Update:  Erik Mazzone at Law Practice Matters touches on some of these points in his excellent post “3 Ways to Create an Inexpensive and Professional-Looking Website.” Highly recommended reading.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the sinister suggestion by certain individuals in the legal marketing biz that new solos have to spend massive amounts of cash in order to build themselves a “proper” blog. Close behind it: the implication that every solo out there can do just fine with a freebie blog on a second-tier domain.

Both of these implications rest on false assumptions and commercial self-interest. (My position rests on commercial self-interest, too, of course — the difference is that I tell you that right up front. I also believe my position is supported by anecdotal experience, my own included.)

The false assumptions of both positions are, interestingly, the same: that design is either all-important or not at all; and that the blogger him- or herself is secondary to the blog. This is exactly backwards.

Blogs Are Not About Pretty

You may want to sit down for this one: you are not going to convert a web user from a casual browser to a paying client based on the way your blog looks. Period.

Does this mean design is unimportant? Well – not unimportant, but not nearly important enough to justify insane expenditures when there are so many other workable options around for far less bank, and where the unique needs of solo practitioners dictate conscious spending that’s properly prioritized.

Design — the aesthetics of a site — is crucial only in one respect: the usability of your site. What does usability mean? In this context, I’m referring mainly to factors that relate to the user’s comfort and ease of use. Is there sufficient white space to make organization flow appropriately, and not in a manic storm of tiny type? Is the color scheme offensive to the eyes? Is the font itself readable?

In other words, you can drive people away with a bad design. But you’re not going to convert them on the basis of a good one — not even a great one, unless (interestingly) the services your blog is attempting to market are web design services. There, your clients (understandably) want to see the awesome. They want to see you bring the pretty, even if they don’t really need it themselves.

(It might also be true for other artistic endeavors; frankly, I haven’t had enough experience working with creatives on marketing their services to know yet. I’ll let you know.)

But for the paper-pushing brain workers among us — the lawyers, the accountants, the business consultants — pretty, intriguing, artistic designs won’t convert your readers into clients. They probably won’t drive them away, mind you — which is why I’ve always said, if you can afford a gorgeous design and you want one, go for it, by all means, and with my full blessings (and not a little bit of envy).

The Real Reason You Don’t Need That Pricey Blog Design: It’s Not Rocket Science

Providers of these pricey designs may tell you that cutting corners on your blog design will show — that somehow your targeted readers will be able to look at your design and decide based on that design that you’re a cheap SOB and they therefore don’t trust you to handle their divorce, or do their taxes, or whatever.

Well, if they can tell, they’re the kinds of clients who would hire a lawyer only if she has a gorgeously appointed office with high-end furniture and art on the walls, and then complain about her exorbitant bills. If that’s the kind of client you’re going after — again, help yourself to the most expensive design you can find.  (Although, I’d argue that there are themes freely available for WordPress — this one, for example — that with some minimal tweaking would probably work just fine. But, I don’t work for people like that, so I can’t really tell you with any authority that this is so. One of the perks of being my own boss: I get to pick my clients.)

But more likely, such talk is wishful thinking on the parts of those whose livelihoods depend on those multi-thousand dollar designs. Again, perfectly understandable – but not realistic for solos on shoestring budgets, and completely unnecessary.

Why Thesis Changed All This

Recently, I’ve begun using a developer’s license for a WordPress design titled Thesis. It’s a fairly simple looking thing, straight out of the box, but for many, many reasons (too many to detail here), it’s so much more than how it looks. It’s an SEO dream, and highly customizable. The basic layout is clear, elegant, and highly readable.

How is it possible for a blog consultant (and burgeoning designer — yes, I’ve begun diving into self-study of advanced coding and design techniques for web projects) to recommend one single theme for multiple client projects? It’s that good. It’s that easily individualized.

And? It’s the content that’s important. Not just the posts themselves, but also the information you have all over your blog or site. It’s your About page. It’s your photo. It’s your static information about your practice area, and it’s every single word anywhere on your site. All of it is content, and it all matters, much more than the pretty stuff.

This is by way of introducing our upcoming (and unfortunately delayed) Build a Better Business Blog in a Month, shamelessly borrowed from Darren Rowse’s Problogger. We’ll kick off on June 1st officially, but for the remainder of this month, I’ll be posting various “theory” articles about blogs and business marketing, as well as some practical primer-type posts aimed at catching new bloggers up to speed on the basics.

Hope you’ll stick around because this? Is what I love, and what I most love to help solos accomplish in their business lives.