Make Your Pictures Prettier - For FREE

At first glace this post may not seem to fit with the direction and purpose of Beautiful Blog Designs, but it does so bear with me.

Everyone knows, or should know, that adding pictures to your blog posts really helps gain the reader's attention and sometimes helps explain crafts, tutorials and more. Everyone on the planet knows about the Pioneer Woman, right? Her pictures are amazing, entertaining and educating. Her shots used for her recipes help take the mystery out of cooking. Or, what about A Soft Place to Land? She has wonderful craft ideas and always share several pictures so that her readers can see the craft, step by step.

Now, before adding those pictures to your posts, make sure they look as good as they can. Regardless if you use a point and shoot camera or a DSLR, editing your pictures can make a world of difference. A hugely popular program is Photoshop, but it comes with a huge price tag. A stripped-down version of it is Photoshop Elements, which is much more affordable.

Now, if you don't have a editing program, no worries. There are several free ones you can use online (do a Google search and you'll find many). One that come highly recommended is Picnik.com. And before you fuss about not having to learn how to use it, there is an excellent post at TidyMom about it today. She describes how she edits her photos, makes collages and adds words to pictures.

Do you use a free online editor? If so, I'd love to hear about it. Leave the program and the address and I'll add it to this post.

Here are some recommended by BBD readers:

• SueAnn from SueAnn's Journey uses Photoscape.com
• Elizabeth from Dog Blogging with Luna suggests Paint.net. I use that program also, but only for my print screens. I need to spend more time with it and see what it can do.
• Emmy from Emmy Mom- One Day at a Time shared that she uses Gimp, a free program that you download.

Thank you, SueAnn, Elizabeth and Emmy for taking a moment to share with us what works for you.

Five things to consider BEFORE you start to work on your blog design

Guest post by Marianne

Hi there! My name is Marianne and I blog about my life, my creative adventures and my love for nesting at Songbird. I am a DIY girl, who loves to get her hands dirty and experiment with power tools. I am also DIY when it comes to blog design. A couple of months ago I gave my blog a total makeover and Amanda invited me, after giving my blog design her two thumbs up (thanks Amanda!), to share some of my insights and experiences with homemade blog designing.

We home and craft loving gals are a visual bunch, aren’t we? We want our homes and creative products to be as beautiful as possible. And since our blog is our home on the web, most of us really want our blog to be as eye pleasing as possible too.

Of course there are many talented and gifted women out there who have specialized in giving your blog a makeover and making it really beautiful. But rightfully so, these women like to get paid for their creative talent and their hard work. If you are like me, a hobby blogger whose blog doesn’t generate any income (yet), paying someone to work on your blog may not really be in your budget. So you are left to you own devices to make your blog more beautiful. And trust me, it can be done!

But before we dive into the world of blog templates, HTML coding and navigational bars, lets do some groundwork first. Just like when you are considering to give a thrift shop find a makeover: before you can get your paintbrush out and decide on the paint color you are going to use, you have to consider the way you are intending to use the piece, if it is needing repairs and how many layers of old chippy paint and dirt you have to remove first.

The same principle applies to blog design. Before you start concentrating on the pictures you are going to use in your header and the color scheme of your blog there are five things you have to think about first:

1. Your blog is for your readers.

I know you are all tempted to say ‘no I blog just for me, because I like it’. But lets face it girls if we really only blogged for ourselves we wouldn’t make our blog public, we would keep it a private (online) journal. We all want other people to read our blog and admire and enjoy our hard work. So whenever you are considering doing anything to your blog, ask yourself first if that will make the blogging experience for your readers more pleasant. Your blog design should include all the elements that make your blog really useful and usable to your readers.

2. What does your blog mean?

I think if you asked most women in our home and garden blog niche why they love blogging they would answer two things: because of the inspiration it gives them and second because of the community it makes them feel a part of. You and your blog are part of that community. So your blog design should be aimed at showcasing your projects and ideas, so that they provide maximum inspiration (lot’s of BIG pictures is one element of this) and at the same time give your visitor’s a sense that they are truly welcome and that it is fun visiting with you.

