Customising a blog: an ongoing process

Setting up a blog on the first run is a very time consuming process. For my latest blog (which I'd put off starting for months), it took me roughly 4 hours to create all the elements you see on the page and set up additional accounts (like flickr).

It's very tempting to sit back afterwards and look at all the work and think: "Phew! I'm all done, that's it for design!"

But that would be disastrous.

Designing a blog, or your page should be an ongoing process where you experiment with new widgets and new code to see how it integrates itself into the blog.

There are many advantages to doing this, like:

1. finding a useful widget that makes your page more appealing to your readers
2. upgrading your own knowledge of manipulating and tweaking your blog
3. becoming more knowledgeable about products and services on the internet
4. learn by physically doing instead of dry theory and words

By experimenting on your own blog, the site becomes dynamic and less likely to be stale. But too much change and you'll alienate your audience who may have gotten used to the particular way your site looks. Always have an outlet for feedback and a way your audience to contact you.