Who’s excited about the new Blogger template designer? Me! Even though I’m a WordPress gal (you may have seen my tweets on dreaming about WordPress the other day…) I’m excited about what it means in terms of making Blogger blogs look even better (no more seeing the same template on every second blog!)

A great example of how good a Blogger blog can look is Nikki Yazxhi’s beauty blog bellaMUMMA. Nikki comes from a magazine background which means she’s one creative lady, however you can learn SO much about simple, easy ways to make your blog look good. Here are a few examples:

• Nikki consistently chooses strong, well-lit, beautiful pictures that you just want to stare at.
• All the images are tonal – lots of pink, champagne and grey.
• The beauty product shots are super sharp and clear and Nikki arranges them well to fit in with the words. No big, empty, white spaces around them.
• Attention to detail! Nikki does little things such as making the second or third word in her headlines IN CAPITALS. Subeditors everywhere probably want to cringe, but I think it’s become Nikki’s signature style. Whenever I see a new bellaMUMMA post on Facebook, I recognise the blog by the headline straightaway. It’s the same when I see a bellaMUMMA tweet.
• Lots to look at without being OTT. I feel as though my time spent on Nikk’s blog is a good investment, and I leave having learned something new.
• Groovy music. Ordinarily I’d strongly advise against any blog having music play, yet somehow, Nikki makes it work…

Here’s a shot of Nikki’s blog (which coincidentally features another one of my favourite blogs, Table Tonic). Check it out!