It’s time to optimize your WordPress theme so that visitors get a snappy load time when they visit, and so that your host doesn’t come to it’s knees if you get a flood of traffic from something like Digg or SlashDot.

This post will show how I optimized this blog and reducing its size by over 1MB and shaving over 3 seconds from its load time, with a step-by-step guide with screenshots of what I did.

Before Optimization

Here’s a collection of screenshots from various speed testing tools I used to capture my unoptimized blog.

Firebug Net Console

Firebug is the world’s greatest plugin for Firefox. I’m not going to go into it’s greatness, but just encourage you to go get it.

I captured the results from 5 tests on my site to get a decent average load time. Each time I reloaded I used ctrl-F5 which forces the cache to be reset and pulls the files from the server again.

The average time from the tests was 7.31 seconds.

Here’s some firebug screenshots for the test run that was closest to the average.

YSlow

YSlow is a firebug plugin from Yahoo that grades your site and gives suggestions on things to do to make it faster

Page Speed

Page speed is a new firebug plugin from Google that I wanted to try out. It gives pretty much the same data as YSlow does.

Website Optimizer

I wanted to use this site because hopefully their hardware produces more standard results. I can run a test on my browser 10 times and get up to a 3 second variance on some tests, just due to network issues that might occur.

Optimization Phase 1: CSS and Javascript

Keep in mind as you go through this post that speeds and even files that get loaded vary. I don’t have anything close to a perfect environment for doing optimization testing, so don’t become too fixated on some of the randomness.

The first thing that I’d like to do is optimize my CSS and javascript files.

CSS Compression

For CSS I originally installed the Script Compressor WordPress plugin. This plugin does what it called real-time compression. Real-time compression is nice, because it compresses all of the CSS that is served by your site and it allows you to easily make changes to your current CSS and FTP it without having to manually compress your CSS. This type of compression is good for WordPress also because there will be other CSS files that your site uses that you did not create.

For example, I use the CForms  II plugin for my contact page. That plugin includes its own CSS to layout the contact form, I chose the minimal.css for mine. If I were to manually take that CSS and compress it, then when the author updates his plugin, I would have to remember to go back and recompress it. With real-time compression, it gets compressed automatically whenever someone visits the site.

The plugin worked fine, but the screenshots below reveal a problem.

Although all my CSS files were reduced in size, it actually took longer for my pages to be rendered. The reason for this is because of my host. I have one of the cheaper economy hosts, so I get what I pay for in terms of hosting power. So since the real-time compression happens when someone loads the page, it’s faster to just serve the uncompressed CSS than it is to take the CPU cycles to compress the CSS and serve the smaller file.

The moral of this is: Don’t assume that just because you have compressed CSS files that your site is loading faster. Test it.

So since the real-time compression won’t work in my situation, I decided to do an manual compression. I tested a couple manual compressors and found csscompressor.com to be the best. Some of the others I tried failed to understand some basic CSS selectors and chose to remove every scrap of whitespace, which destroyed my site.

For example, #middle #character { some: styles } gets compressed to #middle#character{some:styles} which makes that style worthless because I need the space between #middle and #character.

I compressed my main stylesheet, monsta.css and I used the highest compression method.

It yielded a good reduction in size from 22k down to 16k and a small decrease in load time.

I decided to compress the other files that are over 1k in size, minimal.css, lifestream.css and calendar.css.

Minimal went from 9k to 5k.

Lifestream went from 2k to 1k.

Calendar went from 2k to 1k. Calendar doesn’t seem to get loaded on refreshes anymore.

Total size saved after CSS compression was 12k, not too shabby.

Javascript

This step might not be needed for your blog, but I use a good bit of jQuery to get my sidebar to do some some of it’s fancy stuff.

Here’s the javascript load screen before optimization and while looking over it I noticed one very inefficient thing happening.

If you noticed in the screenshot, I am loading jQuery twice.

WordPress has been including the jQuery library with all installs since version 2.2 to handle their backend, so that explains why the second call appears. So one might think that all that has to happen is to remove one’s jQuery call from one’s header.php file and all would be peachy. Well, it turns out, one, would be wrong and would break their site if they did so and forget to check it for a day. So after some more research here’s the correct way to solve the problem without running into issues.

This, Loading jQuery Correctly in WordPress post, provided most of the help with another tweak at the end.

