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§ May 28th, 2010 § Filed under Blogging Tips § Tagged Blogging Comments Off
Now that you have made the important decision what to call yourself and how to host your blog, it is time to think about what your actual blog will look like.
When you are thinking of the basic design, there are three ways to go with this:
1. Free Template: These are everywhere on the web. If you type in “free blog template” into your search engine, you better be sitting back with a beverage and childcare because you are going to have oceans of free blog templates to look through. This is where your initial research will help you out. It will help narrow some of your searching to just a giant flowing river of templates. What I did was download about two dozen templates and run them on my blog before I was officially live (in other words, I was live, but no one actually knew that yet). That way you can look at each template with your blog name, subtitles, etc and get a sense of if it feels and looks like you want it to.
One super big important thing to remember is that most free templates are customizable. Meaning, if you love the template but you wish something was a different color, you can change it. To do that, you have to dig into the html code and figure out the hex color codes and (have I lost you…??) that can take time and a bit of trial and error until you get it right. For example, the highlight color on MamaBloo used to be ORANGE… now it is a nice shade of gray. There are other customizable options as well.
2. Not Free Template: Same deal as above but the templates cost money. Some designers who normally charge big bucks for custom design will have a small gallery of templates you can purchase for around $25-$60.
3. Custom Design: This is where you contact a designer and start the “design process.” Starting from scratch or almost scratch a designer can build you a blog that looks, supposedly, just the way you have dreamed it up in your head … or close enough… or even better! The prices are everywhere on this one… all the way up to $10,000 or more for a profession blog that will put all the other bloggers to shame. The GOOD things about having a pro designer design your blog, is that you don’t have to give yourself a bald spot figuring out all the technical aspects. I have worked with two designeds: Emily June and Mandy Hornbuckle. Both were awesome to work with, reasonably priced and very, very helpful. A note of caution here. Be sure you check out the portfolio of your designer so you know what you are getting. I, for one, do not like “cartoons” of moms juggling a computer, a wooden spoon, and a baby bottle, all the while smiling some maniacal smile. Hey, if YOU do, great, but that is so not me. So, it was critical that I found designers that got that. There is nothing wrong with starting with something free or cheap and then upgrading when you are ready.
After you have your basic look figured out, you can get to work on your SIDEBAR. There are infinite possibilities for your sidebar. And, as above, you can usually customize the size of the sidebar by digging into the code. Mamabloo is considered a two-column blog, because it has one sidebar. You can have three -olumn blogs with two side bars and I have even seen some 4-column ones. As you think about your design choices above, the sidebar issue must be considered. As MamaBloo is a two column blog — meaning, one sidebar, it is pretty simple. When I do get around to upgrading my look, I will FOR SURE move to a three column blog — with two sidebars. I just need the space — think of it like getting a bigger closet.
I do recommend spending some time on your sidebar design. This is were all you subscription options, ads, buttons, gimics, etc will be. Take some time to think about what you want to live there — don’t just go with the wordpress (or other host) default options. The result will be a very generic, stock looking blog. Adding widgets, text, and other such candy to your sidebar is as easy as clicking on the widget you want and dragging it into your sidebar template on the back end ( the back end is the magical place where blogs are designed and crafted… the part that readers never see).
Common sidebar elements include:
Blog Roll — this is where you have a list of links to other blogs you read and/or like. I personally am very careful about who I add to my blog roll. Some blogs have dozens and dozens of links listed, but I prefer quality over quantity.
Previous posts – This can look like a list of categories, or a calendar, or a drop down menu.
Tag Cloud — this is that paragraph looking things where some words are bigger than others. These are the “Tags” of your individual posts. The bigger words are tags that you use more often.
Subscription Options — Email, RSS, Google, amd Yahoo are common
Twitter/Facebook/BlogFrog — Ways to follow your blog
Search — so readers can find things on your blog
Buttons – Graphic links to other sites. These are usually square and promote fellow bloggers or organizations. You just cut and paste the html into a text widget and voila! Pretty.
You can take it from there. As you start to search for WIDGETs to add to your sidebar, you will find lots of choices. Again, this is where your initial research in step one will help you get some sleep at night.
Next Up: Are you Plugged In? What in the Heck to Write About, and Ethical Concerns (yes, even in blogging…).
§ April 30th, 2010 § Filed under Blogging Tips § Tagged Blogging, Goals Comments Off
Okay, so if you have been following along, hopefully by now you have done some research about the oh, I don’t know, bazillion things to look at on the bazillion blogs out there.
Good. Next step.
Time to think about what to call your blog. Naming your blog may feel akin to naming your children. Because, in reality, your blog is going to feel like a child, or more like an infant for a long time as you nuture it, dress it up in different outfits, put it in timeout, and so on. So, for me, it took a while to find the right name. Here is what I took into consideration:
First, I did not want my own personal parent-given name to be a part of the title. Other people may think differently about this, especially people who may be running their own business and want their names “out there” and everywhere. I felt a bit more protective of my name. I wanted a “handle” or nickname or pseudonym, both for fun and for a tad bit more privacy. Of course, if I make it big, the privacy part is gone no matter what the blog is called.
Also, I thought about the topic of my blog — motherhood stuff — and wanted that to somehow be represented in the title. But in a way that said “me.”
I thought about search engines. What would my readers be searching for? And how would the name of my blog lead them to my articles.
