Biz Tips for Mom

Going for a New Blog Design

We moms know that one of the quickest and easiest ways to give yourself a presence on the web is to go with a blog format.

Free (at first) and easy to do a lot of women do that and it works. It’s easy to set up and an easy way to format a content site (if you’ve ever tried to have an html site with constantly changing content then you know what I mean).

But after a while you realize that you want your site/blog to represent your personal style. You know it could look better and you may have even tried dinking around with the template or skin a bit to try and help things along. But if you’re like me you soon realize that some things are best left to the professionals.

So then what? Well I was in this quandry myself several few weeks ago. I have several web presences on the web but I like to have major hands on with them.  They reflect important things in my life (home and family) so the content is much of what I have been or am going through.  Some are blog format(such as this one) and some other. After being live on the web for over 5 years I wanted a new look for one of my newer sites. I know a little html and even less php but I decided to give it my best anyway.  But I couldn’t seem to get the hack of the code. Everything I did did not result in the changes I wanted so I gave up and I went looking for someone who could help me out.

Now I’m a woman and I want a cute site! My sister and I discuss this often.  I didn’t want a square, your basic colors, or monochrome look. I wanted something leaning more towards what we now know as ‘girly’. I wasn’t really interest in the cartoony women or cupcakes or even pink (for this site) but I did want some class and elegance. It was a bit difficult to find designers who did this kind of work because I wasn’t sure what keywords to use when searching. The terms elegant, cute, classic etc brought up boring designs.

But then I landed on  Beautiful Blog Designs. Showcasing not only beautiful womanly blogs but also the designers who make them so. I need not have looked any further. But I did for a bit. She’ll never know how often I combed through that site looking for the right designer for me.

Most of the designers designed only for Blogger. I guess Blogger is easier but I have Wordpress and I host my own site. Waaaah!

I didn’t have too many stipulations. They needed to be able to do Wordpress.  I had a set price range. I had a specific style I was going for. I already had my hosting and some designers want you to host with them. I wanted it done before November and I needed to find someone who’s work I liked. I found a few I might have used but they either had “The Que is Closed” sign up which put me off because I needed to at least start the process while it was uppermost in my mind or pricewise they were out of my league. Then I landed upon Simply Delightful Designs.  She had a tiny waiting list but I was still able to sign up. Her designs were nice.  And the price was right.

So I filled out the online questionnaire and paid my deposit.

Jennifer was great to work with. She kept me abreast of the wait time until she could start on my site. She would quietly work and then update the whole site contacting me to let me know to have a look and tell her what I thought. She did not complain (to me) when I made changes to something I had previously chosen and she asked me before changing something major. She also gave me her opinion which is nice because sometimes you honestly do not know.

Well the site update is complete and now I just need to work on the content changes. You can view the new and improved Vintage Homemaking design here.

So my advice if you want one of those cute girly blog designs? Visit Beautiful Blog Designs they are categorized by free, templates, Blogger and Wordpress.