I removed my call to jQuery from my header.php file

I added

<?php wp_enqueue_script("jquery"); ?>

directly above my <?php wp_head(); ?>

Then I put my custom jQuery file, montsa.js, below wp_head()

Finally, one last tweak since WordPress puts it’s jQuery in what’s called “no conflict” mode. No conflict is done so that the default jQuery shortcut , $, doesn’t conflict with other javascript libraries such as Prototype. To fix that change your standard jQuery document ready line from this

$(document).ready(function() {

to this

jQuery(document).ready(function($) {

That should be about it for getting jQuery to play nice with WordPress.

JS Compression

There are a few tools to do this also, but since I liked csscompressor so much I figured it best to use it’s sister javascriptcompressor.

My monsta.js went from 4k down to 2k after the compression. I also shaved about 1.5k from some other jQuery used internally within a file.

Optimization Phase 2: Images

Using Sprites

Sprites are a technique to reduce the number of HTTP requests to the server by adding multiple images into one image and then using CSS background-image and background-position to show the desired image.

Here are a few good posts describing what they are and how to use them much better than I can. Advanced CSS Menu The Mystery of CSS Sprites CSS Sprites

Since I’ve been using sprites for a while I tend to already design and markup using them, so I couldn’t really find anywhere that I could easily add them. Perhaps you can use this optimization technique better for your blog.

Image Sizes

I produce most of my images as PNGs from Adobe Fireworks. When doing so, Fireworks adds extra information to each image so that the PNGs can be better edited when opened again in Fireworks. That’s fine, except that it can create some large file sizes. So now I needed to reduce each image down to its bear necessities. I opened each image in Photoshop CS4 and used the “Save for Web and Devices” option under File.

Although each image looks just the same as it did before, there were some remarkable size reductions.

The total size for images went from 2.27MB to 1.66MB, a .61MB total reduction.

I could further reduce the image sizes if I were to go through some of my posts and optimize the first image of each post, since my theme uses the first image from each post as the thumbnail image if I don’t specify another image. So some of the images being loaded into the 210px thumbnail are actually 500px images just reduced in size.

Phase 2 Results

So after 2 phases of optimization we’ve gone from weighing in at 2.47MB to trim 1.8MB.

The load speed is skewed because I’m on an ethernet connection verses WiFi for the other screens.

Optimization Phase 3: Gzip Files

This is something that both YSlow and PageSpeed were both yelling at me to do.

Prior to WordPress 2.5 you had the option to gzip your files under the Reading options. But, for whatever reason, it is no longer present, so we must look to the Internet for some answers.

The best post that describes multiple ways to manually gzip your files is from The Bits 2.0.

There is also a gzip WordPress plugin you can install that explicitly does the gzipping, but if you just move on to the Phase 4 plugin I suggest, it does gzipping along with other things.

Note: After hours of research and trying various methods to get my site to manually be gzipped, I am chalking my lack of gzipping to my hosts inability to do so. If you know how to get Bluehost to gzip files, please let me know.

Optimization Phase 4: WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache is a plugin that most WordPress users install as soon as their site is up. It’s usually sufficient enough to be the only method of optimization, but I wanted to take my optimization further.

What it does is make copies of the generated WordPress pages in HTML so that when someone requests a page, they are given the smaller HTML file and aren’t using your host’s CPU cycles to generate the page every time someone visits.

Final Results

My optimization appears to have cut the total site size from 2.47MB down to 1.41MB, saving of 1.06MB.

The blog also went from an average load time of 7.31 seconds to around 4.5 seconds, a saving of nearly 3 seconds.

Here’s some screenshots from how the blog performs after it’s been optimized.

Firebug

YSlow

Page Speed

Website Optimizer

What You Should Do, In a Nutshell

By reading this post you get the benefit of not repeating the mistakes I made, and trust me that alone can save you hours.

First, don’t manually compress CSS and Javascript first. It makes no sense to do it first, not sure why I thought I should. If you are going to make sprites or do anything to change your CSS or JS during optimization, then you have to uncompress the file, make whatever changes you need, then compress and FTP it again. Not a wise decision.

Second, get in a habit of saving images optimized for the web. Those bloated PNGs take up a ton of space and it takes time to go back through an optimize and update each picture. Make image optimization apart of your workflow.

Third, add jQuery correctly in WordPress. Under Phase 2, I discuss a dilemma of two jQuery calls being made and show how to fix it correctly. As AJAX is more prevalent, more plugins will be using jQuery as their javascript library. Making only one call will save wasted bandwidth.

