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January 16, 2012
9:41 pm

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I am in the process of transferring from Blogger to my self-hosted WordPress site and would like to know if I can import a portion of my Blogger posts over to WP. I don’t want to import over 250 posts into WordPress just the most recent three months worth. The only way I thought of was to delete all the posts from before the three months, but I don’t want to lose them and would like to keep them.

Anyone know if this can be done? I’ve searched Google, but I must be using the wrong terms because I can’t find anything!

January 23, 2012
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I am not sure you can selectively import posts from Blogger to Wp BUT you can import to a free wordpress.com blog then I believe there is a way to select posts to import. I do this all the time for clients and have some really good tricks that I have learned to get this done correctly. Let me know if you need help & I can walk you through it. 🙂

February 8, 2012
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Hey Erin,

We don’t currently know of a way to selectively import your blog posts.  However, you can import all your posts…then manually select the ones you want to delete in the “Posts” section of your WP dashboard.  We’ll keep looking for a way to do this though!

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August 26, 2012
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My name is Beth and I know nothing about web/blog design but hope to learn. I’m looking at WordPress specifically. Have my own domain and am in the process of trying to figure it all out how to design it. Will probably start out with the workshops on this site but if anyone knows of any other great tutorials, classes, workshops, please let me know. Glad to meet you all. sf-smile-6296608

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Difficult Clients | Advice and Feedback | Forum

December 5, 2011
10:46 am

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OK, I know I cannot be the only one who has to deal with difficult clients so I am curious, how others deal with them. I have had a couple in recent months that have been so difficult, I have considered giving up designing all together.

I am pretty easy going and I do not install a design until it has been finalized by the client, so when they come back time and again after installation wanting one more thing or one more tweak, I start to get annoyed. I know things come up, so I am all prepared for a few items, but sometimes it seems to get out of hand and I guess I just don’t know how to draw the line.

I want my clients to be happy, but at the same time I don’t want to feel like I am letting them use me.

I began designing because I really enjoyed it, but some of my clients take all the joy away.

Any and all feedback you may have is appreciated.

December 29, 2011
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This certainly is a tricky topic and something that must always been handled with care! 

That being said – you are right – you can’t let people walk all over you. This is still a business for you and by taking the time to go back and make changes free of charge, valuable time is lost.  

I haven’t had this happen often, but for quite some time I’ve strictly outlined in my terms that once a design is installed, I will not make changes – no exceptions. I used to give a 24-48 hour window, but I don’t even do that anymore.  

I, too, want my clients to be pleased with the services they receive from me, but I want them to know that my time and work is valuable – not free. Surprisingly enough I truly haven’t had many complications when responding to clients by telling them changes can be made for a fee.

Have you given that response a try? I know it’s hard…

January 2, 2012
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I guess I just need to put my foot down and do as you say – charge them for additional changes and let them know up front about changes after installation.

Thanks for the help!

January 12, 2012
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I haven’t had this problem yet, but I think I will add something to my TOS about additional changes before it becomes an issue.  Thanks for the advice! 

-Katie

January 16, 2012
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Yep, difficult clients come with the territory when you take on design as a profession. Having a difficult client definitely sucks the fun out of things. :-/

I used to be more of a push-over and operated without a design agreement for years until I had 2 back-to-back experiences with clients from H.E. double hockey sticks (btw, anyone visit http://clientsfromhell.net/ ? Hilarious!).

Anyway, I’ve learned from experience that having a service agreement helps in outlining what is and isn’t included with my fee.

Difficult clients can also bruise your ego with their endless list of revision requests. Sometimes you’re left wondering why they hired you at all. Lol But remember, you’re the expert and it’s ok to gently push back when you feel the client is making an unreasonable request or a design error. Point out to them that they hired you for a reason – to keep their best interests in mind when designing for them.

It hasn’t come to this yet for me (although I’ve come pretty close), but if push comes to shove, fire a difficult client. Offer them a refund or something and move on. Sometimes, it’s not worth it to continue working with someone if red flags are waving wildly in your face. 

