What I've learned in 10 years of blogging

As I said previously, I've been blogging for 10 years. Mostly in Czech and on different blogs. I've learned many things through all these years and now, I'm going to share them with you.

• It's a bad idea to move your blog all the time
  When I was a teenager I was searching for the best blog name that would fit my complicated soul. Never happend, obviously. My personal blog beinblack.blogpost.cz where I post in Czech is the address where I've blogged the longest.
  
• Posting regularly helps
  The most common advice for blogger is to post regularly and quite often. Sure, posting once a month is regular but also pointless. Noone will read your blog, noone will subscribe cause your blog looks abandoned and neglected. Personally, I think posting twice a week is perfect. Of course, posting even more often is great but I wouldn't recommend posting daily because it unfortunately usually means some blog posts are a mess and not as good as they could be. Plus, it can be annoying.
  
• I never went with the flow
  That is probably the main reason why my blogs are never popular. Here in Czech republic we had a huge boom of fashion blogs, after that beauty ones and after that recipe ones and so on. To be honest, I see it as a huge plus because I wouldn't enjoy about those things. But then again, sometimes it's tough to see ugly blogs with horribly made posts that have no information value that have considerably more readers than I do.
  
• I learned Photoshop
  I'm no master in it but it's been a huge contribution to my life. Now I use it every single day and I can't stress enough how useful it's been.
  
• I learned some CSS and HTML basics
  I don't need it daily and I really do not need it to do my job. But if it wasn't for blogging, I would never feel the frustration and tremendous joy that coding has.
  
• Digital marketing, SEO and stuff
  I've read so many articles, posts and websites about the matter. I tought it would help my blogging a bit but at the end I got a job because of it and I use it every day. Great, huh? 

6 the most common mistakes in blog design (and how to correct them)

It doesn't matter what your blog is about and what you say. The most important thing in blogging are readers. That's why you should care for content as much as for appearance. Your post might be the most interesting reading in the world but if the reading is difficult, nobody would know. 
So, what to be aware of?

1. Bad font
It has been said multiple times not to over do it in font department. The ideal number of various fonts is three. Alright, that's true. The more fonts you have, the more you have to work to put it all together nicely.
Be sure to remember all the nice fonts that look hand-written are super but not advised to use as a main font. Use something easy to read, your readers will be grateful.
Also if your language contains more letters than English alphabet, make sure your chosen fonts supports it. Otherwise, it looks flakey and ugly, trust me.
Don't forget about size of the font. Just use your head and your eyes and keep in mind the rule about easy to read-ness,

2. Crazy colors
Again, many articles say that the best color scheme for blog should contain 3 to 5 colors. I agree with that. I'm a lover of minimalism in design and I also know nobody likes to read messy, chaotic, way too colorful blogs.
Remember, the best colors are the soft and pastel ones. Bright colors on screen feel like they're making the reader blind and it's very unpleasant to look at them so most people just don't.
If you're hopeless in this department, see Colour lovers. I'm sure this site will help you. 

3. Too much of everything
Blogs cluttered with ads, affiliate links and pics, colorful design and bright headings just don't look good. It somehow makes me think the blogger is either blind or a twelve year old girl.
My advice? Get rid of it. White space is not that empty as you might think.

4. Chaos
If your blog has too many categories, long, confusing articles and non-existant search, your reader will have a bad time. And probably leaves.
So please - Add a search bar. Reduce your categories or/and create sub-categories. Divide your articles in paragraphs.

5. Don't take pictures with your flatiron
Sure, posts are much more fun woth pictures attached, no doubt. The only problem is to make them pretty.
There are many tutorials on the internet on how to make your own pictures beautiful. But they all have one thing in common - a good camera. As long as you don't have one, you're screwed.
But guess what? It's easy to find the right and very beautiful pictures on the internet - without validating any rights. Just look for no licence photo stocks! Some of them are free and all of them guarantee no problem with copyrights.

6. Beautiful, but unsuitable
Keep in mind that content and design should go together hand in hand. They should cooperate, not fight over reader's attention.
That's why it's very important to choose your design carefully. Make sure it matches your content - if it deals with serious issues and problems, don't make it too cute and sweet. And if it deals with fun DIYs and cute home decor ideas, don't make it too cold and serious.