Here’s an abridged version of Michael Dunlop’s Day 3 instructions for his 30 Day Blog Plan and which Steve and I are using for our “Making Money From Blogging” duel. Michael says….
Day 3: Customizing Your Blog Design. I have used dozens of designers in the past, a lot come and go and it can be really hard to keep just one. However for those of you who don’t know where to get designers, here’s what I would do. I would start by visiting TalkFreelance , which is a design forum, they have a few good designers looking for work, click here to see those people . If that didn’t work, I would try other forums such as Sitepoint, Digitalpoint and WarriorForum . If it was just a header or logo change I needed, I would probably opt for a design competition, either at http://99designs.com or http://logomyway.com where you can sometimes get over 500 entries for your contest.
Nicola says: Ok, I’m feeling a lot of resistance to this task – I generally feel very disappointed when I get designers involved. The gap between what I envisage in my head and what they come up with is usually too great, and I resent the fact you generally have to pay them up front (or at least 50%) and then you end up wrangling about the design. I wish I could work DreamWeaver or Photoshop or whatever it is they use (Steve has learned to use one, not sure which) so that I could get my ideas out of my head onto a logo but that’s a learning curve too far.
However, I do have a photographer mate who has taken an amazing photograph of Brighton’s ruined West Pier, which would make an awesome blog header so I’m getting my graphic designer on Fiverr.com (anything done for $5 – quite amazing!) to rough up a header so I can show Paul and hopefully get his permission. Takes 5 days turnaround but usually a bit quicker so expect to see a header by then.
Another big disappointment is that Steve’s gone off the idea of the duel, he’s suddenly got a lot of work come in and he’s been feeling, apparently, that I’m cheating a bit by using OptimizePress even though I pointed out that it’s a Theme and nobody put any limitations on the kind of theme we could use. I feel he’s got an advantage over ME in that he’s a Frugle expert, pretty much, by now and also that my laptop is in for repairs and I’m limping along on a willing but geriatric computer that takes 10 secs to think about any action AND I’m without any of my usual software, like Camtasia or Sony Vegas.
Anyway, whatever happens with the Duel I’m getting on with it. I’ve added some blog content and put a YouTube video and some content on my squeeze page although under the terms of the Duel, no more than that. It’s all designed eventually to encourage visitors to download the Free Report – all textbook stuff so far.
Also I’ve created a spreadsheet telling me which blogs to work on and what to do on which day, for my “30 Blogs in 90 Days” challenge which is NOT about setting up 30 new blogs, but about paying some focused attention on the domains / blogs I’ve got, following Michael’s plan, so that they all get some love. Just click it to see how I’ve laid it out.