3. Clutter is clutter, even when it is the online kind.

Ever wonder why those pictures in design magazines always look so beautiful, even when they do not resemble your style? It is because of the lack of clutter. You might see a carefully draped blanket somewhere, or a casually forgotten book on a chair (with a coordinating cover color of course!), but you will never see hundreds of knickknacks, leftover breakfast dishes or dirty socks in those pictures.

If you consider the blog designs you like best, I bet that they are pretty clutter free also. There are so many gadgets, and widgets and funny buttons available to add to our blogs these days. It is really tempting to fill up your sidebars with all of them. But often they are just clutter. Clutter that is distracting your readers from your content and might even make your blog really slow to load. So when considering to add another cutesy button remember the first rule: your blog is for your readers, will adding it make you blog more useful or usable?.

4. Your blog is a reflection of you.

When I started to give my blog a makeover I started the way I start any project. I looked at the way others have done it. So I started to make a list of blogs, whose design I liked and then I started to break it down. What kind of layout did I like best, which banner drew me in the most, when did the size of the font or the pictures feel too small, which elements did I find very useful (or annoying). And then I started to try and incorporate those elements in my blog (or in some cases remove them from my existing design). When I thought I was nearly finished I asked a friend for her opinion and her reply made me almost start over completely. She said, “I like it, it looks very good, but it doesn’t look like you anymore”. And she was right, I was making a blog design like all the others. It wasn’t ‘me’ anymore. So I worked on it a lot longer, making it less like a beautiful online ‘house’ and more like my personal online ‘home’.

5. Embrace the challenge, but keep it real.

If you would have unlimited time you could make your blog the most beautiful blog in the world. There is always another design element you could add, a functionality you could improve or an opportunity to add even more beauty to your design. But if you did that, you wouldn’t have any time to blog anymore. And no matter how beautiful the design of your blog is, people come to visit you for your content. Content comes first, design comes second. So do step into the world of HTML coding, it is not as difficult as you might think, but keep your expectations real. Fiddling with your blog design can be addictive (ask me how I know that) but if it starts to interfere with your actual blogging it is counterproductive.

Marianne@Songbird is a DIY girl all the way even when it comes to blogdesign. She shares her successes and mistakes in her DIY attempts to make her Songbird blog more beautiful. 

Blog Design and Graphics Course Available

I am very excited to tell you about an online blog design course that is being offered for those interested in learning about blog design. No, not from me, because remember, I'm not a blog designer, just a design lover. The course is taught by Amy Bayliss, an amazing speaker, writer, blogger and designer.

The price for the course is amazingly wallet-friendly - only $29. She doesn't get into in depth graphic design, but will definitely get you started in the right direction. Don't have Photoshop? No problem, she will show you how to use free online editing programs to create your graphics.

There are several sessions available and she's keeping the class sign down so that she can effectively help those who attend. Interested? Head over to her site to see how to sign up.

How to Clean Up Your Profile

This is something I did a while ago, but never thought about making a post or tutorial out of it, until I was reading a friend's blog this morning. Sharon, at Good, True and Beautiful, did a post a few months ago on how to make your Blogger profile a little spiffier.

I have multiple blogs: my personal blog, Moving Forward, BBD, a blog for my Usborne business, one for my Classical Conversations homeschool (private) group, a photography blog that I've long neglected and a few test blogs. I don't want everyone seeing my "blog clutter" so I hid those other blogs.

Sharon did a wonderful tutorial on how to do just what I did. If you have a few extra blogs, like those for playing around with your template (but not if you have a custom one because that is a no-no), this is a great tutorial to follow.


Special Note: When  you go over to Sharon's site, you need to ooh and aww over it. She is another talented do-it-yourselfer, doing all her own blog design work. I first discovered her blog when she asked me to do a private blog critique. She had a great blog already, but was very receptive to the few changes I suggested. Her blog continues to grow and blossom every day! It really is "Good, True and Beautiful."

5 Steps to a More Attractive Blog

Okay, I hope this comes as an intervention for some bloggers, but please know that I write this post with love.

I visit a LOT of blogs in the "Blogosphere" to find new designers and "beautiful blogs" to feature. More often than not I find blogs that have fallen prey to many design pitfalls. So, I am going to list a few steps you can take to spiffy up your blog so that more readers stick around.

