I need you to do one thing for me – type your blog’s domain into your browser & load it on the new tab. What fo do you see? Does your website look professional enough? Take a critical approach. Would you buy anything from your own website? You see the thing is, even if you’ve already filled your website with great content if your website’s layout looks like a mess- your potential customers might leave straight away. Even before they get to know you. It might sound straight-forward, but that is the truth. Over a number of years of running kotrynabassdesign.com, I built thousands of websites & strongly understand the connection between design and profitability. Let me share 5 must-have design elements with you all that will turn your website into an uplifting, successful business.

#1 Sharing Buttons

Look, if you’re trying to make a profit from your blog, you can’t do this alone. You have to make it easy for your readers to actually share your content with their friends, family, colleagues or even random strangers. The more, the merrier. Let your followers help you grow!

My favorite WordPress.org content sharing plugin is SumoMe. Since installing it on my own blog, I started using floating share buttons in all of my posts. Consequently, I saw a huge jump in my traffic coming from social media outlets. I can’t believe I haven’t done this earlier!

If you’re using Blogger- you have nothing to worry about as the platform already took care of this for you & you can enable your sharing buttons by going to LAYOUT area + clicking ‘Edit’ on the Blog widget.

You can even take a step further and include a hover Pinterest sharing button which will allow your readers to pin the chosen image straight away. Pinterest can become a magical tool in growing your online business. In fact, it’s been my biggest source of referral traffic for a while now.

#2 Instagram Feed

Now, this step might not be for everyone. However, even if you don’t feel like Instagram is the platform you’d like to showcase on your blog, I’d still suggest adding a feed in your footer or sidebar area. Presenting your daily or professional moments through Instagram and then displaying those images straight on your blog can help you bring that much-needed personality into your online business. Luckily, all of our website design themes already include this feature!

#3 Affiliate Area

If you’re using affiliate links in your posts to make your blog profitable, you should also consider creating a separate affiliate area on your home page or footer area. Here on my blog, I created a shopping area at the bottom of the page where I showcase some of my top blog designs. Or you can even use the feeds you create on Amazon, RewardStyle or ShopStyleCollective. Here is the shopping widget I use in some of my premade WordPress themes:As you can see, it includes some of the clothing items I picked. These thumbnails are connected to the affiliate programme, and once you place this on your blog, you’d get profit if someone buys any of these items through your page. Please note, the widget should also blend into the overall look of your blog’s design. Otherwise, it might look spammy.

#4 Easy To Find Contact Form

PR companies usually have huge loads of work & getting noticed by the right campaign is a bit like a lottery. However, you can always improve your chances to win!

Make sure to make it super easy for your potential sponsors to actually get in contact with you. Create a separate Contact page and add a simple, well-designed contact form there. Or even simply display your biz e-mail address there.

#5 Obvious Subscription Box

Including a visible subscription area into your blog can help you grow your blog hugely. As I discussed in my previous posts, building a newsletter list is the best thing you can do for your online business. Sending an engaging weekly or monthly e-mails can have a huge conversion rate which will help you turn your subscribers into customers without any extra expenses. This is definitely a must-have!

Let me know if you’re currently working on improving your website’s design & don’t forget to visit kotrynabassdesign.com if you need any help whatsoever!