The bottom line is that you don’t HAVE to do anything you’re not comfortable doing. You got into this field for the freedom to be creative and enjoy what you do. No one can make you miserable unless you let them.

April 11, 2012
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ModernMuse said:

Yep, difficult clients come with the territory when you take on design as a profession. Having a difficult client definitely sucks the fun out of things. :-/

I used to be more of a push-over and operated without a design agreement for years until I had 2 back-to-back experiences with clients from H.E. double hockey sticks (btw, anyone visit http://clientsfromhell.net/ ? Hilarious!).

Anyway, I’ve learned from experience that having a service agreement helps in outlining what is and isn’t included with my fee.

Difficult clients can also bruise your ego with their endless list of revision requests. Sometimes you’re left wondering why they hired you at all. Lol But remember, you’re the expert and it’s ok to gently push back when you feel the client is making an unreasonable request or a design error. Point out to them that they hired you for a reason – to keep their best interests in mind when designing for them.

It hasn’t come to this yet for me (although I’ve come pretty close), but if push comes to shove, fire a difficult client. Offer them a refund or something and move on. Sometimes, it’s not worth it to continue working with someone if red flags are waving wildly in your face. 

The bottom line is that you don’t HAVE to do anything you’re not comfortable doing. You got into this field for the freedom to be creative and enjoy what you do. No one can make you miserable unless you let them.

I agree ..I have had my share of bad ones and some that made me want to dig a hole  and just crawl in .. out of the 274  feedback  i have on  etsy only one is ‘bad” but this client took about a month to get back to me ended up leaving the bad feedback and then buying something elses .. That feedback is a remainder to my self that  you cant please everyone and you can dig as many holes as you want in the ground.. but stuff like this makes you a little more tougher as a designer .. that was in 2007 .. its now 2012 and the clients i have had this year have made that bad feedback seem like nothing.

May 9, 2012
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I am really happy that I found this board tonight.. It is has just been one of those days with one of those clients. I have had very difficult clients in the past who want change after change, but it is just something that you don’t get used to. Most of my clients are very easy going and often love my designs and require no changes from the very first draft, but then I have some that are just so difficult.. I often wonder if they are trying to be difficult on purpose.

Last year I had one particular client that drove me so freakin’ insane that I quit and took a leave of absence from designing for about a month and I don’t really want it to come to that again. After that incident, I added a section to my “Terms of Use” stating that the client had a certain number of days to make changes to their design or they would be charged additional fees. In the beginning this was just because I had clients that were dragging out the changes (they would want “only one small change”, but that would turn into a huge change every single day for weeks), or would want me to change this and then the next day change it back to the way it was, and on and on. Now, I’m considering adding a clause that  states that they can only receive a certain number of revisions before they are charged an additional fee.. At this point, I’m not sure what else I can do?

Has anyone else been forced by a client to make hideous changes to a design to the point where they don’t even want to be associated with that particular design? I’ve had these clients before and this lady is the same way. She has me using these horrible fonts, tacky images, and the design is quickly changing from something beautiful to something downright tacky.. Not to mention she basically told me from the beginning to recreate someone else’s tacky design as her own.. Seriously? Why is she wasting my time then? At this point, I don’t really even want my name on it and I don’t want to put it in my portfolio, but she really seems like the type of person to call you out on not including her design. 

Does anyone else get super defensive or offended when a client uses the words “so far”.. I send my clients a first draft, which is a completed design that they can make changes to, and I can’t tell you how nuts it makes me when they make a comment like, “OMG! I absolutely love what you’ve done! It looks fantastic so far!” It’s like they don’t realize that I’ve been working my butt off for days and that it is completed besides minor tweaks.. Grr.. Drives me nuts!

Sorry to have rambled.. Hopefully everyone else is having a better night than I am!

