How To Design Your Blog Sidebars in Photoshop: Part FOUR

Welcome to part 4 of our 6 part series on Blog Design in Photoshop. Now we’re going to learn how to design your blog sidebars in Photoshop … and I’ll show you a few options for those.

PREREQUISITES:

It is recommended that you have completed the previous 3 parts of this tutorial series before starting this one. You will need to have the following complete:
1. How to create your blog template in Photoshop>>
2. How to design a blog background in Photoshop >>
3. How to design your blog header and menu bar in Photoshop >>

TOOLS:

As with all other tutorials in this course, you will need access to Photoshop. Here’s a handy link where you can get Photoshop for FREE for 30 days! Grab Photoshop for FREE >>

THE TRAINING:

This is exciting now as you can see the template starting to come alive … and really look like a blog design!

I feel that sidebars are a very important aspect of a blog design. When used correctly, they can highlight and feature important information. A few ideas for what you can use your sidebars for:

• To introduce yourself as the blog owner / author with a profile picture and short bio
• List your social networks and invite readers to follow you there
• Feature recent or popular posts
• Feature any products that you are selling
• ADVERTISE! Sidebars are a crucial spot for selling advertising
• And so much more!!

So you can see … these are all really important things that you can use your sidebars for. In order to have them really POP from your design, pay attention to how you are designing your sidebars.

There are a few different things I like to do with the sidebars:

• A solid color block for the whole bar
• Put the widgets in their own nice neat boxes
• Or … for simpler designs … just a neat vertical line separating the content area from the sidebar.

Check out this tutorial video to learn more about the design options for your sidebars … and how to create them in Photoshop: