Design is so important when it comes to blogging. I mean, don’t forget, you are starting a business here. A big part of any business is branding, and this extends to your blog.
I find that the whole blog design aspect is where a lot of bloggers get hung up.
Trust me, I’ve been there….for like a year. In that year I could have been leveraging my business for success. Instead, I was hung up on creating a cohesive brand for my business and designing a site to match that.
That is hard to do when you have no experience with site design or branding.
Five Steps to Design
I have a five-tong, fork-like, approach to blog design so that you can easily achieve the perfect intended cohesive brand and style.
1. Determine your blog colors, fonts, and logo
If you haven’t already, now is a good time to sign up for a free account with Canva.
Canva is a tool that I recommend for creating visually appealing graphics even if you have no idea what you are doing.
If you don’t want to invest in hiring someone to do brand design for you, Canva is a great way to create your own logo.
Pro Tip: Sign up for my Success Library and you can access my printable branding workbook. It also includes some amazing color combos that you’ll love for your brand.
To come up with amazing fonts for your brand, check out the site DaFont. All the fonts are free to download, but some require you to buy a font if you intend to use it on your blog.
2. Set up Your Blog Theme
Your WordPress blog needs to have a theme to function. A theme will be the framework for your blog appearance.
There are tons of themes out there and every blogger has a different opinion on which theme is best.
See, you want a theme that makes your site look amazing, is easy to customize but is also not overly heavy so that you can keep a fast site speed.
I have purchased a ton of different themes throughout my blogging career and some have been great. Some have given me way more headaches than they were worth.
This is what I have determined:
The best way to easily customize your blog, not spend an insane amount of money, and to keep a decent site speed is by using a free theme and accompanying that with a Pro Elementor account.
Let me explain….
Elementor is a page builder. That means that you can use Elementor to easily customize every page on your site to appear exactly as you want without any coding.
There is a bit of a learning curve to using Elementor, as with any new program you take on, but it is very user friendly and produces amazing designs.
Also, they offer great customer support for any and all questions.
Because Elementor is a tool for site design you no longer need a paid-for theme. In fact, it is best to instead use a lightweight free theme to keep your site speed fast.
I suggest a theme called Hello Elementor for this. No, Hello Blogger is in no way associated with this theme. 🙂
You can find Hello Elementor by going to your WordPress Dashboard and clicking Appearance > Themes > Click “Add New” > Type in “Hello Elementor” in the search bar > Click “Install” > Click “Activate”
Next you will….
3. Install Elementor and Elementor Pro
Just click here to easily set up Elementor page builder.
Now, don’t forget, the free version of Elementor will allow you to customize pages, but the Pro version of Elementor will allow you to customize your blog header, footer, posts, etc.
It is 100% worth it to purchase Elementor Pro to set up your site exactly as you want.
I suggest starting with the Personal Elementor plan. You can always upgrade later if you add more sites.
You will then be asked to set up an account and to pay for Elementor Pro.
Once completed, you will receive an email from Elementor with an easy walkthrough of how to set up Elementor Pro on your site.
Note: Elementor has great customer service and cares a lot about making sure their users get the best experience possible. Just head on over to their Help Center to get all your questions answered.
Another note: I am an affiliate of Elementor. This means I will make a small profit at no cost to you if you sign up for an Elementor Pro account through one of the links on this page. However, I really do use Elementor Pro for every website I run. I swear by their service due to the amazing responsive designs it can produce without any coding.
4. Purchase one of the Spruced Up Blog Templates
After you have set up Elementor and Elementor Pro, I suggest purchasing a Spruced Up Blog Template for Elementor.
Spruced Up is a company I started to fill a gap in the market.
I thought a lot about what I wish someone had told me and what I wish I had invested in to make my life easier when I started blogging. The biggest thing that was such a time suck and delay on my blog success was blog design.
Typically bloggers have two options.
A. Hire Someone to Custom Design Your Blog
This usually costs upwards of several thousands of dollars.
Also, this is typically done through coding, so if you want to make any changes at a later point in time, you will need to hire your blog designer again to make these changes for you.
Ugh!
B. Try to Figure Out Everything On Your Own
You could attempt to navigate all of the countless WordPress theme options and pick one that you think may work for you.
Next, figure out how to customize that theme.
Learn a bit of coding for further customization.
Spend months stressing and wondering why your blog doesn’t look as amazing as you hoped.
It’s a lot to take on!
I don’t want you to go through that. I started this site to get your blog based business up and running as fast as possible in the best way possible.
So, that’s just what I’m going to do!
The Spruced Up Blog Templates are built for Elementor Pro (as in you need an Elementor Pro account in order to use these templates).
The templates come in a variety of modern styles and are responsive for desktop, tablet, and mobile.
Basically, I created the product I wish someone had handed to me when I started blogging.
Each template includes a ready made:
Home Page
About Page
Contact Page
Single Post Layout
Blog Page Layout
Header
Footer
All you need to do is plug in your info and you will be good to go! It is also super easy to update colors, fonts, images etc.
Because I want this to be as simple as possible for you, every Spruced Up Blog Template comes with access to my detailed setup and success guides.
Just remember, you need to purchase Elementor Pro in order to use these templates.
Here are the current templates we have for sale on Spruced Up Blog so you can get a better idea of how you can easily make your blog appear custom-made without all the work.
5. Incorporate all your content into your new layout.
Once you have installed Hello Elementor theme, installed Elementor, purchased and installed Elementor Pro, purchased and installed one of the templates from Spruced Up Blog; you can now plug in all your info and get your site going!
Bada bing. Bada boom! You’ve got your killer blog based business off the ground!
So just as a summary:
-Download the free Hello Trending blog theme on WordPress
-Purchase a Pro Elementor plan and set that up on your blog
-Purchase one of my ready made Elementor Pro Templates on Spruced Up Blog
-Customize your blog as you like!
And there you have it! You now have a fully functioning blog. It’s time to do great things with it and change your life for the best. Congrats!