May 10, 2012
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utterlychaotic said:

Last year I had one particular client that drove me so freakin’ insane that I quit and took a leave of absence from designing for about a month and I don’t really want it to come to that again. After that incident, I added a section to my “Terms of Use” stating that the client had a certain number of days to make changes to their design or they would be charged additional fees. In the beginning this was just because I had clients that were dragging out the changes (they would want “only one small change”, but that would turn into a huge change every single day for weeks), or would want me to change this and then the next day change it back to the way it was, and on and on. Now, I’m considering adding a clause that  states that they can only receive a certain number of revisions before they are charged an additional fee.. At this point, I’m not sure what else I can do?

Has anyone else been forced by a client to make hideous changes to a design to the point where they don’t even want to be associated with that particular design? I’ve had these clients before and this lady is the same way. She has me using these horrible fonts, tacky images, and the design is quickly changing from something beautiful to something downright tacky.. Not to mention she basically told me from the beginning to recreate someone else’s tacky design as her own.. Seriously? Why is she wasting my time then? At this point, I don’t really even want my name on it and I don’t want to put it in my portfolio, but she really seems like the type of person to call you out on not including her design. 

I totally understand. I have had a couple beautiful designs get tacky and no amount or persuading worked. I did not include them in my portfolio as I did not want them associated with me. I have also had to rethink my terms of use and I have to make adjustments to them as new issues come up. It’s a learning process – each new client is different and some of them bring unexpected issues to the table. I myself have gotten pickier about the clients I take on. Sometimes you can tell that from the start, they are going to be difficult. It’s best to end it early and let them know you do not believe that you can give them the design they are looking for.

What sums this up the best for me is a comic from The Oatmeal titled “How a Web Design Goes Straight to H***”

sf-smile-6725698

May 10, 2012
11:14 am

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DBSdesigns said:

utterlychaotic said:

Last year I had one particular client that drove me so freakin’ insane that I quit and took a leave of absence from designing for about a month and I don’t really want it to come to that again. After that incident, I added a section to my “Terms of Use” stating that the client had a certain number of days to make changes to their design or they would be charged additional fees. In the beginning this was just because I had clients that were dragging out the changes (they would want “only one small change”, but that would turn into a huge change every single day for weeks), or would want me to change this and then the next day change it back to the way it was, and on and on. Now, I’m considering adding a clause that  states that they can only receive a certain number of revisions before they are charged an additional fee.. At this point, I’m not sure what else I can do?

Has anyone else been forced by a client to make hideous changes to a design to the point where they don’t even want to be associated with that particular design? I’ve had these clients before and this lady is the same way. She has me using these horrible fonts, tacky images, and the design is quickly changing from something beautiful to something downright tacky.. Not to mention she basically told me from the beginning to recreate someone else’s tacky design as her own.. Seriously? Why is she wasting my time then? At this point, I don’t really even want my name on it and I don’t want to put it in my portfolio, but she really seems like the type of person to call you out on not including her design. 

I totally understand. I have had a couple beautiful designs get tacky and no amount or persuading worked. I did not include them in my portfolio as I did not want them associated with me. I have also had to rethink my terms of use and I have to make adjustments to them as new issues come up. It’s a learning process – each new client is different and some of them bring unexpected issues to the table. I myself have gotten pickier about the clients I take on. Sometimes you can tell that from the start, they are going to be difficult. It’s best to end it early and let them know you do not believe that you can give them the design they are looking for.

What sums this up the best for me is a comic from The Oatmeal titled “How a Web Design Goes Straight to H***”

sf-smile-6725698

Haha! That perfectly describes my experience! I normally don’t change designs after installation and this woman e-mailed me eight times last night while I was installing her design to ask me to add another new social networking icon (she already had eight) and to try to add a floating image to the background and all kinds of other nonsense. If I had not been so close to the finish line with her, I would have just quit. New bloggers drive me nuts! She kept referring me back to this really crappy design and telling me how she wanted it to look like this particular design and how she liked this feature and that feature.. The person’s design looked very similar to the very last image in that comic.. This went on for hours until I finally was able to get her to compromise by using words like “pixelated font” and “user friendly”.. I have a feeling she’ll remove the design and go with some free pre-made design in about a week, but she continued to tell me how awesome things looked and how much she loved it while still asking for annoying little changes.

