Tips for You from Designs by Elisa

Below you'll find a growing list of Tips for You for sprucing up your blog, brought to you by Designs by Elisa. Stop by periodically for additions to this list.

Tip 1 ~ Font Alignment
Did you know that, as a general rule of thumb, paragraphs should always be aligned left? Yes, if you have a paragraph of two or more sentences, then you should definitely align it left, as that is the easiest on the reader. If it is a quote, or headline, feel free to center it in your post. Otherwise, keep your text to the left and you'll quickly clean up your blog page and make it easier for the reader to work their way through your posts!

Tip 2 ~ Sidebar Organization

One the most used parts of a blog is the sidebar. Everyone has one, sometimes even two or three, to house links to favorite bloggy stops, giveaways, memes, and information about themselves. But all this relevant information can get pretty cluttered and become overwhelming to a visitor. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help clean up your sidebar and make it a useful tool for your visitor:

1. Have I included some necessary facts, like:

• Contact information?
• Mission and Purpose of the Blog? (Stay tuned for a post just about this!)
  
• Copyright and reprint restriction or permission?
• Design credit?

2. Have I labeled my sidebar sections in such a way it makes sense to the reader or are my labels too creative to be understood?

3. Have I grouped like things together?

4. Would it be better to use a link to a post that contains all "this" information instead of listing in the sidebar?

These are just some ideas for making your blog's sidebar a tool that is helpful to your visitors. Just like how we all must clean out a junk drawer and reorganize our messy closets, a sidebar can periodically use some TLC, too!

Tip 3 - Organizing Your Awards

One of my bloggy friends, A Stone Gatherer, asked a great Design Tip Question. She shared,

"I have been wanting to put my awards elsewhere to clean up the sidebar but I can't figure out how to do it."

Here is my solution:

1. Put all your awards into a post and title that post "Awards"
2. Publish that post
3. View your blog and click on the title "Awards" - the page should refresh or open in a new tab or window
4. Copy the address, which is a link to that specific post, not just your blog address
5. Go into Customize / Layout / Page Elements / Create New / Add Page Element / Text
6. Type in "Awards" as the title, and something like this "Thanks for all these wonderful awards!"
   
7. Select the text and click the "link" icon. Paste the url that links to the post
8. Save, and Save again

Now you have a link to the post with all your awards and you can take your awards out of your sidebar. You can use this same technique for any content that is clogging up your sidebar.


Tip 4 ~ Mission and Purpose

Have you ever stopped to think about why you blog? What is the purpose of all those posts filling the bloggy world, penned by your precious hand?

I have found that is has helped to seek the Lord in defining a mission and purpose for my blog. It isn't a lifelong commitment, but for the season I am in, it helps define why I blog and what I blog. I don't know about you, but it is easy to get overwhelmed with the many bloggy opportunities. Defining your blog mission and purpose will enable you to set healthy boundaries and focus your writing or blog ministry.

How do you go about doing this?

• pray
• seek Scripture to direct you
• select a key verse to communicate the essence of your blog
• consider all the ways you are blog and rank them in order of most important to least important
• pray about eliminating the bottom of the list to focus on the top more intentionally
• ask others why they read your blog and what they see as your ministry
• write a mission statement, of a sentence or two, answering the question, "I blog in order to ...".
• pray some more and wait on the Lord for Him to speak to you about your mission and purpose in regard to your blog.

Stay tuned for more Designs by You tips and techniques
brought to you especially by Designs by Elisa!