1. Center up the buttons on your sidebars, please. It is so easy to do and it will make your blog look so much better. 
• Simply go to the gadget with that HTML code for the button and add < center > to the beginning of it and < / center >to the end of it. (Take out the spaces I added so that this post wouldn't be centered.) 
• If you don't like any to be centered, rather left-justified then go into the gadgets with the button that is centered and take out the the < center > and < / center > that was added to the HTML by the creator of the button.
  
2. Get a free, premade or custom design for your site. It hurts my heart when I go to someone's blog and they still have the generic Blogger template up. There are too many options out there to not give your blog a face lift. You need help with that, please leave me a comment and I'll walk you through it.
• You don't have to get a fancy or elaborate blog template, just getting a custom header will bring a boring blog to life. See the Mulberry Spot to see what I mean. Or, customize your header font like I did at Hollywood Photography (my long forgotten photography blog).
  
3. Make a link list post for the hundreds of sites you have linked on your blog's sidebar. This is so easy and will really tidy up your sidebar so much! 
• To do this simply create a post called "Links" or "Friends" or "Places I Go" or whatever you want to call it. Then copy all the links into that one post. 
• After you have the post created, add a list or link list gadget to your sidebar. Title is whatever you decided on for the post title. Then add the URL address of that post to the link. 
• An example of this is at my personal blog, Moving Forward. I have a "Categories" list that links to one post or several posts.
4. Make the font on your blog one that is easy to read, both in style and size. I have stopped by some blogs that had the font so small that I couldn't hardly read it. 
• Another step in making your posts easy to read is to add paragraph breaks. If I stop by a blog and they have a post that is one long paragraph, I click right on out. Break up what you are writing about into several small paragraphs. 
• If you try to add  paragraph breaks but they don't "stick" then go into the HTML code part of your post and add < p > or < br > where you want the breaks. (Take out the spaces I have added.)
  
5. Clear out some of the ads you have on your site. Some blogs have so many ads, both on the sidebars and in between posts that it is hard to see where the actual posts are. Very distracting, very busy.

Here are some posts by other bloggers, about what to do or not to do concerning your blog.

Ten Blogging Mistakes by Darcy at My 3 Boybarians
Blog Desgin: Keep it Clutter-Free and User Friendly by Melanie at Blogging Basics 101
Basic Blog Design Principles by Karla at Modern Media Mom

Laughing at myself because the title of this post had a spelling error! How gracious of the commentors not to mention it. 

To Wordpress or Not To Wordpress

Last night and this morning I had something on my mind that I hadn't thought about in a few months - should I move Beautiful Blog Designs to Wordpress? There are certain advantages to moving, which my inexperienced self wouldn't even dream of trying to explain. However, something weird happened this morning that I can't help but think was my answer that an eventual move is "meant to be."

I go through my little ritual of checking in with various blogs, seeing what they're up to, and one of them was Darcy (designer at Graphically Designing) at her personal blog My 3 Boybarians. Low and behold, her most recent post was all about why people are moving to Wordpress. She gives a little test at the end to help you make your decision. I highly recommend reading the post if you are at all curious about Wordpress.

While I do not currently run ads or make one red cent from this blog, and don't really plan to ever earn money from it, I have an idea that would allow me to feature ads that can benefit readers and designers. A move to Wordpress would better enable me to do that.

Now, don't fear, I won't be moving any time soon. I just got this rockin' new design from Designer Blogs and I want to "wear" it for a while. Hopefully by the time I move, Erin will be designing for Wordpress also (hint, hint, Erin).

And, a positive result from a move would be that the current Wordpress bloggers who feel like red-headed step children hear at BBD, will definitely get more attention.

Getting a New Blog Design 101

Since I just went through the process of getting a custom blog design for the third time, I feel like I know enough about the steps to share them with you. Hopefully it will help equip new bloggers for their first design, and help designers by working with better prepared customers.