I normally include all designs in my portfolio and write a post about them, but I think I will probably skip the post and try not to draw attention to this horrible design.. I don’t want to be associated with it, but when I left my button out of her sidebar and just went with the footer link, she immediately called me on it and said she wanted my button there so I could get a bit more “exposure” (from her 20 followers).. Ugh. 

May 10, 2012
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PS – Now she is e-mailing me asking if we can change the background and if she can change the fonts, etc. I installed her design last night! She is also asking me how to remove a widget from her blog.. I am so over this. I told her that I can’t make any changes without charging her.. I just want her to leave me alone! Grr!

May 10, 2012
11:22 am

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Ugh! Once I get the approval on the final draft and prior to installation, I let my clients know that any changes need to be made before installation, otherwise a fee will be charged.

May 10, 2012
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DBSdesigns said:

Ugh! Once I get the approval on the final draft and prior to installation, I let my clients know that any changes need to be made before installation, otherwise a fee will be charged.

I normally do also and I kind of assumed that she understood that any further changes would have to be paid for, but I guess not. To top it off, I offer a military discount to wives, fiances, and girlfriends, and she haggled me into giving her a discount because her husband is a police officer and he “risks his life on a daily basis unlike soldiers who just risk their lives while deployed”.. I have already gone above and beyond for this lady and she just won’t stop. I am so over it. I have finals to do this week and I’ve already told her that.. I don’t have time for this.

May 10, 2012
11:35 am

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Tell her, “OK, I can make those changes for you, but it will cost $xx since the design has been installed” and see what she says.

I have a client who is a super saver (extreme couponer) and she is always trying to swindle deals out of me or she tries to add on one more thing several times. It took a while, but I learned to put my foot down and let her know that I can create the additional banner or whatever for a fee of $xx.

Best wishes on your finals!

May 10, 2012
11:39 am

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DBSdesigns said:

Tell her, “OK, I can make those changes for you, but it will cost $xx since the design has been installed” and see what she says.

I have a client who is a super saver (extreme couponer) and she is always trying to swindle deals out of me or she tries to add on one more thing several times. It took a while, but I learned to put my foot down and let her know that I can create the additional banner or whatever for a fee of $xx.

Best wishes on your finals!

I told her that and she told me not to worry about it, but now she is trying to get me to change her post body font to the exact same font as her post titles (which is a Google Web Font) and as I’m sure you know, they tend to pixelate on certain browsers and they just aren’t a good idea for anything other than titles.. She doesn’t seem to care if her readers can’t read her posts or how it will look.. I’ve been getting kind of snippy with her in hopes that she will just back off, but she just gets snippy right back. If she really wants to change to the body font, fine, but I will most definitely be charging her.. I don’t have time for this. I have a final due by midnight and I have yet to start because she e-mails me every five minutes.

Thank you! At this rate, I need all the luck I can get!  sf-smile-6725698

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1:34 pm

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Sorry you have such a difficult  client. You may want to tell her that you’d be glad to proceed with any changes but that it will be at your hourly rate.  Another designer I know itemizes every single item in the invoice she sends clients.  That way if they suggest something outside of the scope of that design she can point to the invoice to say “sure” but it will cost “x” amount.

Your time is valuable and you deserve to be paid for that extra time you invest in a design project.

May 10, 2012
1:37 pm

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Liz said:

Sorry you have such a difficult  client. You may want to tell her that you’d be glad to proceed with any changes but that it will be at your hourly rate.  Another designer I know itemizes every single item in the invoice she sends clients.  That way if they suggest something outside of the scope of that design she can point to the invoice to say “sure” but it will cost “x” amount.

Your time is valuable and you deserve to be paid for that extra time you invest in a design project.

Thank you, Liz! That is a great recommendation.. I do itemize my invoices, but I have considered charging an hourly rate for design work. I’ve only been designing for about about 18 months, so I often worry that I might be charging too much or that I’m not talented enough to demand an hourly rate, but I definitely think it is something that I should consider.

