Looking for a new design for the New Year? We have just added new Premade Blogger Templates to our shop for those that want a new look, without having to empty their pockets!

Our premade templates are created for use with Blogger.com. This one up for grabs is called “Sunny Days” in yellow, teal and a touch of bright pink. The template is completely code already so once it’s purchased, the header + button will be customized with your blog title + slogan, then installed for you within two business days (excluding holidays + weekends). These templates are currently priced at only $25.

There is an option for purchasing the template “with changes” for $50. These changes include colors of the header, background and matching button as well as font styles. Additional items such as signature graphics, column changes (from left to right or upgrading to a 3 column template) can be purchased separately.

Here’s your chance to win this template “as is” (with header + button personalization), just in time for the New Year!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Unfortunately, blog design does have a few “no-no’s”. We’re going to take a look at some basic, though often violated, designing “no-no’s” that you are going to want to tuck in your back pocket.

1. Too Much Goin’ On

Try to keep your design and overall layout from getting too “busy”. One of the most unattractive things in the blogosphere is a cluttered blog. You’ve seen them; you know what I’m talking about. Eye-popping backgrounds, too many ads, too many colors, more than three fonts, and a jumbled header design all lend to “clutter,” and you want to avoid them like the plague.

Keep things simple. When you decide on a header design, opt for no more than one to two images and one to two fonts. Keep your colors simple. Two to three main colors in your overall design should do the trick. Consolidate your ads – choose which ones are actually bringing in the money and stick with those. You may also consider resizing all of your ads to the same size (150x150px for example) in order to give your “ad block” a uniform look.

Group, group, group. Give your sidebars some order by grouping. This will keep your readers from having to search high and low to find something in your sidebar. Group ads together, then group feeds, subscribe buttons, stat counters together, etc. I think you get the idea.

2. Hot pinks, Hot Greens…Hot Anything

Yes, many of us grew up in the 80’s, but that doesn’t mean that it is a good idea to brandish hot pinks and greens on our blogs. Hot colors are hard on the eye and generally unappealing. Steer clear from these if at all possible. Note: Using these sparingly and wisely can be done without straining the eyes such as for a logo, sidebar graphic, etc.

3. Red on Blue, Purple on Green

If you want to use up a bottle of Excedrin within a week, try reading a blog that uses red font on a blue background. You’ll go cross-eyed. Have pity on your readers and stick with a basic dark font on light background. Which brings me to the next point….

4. Dark Background with Light Font

This is a rule that I see violated often. While white font on a black background is not as hard on the eyes as red on blue, it is still hard on the eyes. Stick with a light background and dark font – your readers (and their eyes) will thank you for it.

5. Background Music

While I have to admit that there are at least two websites I have run across with nice background music that fits their “look”, background music is a generally a no-no. People do not like to be “forced” to listen to your music. Perhaps they don’t like your style of music, perhaps you startled them with your music when clicked to your site, perhaps they can’t concentrate on reading while the music is playing. Unless you can find a subtle sound that is generally appealing to most people and that fits your blog’s “feel” and “theme,” you would be better off restraining yourself from adding any music.

2. Find this code (You can use CTRL + F and search to find it quickly):

<b:include data=’blog’ name=’all-head-content’/>

3. Now add the following code, just after the above code that you just found:

<meta content=’DESCRIPTION HERE’ name=’description’/>
<meta content=’KEYWORDS HERE’ name=’keywords’/>
<meta content=’AUTHOR NAME HERE’ name=’author’/>

4. Replace the content of the previous code, with the content that is needed:

DESCRIPTION HERE: Write your blog description
KEYWORDS HERE: Write the keywords of your blog
AUTHOR NAME HERE: Write the author’s name(Your name)

5. Now click Save Template. You’re done!

Well, if you’ve ever wondered if you could get rid of it, take heart,  you can! It’s fairly simple, though it does include a tad bit of coding.

1. Sign in to your Blogger account
2. Click on “Layout”
3. Click on “Edit HTML”
4. Copy the code below and paste it anywhere after the    /* Variable definitions code and just above the  body { code:

#Navbar1 {margin: 0; padding: 0; display: none; visibility: hidden; }

5. Click Save. You’re all set!

Now Offering WordPress Installation + Blog Setup

What is included in the package:

• Complete WordPress installation
• Installation of your chosen WordPress Theme
• Setup permalinks to improve SEO for your blog
• Setup Google Analytics code to track your blog’s traffic
• Setup Feedburner account to allow users to subscribe via RSS
• Install anti-spam to prevent comment spam
• Setup automate daily backups for safety
• Setup SEO plugin to optimize your WordPress blog for Search Engines
• Generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines to index your blog
• Create contact form

Special Price: $99

Contact us for more information or to book your blog setup project today!

NOTE: Blog Design is additional charge. There are plenty of free quality themes that may be used in your blog setup. Or you may choose to purchase a premade or custom designed theme from Budding Blogs.

What one must consider, however, before creating a website, are the factors in which must be put to thought before doing so, such as the cost, maintenance, use, web host and so forth.

Firstly, associating with the cost, we must always try to find an affordable host, not spending too much, nor too little. A cheap host does not exactly symbolize a credible reliability rating, but we must always look for value for money deals. Also, regarding the efficiency and server/web host reliability, there are many cases of web hosts not providing the service they had assured other people, some had even shut down and were nowhere to be seen. Keep this note in mind, as if you would like a long-lasting website, this would be the first thing to look for.

Next, would hiring a professional be affordable? Is it the best option? For simple websites, we could always pick up the coding, or even use programs, as it is relatively simple. However, when it comes to more complex coding, and when you want it to do a tad more than just providing information, hiring help in doing so would be the best way. Not only in terms of design, but security is also a key factor in assuring a quality website. If the website also acts as a portal for businesses, security would definitely be the issue here.