Fourth, don’t worry too much about multiple HTTP calls . I researched a bit to try to find a better way to reduce the number of calls, by combining some files together or making huge sprites for the site to use, but came to this conclusion. Multiple HTTP calls are inherent with WordPress. Due to WordPress’ architecture of the plugin system, many small files get added to the blog loading sequence. I’ve decided not to worry too much about this and just let the problem remain.

If you can reduce HTTP calls by using sprites, then by all means us them, but trying to get 7 CSS files that come from various places into one file isn’t worth the hassle.

Other Optimization Resources

Here a few other posts I read that helped with my optimization efforts.

• 5 Ways to Speed Up Your Site
• Optimize WordPress Loading Times
• How to Optimize your CSS Even More
• Clever PNG Optimization Techniques

If you have any of your own optimization techniques, please share in the comments.

What is Windows Live Writer?

Live Writer is a free desktop blog editor. It can write and publish posts without having to log into WordPress admin.

Why I needed a desktop blog editor?

I was frustrated with the TinyMCE editor used in the WordPress admin. I was always having issues with it adding or removing things like paragraph tags.

I wanted something that let me focus more on my post writing. Writing in the WordPress admin can get distracting and cramped with all the other things in there.

I needed something that didn’t require an internet connection to work. I like to write at my local Borders and since they don’t have free internet I could only do my post writing in Word, which is not an ideal solution.

These are just my reasons there are plenty other reasons for using a blog editors.

20 Benefits of Using a Offline Blog Editor

Why choose Windows Live Writer?

I read a number of posts all comparing the pro and cons of various blog editors.

Most of the highly rated ones are for Macs only and since I am not a Mac owner I am stuck with a Windows options only.

Of the Windows only options, Live Writer received good reviews so it was my first choice. I might sample some of the others like BlogDesk if I find that Live Writer is unsuitable in the future.

Here’s some of the posts I used to help my decision making:

15 Desktop Blogging Tools Reviewed

10 Desktop Blog Editors

Desktop Blog Editor Comparison

15 Alternative to your Boring Blog Editor

20 Useful Desktop Blog Editors

What are my first impressions?

So far, very good.

It’s nice to have something that feels like a word processor but that is tailored towards blogging. I can easily link to my older posts with the built in functionality. Adding pictures is also easy since there is no uploading required.

Live Writer has some built in photo editing options that aren’t half bad. Images can be cropped, watermarked and given borders. Some images in the post I’m writing will have subtle drop shadows that don’t smack of tackiness.

It’s simple to give posts categories, tags and publish dates. If you have multiple blogs that you maintain, switching between them is effortless.

I do have some concerns related to images and their alignment.  I don’t know how to get the images I use in Live Writer will coincide with the custom image alignment styles I’ve made in my WordPress theme. We’ll see what happens after I get a few posts up.

Also something that I’m concerned about is on image sizes. If I set one to a certain size even though the original is some gargantuan 3000×2000 px size does only my set size get uploaded to to my blog. I don’t want to have readers downloading twelve 2meg pictures. Sucks for them and sucks for my bandwidth.

I haven’t tried any of the more advanced options that seem easy to add in Live Writer like adding video or maps, so as I get more advanced in my blogging my opinion of Live Writer might change depending on how well it does with those things.

Apart from those few concerns, that I shouldn’t be too hard to find workarounds for, Windows Live Writer is looking good and will be my preferred choice for blogging. For now.

If you are Windows bound in your blogging adventures, you should give Windows Live Writer a whirl also.

The Dilemma

Throughout my daily browsing habits I tag websites or posts if they either talk about or exemplify a certain design style. Using grunge web design as an example, if a post is about grunge or if the website itself is designed in grunge, then I tag it with ‘grunge’. I’ve been doing that for a few months and with an increasingly number of designs trying to go grunge I thought that it would make a good post to simply look through my delicious tags for grunge and smack them into a post.

So I took the time and got all the links into a post and organized them into meaningful groups. After doing so I couldn’t help but feel wrong about it. Something about not actually producing any of the content listed in the post bothered me. It bothered me because I felt like I was stealing others work, because I merely grouped a broad topic together, because others spent their time creating something and if my post goes viral or something similar, I’m benefiting from their work.

The Analysis

My sentiments about the blogosphere and what good blogging should be are becoming more and more aligned with practically everything Merlin Mann says. One thing in particular that he says that challenges me is that you should write every post with a person in mind. Imagine that that post is being written to them.

With that in mind, I expounded and analyzed my 39 Grunge Resources post.

Who is the post for?