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January 14, 2012
8:01 am

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Any advice for how to keep track of my accounting: expenses, income, invoices, etc? I am clueless when it comes to this stuff. 

January 14, 2012
4:11 pm

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Katie, I just started using a tool called paymo and you can use it to invoice (which I haven’t done yet), keep track of your time, project plan and so much more. 

There are designs that I’ve worked on in the past that are HUGE time suckers and wasters. So I mostly started using this to help keep my design time in check.  

There is a free version you can try just go to paymo.biz 

For last years designs I’ve started keeping track with paper and pen and am just now getting that info into a spread sheet for tax purposes. 

Hope that helps.

-Liz

January 18, 2012
9:39 am

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Thanks for the advice Liz, I appreciate it. I will definitely check out the paymo tool! 

January 22, 2012
10:51 pm

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I’ve never heard of Paymo.biz before, thanks!

I just finished reading The Unlimited Freelancer and the book suggests several systems for billing & accounting…

Complete Accounting Systems:

Less Accounting

GoBootstrap

Xero

Invoicing or Billing Systems:

Billing Manager

Simply Invoices

Invoice Place

Blinksale

Invotrak

Invoices Made Easy

Bill My Clients

Billing Orchard

SimplyBill

Time:59

Bill4Time

Pay Simple

Cashboard

Invoice2Go

Harvest

Trac

Billable

BambooInvoice

CurdBee

Never hurts to be thorough! Lol 😉

January 23, 2012
6:31 am

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Wow, thanks for the recommendations.  I’m curious to know which you decide to go with, and how it works out for you!

June 22, 2012
10:01 am

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katieprice said:

Any advice for how to keep track of my accounting: expenses, income, invoices, etc? I am clueless when it comes to this stuff. 

There are a lot of tools for tracking projects, expense, income, invoice, time, etc.

These are the tools I would suggest for each:

Project Tracking – Replicon Project tracking software

invoice – Invoicera

Expense and time – Time clock

Hope it helps…

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Illustrator for Designing | Adobe Illustrator | Forum

January 22, 2012
5:11 pm userdefault-2998105

Chicago

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January 21, 2012

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Does anyone primarily use Illustrator to do their blog designs, then import into Photoshop? Just curious because I am much more familiar with ai than psd, but I know I’ll learn more over time 😉

January 22, 2012
10:51 pm

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February 10, 2011

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I use Illustrator for almost everything. I haven’t used Photoshop in so long – I forget how to do things.

Lynne MillerVisual Serendipity – Owner

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January 22, 2012
11:09 pm

Las Vegas

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October 30, 2011

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Too funny…I have the opposite problem. I work primarily in Photoshop, so when it’s time to switch to Illustrator, it takes me a few blinks to get situated. 🙂

The photo editing capabilities drive my decision to design primarily in Photoshop. I design other elements like icons or character illustrations in AI. That’s about it.

January 23, 2012
1:50 am

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I have the CS5 Master Collection but have yet to be able to do anything in Illustrator. My friend told me it was plug & play but I just don’t get it. LOL I use Photoshop for everything.

I do know I need to learn Illustrator. Just need some good tutorials, I guess. sf-laugh-4386315

February 8, 2012
12:43 am

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Illustrator is different than Photoshop because it uses vectors rather than pixels to create images.  Simply put, when you create things in Illustrator, they can be re-sized easily without resolution issues.  (You probably alredy know this.)  That’s why creating logos and print materials is ideal in Illustrator.  However, the web only uses a 72 pixel/inch resolution universally…so the need for making graphics easily re-sizable isn’t necessary.  Therefore, Photoshop is a better tool to learn when you’re just starting out. 

