What Designing My Blog Taught Me

Tuesday, April 18, 2017


My Old Design

Two years ago, I set about the task of redesigning this little space. From scratch. I was armed with inspiration and Adobe Illustrator and had no idea what I was in for. It turned into a fun project and I am very pleased with the results. So pleased that I haven't changed a thing since then.

A month later, on February 2, 2015, I wrote a list of the things that I had learned during the whole process. Here's what designing my blog taught me:

*The number of bloggers doing their own design work is shrinking. Most people replied to my questions with "Ummm...I'm so sorry, I don't know! Someone else designed my blog. I have no idea!"

*It's not going to happen without great friends and a googling monster for a Mom. Whenever I came to a dead end, I would reach out and ask for help. I e-mailed people who I thought could help and while most of them couldn't, the few that did, saved the day! We can't forget my Mom. When nothing was working, I'd ask her to look for a different tutorial. She even sat there reading coding for me so that I could find my mistake!

*Tutorials are everything. I found NOTHING on pinterest and everything from bloggers who shared tutorials or lists of tutorials on their blogs.

*Getting started is easy. The hours of finding helpful tutorials, designing elements, and playing with coding isn't too bad.

*Making the jump to actually APPLY them to your blog and share it with everyone is the hardest. It was so difficult that I almost didn't go through with it.

*The best place to begin is to look at the blogs that you visit most often and make a list of the things that you love and a list of the things that bother you about each one. Be brutal. Compare your blog with theirs and ask yourself where you need to improve and what you're doing that drove you crazy on their blogs.

*Don't hesitate to e-mail other bloggers. They might not be able to help you, but they all want to!

Do you do any design work or do you hire it out?

When was the last time your blog had a makeover?




1 comment:

  1. I've been designing blogs and webpages since I was in my early teens. You had to get the fun cursors and moving backgrounds for your Livejournal page! haha

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