I would say it’s mainly for me. Although I could find all these resources in my delicious tags, the post goes a bit further with the organization and makes it very easy to find what I want.  The post is also for the community. Grunge is getting very popular and this post can help people trying to gather resources on how to accomplish that design style.

Why am I writing the post?

Basically for links. The post falls right inline with what the definition of what linkbait is.

What do I plan to do with the post?

After it launches, I plan to submit it to a few of the social media sites that focus on design.

What do I want from  the post?

Ideally I’d like to make the front page of a few social media sites and get a few hundred hits. I want people to bookmark it and come back to it months later when they are getting around to designing something in grunge.

The Crux

When getting my Computer Science degree and starting off with CS101 I learned that the defining point between data or information is this: organization.

Although I haven’t produced any real content for the post, it’s the organization of the post that makes it viable.

That organization is also very vital to making the post’s content usable to others, which also helps validate some of my concerns.

The Conclusion

Although I think that people who publish aggregation posts aren’t wrong for doing it, for me, it just doesn’t feel right. I like knowing that when you read my blog you are getting to know me better through my writing. That you are reading my ideas and hearing my opinions. I can’t get that same feeling through the regurgitation of others content.

Apart from the grunge design posts mentioned, I don’t think I will be doing anymore pure aggregation style posts. That being said, I do hope you enjoy them and get some use from them. One is out now and the other should be less than a week away.

What’s your opinion on aggregation posts?

It’s a simple quantity vs. quality dilemma. It’s easy to focus on the quantity because it’s easily measured. You can see if your RSS subscribers are going up or down, but you can’t quantify whether your visitors like your blog more this week than last week.

Let’s try to improve the quality of our fans. A good way to do is to analyze different types of fans and give some suggestions on making them better.

This post is going to focus on leveraging fans for blogging, aka readers, but most of the information can also apply to other areas.

The New Convert

The new convert is exactly that, someone who has just discovered your blog. New converts aren’t familiar with your blog so they will spend some time trying to get to know you and what your blog is all about. They are enthusiastic to learn more from you, but won’t blindly follow your advice either.

Why you need them
Without new fans you’re just preaching to the choir. The more fans you get the more popular you become. Getting more readers is motivation for bloggers.

How to make them better fans
New fans have started reading your blog because they liked something, so make it easy for your new visitors to find similar things. If you keep giving them reasons to like your blog, they will have more reason to keep up with it. New fans can also quickly quit reading your blog if you don’t give them a reason to continue following. New converts are trying to learn more about your blog, make finding that information easy. If someone asked a new convert of yours what is your blog about and why do they read it, could they answer?

Bandwagon Fan

These fans are far too typical. They were indifferent at first, but once they realized that everyone else is a fan they quickly begin reciting the fanboy’s national anthem. They have no depth and as soon as they think no one else is a fan they too will drop off.

Why you need them
Although these definitely aren’t the most desired type of fans, typically they don’t do much harm either. They usually become fans through some form of hype or felt obligation,  but when they cease being fans it isn’t because they now avidly hate you. They have simply moved on to the next thing.

How to make them better fans
Prove to them that you’re more than just hype. Find some way to connect with them and show them why you became so popular to begin with.

Casual Fan

These fans have stuck around for a while. They aren’t zealots for your blog, but they will mention it if the situation is appropriate.

Why you need them
These fans make up your core audience. They recommend you to other’s when appropriate and they are willing to put up with your foibles, to a degree. They contribute to your blog occasionally and can help you improve.

How to make them better fans
Since this group is the majority of your readership, making them better fans will show the most results. Ask them what they would like to see on your blog and do your best to deliver tailored articles styled to their liking. Find methods to get them to contribute more the your blog such as asking questions or holding competitions. Spend time trying to make them feel more apart of the blog and have a sense of vested interest in its development.

Cynical Fan

Fans like these exist for one reason, to see you fail. I call them fans because they have very fan-like tendencies. They keep up your work, tell others about you and even communicate with you, but it all has a negative spin. They keep reading because they want to see you fail, and to tell others of how bad you are. Oh and they don’t mind telling you how bad you are either.

Why you need them
Although it might seem dumb to need one, sometimes critics are good. They help keep you in line. If you know someone is gunning for you to fail, you work that much harder not to. It’s goes with the cliché story of the kid whose told he can’t do something so he works harder at it just to prove them wrong. The cynical fans help ensure that everything you do is done to the best of your ability.

