Bloggers are now the third most trustworthy source of information, following only friends and family, according to a U.K. survey. That's right: Bloggers are trusted more than celebrities, journalists, brands, and politicians. But how do you get people to fall in love with your blog in the first place? (Aside from remarkable content, of course.)

Well, just as your website homepage is like the front door to your business, so too is your blog homepage the front door to your business blog.

If you're not attracting people visually, how will you get them to take the next steps to actually read (and hopefully, subscribe to) your content?

A lot of it has to do with how your blog's designed. I mean, once you're done creating the quality content that keeps readers sticking around for more, you still have the challenge of finding a balance between visual design and effective content presentation. Blogs are chock full of images, text, and links that need to be shown off just right -- otherwise readers abandon your content because they can't make heads or tails of what's going on.