Blog Tipz

Blog design shouldn’t limit what you want to accomplish. When you choose a template, test the template in various browsers and dimensions (using the resize tool). [By the way, the Firesizer plugin, for Firefox, allows you to mimick different sizes, then you could base other browsers on this size].

The biggest factor that many have seen over the past five years is screen resolution. By definition, the more pixels your screen is, the more viewable area. Even though you might be working on a 40″ screen, it doesn’t mean that you will be able to view the content as it would be on a much smaller screen, due to the number of pixels/overall readability of the words/content.

Screen Resolutions of Blog Tipz

As you can see, the 800×600 standard of 5 years ago is now at 8th place, with all other sizes larger.

Additionally, when you look at how visitors interact with a website, you want to appeal to your majority. Even though there are still sites out there that have been designed for much smaller browsers/screen resolutions, you have to go against the beliefs that everyone is using a small screen (800×600 pixels or smaller). Even mobile phones have support for this resolution and higher, along with better zooming/enlarging technology.

There really aren’t any major disadvantages to increasing your site’s width, only benefits:

1. You will be able to add more content to the page.
2. You won’t be constrained to “cram” in so much content. Along with the widening, you can think about the most important aspects of your website/blog.
3. Visitors will find it more appealing to browse, without having to look through links and images that appear to be laid on top of one another.
4. Extra income. Think about it: if your blog wasn’t able to accommodate 468×60 advertising in the header previously, it will now, with the increased size.
5. White space is nearly always good, although it is still good to focus on providing content rather than “emptiness.”

Widening your blog can only lead to benefits starting the day you make the changes. It probably won’t take much time, especially if your blog utilizes CSS properly using body, header, and footer attributes. You will probably find that most themes also have a wider width these days, so changing your theme could also do the job if you aren’t up to editing the code of your site.