How to Create a Blog Design from Scratch?

I often get asked this question by people who have been blogging for some time, but are new to blog designs. They want to get rid of their blog design templates and take their blog to the next step by having a custom blog design. There is usually just a little problem, they don’t have the money to hire someone or the expertise to build one for themselves. If this sounds like you or you just want to learn even more, then this series just is for you.

In this series, I will focus on how I would learn how to create a blog design if I were to start all over again from the beginning without any knowledge in the area of blog designs, web design, or graphic design. Basically starting over from scratch with the goal of creating an awesome blog design for my blog.

In the process, I will show you how you can create a blog design for your own blog. While there are thousands of ways to approach learning how to create a blog design, I will approach it in a way that I have found to be very efficient when it comes to learning any new skill and getting it to an above average level. These are the basic steps I feel that a person needs to pass through in order to reach a level where their skill is good enough to create a blog design from scratch. I find that a lot of times people new to something tend to take these steps in the reverse order and only after failing a few times do they managed to get all the steps or just end up giving up altogether.
I must warn you though that this method is not for everyone. It is not a method that will get you a good blog design tomorrow; there are actually no methods that can do that unless you can pay someone a lot of money. This method is about building the fundamental skills in order to build a great blog design.

1. Figure out what you need to know and the price you must pay

There are a few skills you need to learn and there is no escaping that. Creating a good blog design is a huge time sink in the beginning, because there is a learning curve. Prepare to invest a lot of time and patience, even more so if you have less experience in something related to blog design.

2. Buy, borrow, or steal the best books

There is no substitute for a good book on CSS/XHTML, graphics design, and typography. Can you get by with online resources only? Yes, you can, but there will be a lot of gaps in your knowledge that can frustrate you. It is just not worth it when your local library is likely to carry a good book. I used my library extensively and purchased ones I couldn’t get through the library.

3. Gather the best online resources

Online resources should be used as a supplement to books and not a replacement. Online resources are often very specific in what they teach so they do not cover everything you need to know.The exception is with php though because you really only need to know snippets of php code to create a blog design unless you are trying to do something very complicated. I found a php book to be very valuable for when I was writing a plugin for WordPress.

4. Learn from the best

Find out what the best are doing and imitate them. This does not mean copy their designs. What it means is to not reinvent the wheel by using what already works. There is a reason blog designs don’t have circular navigations that fly around because it does not work. Learn from others and your skills will grow fast.

5. Experiment with your blog design

There are a ton of good tutorials that will teach you specific skills you need to create a blog design, but after that there is no escaping trial and error. Behind a good blog design are many failed ones that you don’t get to see. Persevere and your blog design will be godly.
To be continued…
In the follow up articles to this series, I will go into detail of how to find out what you need to learn, what the best books are, what the best online resources are, what works, and how you can take your own blog design to the next level. Subscribe today for free to get updates when the articles are published.