Step One: Finding the Designer

Once you know you want a custom look for your blog, the first step is to find the designer you want to work with. Don't rush into a contract with the first designer you come across. Instead, look at several designers before deciding on one, and here are the things to look for when shopping designers:

1. Portfolio - do they do the style of design you want? If you really want a modern look for your blog and all they design are scrapbook style blog, then they may not be the best designer for you. Also, are the blogs in their portfolio pleasing to you? Are you impressed with her work?
2. Prices - these will vary depending on the designer's skill level and experience. The more experiences, highly trained designers will demand well over $100 for their work. The more self-taught, still-developing-their-skills designers will price their designs anywhere from $30 to $75. 
3. Waiting list or "queue" - this is how many bloggers they already have contracted to design for. If you are in a hurry for a new design and the designer you are looking at has a waiting list that reaches until March, then keep shopping.
4. Policies - these can be different things, like how many revisions to the design they will do, which images you have to pick from, how many changes you can make after a design is installed. Most designers are very reasonable and set policies to protect themselves from being taken advantage of by needy bloggers who change their mind too much.
   

Step Two: Get a Vision for Your Blog
Before contacting the designer, look around for blogs you admire, both in the designer's portfolio and around the Web. Decide what you really want or don't want. Write down the URL address to blogs you like.

Don't expect a designer to create a design exactly like a blog you show her. Not only does she want to create something original, exactly duplicating another blogger's design is wrong and akin to stealing.

It is acceptable, however, to use another blog for inspiration. Your designer may use similar effects to achieve the design you invision, yet stay far from the original blog's design. For example: I was very fond of many design elements used at A Soft Place to Land, and we were able to get some of the same effect for BBD using different images. You would not come here and think you were there and vice-versa.

Things to think about are:

1. What style do you want? Scrapbook, modern, shabby-chic
2. How many columns do you want for your blog? One, two, three?
3. Do you want a menu or navigation bar?
4. What style font do you like?
5. Is load time a factor for you? Some backgrounds take the longer to load.
6. Do you want post dividers, sidebar dividers, other design elements?
   

Step Three: Contact the Designer

Once you know the designer you want to work with, know the look you want for your blog, then you contact her to place an order.  

1. Follow whatever procedure they instruct you to on their site. Some just have you email them, others have you copy a questionnaire to paste into an email, and have you answer the questions in that email. 
• Make sure to fill out the questionnaire completely, including any pictures or images you want used (like a picture of a child you want put in your header). Sending those at a later date makes more work for the designer as she will have to sift through emails to find the "pieces and parts" you want for your blog, rather than just opening up the one email that should include everything.
  
2. Pay the Paypal invoice they send you. This will secure your spot in their queue. They will invoice you for either all or half their design fee. (I have worked with two that require a deposit and one that required full payment). The final invoice will be sent after the design is final; you'll be invoiced and must pay before they install it on your blog.
   
3. Watch your spot on their queue. Don't pester them with emails about when your turn is coming. Most all of them have a waiting list on their sites which you can keep track of yourself. Also, make sure that you are ready for when your design comes up. If you see that you'll be on vacation, contact her so that she can move you down and another blogger up. 
4. Check your email often. This is VERY important through the whole process! They will be contacting you only via email, so stay on top of it. If they have a question for you and you do not respond in a timely manner, they will place your design on hold and go on to the next customer. This is their business and you are holding them up from another job.

Step Four: Designing the Blog

The first thing your designer will do is look at the questionnaire you filled out about what you like, don't like, what blogs you like the look of, what styles you like, etc. Then she will create a first draft based on those answers. She will notify you, with an address for you to view the design. Once you see it, do the following things:

1. Really look at the design. It may not be exactly what you envisioned or it may be nothing like you envisioned, but give it a few minutes to register for you. Then, pick out the things you DO like about it (if it isn't want you want as a whole) and write them in a reply email to the designer. She will keep those effects while revamping the rest. Maybe give her some ideas in your reply so she knows better the direction to go in.
• Example: When I was having a new design made for Moving Forward, Summer's first draft was nothing like I envisioned, but there were a couple of things I liked about it. She kept those and then scrapped the rest. Her next version hit the mark much better.
  
2. Be concise about changes you want made. If you love the first draft but need a few changes, list them all out in ONE email. Take your time before sending the email so that you have a chance to think of all the little tweaks and changes you would like. I am sure it is irritating to a designer to get 10 emails listing tiny little changes; put them in one email. 
• I struggle with this one, so know that it is an easy mistake to do. Bless Erin's heart!
  
