All of us should, by now,know what a blog is and what it usually entails. Lots of text, with standard templates, pages, headers and sidebars, and in this day and age, even children can create and maintain a blog – it’s that simplified.

But a blogazine is a bit different, more like an online magazine with unique articles/posts, each page different, and lots of content such as headers, navigation menus, and other interesting things, as well as lots of interesting pertinent photographs and graphic art.

Each page in a blogazine is unique, has different context, menu bars, and a new visual experience which is much more entertaining for the reader/visitor.

Since blogging is an effective way to allow your creative juices to flow, generally released by passion and the hope of making a point, or helping others in some way, a blogazine can do much more than that. They are so interactive and interesting, they make the reader stay awhile.

With the newer web designs and aesthetics that are available, creating a ‘blogazine’ could be even more effective.

Sticking to the same old traditional blog template can become mundane for some readers. Article after article, without a lot of interaction, or even the opportunity to comment can become boring.

It has been said that the blogazine evolution is not only about great writing and information; it’s also about interacting with the reader in some pretty creative ways.

Here are some up and coming trends in blogging that might just tickle your fancy:

Visually engaging:

There is nothing like breaking the norm, and creating a ‘blow them away’ design for your blog. Photographs that are appealing and visually engaging can keep a reader interested and wanting to see more.

Creating background, text, videos and photographs that will not only add to your blog and it’s message it will add to the reader’s experience will entice readers to ‘read on’.

The Addition of Keypress Navigation/Apps.

The company, They Make Apps, offerssome unique keyboard navigation applications that are replacing scrolling, including drop down menus, and keyboard shortcuts. This could enhance your blog to bring ‘flash-based’ navigation and an exciting and enjoyable experience for your readers.

Great examples of this ‘flash-based’ navigation include:

• Mad-ar.ch
• 9GAG
• NY Times: Times Skimmer
• CrushLovely

In a recent feature, Smashing Magazine said blogazines were great because they stopped you from:

“Slipping into the habit of typing up your thoughts and clicking “Post,” without thinking about the layout of each article… By taking a little extra time for the art of blogging, your creativity will increase with your efforts”

Creative but unique:

Blogazines can be a full-screen visual experience– with magazine like layouts, photographs, illustrations, multimedia, videos and interactive links, along with some pretty amazing and ‘stand-out’ fonts. These kinds of blog make a reader want stay!

You can get as creative as you would like, changing the background, adding navigation menus, sidebars, widgets and unique headers and footers – and have fun doing it. Here is one of the best blogazines on the net – Marc Kimmel.

Why Blogazines?

The biggest difference is that when your on a blog, the text may change, and perhaps a photo or comment is new, but the website design pretty much stays the same.

With a blogazine, every page is different and unique and is tailored to the message being portrayed. The pages and images and sights fill the entire page, with interesting links, videos, and everything else you can imagine. They are designed to keep you there and interested./

How To Create a Blogazine:

If you don’t know much about programming or interactive websites, try using a blogging website, such as WordPress, and start there. WordPress has a management system that can help you insert Photoshop images, and other offsite data you create.

This is somewhat unfortunate, because all of your data will have to be in photo format, which eliminates (for the time being) search engines from finding your keywords.

If you’re interested in creating a really unique blogazine, see Greener Mags – Your Interactive Magazines. It contains a list of some very unique blogazines to give you ideas, show off some interesting link buttons, creative Photoshop graphics and text.

The Future:

There will be, in the near future, technology that assists you in creating blogazines within blog management systems, just as website design has become more individual and user friendly, with the newest web design software, including Intuit web design software…. and the future looks bright! We know it is coming….

Until then, getting creative will have to be through your own ingenuity – along with some great blogazine tutorials: TRIPWIRE or NestaCMS.

Just remember – creating a blogazine is something that is fairly time consuming, and changing the text every day could become a little cumbersome, but you’ll get to be a pro in no time with tenacity. Make sure that this is something you want to spend the time to venture into, before jumping on board…. and – while you’re thinking of it, someone is designing software to make it easier!

This post was written by Justin Toladro from Life Insurance Finder check out their own blogazine on Digital Death.