Kevin O’Keefe recently had a great post which provided the results of a recent question and answer done by David Peralty, Head of Marketing at Splashpress Media, when they asks readers at The Blog Herald if it’s important to have a powerful, beautiful or striking blog design when presenting what he describes as the ‘whole package’ in blogging.

The responses from readers were striking. Professional blog design was viewed as a necessity, especially when blogging as a professional.

• Since the reader needs to be convinced to subscribe your blog, design is a very important matter. Looking at it from the readers point of view, ‘If you had to choose between two mobile phones with exactly the same features with one being stylish and the other looking like the work of an amateur - which would you choose?’ Design is added value with the result being more than the sum of its parts - design supports content and the other way round.
• If it is meant for commercial purpose, graphics play a big role.
• Though I may read blog posts in a newsreader, I need to come to the blog to subscribe, where if it looks good, I subscribe.
• Design matters to me when I read blogs. I generally read posts in my feed reader, but for two exceptions, one being to click through and read the posts directly on sites with great designs.
• As a designer, there’s no way I’d tell you design doesn’t matter. Think of it this way: A car’s purpose is to take you somewhere. But would you buy a rusted old car instead of a shiny new Prius?
• Think of it from a reader’s perspective. If I click on your blog and am put off by the overall look and feel of your site, I won’t return or subscribe. Content rules, yes, especially for your RSS readers, but design is like the PR guy who’s trying to get you to visit.
• It’s like judging a book by its cover. It could be either crap or a wonderful story inside, but if the cover doesn’t catch my attention, I’m not going to pick it up in the first place. When I’m flipping through random sites or clicking through links of links of links…..I skim right by those that don’t look great. I have to actually force myself to skim through text on blogs, for example, that are hosted on Blogger and use one of the default templates…and still have the random default spots unfilled like ‘put links here’ and ‘This is your about me section,’ etc.
• I just spent about $5,000 to upgrade Smallbiztechnology.com’s interface and move to Movable type - one of the best investments I’ve done! Traffic is up and more!
• The user experience is primarily made up of four factors: branding, usability, functionality andcontent. Independently, none of these factors make for a positive user experience; however, together, these factors are the main ingredients for the blog’s success.

I have always been on the position that it is important for a business, any business to have a blog that is professionally designed. Your web presence is important to you and you should look your best when visitors come to your blog. First impressions are important. You don’t want your readers questioning your professionalism due to an design that does not present well.

Source for Post Real Lawyers :: Have Blogs.

Chuck Newton has a great post today called “Avoid Staid Old Images”. He has a list of items to avoid.

1. Gavels
2. Eagles
3. Courtrooms
4. Courthouse Steps
5. The Scales O’ Justice
6. Piles of Law Books
7. Nautical Themed Stuff (unless you’re an admiralty lawyer)
8. Compasses
9. Groups of Middle-Aged White Lawyers in Suits

I could not agree more. Blogging is not your grandfathers marketing. Don’t treat it like it is. The public does not need nor want to see the same old “stuff” on a lawyer‘s ads. Do something different with your blog.

How many times have you gone to a blog looking for post on a certain topic or category?  It happens.  When a blog is first designed and made public, make sure you include a section called categories or topics.  This may depend on your blogging platform.  For me, I use Typepad, Moveable Type and Wordpress and we have a section called Categories.

This section is very important.  This is the index to your blog.  This is where all those post you are doing are index by topic or category so your readers can find them.  It is also my understanding the categories section can even be picked up as a tag on that post by Technorati and others.

When you first design your blog, come up with as many of the categories as you can think of.  But, don’t worry.  If you create a new category with a post, just go into your blogging platform and add another category.

Daily Blog Tips had a post today about creating a functional footer for your blog. If you take a look at my practice blog, Kansas Family Law Blog you will see this in action on a law related blog. Here are the items suggested and also, a list of what appears on my own blog.A functional footer for a blog should have at least two links:

• a link to the homepage
• a link to the RSS feed

You can also consider adding the following:

• an email subscription box
• a link to the Archives
• a link to the ‘About’ page
• a link to the ‘Contact’� page
• the recent posts
• the popular posts

Source for Post: Daily Blog Tips.

A well done blog is a great source of information for its readers. However, one area I have seen lawyers forget when doing their blog is the importance of the category list. Under the three blogging platforms I use, TypePad, Moveable Type, and WordPress, categories are used for the post. The category list is important for two big reasons.

When you have readers come to your blog, it is the category list where they tend to go to find information on your blog. In designing your blog, you should try to limit your categories to no more than 20. And you should place the category list as close to the top of the page as possible. Don’t make your reader hunt for the “index” to your blog. Once you get them there, your goal should be to keep them there as long as possible.