3. Compare Browsers. If you use Internet Explorer, be sure to look at your new design on Firefox and vice-versa. Sometimes the design won't "lay" right, and the designer will need to modify a few things. This step is necessary because your readers may be using a browser you are not and if your site is all quirky and out of sink, they won't stick around.
   
4. Don't be too picky. Yes, you paid for a custom design, but don't nickle and dime your designer to death; they can only do so much. If you paid $500 for your design, then you probably have more room to be ultra-particular about everything, but if you paid $55 for your design, be respectful of your designer's time. 
• Example: The swirly font in my new design was a little two swirly for me. Erin gave me some other options, which didn't suit me either and rather than have her spend more time searching, I stuck with this one, and I have since grown to love it!

Step Five: Making the Design Live

After the designer has made all the revisions you asked for and you are content with the final look of the blog, she will ask you for your ID and password to your blog. Or, you can make her an author to the blog and she will be able to go in and install that way. I have done it both ways and they work fine.

Things to remember during this step in the process are:

1. Decide on a time when you want it installed. You will want to be around when it is so that you can move things around because some gadgets and text will be displaced during the transition. I call this time "unpacking." 
• Example: I asked Erin not to install until the afternoon, when I would be home to "unpack." I didn't want the site to have things look out of place or in weird spots (to me).
2. Be timely about back-end changes. If there are things you notice that need changing, email her right away, while she is still "on" your job. Don't come to her three weeks later and say "oh, by the way, can you change..." 
• Things to look at are spacing of the text at the margins and sidebars, even in the comments. Those are often overlooked by bloggers during the process.
3. Acknowledge your designer in a blog post. She has worked hard for you and word of mouth is one of the best forms of advertising in their line of business.  
4. Do NOT change the design. The blog template your designer has created is their creation, their name is attached to it. When you tamper with it, while keeping their name on it (usually in a button on the side or at the bottom) you may inadvertently put them at risk for legal trouble if you add an image that is not legally yours to use (usually done without knowing). If you wish to change something, first notify them.
   

Phew! That is the longest post I've ever written. I sure hope it proves useful! And, whoever wins the custom blog design I am giving away this week should read over steps two through five to make the process easier from herself and for Erin.

Designers - If you think of something you would like me to add or change, please contact me.

BBD was Featured!

I am so excited! BBD has received has been featured for the first time! Jill at Blog Tips by Sneaky Momma did a post about Beautiful Blog Designs the other day and I am really appreciate it!

If you haven't seen Blog Tips by Sneaky Momma you should check it out. She writes the BEST tutorials out there! Most of the tutorials I list on BBD link back to her site. I am honored that she recommended my site to her readers.

Hey, Jill is also a talented blog designer with incredible prices! Go to Blogs by Sneaky Momma to see her portfolio and to see what she can do for you.

Blog Critiques Available

Let me start by stating that I am NOT an blog expert by any means. However, I have looked a lot of blogs and studied them probably more closely than most people do. I have read and followed what blogging experts advise (and I really do agree with), and the results are the blogs I own, Beautiful Blog Designs and Moving Forward.

I have accumulated a lot of information for this blog and done my best to categorize it in a way that is very user friendly. But, I think that there may be so much information, some important, simple things get overlooked. So, I am going to start offering to do blog critiques. What does that mean? Well, you simply send me an email asking me to take a look at your site to see if there is any thing you can add or change to make your blog more reader friendly and more appealing.

Don't worry, I will not be publicizing the critiques, they will simply be email between us. All I ask is that after the critique, if you made changes and are happy with them, that you mention Beautiful Blog Designs in a post or by putting my button in your sidebar (maybe just temporarily since I am not in favor of tons of buttons).

If you would like a critique, please include the following information in your email:

• Your first name
• Your blog address
• How long you have been blogging
• Anything else you think is pertinent

Tutorials and Blogging Aid

New to blogging and have tons of questions? Or have you been doing it a while, but feel the need to polish your blog a bit? Here is a list of questions that I have had during my time blogging, and links to tutorials that I think provide the best help (most come from Sneaky Momma Blog Design).

