I’m back this Friday participating in another Let’s Talk Bookish post, as always hosted by the amazing Rukky @ Eternity Books and awesome Dani @ The Literary Lion! For this week, our topic is: Maintaining a Blog Aesthetic, recommended by Hayley @ On This I Ponder.
Let’s discuss!
Maintaining a Blog Aesthetic
I really enjoyed some of the questions that Rukky posed to help prompt this discussion. Questions like: How much time do you spend on making your blog look nice? Is it more about making it functional? Did it take a long time to set it up? Are you still changing it around? Do you ever feel like your blog design is not properly appreciated (for example, are most people reading your posts via the Reader and not actually visiting your blog)? What are the best tools you use to customize the look of your blog?
So, let’s dive a bit into maintaining a blog aesthetic by looking at: how it came to be, my regular maintenance and if I think it’s worth it.
How it Came To Be
So, you may know, I started this blog almost ten years ago (!!). Originally, when I started this blog, I had no idea about the wider book blogging community. I had no inclination of how to look at graphics, how to create a brand or even why it was important. It quickly became something I wanted to do, however. Especially as my vision for my blog changed and grew.
What started as a blog that was like an online journal become, in some ways, a platform. Not just as I entered book blogging, with reviews and book recommendations. But I also share discussion posts, advocacy, supporting diverse books and creators, detailing and sharing the ups and downs of my publication journey, and more. Knowing all of that, I wanted a look that would support that.
Yet, I also knew my limits. I’m not a graphic designer (no matter how much Canva’s handy tools makes me feel like one). Luckily, I’d heard about the amazing skills of Kat @ The Bibliophile, who then, blogged at Novels and Waffles. I hired her to make my graphics, settling on a brand that felt truly like me. It incorporates:
- My nerdiness
- Favorite colors, red and black
- The desire to reflect my passion for fantasy
Then, I went self-hosted, to give myself more options and worked with Kat again. The rest…well, you can see it now.
Maintenance
In terms of the maintenance of maintaining a blog aesthetic, it’s been fairly simple for me. It’s definitely more work than not having one. Before I decided to incorporate a blog aesthetic, I simply wrote a post, edited it, posted it and hello, done. Having one now, I need to do things like:
- Making feature images
- Utilizing themed dividers
- Creating promotional materials with the same font and color scheme of my brand
Yet, despite having these extra elements, it doesn’t take a ridiculous amount of time. I use Canva, like I mentioned. After uploading the templates for each of my feature images, I simply use the template and fill out the details for the post. My divider images are saved within WordPress, so those are easy to insert.
I do admit that I could do a better job checking my main page and updating it. I also have a huge backlog project of now updating older posts to match my current aesthetic I’ve still yet to start. But, in day to day work, it doesn’t feel like huge maintenance to keep up with.
Is Maintaining a Blog Aesthetic Worth It?
Yes. Oh, 100% yes. The feeling of opening my blog and falling in love with it every single time is worth every frustrated cry I had (and it was more than one) moving to self-hosting. The giddiness and pure joy I felt when I first looked at Kat’s artwork she sent over for me to use is still with me. Having others tell me they recognize my branding is unparalleled.
I love this space. It feels like mine and I really love how that feels.
In Sum
I’m super curious to see what other perspectives and thoughts there are. What do you think? Do you have a blog aesthetic? Do you find maintaining it challenging or rewarding? What do you wish you knew or what would you change? Or is it too much to consider? Let me know in the comments below.
Thank you so much for reading!
![I'm so excited to stop by today and share a client highlight. This time, celebrating the publication of Veo Corva's novel, THE BEAUTIFUL DECAY, out today!
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I recently started making custom featured images on my blog posts (as opposed to before, when I’d just use an image from inside the post itself), and boy is it time-consuming. There are 80+ posts to make featured images and also write excerpts for, but it’s all so worth it when I scroll my blog archives!
Every once in a while, I also nitpick on stuff like the color of a heading or the thickness of a separator line. It’s the little things that keep me occupied with my precious blog baby. 😁
Oh yes, that is definitely the main motivator for me to update almost a decades worth of old posts, is being able to see how good they all look when it’s uniform. But it’s just so many posts… *facepalm*
And I feel you with that! I hope you’re able to continue to refine and tune your space to make it feel like home!
I love your blog aesthetic.
Thank you, Jason!!! 😭🥰
I click my header image. I don’t use much of graphic except that as I’m not good at it. But I love to see good aesthetics when I visit blogs and I hope mine some day look good.
Trust me, I’m not good at graphics either (Canva is magic) and I’m constantly hoping my blog will elevate to the status of others that I adore. But, as long as you love your space, that’s the most important thing!
It took me a long time to finally land on the aesthetic I have now for my blog and I don’t think I’d ever want to change it. I like how clean my blog looks but it also shows that I love horror and spooky things while being cute at the same time 😀
Louise, your aesthetic is SO COOL. I love how it blends the clean simplicity with very clear indicators of what you enjoy. Your header, especially, I adore. 😍
blog aesthetics definitely play a big role in first impressions when i blog hop, as shallow as that may sound, but it’s 100% worth the upkeep! there are time when headers feel so tedious to make but afterwards there’s also a sense of pride when seeing everything match nicely 😅 i have yet to tackle my entire backlog of posts before i switched to my current aesthetic but i do want to get to it one day – it makes going back and reading my past posts a little less jarring on the eyes 😂
Oh gosh yes, this is completely valid for me, too (I can’t believe I forgot to mention that in this post, because it truly is something that I look at and take notice when I’m blog hopping).
One day, may we conquer our backlogs!
I do think that having a blog aesthetic is important. However, I didn’t try too hard when I was on WordPress free and personal plans because there was not enough freedom and it frustrated me too much to truly try (although some bloggers have done wonders with the free WP blogs). But when I went self-hosted, the amount of freedom and options made me want to get my branding and aesthetic down well. I spent quite a while planning before settling on a theme and layout. I spent quite some time with CSS to get my blog looking just how I wanted it. And since I make my own illustrations, it much easier to vary my branding for every post and still maintain the aesthetic.
It is highly rewarding because most of the response and feedback I get is that people love my blog when they first land on it and it prompts them to stay longer, which is exactly what I want. It involves a lot of work but it is so worth it. I sometimes pull up my blog at random times just to admire it and remind myself that I did it haha.
Oh yes, I was in the exact same boat! I didn’t do too much work when I did the WordPress free plan, though you’re right that I now know I could have done a lot more! And yes, with your own amazing illustrations, you definitely have one of the best aesthetics, imo.
Right? I definitely love that rewarding feeling!!