In response to Why Design Doesn’t Matter In Blogging @ NorthxEast.com.

I would say that design does matter in blogging, though it’s a bit complicated. A site with a…less than spectacular…design can do well. I’ve seen some sites with putrid designs, though the sites using the designs have good content. TamoraPierce.com comes to mind. The site of a successful fantasy author, the design is in my opinion….lacking, though there is good content. The site has a PageRank of 5/10 according to CheckPageRank.com.

As I was saying, it’s complicated. As a commenter on NorthxEast said:

“With the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed, the most important thing is the content. The trick now is trying to figure out how to still get people to come and take a look since it’s been proven that if someone finds something pleasing aesthetically, then it will draw them back.”

That makes perfect sense to me. I’m a huge fan of RSS feeds, they let me check up on sites quickly every day. If you have a cool design (and use summaries in your feed instead of the full text. *Evil Laugter*), you could get your users to come to the main site…where you will proceed to make minuscule amounts of money off every one of their pageviews (*more evil laughter*).

Of course, you need more than a smashing design. If you have something unique or interactive on your site, you’ll draw more repeat visitors. If people want to comment, they’ll have to come to your site (fortunately, no one’s devised a technology to allow commenting without visiting a site). Make it fun to navigate your blog, and people will come back for sure.

In short, design matters and it doesn’t. Just make sure you have a good design anyway. It’s better to have a good design than to have comments about your bad design, isn’t it?