• Adding Sidebar Images
• Archive Menu
• Backup Your Blog
• Block Quotes
  
• Blogger Nav Bar
• Borders
• Borders (Header)
• Button Grab Box
• Centering Images
• Changing Background Color
  
• Create a Header
• Create an Email Link
  
• Custom Colors
• Download Template
• Email Benefits
• Linking to Others
• Menu/Navigation Bar
  
• Parts of a Blog
• Post Dividers
• Posting Larger Pictures
  
• Practice (Test) Blogs
• Scheduling Posts
• Screen Shots
• Signatures
• Strikethroughs
• Three Column Template

Here are some sites designed specifically to help bloggers build better blogs:

• BlogCoach
• Blogger Tricks
  
• Blogging Basics 101
• Pretty Your Blog
  
• Sneaky Momma Blog Design

If you know of a topic/question I have missed and have a well-explained tutorial, please leave me a comment and I will add it to this post. Have a question that I didn't address? Leave your question in a comment and I will try my best to help find you the answer.

Growing Pains for BBD

Growing pains? You are probably wondering why I decided to use that phrase for this blog post title. Well, I have decided to suffer some pain in order to grow this blog. How? I have submitted Beautiful Blog Designs to be critiqued by readers at BlogCoach. I wanted to do this so that I can mold BBD into a site that is extremely user friendly, although I am sure some of it will be painful along the way.

BlogCoach is a blog dedicated to helping bloggers shape and refine their blogs so they can be as good as can be. Angie, the owner of BlogCoach, is constantly finding new ideas and tips for us to analyze and review and possibly use on our own blogs. There is also a forum board for you to ask questions to other, more experienced bloggers.

So, if you have been dying to tell me my mistakes or just want to share some tips you think will help me here, head over to BlogCoach tomorrow and participate in the critique.

Special Note:
Editing to add that the critique has started. Click here to read my questions for BlogCoach's readers. Post your suggestions there, not here.

Blogging Tips at Sneaky Momma Blog Design

I found a very useful site this morning that I just had to share with you - Sneaky Momma Blog Design. No, she isn't a blog designer, but she does give you incredibly useful blog tips that will help you create and fix things for your own blog.

The site is extremely well laid out and organized, even breaking down the tips into beginner, intermediate and advanced. Some of the instructions she provides are how to create your header, making a button grab box, adding sidebar images and even adding screen shots (that is something i have been wanting to learn).

Here is my first attempt printing a screen, printing the very screen she is teaching the print screen trick (so predictable clever, I know).


I strongly recommend you go check out her site and if you aren't a problogger or a designer, you should bookmark her site, and follow it to hear future tips.


p.s. Be sure to stay tuned, because I am going to host a giveaway soon! The best way not to miss it is to subscribe or follow (both found on the side bar to the left).

Blogging Help From The Experts

I was ready to showcase another designer, but decided first to talk about basic blogging.

Through my surfing to find blog template designers, I have seen many blogs with great blog templates, yet they are a mess with too many buttons, pictures and buttons that are all askew on the sidebars, posts that have no paragraph breaks and more. Those things can detract from your blog design and even turn away readers.

Do you want to have a blog that is attractive, flows well, draws readers in and keeps them there a while? I strongly urge you to visit the many excellent sources of blogging tips and tricks. Go to one or more and listen to what is being said. Read the design tips they offer, listen to the pet peeves that are listed, find out all the little things you can do to improve your blog before you ever install a gorgeous free template or contact designer for a custom blog design.

The authors at my favorite blog-aid sites were successful with their own blogs before starting a blog-tech blog.

Here are the one I frequently go to:

Modern Media Mom (also the designer at Fruition Designs).

Darn Good Blogging (also the author of Simple Mom).

Blogging Basics 101 (also the author of Bloggy Giveaways).

Blog Coach (also the author of Baby Cheapskate).

There is also a forum at Blog Coach where you can ask Angie, the owner, and other bloggers about anything related to blogging.

Hopefully as I grow in my confidence with blogging, I will feel qualified enough to give advice, but for now, I will simply point you to the experts!

