Blog Designer News

Have you ever finished up a design project and just been dazzled by your own creation to such a degree that you hate to give it up to the client’s control?

I’ll admit it.  I feel that way sometimes.

The problem is that I’ve seen what some clients are capable of.

That perfectly customized blog theme that suddenly turns an obnoxious shade of bright purple a day after you hand over the keys.  Suddenly you want to ask them to remove your design company name from the footer.

Try as I might to teach my clients the do and don’t do rules of site design, they have a mind of their own and Wordpress makes it so easy for them to tinker.

It can be hard to let go… but it is as all the good poets say.  You have to let what you love go… maybe it will float back for a redesign one day soon.

I interviewed Charly Leetham, one of our writers here at Blog Designer News, a few months past about her business as a blog designer and today I’m sharing that conversation with you.

Find out more about Charly at Ask Charly Leetham or Follow her on Twitter

 

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Google would like to have you design something for them.  Seems that they want to add some new templates to their Blogger program.

Of course, you won’t get paid. LOL!

What do you think?  When one of the richest companies in the world seeks free designs from the community… sure, it’s exposure for someone - but it’s exposure to people who are building free websites on free hosting.  Not too exciting in my book.

Check out this Wordpress theme, it makes me want to create something with it.

In the past, I have developed some beatiful blog designs and really effective ‘front ends’ (the bit the customer sees).  The really are a ‘beauty to behold’.  However, the back end management of the blog - how I or my customer changed the elements to be displayed on the front end - was (at times) incredibly difficult.

I’m not referring to your standard blog layout here - where you have a content panel and 1 or 2 sidebars.  I am talking about the Magazine Style layouts or the designs where the front page of the blog is different to the rest.

Typically in a Magazine Style layout, you will have elements that are ‘pulled’ from the content on the blog and displayed on the homepage to give an overview of the type of content available.  Perhaps one of the most popular ‘Magazine Style’ layouts are Brian Gardners Lifestyle Theme.

The theme is lovely and Brian provides some very nice management functions for it in the code however, modifying the front page elements - the categories that display, the image that is included for  each post etc - requires a knowledge of php and coding… great for someone like me, not for my site owners.  Believe me when I say that at some point the site owner is going to want to change what is displayed on the front page and will try to do it themselves!

Another challenge that I encountered with the theme is the use of the Featured Content Gallery Widget.  It is just AWESOME - and truly adds a dimension to the layout however, ensuring that you have an image to display in that widget is crucial - if you don’t, the widget stops working…. causing grief for many of my clients.

To alleviate most of this, I have been working on administration menus that appear in WP-Admin that literally give my clients the ability to ‘point and click’ to choose what they want on the home page.  For the Featured Content Gallery, I made a modification to the code that will display a ‘default image’ if one is not specified in the blog post (and allow the site owner to specify what that default image through the admin panel).

When your client is ready for the ‘next level’ blog design - don’t just think about the front end.  Think about your clients and the fact that you want to empower them to manage their content.  In the long run, they will thank you for making it easy for them

As a client, spend time talking to your blog designer about how easy managing the content display will be.  It might add a little cost to the overall project - but it will save you much more in terms of money, time and frustration.

Before I get into the topic of bartering to grow your business, I would like to thank Kelly for the opportunity to share my experiences as a blog designer. It’s both an honor and a privilege to be able to contribute to Blog Designer News.

In this economy where funds are tight for everyone, small businesses must cut costs wherever they can. For me in particular that means taking home as much of my blog design fee as possible.  If my client or I need something simple, I can easily whip up a header or small graphic. For more involved jobs, I have to employ the services of a graphic designer.  While I have no problem with paying a fair rate for a quality graphic, if I can barter my services I will.

I have used bartering to get headers done for my business blogs as well as a few for my clients.  This has helped me save some money (and bring more of it home) while making sure my client gets what they need.  I have had good experiences with those service providers that I have bartered with.  I credit that to the awesome resource that I used, Mom Masterminds.  The ladies there have always been more than willing to help me out in a pinch.  Not only have I been able to get what I need but I have found talented graphic designers who I will continue to use AND pay in the future.

Bartering has helped me to service my clients, meet new business partners that I can outsource to and share my expertise.  I will continue to use bartering to grow my business both for myself personally and with my clients.

Bartering your services not only saves you money but it allows you to make new contacts, references and referral sources.  To avoid getting burned barter with people you know or those that are referred to you by a friend or colleague.  It’s all a matter of creating a win/win situation.  Both you and the person you are bartering with MUST benefit from the arrangement.  Next time you are strapped for cash and need some work done think about the services that you can provide in order to get it.

I just read a great blog post with a list of Wordpress Plugins that make a blog respond differently to unique users based on several different situations. I wasn’t aware of many of these plugs before reading about them and I felt a twinge of concern.

Shouldn’t I be more in tune with these things?

How do you keep up with the latest plugins? Do you rely on blogs like I do? Is there another way to keep an eye on new releases?

Do you ever worry that you’re going to fall out of touch with the latest greatest?

How important is it as a designer to know about all of the new bells and whistles?

I’m full of questions aren’t I? LOL!

I’d love to hear some answers

For my first post here on Blog Designer (and I want to thank Kelly for the opportunity of being a guest blogger here!) I thought I would talk about the ‘heart of blog design’.

I’m not talking about setting up a standard blog.  When I talk about site design, I’m talking about a fully customized site that reflects our clients unique nature.  To be able to create a site that truly provides a feel for the business and that visitors will connect with, is a truly great thing. Show me more

I just discovered a pretty cool option for pre-launching a new blog.

Let’s say you have a great blog under construction - you’re adding some page content and working on a killer theme.  You’d like to tell people about your impending project but you’re not ready to let them see things.

Enter the ‘Under Construction’ Theme.

With the UnderCon theme or the LaunchPad theme, you can display a simple RSS optin message on your home page, all the while you can be working on your ‘real’ theme and getting page content loaded.

I like this - especially because it invites visitors to subscribe to the RSS feed by email - so they’ll know the moment you go LIVE with your first blog post.

It’s true. We in the blog design business see the same themes everywhere and can get tired of the same old same old.  It’s important to realize though that our clients don’t live and breath Wordpress like we do.

I took a call today from a pre-client who wants one of the original Revolution themes.  I almost groaned inside at the thought of building another site in Revolution - but I’m not the person to please in this situation.  The client is - and chances are, his clients will have no idea that his website template is shared by thousands of others around the web - so what difference does it make?

What do you think?  Do you try to steer clients away from popular themes?