I'm always thinking about things I can blog about. It is a part of my brain that I can no longer turn off. So today when I was handed my lunch from the deli counter at work I got inspired.

I went to the cafeteria to get a Southern Style Brisket & Cheddar Panini. Doesn't the name sound delicious? My mouth was watering thinking about it all morning. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I was handed this.

I also had the added benefit of watching the apathy of the sandwich maker as he grabbed a tiny handful of chips and dumped them and the pickle spears on top of the sandwich. I took the container and looked at it incredulously. Now my chips were not only sparse but they were casually tossed on the sandwich, the pickle spears and pickle juice was also on top of the chips and the sandwich making them soggy. This was not right, where was the awesome sandwich I had in mind. As I contemplated this culinary travesty, in my mind I began to formulate a blog post.

Presentation. It is a large part of what makes food appealing and it is also a large part of what makes your blog appealing. The sandwich I had was so tasty, but I wasn't that thrilled about it after I saw how it was presented. Had I seen the photo above photo before I went to lunch I certainly would not have ordered this sandwich even though what was on the inside was so delicious. The presentation was so poor that it actually made me less excited to eat the sandwich.

So I took less than 30 seconds and rearranged the sandwich to look better. This is what I came up with.

Look at that! You can see the thick slices of brisket, tomatoes and the grill marks of the panini machine. The chips are nicely placed to one side and the pickles aren't leaking pickle juice all over the sandwich. It looks better doesn't it?

So, how does this relate to blogging and your blog? Well, your blog could be the funniest, most well written blog ever but if it looks like everyone else I'm not going to bother to read it to find out. Why? Because you didn't take the time and effort to present your blog in the best way possible. You didn't take the time to make your blog visually appealing to your readers and potential readers. Using a standard template from a free blogging service is like sandwich #1.

Now, you may think that you are only limited to the standard templates that a free blogging service provides you. Nope, No Way, you couldn't be further from the truth. This is a mistake I had made as well and am still making on my blog The Wired Kayaker. With a custom blog theme you can have an amazing blogspot blog that looks nothing like a blogspot blog. Using the templates provided by blogger, wordpress and typepad screams inexperience, apathy and lack of care in your blog. It screams sandwich #1, while the substance may be awesome the presentation is terrible.

Your blog and your blog theme are reflections of you as a blogger. The look of your blog is what you are presenting to the world. As bloggers we have unique perspectives on the world and our blogs should reflect that unique vision. No one will see that you are unique if your blog looks exactly like everyone else. Take a look at either buying a custom theme from a theme design company or from another blogger. There are even bloggers who can help you with a free custom theme. Make that blog of yours reflect you and you alone.

Drew writes four blogs, is an avid kayaker and a Transformers fan, he also does a mean cake plow. He recently completed taking 1140+ consecutive photos in 1140+ days. You can visit him at The BenSpark, The Wired Kayaker, Read To Me, Dad, Google is not God.

Posted by BenSpark at 03:29 PM in Blogging | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)