August 21, 2012
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Thanks for the vid, its been helpful. But im havnig trouble splitting the inner path in half in CS5. Seems i cannot find a Scissor tool and i dont know how to use the slice tool instead. Any/ALL advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

August 21, 2012
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Using Custom Web Fonts

December 16, 2011 By The Blog Designer Network

It’s easy to implement custom fonts onto your blog or website!  This tutorial is for both Blogger and WordPress, and will teach you how to choose a custom font for various areas of your site using the free Google Web Font repository.  For a larger selection, you can also try a Typekit membership.  You can choose fonts for your headings (like your post titles), and a font for your paragraphs (your posts and sidebar items.)  You may have more than two fonts – but to decrease the load time of your page, it’s best to have as few as possible.

Click “Add to Collection” when you’re on the page of the font you want to use, and when you’re done click “Use” at the bottom of the page.

font6-1024x576-7943892

Where it says “Add this code to your website”, highlight and copy the specified code.

fonts7-1024x951-1539827 The second red arrow is the pointing to code that you will add to your CSS.  (Scroll down for instructions on where to paste this.)

Instructions for Each Platform:

Blogger:  Add the first snippet of code right after the opening tag in your “Edit HTML” section.  Be sure to put a backslash before the closing angle bracket.

WordPress: Install the Google Web Fonts Plugin for WordPress.  Or if you know where to find the of your document, paste the code in that section. (Varies per theme.)  For the Genesis Theme Framework, go to “Theme Settings” and scroll down to the wp_head() section to paste the code in the box.  Or paste the @import line of code in the beginning of your CSS.

Now add the second snippet of code into your stylesheet under the headings and sections you would like to take on your chosen fonts.  This varies per template, but headings are generally identified with h1 – h6 classes.  For example, on this template we would add the CSS under this section:

#content h2 a, #content h2 a:visited {

    color: #16ABB8;

    text-decoration: none;

    font-family: ‘Satisfy’, cursive;

}

Suggestions:

A great tool you can use to see how fonts work with each other is the Web Font Combinator.  Choose your post title font, and body font.  Some tips for choosing fonts:

1.  Readability is key.  Use the tabs at the top of Google Web Fonts to view words, sentences, and paragraphs in each font.

2.  Fun, cursive, or distinctive fonts are generally okay to use on post titles.  For paragraphs, choose something simple, clean, and very easy to read.

3.  Mix serif with sans-serif fonts.  Make your titles serif, and paragraphs sans-serif – or vice versa.  Try using only uppercase letters for headings, make items bold or italic, and get creative!

Here are some suggestions! (Click on any thumbnail to view larger image.)

fonts7-150x150-5125297 font6-150x150-5153175 font1-150x150-2148252
font2-150x150-6610084 font3-150x150-4886714 font4-150x150-6532534
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5 Reasons Why You Should Hire a New Designer

September 12, 2012 By The Blog Designer Network

The art of designing blogs and websites is a relatively new and booming business.  Every month several people graduate our Blog & Web Designer Workshop, and other talented individuals all over the web are launching online-based design shops.  As a blogger, you may be looking for a designer using our directory, or are searching independently online.  Here are 5 reasons why you should consider hiring a new designer to work with you on your next project.

1.  Your website needs a more professional touch.

Whether you designed your own site, or had someone design it for you – it’s common to want (and need) a professional update.  Hiring a professional can be a rewarding and exciting experience, and the results can make your website stand out among a sea of sites designed by amateurs.  The difference in quality is striking, and the result is easily identifiable as something you’ve truly invested in.

2.  You don’t have the time to customize your design.

So you’ve tried your hand at design and coding, but unless you’re a designer by profession – it’s likely not your main focus.  Rather than spending countless hours tweaking and perfecting, it’s truly remarkable how a great designer can capture your vision.  Spend your valuable time focusing on what you find important, and hire a designer that can turn a huge time consuming project into something beautiful in timely manner.

3.  You would like to make money from your blog.

Let’s face it, making money online requires some sort of upfront investment.  Whether it’s in advertising your site, or investing in a professional web design, or even an investment of your time.  Ultimately, the more effort and investment you put toward your website will show to potential advertisers (and your audience) that you take what you do seriously.  As a result, they will take you seriously too!

