(I made all of these so I'm allowed to post them here.)
1. Use colors that in general blend well with other colors on the rest of your blog. You want it to flow nicely. But you also want to add in colors that are NOT found anywhere else on your blog, so it pops out and leaves an image in your reader's mind after they navigate away. Many times I'll see a plain black and white blog, and people wonder why I don't remember which one is theirs. Give me a reason to want to remember your blog.
2. Decide what message you want your blog to send. Look at the first banner I've selected. The writer's blog is about Hawaii. When looking at it, you definitely get a Hawaii feel to it. The second one is for my other blog, where I draw and review video games. So I drew myself drawing a Tepig with the help of De Blob and Comrade Black. You can probably guess what the others are supposed to be about.
3. ALWAYS include your title. You want people to associate the title with the image.
4. NEVER use images you are not allowed to use. Do not upload a picture of Miley Cyrus unless it is allowed. Do not steal a picture someone else did.
5. Try not to sign the banner, even if it's just going to your blog. It's just tacky to have your name up there, in my opinion. ESPECIALLY if you are giving the banner to someone else to use-- let the blogger decide on how to thank you/advertise you. It's really distracting from the image, otherwise. It's not like a painting where you SHOULD sign it so no one takes credit for it.
Now me, I'm going to break my rule and not make a banner just yet. Mostly because I only made this blog an hour ago and it's quite late right now, haha.
Til then, see you later, my lovely Suckers! (Or should I call you guys Sucks? Hm. I'll think about that for a while.)
