When I first built this blog, my gut instinct was to make it as pretty as possible. In the ‘real world’ I’m very girly, so I figured it was a good reflection of my personality. But as time went on, I felt the theme didn’t reflect the actual content. So I redesigned it, took out the cutesy, vintage-style bits, and added in clean lines, plain texts and simple (hopefully) navigation.
That’s not to say I’ve managed to stop the magpie tendencies towards blog pretties though. But instead of confusing my own blog design, I’m going to share them with you!
Shabby Blog Resources
Shabby Blog Resources is run by a kind lady who happily shares her blog backgrounds, icons, post dividers, headers and more. If you’re into vintage-inspired blog goodies, then you’ll like this site. It’s particularly good for backgrounds if you’re using Blogger.
Sexy Bookmarks
Sexy Bookmarks is a plugin or widget for various blogging platforms, that adds a bar of social media sharing sites to the bottom of your blog posts. So far, so normal then, right? This one is seriously cute though. Each of the buttons pops up when you hover over it, and readers are actively encouraged to ‘Share the love!’
Etsy/Folksy
Etsy and Folksy are wonderful places to find pretty things to add to your blog or website. I’ve used Bonitta at It’s All About The Graphics on several occasions for banners and business cards, and I’d highly recommend her skills if you’re looking for a budget-friendly blog revamp.
Social Media buttons
To be honest, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to pretty social media buttons. There’s a great selection over on Ezuca at the moment, featuring everything from hearts (below) to cocktail glasses.
The right adverts
Your choice in adverts can make a big difference to the look of your blog. Affiliate advertisers know this, and make a constant effort to update their designs and create enticing ads that appeal to the eye. The better the design, the more people will click through, and the more money you’ll make, so it’s in your best interests to use aesthetically-pleasing ads.
Have you got any great resources to add? Let me know in the comments, or over on Twitter
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Thanks for this post. As someone new to social media for business, it’s all very confusing and time-consuming, so I’m very happy to receive short tips ‘n’ hints.
Great resources, Emma! I really love the Sexy Bookmarks plug-in.
If the world of blog customisation ends up being a little confusing, or you’re thinking of spending a little money to make your blog unique, there are lots of designers (myself included) who love working with bloggers to create logos, headers, custom elements and CSS. Usually not as expensive as you’d think as well.
For those on WordPress.org, there are lots of great themes here: http://themify.me/themes and http://themeforest.net/ and lots have great “theme options” sections built in that make them really simple to customise.
Thank you so very much! I’m new at blogging and this was very helpful! Thanks a whole bunch : )
-Salmah