How to make them better fans
Converting this type of fan to being a true fan is definitely challenging, but can be very rewarding. It’s one thing to convince someone who already likes you to like you more, but to change someone’s perception completely from disliking you to liking you is quite an accomplishment. The best way to tackle this person is hold your stance with confidence. Believe and defend what you are saying. However if the cynic does calls you out on something that is true, don’t try to spin the situation, be open and honest. Sometimes in this digital world where all we see is text from each other, it’s easy to forget the human aspect of blogging. Showing yourself as human, someone capable of error, and being humble enough to admit your faults, make proper corrections and continue doing what you believe in can convert even the most cynical fan. Also do your best to address this fan in a professional manner. They typically come off in a very rude manner, but try to respond to them in a respectful manner.

Extreme Fan

These people are in love with you, almost to a scary point. They go out of their way to let you know that they are a fans. They spend a good deal of time reading and interacting with your blog. They love talking with you and they try getting others to read your blog.

Why you need them
It’s always nice to have someone who likes you just for who you are. If you screw up, they tell you it’s okay. They help make your worst days manageable, and your best days better. They are great because they promote your blog without you having to beg them. They submit your articles to social media, tell others about how great you are and are most likely to take some action based off what you say.

How to make them better fans
Although these fans are great to have, sometimes they can get out of hand. They are the most interactive and so when you aren’t able to communicate back they are most likely to get hurt. The also can also can get too invested in your work and speak incorrectly on your behalf. Be clear on where you stand on certain issues and on how best to communicate with you. Also if you do something to turn these types of fans against you, they can turn into critics, so be careful.

If you have any other types of fans you’ve encountered or any strategies to add to the ones listed above, please feel free to put them in the comments.

1. Backup what you are discussing.

The number one problem with that post was that throughout it I discuss things that happen to me as a designer, yet I have no proof of being such. I have no portfolio or even a custom blog theme. To my credit, I only claim to talk about things happening to me as I am ‘becoming’ a designer, but don’t be naive enough to think that the Digg masses will be understanding. Not only would I have taken less heat if I had my custom theme finished instead of in my sketchpad, but I also would have gotten good exposure.

The lack of design credibility was also a distracting element for the visitors. Instead of relating to what the post discussed, people become fixated on my lack of design proof, therefore making the post’s message less effective.
Moral of Story: If you can talk the talk, be prepared to walk the walk. If you even hint as to being something, be prepared to prove it.

2. Explain yourself better.

When I wrote that post I truly only expected my 20 or so normal readers to read it and maybe 1000 if it made the front page of a small niche social media site like design float or design bump. Because I expected only those people who were familiar with my story to read it, I didn’t preface the post to explain that I am still very much in the learning stage of becoming a designer. Doing this might have saved me some negativity. Also humor and sarcasm might want to become more obvious. It cracked me up how many people took some of my statements that were purely humorous as though they were my exact intentions.
Moral of the Story: Not everyone is on the same page, throw them a bone and help them out.

3. Pretend everyone is a first time reader.

Along the same lines of number 2, I would have better clarified myself if I had expected so many new visitors. This is something I am going to work more on as my blogging continues. After my post is finished, I am going to reread it as if this were my first time visiting the blog and that this post is the only writing that someone will base their entire opinion of me. This step is increasingly important for a personal-branded blog such as this one. That one popular post brands my character and my skills. If the post was written in a haughty manner, then the readers perception of me is the same.
Moral of the Story: You only get one first impression, don’t screw it up.

4. Take steps to mitigate the bandwidth boost.

As most of you are familiar, there is something known as the Digg Effect. It is essentially the huge spike in traffic a site receives the instant it reaches the front page of Digg. If your site crashes under the boost in traffic it can really hurt your first impression. Thousands of visitors that want to read your content will never make it. Others will become frustrated by the slow loading time of your site and cause a negative reaction before they even get to your content. I too was worried about what might happen if I ever was dugg and I’m glad to say my host held up well. There are a few things that you can do to help the bandwidth though.
If you are on WordPress, install the WP super cache plugin. This plugin can help save some bandwidth by not having to run the PHP scripts and database queries on every visit. Also scale down some of your posts pictures. If your post’s entry width is only 500px wide, resize and save the picture as 500px. It might only be a few megabytes of difference but it adds up over thousands of visits.
Moral of the Story: Trim the fat from your posts.