Making Your OWN Blog Template

So, you have been searching and searching for that perfect free blog template yet you can't find it. You cannot afford a premade or custom design either, so what should you do? Just keep the same old, boring Blogger template you chose when you created your blog? Nope! I have the solution for you!

Yesterday I found this wonderful site that helps you learn to create your own blog template, including buttons and other extras. The site is SJH Blog Design and the owner has done an amazing job of breaking down the steps you need to take in order to create a complete, well designed blog template.

You will need to download a digital scrapbook kit in order to create the backgrounds and header, but don't worry, there are many places that offer free kits. I will begin relocating those sites (I have seen them, just need to get back to them) so I can pass them on to you. In the mean time, Google "free digital scrapbook kits" and see what you can find.

SJH Blog Designs provides instructions for all the extras you may want when creating your own blog template. Here are the tutorials she made available:

• Three column layouts
• Scrolling middle layout
• Adding fonts
• Adding new Gadget sections to a template
• Adding an email link
• Making clickable buttons

How cool is this site? I love it! When my Usborne business slows down in the summer, I will create a test blog with the sole purpose of creating my own template and I will share the finished product with you.

If you use SJH Blog Designs to create your own template, please come back here and let me know your blog address so I can visit your site and even included it in this post for future readers.

Another site you can utilize to help you make adjustments to your current blog template or to one you create with SJH Blog Design, is Blogger University. The author of that blog has found how to tweak and fix many common template troubles.

Blogging Help - Memes

If you are new to blogging you are probably saying "what the heck are memes?" Well, they are a theme to follow and then you leave your post's permalink (the exact address to that particular post, not your blog's home address) at the site that started the meme.

Click here for an example of a post a did for the Haiku meme I follow at my personal blog Moving Forward. I then left my post's permalink at A Mommy Story (the blogger who hosts the meme) so that others could click over to view my post. It gave me something to write about that day and helped get more traffic to my blog.

Here are some other memes you make like to follow:

Meal Planning Monday
Not Me Monday
Random Thoughts Tuesday
A B See Photo Meme
Works For Me Wednesday
Family Fun Foto Friday
Six Word Saturday
Living Simply Saturdays

There are many other memes out there you can follow. The Daily Meme is a site that is like a directory of memes so check it out if you don't see one here you would like. If you find one or more that are really interesting, please come back and leave a comment so I can update this list. Thanks!

Here are the memes I follow. To go the site where they are hosted, simply click on the pictures.

Making Your Blog More Appealing

I was very pleased with the Bloggy Giveaways Carnival happy with how many people were interested in beautifying their blog! So, I thought I would talk a little about how to make your blog more appealing, with or without a new design.

The tips I am about to give were found at Modern Media Mom which has great blogging tips and advice, so please know these aren't just my personal opinions. They are in no particular order of importance.

• Color - Make sure you use colors that are pleasing to the eye and don't make the reader need to squint to read, or give them a headache after being at your site for long. Also, try not to use backgrounds that are too busy and distracting to the eye.
  

• Fonts - Keep your font large enough so your posts are easy to read. Also, use fonts that are easy to read and help pull the eye across the page.
  

• Keep your sidebar tidy - This can be hard because there are so many cute buttons and graphics we want to have on our blogs. But, some blogs are so cluttered and busy with graphics, widgits and buttons that it is just a mess. I don't need to give an example of this as I am sure everyone has seen them.

• Professional, attractive banner - If you cannot afford a custom design (and don't care for any of the free templates linked in my sidebar), at least splurge for a custom header. Most designers charge between $15 and $25 for a custom header and it can have a lot of impact
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Blogging Help

For more helpful posts on blogging, click on "blogging help" in the label cloud in the sidebar. 

For tutorials on various blogging topics, go to my Tutorials page.

Here are some other places to get answers to your blogging questions.

• HTML 101 (courtesy of A Blog to Brag About)
  
• Memes
• Blog Design How To's
• BlogCoach
• Blogger Buster
• Blogger University
• Blogging Basics 101
• Blogging Etiquette
• Daily Blog Tips
  
• Darn Good Blogging
• Modern Media Mom
• Sneaky Momma Blog Design
• Tips for New Bloggers