Form

Form is more than just what your blog looks like. Then again, it’s nothing more. The right way to think about it is this: The Form determines the appearance, not the other way around. Think about a few things with me for a moment.

Let’s say you’re planning to create a no-nonsense site, the kind that attracts people looking for serious discussions on a topic. You may already be an expert in the field you’re talking about, or maybe you know alot and are going to be an expert – regardless, you want to be taken seriously by your peers.

Thinking about the form of your blog presents some obvious things right up front. You want to be respected, so you know you’re not going to be decorating the thing with lots of widgets or garish ads in the sidebar. That tells you that the number of sidebars is really not an issue for you. Since you have to stay away from anything ‘unprofessional’ looking, that eliminates nearly all of the so-called ‘dark’ themes, even though some of them look simply great.

But what if you’re wanting all these things, but your real personality (which WILL be reflected in your writing style) is somewhat flamboyant and roguish? What if you’re the jokester of your industry or topic? Maybe some of those dark themes we just ruled out would work for you. By the same token, some of the more business looking themes might be ruled out.

Form is already helping you focus on what your blog will look like.

The thing is, try to know before you start what you’re going to do with your site, and let THAT determine which theme you choose. Know that it doesn’t have to be perfect right at the start, that perfection can sometimes be a process, that the important thing now is choosing the right starting place.

Function

The second thing you want to consider is function.

You’ve already got an idea what you want to accomplish with your blog by thinking about the form. Thinking about its function will narrow your choices in the same way.

What are you trying to do here? Is there something more than reading you want your visitors to do? Maybe you’re a photographer and you want to sell your portfolio. Maybe you’re a small business owner and you want to increase your business or your reputation. Maybe you’re a band! Maybe you just want to write what you want to write and that is the goal.

Remember too that writing short posts about your topic allows a certain flexibility, but if you plan to write longer essays, or multipost series of articles, you’ll need to consider that up front. Some blogs simply are not suited to the task at hand, even if the form seems perfect for you.

Questions like these determine the function of the site. What is it supposed to do? If you want to sell your photography, you gotta have some way to display it. Some themes are better suited for this than others. If you want to represent your business, you may need to think ahead to sales and all that entails. Again, some themes are more suited than others to ecommerce.

Purpose

When the form of your blog matches its function, then That blog has purpose. A blog with purpose can be a powerful thing. Be careful with it.