Loading ...2007 saw the art of blogging really hit the mainstream, to the extent that traditional and ‘respectable’ journalists started to sit up, take notice, whinge, and then head back to their boozy lunches to make up a few more half truths about Paris Hilton.
The medium really started to evolve, and the widget-heavy personal blogs of 2006 started to evolve into something much more like� professional media properties.
As this happens, the look of some of the major bloggers blogs had a big overhaul with the likes of John Chow, and� Problogger getting a new look.
The main characteristics� of the new ‘magazine’ style are as follows:
- Abandoning the full post on the front page, and giving many more links to different content so new users can get a taste of the full flavour of the site
- Obvious spaces to monetise the blog using advertising
- Really pushing the RSS and email subscription options
Quick to react, a number of these themes became available from commercial designers, of which my favourites are:
Free Wordpress Magazine Themes
Premium Wordpress Magazine Themes
The Revolution Series of themes by Brian Gardner
WP-Magazine
The new design of this blog is a heavily customised version of The Morning After.
If you want to raise the profile of your blog in 2008, and start to monetise it better, this might be a design route worth investigating.
I'm Stephen Pratley, a marketing consultant, agency owner and part-time affiliate marketer.This blog is about my activities and opinions in the online marketing world
I agree with you. I’ve just bought one of the Revolution Themes. They’re basic WP so should be straight forward to customise, which is essential for the SEs to index effectively.