5. Not everyone will love you.

Digg users are notorious for being very harsh to the post authors. They often take things completely out of context or focus on elements unrelated to the idea you are trying to relay. Don’t let it get to you. Be confident in why you wrote the post and why you will continue blogging. If some hate-filled teenagers’ comments are enough to get you depressed then maybe you shouldn’t have written the post in the first place. Granted they will say things that are true, but often say it in such a hateful way that it defeats the comment’s purpose to be constructive criticism. Try to find ways to improve based off of the negative comments.
Moral of the Story: When life throws pies atcha, you make yourself a tall, cool glass of piemonade. -Strongbad

So thats what I learned. I hope to be better prepared if another one of my posts makes it to the coveted Digg front page. And I hope these steps can help you when your post reaches the front page also. Social media truly is a viral atmosphere. All it takes is a couple popular people to like your post before it displayed to tens of thousands. Don’t get caught unprepared.

Thank you to all who read, dugg and commented on the post. It was a very cool experience and something I can check off my blogging goals list.

If you have any of your own lessons you’ve learned from receiving the social media bomb, I’d love to hear them.

If for some strange reason you read this blog and not problogger, here’s the poem.

So you want to be a writer

Charles Bukowski

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don’t do it.
if it’s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don’t do it.
if you’re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.

if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.

if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you’re not ready.

don’t be like so many writers,
don’t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don’t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don’t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don’t add to that.
don’t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don’t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don’t do it.

when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.

there is no other way.

and there never was.

1. Your Homepage is Your Magazine Cover

The goal of every magazine is to get me to purchase it, but the problem is that it only has a few seconds to entice me as my eyes glance around the magazine stand. Your homepage should strive for the same goals. Show the best of yourself in a few seconds. If it doesn’t look nice or if I can’t see what I’ll find inside, I’ll bounce right out.

Helpful Reading:

First Impressions Matter

2. Navigation Shouldn’t Aggravate the Reader

One of the most frustrating types of magazines are the ones that have intriguing article titles on the front but you must search through 30 pages of ads just to find the table of contents. I don’t even bother looking for the articles in those types of magazines anymore. Your blog’s navigation should be effortless. Different readers might want to search your blog in different manners also. Plan accordingly.

Some navigation ideas: most recent posts, most popular posts, posts by category, posts by date, and search bar.

Helpful Reading:

Book: Don’t Make Me Think

3. Work Your Tagline

You aren’t "Just Another Wordpress Blog" and your tagline should tell your readers that. Your tagline should be brief and tell what your blog offers.

Notice how a few of these magazines use their taglines.

• Maximum PC, "Minimum BS" – The magazine caters to a more advanced reader. It strengthens that with its tagline, and it gives some personality.
• Consumer Reports, "Expert, Independent, Nonprofit" – It says the quality of content and that it is from an unbiased source. Very effective use of 3 words.
• Computer Music, "Make Music Now" – Portrays an idea that the articles can be used immediately to accomplish what is desired.
• Open Office.org, "Excellent Alternative to Microsoft Office" – Explain what it is by juxtaposing itself to a known competitor and offers itself as an excellent alternative.

Helpful Reading:

How to Create Rock-Solid Taglines

The Importance of Blog Taglines

4. Talk to Your Target Audience

While perusing, I noticed these phrases on a few of the covers, "Jargon Free" or "Plain English". These magazines knew they were catering to beginners. They also know that beginners biggest fear is not being able to understand what is being written. Get a grasp for who is reading your blog. If they are beginners, explain things in more detail. If they are more advanced, don’t waste time on the basics.

I like how Blogsolid divides their blog into 3 different categories that cater to different types of readers.

5. Practice What You Preach

As I was looking over the magazine rack I noticed how beautiful the cover was for Advanced Photoshop. This makes sense. If the cover can’t convey that they have design skill then why should I read content that wants to teach design skill. To borrow the old saying, "You can talk to the talk, but can you walk the walk." Make sure the things you are telling your readers are things you actually do yourself.

6. Layout and Design Must Match Your Goals

Different blogs have different goals. Some want to get readers, some want money from ads, some want to sell a product, some want to promote an idea.

Magazines also have different goals. The ones that want you to subscribe have loose mail in forms throughout the magazine. Some offer exclusive reading materials for subscribing to the magazine. They show the advantages of subscribing. Other magazine attempt to be one-stop resources around a topic such as DVD burning. They don’t try to get continue readership, they try to get as many people to buy the magazine by attempting to answer all the questions people might have when it comes to burning a DVD.

Too many blogs look similar to each other even though they might have different goals. Take a little time to see if your blog’s design is matching what you want to get out of your blog.

