past posts (usually by month), categories you can choose to find posts on specific topics, a search bar to type in your own search keywords, a blogroll of your other sites or of sites you really like, “share this” buttons so readers can share the post on their own social media, a “like” button, and of course a “comments” button. You may also have a link to your “policies” page or “media” page, or other useful items in your site. You might also provide a short bio, links to where readers can order your book(s) and other products and services, a short video, and so on. Just keep in mind that the more “extras” you load onto a page, the longer it will take to load, and readers may get annoyed, while search engines don’t like pages that take a long time to load.
  
  
• Content layout: Blogs, like other online content, will ideally be easily scanned, and the key information will be presented under clear headings. The headings (which may be of different sizes depending on their importance: H1, H2, H3…) will each be followed by usually short paragraphs, which may include bolded keywords or key phrases in italics. Keywords are important not only for readers to scan the article, but also for search engines to scan it as well; keywords are an important part of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) which helps to determine how high up on the search pages your site and each of your posts will end up. (SEO will be discussed in more detail in a later post in this series).  Lists, charts, tables, and other graphics, as well as photos and artwork will add interest and detail. Online sites generally provide more “white space” than you might find in traditional print material. Break up heavy blocks of text with media such as images, videos, infographics, and tweets.

BLOG OVERALL TITLES AND TAGLINES

Titles: Studies have shown that readers tend to read blogs with titles between 6 to 13 words. This may include a main title that focuses on keywords related to the post topic, plus a more specific sub-title.

Taglines: Blog themes often provide space for a “tagline” after the blog title. A tagline is a short phrase or sentence that should be memorable and help people understand the purpose of the blog as well as possibly relating it to the blog owner/author.

For example, if you look at my blogs, you will see that while they have different titles, related directly to the purpose of each blog, they all share the same tagline: “a penandpapermama site” or “another pen and paper mama site.” My business, which over time has included tutoring and other educational aspects, secretarial and bookkeeping services, and of course writing and editing services, is called “Pen And Paper Mama Services.”

The words “pen and paper” encompass the various services I have offered, and the “mama” part is a reflection of the fact that I’m mom to 5 children of my own (plus other children I’ve cared for) … and my many grandchildren (including the most recent one born in August 2023 in Texas!).

BLOG CONTENT: WORDING AND IMAGES

Titles of posts: Depending on the content you choose for a particular post, you can include in your title phrases like “6 ways to …” or other similar “catch” phrases. But make sure that your blog post titles do reflect the content topic.

You can often find blog post title ideas by looking at other blogs—or even looking at the front covers of more respected magazines while you wait in the grocery store line-up (or at the library). Whatever you do, DON’T use “clickbait” titles or headlines: sensationalized headlines that appeal to emotions and curiosity but don’t have much, if anything to do with your topic. Readers will be annoyed, and search engines will drop your page or post way down on search results.

Wording of the content: As blogs are meant to be easily scanned and readers often want to quickly find exactly what information they need, your author blog (and any other blogs you create) need to be well worded with clear, concise text. Depending on the purpose and audience, some blogs will be worded simply and to-the-point, while others (like this one) tend to be more in-depth. But either way, they need to be easily readable and understood. For details on the kind of content you can consider including in your blog, as well as tips on length of posts, see this article in this series: https://normajhill.com/2023/11/17/author-blog-content-tips/

Images: These days, images are usually a really important part of blog content (as well as the rest of the pages in your website). In fact, most people who are reading online expect strong images—photos, clip art, other artwork, graphs, tables, and so on. Some things to keep in mind about images are:

• Make sure the images relate to the topic in some way.
• If you are using images from sources other than yourself, be sure to give credit to the artist, even if it is free source material.
• For each image, include a title (caption) and, ideally, content description.
• If an image is not free-source, make sure you pay for it.
• You can certainly create your own images—take photographs, draw artwork, or use software like Canva to create your own images, charts, etc. If you’d like to make your images available for others to use, check out this site which discusses Creative Commons and copyright issues (both US and Canadian): https://www.copyrightlaws.com/how-to-protect-photos-you-post-online/ 
• You can find excellent information on using images on blogs at: https://www.blogtyrant.com/how-to-find-imagess-for-your-blog/

WHAT’S NEXT?

Well, I imagine you’re saying, “When are you going to start taking your own advice?” Yes, I do need to do that, and I’ll be getting on with it very soon! After all, this series on blogging started out simply as research for myself … so, yes, I need to take its advice to heart! Very soon!

Meanwhile, I hope you’ll find useful tips here for yourself! Why not start today by taking a look at one post on your author site – or a particular page such as the introductory page – and compare it to the tips in this post. Find one tip that you can use to improve your post or page layout … and do it right now!

And don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments (click on the “comments” link in the top left corner). This should be fun! Look through this post (and any of the others in this series—the links are at the top. In the comments, tell me what I’m doing okay … and tell me what items of my advice I need to start putting into action! (I’ll try to apply them in the next posts!)