Blog Designer News

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?

I’m in the process of doing several Blog Designer interviews for my Blog Evangelists members and decided to share the audio from my latest interview with you here on Blog Designer News.

Curtis McHale hales from Canada and I found him on Twitter. We connected on Skype this past week to talk about how he got into Blog Design, where he finds clients and what sort of advice he has for brand new Blog Designers.

Follow @Curtis on Twitter!

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hey there!  My name is Kelly and I’m the new owner here at Blog Designer News.

The business of blog design is booming – even in a rough and tough economy.  In fact, it’s on my list of the best new businesses to start in 2009.

I love that blog design as a business can be appealing to a wide range of people.

Whether you’re graphically creative, tech savvy or knowledgeable about marketing – you have something to offer clients who need to set up a blog.  Whatever you’re good at – you do. What you’re not so good at – you outsource!

Here at BDN, we’re going to share business tips, blogging news and everything else we can think of to equip and energize blog design professionals. Things have been quiet around here for the past few months and that is something I intend to change.

I am looking for an army of blog designers who wish to share their expertise and experience with others to come on board as contributing bloggers.  If you’re interested, click here!

As blog designers we often gear our marketing toward the Internet world because most people on the Internet *GET* what a blog is, and most people on line already have a blog. But I think it is essential to the success of all blog designers to shift their focus, even if just a little bit, to their local market.

I have to say, I have not seen to many blog designers target the local market where I live, and to me that’s a big sign to start moving in that direction. The fact of the matter is this, people need a website but they don’t really know how to set one up, and when they do they pay astronomical prices to have someone else maintain the website because they have no idea what “html” is!

As blog designers we know the simplicity of a blog, and we know that it is possible to use a blog as a regular website and easy to use content management system.

So where am I going with this – YOU need to start tapping into your local market. There are so many local businesses within your reach that are desperately seeking an easy to maintain, elegant, and professional website. As blog designers we should be taking our expertise to the “streets.”

To get your gears going, here is a list I made of some businesses that could SERIOUSLY benefit from using Wordpress as their CMS solution:

• Vets
• Boutiques
• Opticians
• Dietitians
• Chiropractors
• Day Care Providers
• Massage Therapists
• Local Fire Departments

The list could go on and on, but I think you get the idea! For more information on starting and running your very own local blog design business click here to learn how to become a Blogevangelist!

When I first started out with blog design I would write down my tasks and ideas from my clients on paper, until one day….my emails got away from me and I couldn’t remember who paid and who didn’t, or whose blog was whose! It was a total mess and that was when I realized I needed something a little more useful in order for me to be more productive.

I then did a little a research and came across the Tasks which is developed by “Crowd Favorite” and I was, and still am, super happy with the product.

Some ways Tasks makes my life as a blog designer easier:

• It helps me keep all client information together in one spot on my website.
• I can simply copy and paste the clients email into a task folder instead of handwriting everything down onto a project planning notebook.
• It helps me to easily keep track of things like whether or not the client has paid for their design or if I downloaded their image.
• You can add URLs to the task, set start dates, upload attachments, everything is right there for me to start the design work, no searching through emails or saved files on my computer.
• It helps keep me organized which is sometimes a hard thing to do when you are scheduling design clients on a waiting list.

Tasks is a great tool you can use to get organized and stay organized, it’s not the only one out there, but I like it because you pay for it once – a lot of other programs you need to pay monthly for the same type of service.

This program is also good for planning blog posts, or keeping track of advertisers and writing projects, it is definitely versatile enough to be used for many different projects other than blog design.