Below are a selection of the best free blog templates available for blogger.com and wordpress.org blogs, enjoy:

Blogger.com Templates

Red Web 2.0 - A brilliant red themed template (also available in pink and blue), which is possibly the best free blogger.com template out there.

Polaroid - This ones a little tricky to set up, however it is definitely worth it.

WP Premium - A brilliant three column template that was originally designed for wordpress.

Blogging Pro Template - A professional looking template that is ready for adsense.

The Late Show - Brilliant for film blogs.

Note: In order to install most of these blogger.com templates all you need to do is download the template and copy the code to into the edit html section of your blogs dashboard.

Wordpress.org Templates

The Morning After - An excellent magazine style blog theme.

WP Premium - The wordpress version of a decent looking template.

Smashing Magazine Theme - I use an edited version of this theme on Learner Blogger.

Structure WordPress Theme - Another magazine style theme that looks excellent.

Insense - A nice professional looking two column theme.

Note: To install most of these templates you just need to download the theme and upload it to /wp-content/themes/ level of your blogs directory.

The design of your blog is very important if you want your blog to be successful. A good looking blog instantly creates a good impression. Your blog design should depend on the expected audience of your blog, which you should always bare in mind when designing your blog. The three most important areas that you should concentrate on are the header, navigation and the sidebar.

Header

The header is very important because it is the first thing that someone sees when they enter your blog. A good header should include the title of your blog (and possibly a very short description of what your blog is about), a search box and a navigation menu. It should also include your blogs logo, to create a brand for your blog. Examples of blogs with good headers include, Boing Boing and Blogger Buster. If you use the hosted blog platform Blogger.com you might find the following post by Amanda of Blogger Buster useful The Easy Way To Make A Great Blog Header.

Navigation

Your blog needs to be easy to navigate; otherwise people will become frustrated and leave your blog. Most importantly you must include a good navigation menu in your header that links to the main pages of your blog. It is also advisable to put links to the main pages of your blog in its footer, so that when someone reads your posts and gets to the bottom of the page they are less likely to leave your blog. Another good tip is to have a related posts widget at the end of each post, so that people will stay on your blog to read more posts on topics that they are interested in.

Sidebar

The sidebar is another important feature of blog design, as generally it appears on every page of your blog and should be a useful tool for people exploring you site. Below is a list of useful things to have in your sidebar:

• A brief “about” your blog sentence
• A search box (if you do not have one in your header)
• Recent posts widget
• Subscribe buttons
• Blog categories
• Blog archives

Summary

• Always consider your intended audience
• Make your blog user friendly and easy to navigate
• Make your sidebar useful to your readers