Helpful Reading:

Make Sure Your Blog Design Communicates Your Voice

Final Thoughts

Although magazines and blogs have different mediums, much can still be learned from the long-established print industry that can be used in blogging. Take a look around your local bookstore and see if you can find any patterns that could help your blogging. I noticed that the day after I drafted this post Copyblogger posted Blogging Lessons from Newspapers.

Wrong. Each blog can have different goals and can cater to a different audience. Each blog needs to focus on different things to be optimized for success. Let’s look at the two broadest types of blogs and explain their differences.

Flagship Blog

Flagship blogs attempt to be a go-to resource on a broad topic. They attempt to educate readers on its topic and do not use very technical terms related to their topic in order to reach the widest audience.

• Traffic – Loyal readers comprise a majority of this types readership. Much traffic can also be generated from social networking or other blogs by the use of linkbait. Search Engine traffic can be had, but to a lesser degree.
• Monetization - Visitors have developed Ad Blindness. When they view a page that has some common form of advertising on it, such as Adsense, their minds blank it out. Popular solutions are to have 125×125 ads and sell monthly space on them. Another popular method is to charge for reviews. A popular service to do this is Review Me. Affiliate programs are also good monetization solutions.
• Content Goals – Posts should be frequent and should cater to the types of content that was used to get your loyal readership in the first place. Flagship blogs benefit by leveraging a blogging voice. Longer posts can also be used effectively.
• Subscription Method – Most people that are frequent visitors to flagship blogs are blog-savvy, meaning they know what RSS is and the will probably read your blog through their RSS reader.
• Requirements – To get the type of readership a flagship blog desires, the blog will have to promote itself among the blogosphere. This can be done through networking with other bloggers or generating good linkbait. Quality content is a must. Post types should also vary to ensure that the writing doesn’t get stale. Some ideas for alternate types of posts can be list-type, satirical, open-letter, photo-centric, humorous or perhaps an interview.
• Design – A typical flagship blog will consist of the following: Advertiser spots, RSS button somewhere near the top right of the site, Categories, Popular Posts, Recent Posts and some form of Search. Extra work should be put into making sure the color and layout of the blog are done well so as to making reading your blog effortless and unobtrusive.

Niche Blog

Niche blogs are focused on a specific area of a broader topic. They are experts in their topic and, depending on how narrow of a topic they choose, might be the only source available for their topic’s information

• Traffic – A large majority of traffic will come from search engines. Depending on how large of a niche has been chosen will determine if other traffic will come from related niche blogs and how effective linkbaiting will work.
• Monetization – It’s assumed that niche blog readership isn’t as influenced by ad blindness as flagship blogs are. PPC methodologies such as Adsense should work well. Another strategy is to do product reviews with links to purchase a product that will give you a portion of the sale, such as Amazon Associates.
• Content Goals – Many readers will be bounce readers, meaning visitors exit right after viewing the post. So a large emphasis should be placed on trying to convince people to visit other areas of your blog that they might find useful. That being said, most people found your blog because they asked a question to a search engine and your blog showed up, so make sure you answer their question.
• Subscription Method – RSS might be something that these readers do not understand. More emphasis should be put on letting visitors subscribe to your blog via e-mail.
• Requirements – Niche blogs need good SEO to succeed. Niche bloggers should also follow trends in their niche and try to write timely posts about breaking news in the niche.
• Design – A typical niche blog should consist of the following: Subscribe by email area, PPC areas, Related Posts, Popular Posts and an obvious search bar. The design focus should be on getting people to stay longer, so the contrast of certain blog elements should be experimented with to determine what types of content the readers most enjoy.

I know my love isn’t seen here too much, but I am just enamored with entire realm of the blogosphere. I have been reading any free eBook I can get about it. Adding more and more feeds to my Google Reader. Making a custom WordPress Theme for a niche blog I started. And starting preliminary work on another blog I hope to become my flagship blog. I’ve also gotten two of my friends to start their own blogging based off my zeal for it.

Whenever I am chatting with someone about a possible a website for them, the first thing I think about is if the site could leverage the power of the blog. It seems as though I want every site to be a blog, but the fact is that a blog isn’t for everyone. Although I believe that some elements of a blog could be properly used in almost any website format, it must be approached carefully.

For example, my mother is a member in a group of office assistances called IAAP. She asked if I could do a website for her chapter. So my first idea was to give them a blog. It seemed like a good idea. Various members could write posts about tips to being a better administrative assistant. I assumed they might post other things like inspirational stories. They have monthly meetings so I also thought they would put updates about the meetings on there also. I also gave the blog a flickr stream so they can put pictures in their flickr account and have them show up on the site. I was positive this was just what they needed and wanted, but it just hasn’t been the case. Although I still stand by my decision that a blog is a workable solution for their website, I didn’t properly educate them about the power of blogging and motivate them to do it.