So, having considered the things to do before building a website, do we actually NEED one? If creating one would boost sales or promote positive implications to oneself, then by all means, go ahead and do what’s best. Yet again, planning is the key to success, in everything we do.

Blogger.com is a free blogging platform and is fairly simple to use.   Anyone can sign up and begin writing their first post within 10 minutes. There are quite a number of free templates for use, use CSS to customize the design to your liking or you have the option of hiring a designer if you desire. You can purchase a domain name to use with your Blogger account to shorten the url, make it more memorable and professional looking such as http://YourBlog.com rather than http://YourBlog.blogspot.com.

Cons of Blogger

Design. While you can customize and tweak the designs, you are not 100% in control of the outcome. Many designers charge more for having to work with Blogger’s XML coding than the more widely used XHTML and others choose not to work with it at all.

In the past few months, quite a few issues with the ‘ease of use’ within the Blogger Platform have arose. Many once found Blogger to be easy to use due to the gadgets and the ability to add or remove them as well as ‘rearrange’ or move them around in the Blogger Dashboard. Now, after Blogger made some changes, many people can no longer arrange those gadgets around as they please. While the Blogger help forums are filled with complaints, one is able to use a different browser and cross their fingers with the possibility that it might work – but of course, no promises.

There have also been numerous bloggers with the complaints that their blog has been marked as spam and their blogs being removed (deleted permanently) without warning. These ‘spammers’ have included some that were quite innocent such as Frugal bloggers sharing coupons and deals or Mommy bloggers with product reviews or parenting tips. Google/Blogger does own the content and has the authority to shut down any blog/account without warning if they choose. While Blogger does allow you to publish to your own domain name, they own the database that holds the content to your blog.

Of course the list doesn’t end there. The disappearing act of comments with no way to retrieve them, errors during the process of adding or removing a gadget, deletion of gadgets upon changing layouts and all the downtime due to ‘maintenance’.

Pros of WordPress

Design. You, or a designer, have the ability to customize or create your blog design 100% to your liking. CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, Plugins, etc. You name it, it’s most likely able to be done! The WordPress Community has developed hundreds of plugins to boost the functionality of WP.  There are plugins for SEO, Social Networking, Related Posts and everything in between including using WP as a CMS to turn your blog into an all-in-one site Website, Blog & E-Commerce Boutique!  And, if you have a question regarding WP, the forums are filled with answers.

With WordPress.org you have full control over your blog. As it is self-hosted, you don’t have to worry about anyone considering your writings to be ‘spam’ or wandering if your blog will be disappearing overnight. You own the domain and it is hosted on your own account so you have FULL control over your content.

The software is free and most hosts offer one click installs. Only costs are hosting and domain; realistically that shouldn’t be more than $75 a year (in most cases less). You can choose from hundreds of free themes with WordPress as well to get started.

Cons of WordPress

For a personal blog, if you aren’t worried about it having any downtime or possibly disappearing at anytime, the cost of hosting and a domain name may be a con. For any business and any person that has numerous readers and numerous posts in which they count on being there for future reference, that cost would be well worth it.

Final Word

WordPress can do everything that Blogger can do and more. Even though Blogger is free all around, in the end, I still believe you get what you pay for.

If you happen to be ready to transfer from Blogger to a self-hosted WordPress blog and are interested in how Sashwhy’s Studio can help, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.

Having a custom blog design is important. Why? In short, blogs are popping up all over the internet…what is going to set yours apart? I know you don’t want to look like the billions of other blogs out there – especially if you are attempting to make money online through your blog – so why are you settling for a ho-hum, run-of-the-mill blog design? In this article, we’ll look at the basics of a custom blog design, starting from what a custom blog design is, to how you can get a custom blog design.

What is a Custom Blog Design?

A custom blog design is a blog template that is designed with certain specifications in mind in order to give the blog owner a unique presence on the Web. A blog owner could venture out to create his own custom blog design, but he would need to know how to code HTML and possibly some CSS.

Each blog is different and has a different “feel” because each person writing a blog is a unique individual! That being the case, each blog should reflect the uniqueness of the writer by the way that it looks. Setting up a custom blog design for your blog can take some time and energy (and most likely some money) but it will be worth it in the long run and will please both you and your readers.

Why Need a Custom Blog Design?

With the “blogosphere” booming, you need a blog that “stands out” in the crowd! While “content is king” and will always determine whether or not you receive a good page rank, if you have a crummy design, readers will leave your site sooner. A custom blog design is a must!

What’s worse is that if you keep your “default” template that was given by your blog platform (whether Blogger, WordPress or whatever platform you went with) you will look just like the thousands of other bloggers who kept their default template too!

How to get a Custom Blog Design?

As mentioned earlier, if you are saavy at HTML or CSS and design, you may want to try your hand at creating your own custom blog design. You would need to familiarize yourself with your current blog platform to see what kind of features and functions they have for designing your blog and whether or not they will host your images.

If you are not interested in designing your own blog design, you can hire a custom blog designer. Blog designers are experienced in coding and design and will be able to create a beautiful and unique look for your blog. Take note of blogs whose design you really like and try to find out who designed it (you can usually find this out by locating a link or button in the blog saying “designed by”.

No matter what, your blog will have better success if you have a look and feel that represents you and that pleases your readers! It’s time to invest in a custom blog design!

Two of our newest additions are FREE blog backgrounds!

Each design is ready easy to install (we have installation instructions ready for you!) and ready to download in minutes!

Browse our free backgrounds now! We know these will be a blessing to your pocket book.

You can also stay updated on new designs by  subscribing to our feed!