Headers are a very important tool in our blogging toolbox. They give our blog character, and advertise the brand of the blogger. As an author, I read a number of authors’ blogs and have found a serious problem!
Copyright flickr user pb3131. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
Writers love their headers!
They make them huge, including pictures of their titles, links to blog loops, and making even the actual header for their blog over-sized!
This is great for showing off your creative side, but it misses the point. Your header is there to let people know where they are. They’re at your blog, reading content from you.
If your headers are blocking the content, it is no longer serving its intended purpose. It went from house numbers to a privacy fence.
Make no mistake, if you’re an up-and-coming author with one of these huge banners, they’re not coming to your blog for you. They want your content. Just like with commenting protections, don’t make it difficult on them!
So shrink the headers. Make a point in a smaller space. Look at some pros and semi-pros. Tentblogger has a great paid theme for WordPress. Problogger and Copyblogger both have good layout and design. Kristen Lamb and Gene Lempp both have simple and straightforward blog headers.
Just remember the general rule of the internet: readers don’t like to scroll. If I have to scroll past your header, that’s one more thing keeping me from your content!
So bring down the privacy fence, show off the content.
Great post. I was hoping you’d blog about this subject. And great timing, too. I wanted some kind of picture in my header, so I found one I took a few years ago and clicked the “shrink to fit” box and added the photo. Well, it’s huge! Looks great, but I really didn’t want it that big. My problem is that I have no idea how to make it smaller. And considering that I’m practically computer illiterate (plugging along to change that), this is just one more challenge, another issue to figure out. I appreciate this post and will shrink that photo down when I learn how to do that.
Wow, that is a huge photo. I’m emailing you, I’ll see what I can do you help you fix that!
Man that is a nice fence. That’s not yours is it?
Nope, not mine, found the picture on flikr. The fence at my house is bull wire, currently.
I love headers, and love the feel they give to the blog. But I totally agree with those that are too big.
Great post, Patrick.
I agree, a header is a great thing, and the best place to personalize a blog! Thanks for commenting.
I love the fence metaphor. A wall does not a friendly blog make…or something like that.
I really like when blogs are user friendly. I don’t want to have to click past a home page to get there. Or hunt around to find the current post. I don’t want to have to scroll through pictures and such unless it’s part of the post.
And I really love it when blogs have the Twitter and FB sharing buttons active. That way, I can share a blog I enjoyed easily.
User friendliness is one of the big keys of making sure a blog has a chance. Look at any website, really, you’re not likely to stick with a website of any stripe that looks like it was planned and built in the nineties, regardless of the information’s relevance!