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There’s many elements to a blog. There’s the layout, the design, the font color, style and size. Some companies will do one or the other, but there are companies that do it all. Squarespace is one of those companies, and from the looks of it, they handle some big name clients. If you have the money, these guys should be a decent option.

I love free, and I think it’s safe to say you do to. But when it comes to free, you get what you pay for. This particular blog theme feels too much like a cut and paste operation. The content has a clearly marked box and the background is a background. But that’s the problem. There is no connection from the background to the content, so it’s almost as if the background image could be changed to anything else and the theme would still work.

While most people seem to be moving to WordPress blogs, there are still many people out there using blogger to get their message out. And to service that particular demographic is a site called Blogger Themes. Blogger users will find designs with unique colors and designs for free on this site. This one in particular caught my attention. I like the dark background, the colored bubbles and the layout keeps the content from being lost.

1. You can easily tell where the new posts are.
2. I have the Facebook, Twitter and RSS icons clearly visible the second you get to the site.
3. You can see who has left recent comments and where the discussion is at.
4. If you want to check out an earlier post, the archive is easily located.

That’s why I like my blog design.

This is going to be more advantageous for you if you are doing an online store, but if you want to have some fun with your blog, you can use this premium site design. You basically set up your site to look like a classified ads section of an online newspaper. I think it might be fun to have a site where each blog entry has a little classified ad look to it.

I decided to take a look at some free blog designs for WordPress and offer my opinion. The design in question comes from Bryan Veloso. First off, I like the darker background color. With so many pages having a light color, even offline programs like Microsoft Word, it’s nice to see something on the darker side. That being said, the greatest asset also is its greatest liability to me. With a monochrome color, there’s nothing to really demand your attention other than the hue. The layout is simple, which is a good thing. You can clearly see where the new content is and where the archives can be accessed. So, there is both positive and a little negative if you were to choose this particular theme.

If you want a general blog design, you have plenty to choose from that are simple, elegant and many are free. If you’re looking for something more customized to your personality, you’re going to want something requires custom coding and that increases the cost. That’s not always a bad thing. Take this custom blog design. I love the color scheme and the layout of the pictures in relation to the content gives the page a very unique look. I also was surprised to find that I liked the placement of the navigation menu. I usually prefer left navigation, but for this site, it works to have it on top.

For those of us who don’t have money to pay a person to customize our blog theme, one thing you might consider is to peruse the free themes available. Most of the time, you can find a theme that matches your personality and offers a few customizable additions. Just do a search for ‘wordpress themes’ and you’ll be on your way. The free themes from wordpress’ website is probably the best place to start. From there, you’ll find other people who have done some programming and are willing to share their work while others charge a modest fee. The themes with a fee usually have more intricate coding, which will give your blog more visual pizazz. So, you just have to decide whether the extra visual enhancements fir your personality or not.

This happens to be one of those days when I have nothing to offer. No nuggets of insight, no interesting story to share. Just you, me and this page. What do you think? I love the banner; it was custome designed by a friend. It perfectly summarizes what this blog is about. Blogging ideas, tips, strategies and some unassociated nonsense for fun. I enjoy just looking at the design. I’m not narcissistic enough to revel in past posts, but I do like the color scheme and layout. I find it actually soothes me. That cool greenish-blue (or bluish-green) reminds me of the ocean in the tropics, full of coral and other sea creatures. I like my blog.