Help with blog design on Blogger

[TheNewson]

I feel like the layout/design of my blog is all over the place! It's feels far too 'busy'.

Especially the massive in-your-face picture (with the slight flash of cleavage) that greets the reader like a huge beacon (or should that be beacons?). I only wanted a little picture here, yet it smacks of "look at me!"

Can anybody who is remotely technical/artistic please take a look and advise on how to make this look nice/unfussy and without a zillion different links/different sections going on?

Many thanks in advance.

Anna

//www.thenews-on.blogspot.com

[Shellies]

Hi Anna, its not bad really - its just that big header picture, you need something much much smaller, most people can't be bothered to scroll down for a start and that picture takes up my whole 24" screen lol

I think you should also put the about me right at the top - people like to see that first I think.

I would probably get rid of the widgets for labels and blog archive as you have popular posts which is much nicer to look at - but that might be just me. Oh and maybe you don't need the share it widget as you do have the links on each post.

But thats all I would change really - looks good.

Michelle :)

[SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed]

Yes, the layout is fine, but that header image is far too big. Swap it for something smaller, maybe around 100 -150 pixels high.

[TheNewson]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, it's that header pic I am having problems with. Though I don't know how to get it smaller!

Michelle, I appreciate the advice on the labels and archive and think I will tidy that up (along with the share it).

Glad to see it is not too scary then. I really need to up my design skills though.

Cheers!

Anna x

[Tee2072]

I agree the layout is fine and the header is much too big. You can change it's size in MS Paint which should be on any Windows Machine.

The red font on the green background is a bit difficult to read, I think, especially in your label list. The red sort of throbs against the green, IYSWIM?

[TheNewson]

Thanks Tee2072. I quite agree.

Hopefully one night over the next week I can have a proper sit down and tidy it all up!

Anna