After I thought about those things, I googled my name ideas to see what came up. You should do this, because one time I googled “Freckle Face Boy” to show Ty that boys can, indeed, have freckles and PORN came up. I clicked off of the results as soon as I could. Ty asked, “Mommy, were there pictures on that page that bothered you?” Uh, ya think?
So, all of that to say, google your ideas and be sure you are not inadvertently leading your potential readers into some sort of bold sin.
Then, “cross your fingers and hope to die and stick 1000 needles in your eye” that NO ONE out there was as clever as you and picked your name already. After you confirm that you can “own” your name, then BUY IT. I do so recommend purchasing your URL and owning it. It feels more official, it’s cheap, you don’t have to have “wordpress” or “blogspot” before the .com in your address. This, of course, is all about your own persnoal preferences, but I say, DO IT.
That goes hand in hand with the idea of hosting your blog. Now, I am not talking about serving it beer and nachos during the big saturday college football game (Go Cougs!). I am talking about having a service that you PAY to maintain and “host” your blog — rather than a free blog site. I admit it, though, that I turned to el-husband for this one. He knows all about this stuff and researched it. So, we do host our blog with a fantastic service called GO DADDY. They are available 24/7 for questions, set up, trouble shooting, and so forth. They walked me through (I should say, DAVE, because he set this up for me… ) getting my URL to magically transform before my eyes into a WORPRESS blog and they also waved their wands and I got email through my blog that comes into my outlook inbox. They are miracle workers, they are.
There are a lot of good hosts out there. And it is worth the small fees you pay to have the person on the phone to call when you cannot figure out how to make something work. Unless you love to cry. Then, go with the free service.
Next Steps: Design — Free or not that Free and What Do You Put in Your Sidebar?
As a mom-blogger, I often get questions and emails about how to start a blog. I am working on something special for my book reviews, so in the meantime I thought I would start a Friday series on MamaBloo that deals with just that. How to start a mom blog or, really, ANY blog!
The first step in creating your vision to have a niche. But I figure if you are considering starting a blog, you may already have a niche in mind. Here are a few to check out:
Photography: Christiana Childers
Scrapbooking and Life: Ali Edwards
Life Coaching and Creativity: Christine Kane
Recipes: Ryn’s Recipes
Mom Blogs: Mama Om, Mom 101
And the BIGGIES… I mean the I-Feed-My-Family-With-My-Blog superstars: Dooce and Pioneer Woman.
But if you are still wrestling with this, think about what you love — like crafts, cooking, photography, fixing things. Or what you are good at – like teaching, organization, gardening, decorating. Or what you are passionate about — like organic living, living green, a sports team. Or what your life looks like — living in a different country, being a mom, balancing work and home. I think there is an audience out there for anyone or anything. It is even better if you can narrow your niche down. Instead of gardening, perhaps blog about organic gardening, or landscaping. Instead of cooking, focus on baking, or entertaining. I really don’t think that a narrow focus is required to blog, but you may want to consider focusing.
So, once you have your niche in mind and you are ready to move on, it is time to move to the next step, RESEARCH.
The next step in creating your vision is really to research and then go do some more research. Now, I know I am a bit of a research freak. I love it. I really do. But I do think this is really important to getting started with a blog. You should go visit as many blogs as you possibly can. Try and search blogs that are in the category you want to write about: food, photography, mommy, cocktails, decorating, humor, crafting. There are thousands of blogs out there to check out. See what other people are doing and what seems to work and what doesn’t. Usually one blog on recipes or photography will lead you to another and so on, so you don’t need to worry too much about finding blogs to check out.
You will want to get a visual in your head (or on paper) of what you want your blog to LOOK LIKE and even focus on what FEATURES you will want to include. Things to check out are:
Color schemes and designs you like. Bloggerss give credit to their designers or their templates. Make a list of the ones you like. Mine is Hanami for WordPress. Also, whether you use a service like blogger or you pay to have your blog hosted will change what design options are available.
Styles. Do you like simple? Whimsical? Sophisticated? Do you want your typeface to be in black or white? What logos work for you?
Features. Look at the sidebars and what people are including in their blogs. Most have a blogroll — or links to other blogs. Also, look at buttons, ad space, and subscription options. Also, do you want to include photographs? Blog Frog? Linked Within? The list is endless.
Sidebars. Do you want two or three? Where?
Content. Read a bunch of blogs in your niche. Notice how many people are commenting (which, by the way is only a small percentage of how many visitors are reading the article). Which articles jump out to you and why. Think about your content.
Audience. Who will you be talking to out there? Adults? Moms? Christians? Who? Think about who the readers are to the sites you like and how they match up with yours. Think about how you might want to reach them.
The list can go on and on. Work at formulating a vision of all the parts of your blog — design, features, and content. Set aside some TIME to do this. Try to articulate to yourself what you like and what you don’t. And most of all, STAY POSITIVE while you do this. The temptation will be to say…” I can’t do this! No one will read my blog! It is overwhelming!” But ignore this voice, because it isn’t the voice of truth. If you are interested in blogging, you should do it. Really.
Remember the above categories are for checking out. I will go into much more detail in later entries on how to deal with each of these ideas/categories when you actually begin to implement your vision. So, first step, come up with a vision!
Stay Tuned for Future Blogging Tips: ”Your Handle” and “To Host or Not to Host”
