Is Your Craft Blog Cluttered?

Most of us crafters are in a constant battle to keep our craft room (or kitchen table) clean. And for all but a few of us that elusive word called "organized" is just a dream. A clean, organized craft room makes it easier to find what we need and work more efficiently.

The same holds true for website layouts and blogs. Now if your blog is personal, rather than professional, then of course, please yourself. But for those of you with a professional craft blog or website, you may want to take a look at it with a critical eye.

Can viewers clearly see what your site is about?

Can they easily find the information they need?

Is it cluttered with unnecessary widgets?

If you have ads, are they relevant and useful to your readers?

On website development forums, I frequently see new webmasters talk about "filling up the whitespace" and "not wasting valuable web estate." Successful webmasters, however, emphasize the importance of white space or blank space on a website.

Their point is that you don't want to distract your readers from your ultimate goal. If you are trying to sell your crafts, make sure they are the center of attention and not lost is a sea of gadgets and gizmos.

If you don't believe me, take a look at Google's homepage. It's one of the simplest webpages (and most successful) I've ever seen. That might be a little bare in my opinion, but you can see that it isn't necessary to fill your site up for it to be successful.

A good rule of thumb, before you add anything to your site, is to ask yourself: Is this going to benefit my readers in some way? This is, however, just a guideline, and only you can judge what is appropriate for the type of web site you have. It is your site, so have fun.

The picture above is a Bag-a-lope that I made using a tutorial at Allison's site.

Stamps - Lovely As A Tree, Itty Bitty Backgrounds

Ink - More Mustard, Certainly Celery, Chocolate Chip

Paper - Le Jardin