Just because a blog can be used, it doesn’t mean it should. Make sure the people who are expected to manage the blog are educated and motivated to do such. Otherwise your site is just another WordPress theme.

What is a Gravatar?

A gravatar is a globally recognized avatar. Quite simple it is an 80×80 image associated with an e-mail address. It’s primarily used in blog comments to associate the commenter with a picture of him/herself whenever they comment. For example when I write a comment that uses gravatars, my jeremyadamdavis@gmail.com e-mail address has this gravatar associated with it.

Nothing fancy and since I’m usually the one behind the camera its about the only one I could find quickly that wasn’t posed.

So that’s about it. When I post a comment and if the blog uses gravatars this image is shown next to my comments. If you want one your own, do so at the Gravatar main site.

So what’s not to like about Gravatars?

I believe that the idea of the gravatar is very easy to like, but there are also some good points about not using them.

Gravatars are distractions

A few people mentioned this point. Personally, I have never felt "distracted" by them, but to each his own. I know David mentioned that one reason he removed them is so that his responses to comments can be more easily found since he is the only commenter that has an image next to his comments. I like that idea, but the same effect could be gained by having a different comment background color for the blog author’s responses.

Gravatars slow down sites that get numerous comments

This too seems like a valid point. David mentioned that articles with 30 or more comments really seemed to take a hit from the gravatars. I know FreelanceSwitch uses gravatars and I haven’t felt much of a delay on some of their 100+ comments posts, but I am on a much wider bandwidth than most.

Gravatars could be a barrier to the comment’s influence

Basically, your appearance might make people value your comment less. Maybe you read a well-written comment that mentions tips about how to save money or balancing your budget and the commenter’s gravatar depicts a disheveled 14 year-old kid. I don’t know about you but I’m far less-inclined to take financial advise from someone whose biggest bill is a movie ticket and the occasional milk shake splurge.

Why you should be using Gravatars

Although there are those negative reasons to use gravatars, I am still keen on the idea and think that they should be used. Here’s a few reasons why.

Gravatars help to brand yourself

Ironically the post that made me consider the benefits of having a gravatar was this Avatar Branding post by … David Airey. This is something that I believe will be taken more seriously as blogging is transferring from a hobby to a business tool. I’ve been reading/listening/watching plenty of Darren Rowse material lately, and he often mentions the leveraging of blogging as a brand.

By having a standard image associated with all your online activity people can more easily track you. That being said, people can more easily track you. So be careful what you say or do. I know that personally I try to make sure that my web presence is always something that I won’t regret later. I don’t want a future client/employer to do a Google search on my name and find some off-color comment that could hurt my chances of working with them.

I could digress more about branding, but basically as people see your gravatar throughout the blogs, your brand will increase. I know I can think of a couple people’s gravatars off the top of my head and they have a greater mindshare to me than someone without a gravatar.

Gravatars give a personal feel to the comment

Seeing a picture of the commenter adds a little bit of humanity to our text-based blogging environment. I typically don’t read commenter’s names so when I see a picture of a middle-aged female next to a comment I can associate a gender and get a better perspective about the comment. If your blog consists of multiple people or is based on a theme instead of personal such as PutThingsOff, then use the blog’s logo. Again going back to the branding aspect.

Gravatars promote the community atmosphere

In this socially networked age, people are giving out more personal information than ever before. Ten years ago the idea of gravatars wouldn’t have worked. People were afraid that if their name or picture was put out on that Internet thing that their soul would also be considered forfeit. A blog with gravatars has a more comfortable, laid-back feel to it than one without.

Final Comments

I feel like much more could be said about the pros and cons of gravatars, but I don’t know how much more you could take having me drone on about an 80 pixel square image.

Can gravatars work for you?

Whether you are considering this question as someone debating about adding them to your own blog or someone who doesn’t have a gravatar yet, I believe the simple and right answer is it that it all depends. I personally believe that most of the negatives mentioned could be solved through better design and having more thought put into it. But I wouldn’t dare to make a blanket statement that "Thou Shalt Use Gravatars". All that I ask is to consider it. Try to find a better way to use them. Weigh your own pros/cons about the situation and decide.

I’m sure there are many more positives and negatives about this that I’ve missed, so I’d love to hear your thoughts about the use of gravatars.