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Many bloggers have commended me for my blog design. Being a web designer myself, I have the privilege of quickly doing adjustments to my blog design, spicing it up from time to time. And this had proved to be extremely useful. And one of the major abilities a blog design can have is to convince it’s spectators to convert. Well, in this case, subscribe to my blog.
So, how exactly can you optimize you blog design to get more visitors? (Image Credit: Draggin)
I believe that the blog header in any blog plays the biggest role in giving out a first impression. And of course, first impression does the most when you’re trying to sell something.
As you can see, in ROCKFUSE, I have reserved a considerable amount of real-estate for the blog header. This is because I wanted to outline and highlight every major thing that I wanted my blog visitors to know in their first visit.
It is important that you give your visitors a clear view of your blog’s niche and what you blog about, in the most convincing method possible. So, I find it important mentioning a few pointers in the blog header that truly says what you blog is about.
However, the downside of nice blog headers is the amount of bandwidth it takes and the increased page load times. Of course, this can be improved to a certain extent if you just follow a few optimization tips.
More than half of my blog’s subscribers are e-mail subscribers. Which is really good. Why? Because, they have a solid subscription to ROCKFUSE and they are easier to be tracked.
I find that reserving the extra space needed to have an e-mail subscription form really pays off. It gives a straight-up impression that the visitor should subscribe by e-mail. And not to forget, some people barely have any knowledge of what RSS is so it’s really important you play it safe offering an e-mail subscription form too.
Of course, some would argue that having a simple button guiding you to the subscription form is enough. I do not disagree. But trust me, you’ll see better conversion rates with the extra effort you put into integrating a subscription form to your design.
This really works. You may have seen the banner below all my posts. “If you find this post useful, why not subscribe?”. This can really get you those one-time visitors that came to your blog accidentally from a Google Search.
As if the subscribe buttons on my blog ain’t enough, you might say. True, but the secret of asserting something is to assert it until it registers in someone’s mind. Why do you think they run the same advertisement on TV multiple times?
I haven’t done this yet, but I do plan to in the future. It’s just a small simple page titled “Why Subscribe?” that people can click through and in which you can present your case – Why should you exactly subscribe to my blog.
I have talked to some bloggers who had great success with this. Basically, you should tell your audience the benefits of subscribing to your blog, in the minimum amount of words possible. Might seem like a bit out there, but, yeah, it works.
You really can’t expect all of your visitors to read that page. But, you have an opportunity to convert a good number of people that do.
Although a good part of this article is focused on getting subscribers through methods that are merely assertive, the ultimate question at the end of the day – that a subscriber might ask is, how can I possibly benefit from subscribing to this blog? When that question is asked, you have to agree, so little can you justify with having an e-mail subscription form or a good blog design. People do not just subscribe because your blog design rocks right?
I believe the word I’m looking for is ‘content’.
Just think, of all the times you actually subscribed to a blog, have you ever done it without going through the blog’s content, or at least the most popular posts? At the end of the day, subscribers are after content and if you don’t deliver what you should, you will not convert new subscribers, nor would you keep the existing ones engaged.
To serve this purpose and this purpose only, I’ve done a few major things in my blog. I have put my categories on the top alongside the popular posts, and I have used excerpts in the homepage to make sure I can display more recent posts. And these things are really easy to do provided that you have some html/php knowledge to play around with your template.
I guess at the end of the day, you can’t sell anything without showcasing what you are selling.
Technorati Tags: rss subscribers e-mail subscription blog design optimize blogging
Great, great!!
And you’re right about the RSS -thing . A lot of people dont know what it is….
to be hoenst…i’m one of them, haha!
I never subscribed oto a blog through RRS,cuz, frankly, I have no idea how to do it… Plus, i prefer reading the content of blogs on the actualy blog, and not in email or something …
Keep up the good work, and yes, ur design rocks!
You definitely know how to make good use of the space. I think placing the good stuff at the top is definitely a strategy that bloggers usually overlook. They just know that viewers are going to love their content and scroll down. Sadly, that’s not the case some times.
In the mid-way when i was reading this post. I just went up to see the blog header. I was surprised to see that there are arrows pointing things….
Again Great post and great design. For web-designer, i guess spicing the theme is easier.
Great post as always.
Adding the email subscription button boosted my feed count. Like Nadeesha said, You should give a space on your blog for an email subscription form.
Hey, And what about holding contests from time to time..
I’m a new blogger and I really don’t understand the RSS thingy.. so..I am one of those people who would need an email sign up link. And I love the creative use of space, very eye-catching.
Thanks,
Blush
Holding contests is good. But the fact is that since everyone is doing it now, it’s a bit hard to convince people to participate.
Nice article.. At the first look your header was confusing but when I observed it clearly… It made me a lot of sense…. Nice blog..
In the last point I want to add that you should create internal links among your articles. That kind of linking make easier to the reader the process of searching for related content…
These are some vital points that you make about what individuals tend to look at on a site. Repeating about the option to subscribe to the site will let some people that don’t know about subscribing that it is an easy way to receive new articles. Also, about the content, I have noticed that sites which direct content to the reader more readily appear more factual.
I actually wrote a post similar to this. As design does play a great role in whether or not people will subscribe,
Ultimately, it’s content that is king. The better your content, the more people will subscribe!