4.  You don’t know how to implement the advanced features you want.

You have an idea, you know it can be done, but you don’t have the knowledge or time to make it happen.  Hiring a professional designer to take care of the tough stuff for you can eliminate a lot of headache and trial and error time.  Many also offer training or helpful tutorials to help you manage your website yourself!

5.  You’re looking for a return on an investment.

As mentioned above, the ultimate goal in improving your website is to receive a return on your investment.  Whether the return is monetary, increased web traffic, simple satisfaction, or all of the above – ultimately, making an investment in your blog or website using a talented designer that suits your style can bring a tremendous amount of success…

…and here is where you start!  Take a moment to browse the portfolios of these designers, and find one that suits you perfectly!


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( More designers can be found on our Showcase, in the Directory, and via the Sponsors on our sidebar. )

Tips for Improving Your Blog

December 30, 2011 By The Blog Designer Network

As the New Year approaches and we begin setting goals, our blogs and websites should be part of our plans!  So here are some tips to better your blogs for 2012!

1.  Try New Fonts

Since Google has released almost 400 fonts free for use on your blog or website, a simple switch to trendy new fonts can help liven up your site.  We all know the tried and true staples that became increasingly popular in the last few years…Century Gothic, Arial, Trebuchet for paragraphs, and  a funky handwriting font for headings.  This year it’s all about the mix of simple serif fonts with modern sans-serif fonts.  Tall and narrow is replacing short and fat.  Serif fonts are no longer “outdated” and slab serif fonts are even better.  Instead of illegible handwriting fonts, try a clean and upright scripted or calligraphic font.  Read our post on how to implement these fonts, and choose what’s best for your blog!

  capturefonts1-1024x490-2418889

2.  Simplify

Lately design preferences are leaning towards crisp, clean, compact designs with lots of great color combinations and subtle patterns.  Instead of huge prints and scrapbook-style designs, or large headers with cluttered graphics – try to liven up your site by taking away some items instead of adding them.  Make your header smaller and remove unnecessary graphics.  Make your background a small repeatable pattern in order to both save on load time, and focus attention to your content.

3.  Make a Schedule

Decide how many posts you can reasonably write in a week, and stick to it!  If you’re in a writing groove one week, write more posts than usual and schedule them for next week.  Consistency is key in retaining and gaining new blog readers!

screenshot-1-1515019

Use the WP Editorial Calendar Plugin to Easily Schedule Posts

4.  Make it Accessible

Almost every page on your site should be easily accessible from the home page.  Rather than having users click through to one page, then another…then another – consolidate your pages and posts, and outline your menu bar, sidebars, and footer to give visitors gateways to all your information.

5.  Start Something New

If making improvements and changing up your blog isn’t quite satisfying your need for change, start up a NEW blog!  A good practice in any industry is making sure you’re not spreading yourself too thin, or creating too much work to handle.  However, if your interests have changed or your previous blog or website’s content is starting to be lackluster or even going in a different direction – you (and your start-up) could benefit from a whole new concept.

6.  Hire it Out

We would ALL love to hire people to do the things we just hate to do! (Dishes, washing the car, taxes, website coding…)  Even though we attempt to do it all ourselves in an effort to save money, hiring people to do some things FOR you can actually save you money and time.  This doesn’t just apply to hiring someone to help you with your blog, but perhaps you can pay a babysitter/maid service to clean your house for 2 hours per week in order to work on your blog yourself and have some “alone” time.  Maybe the entire idea of creating an online business was meant to give you more time with family.  In that case, hire a blog or website designer to do it more quickly and efficiently than you’re able to.  The key to hiring someone is to choose a person that is good at what they do, so you can be good at what YOU do.

If you are a blog or website designer, check out our list of services offered for designers.

If you are a blogger, check out our list of blog designers.

7.  Learn It

In this case “it” refers to whatever you truly wish to learn.  Whether it is how to improve your writing, or how to design your own blog – pick one thing to research and learn until you’re comfortable and confident.  Invest your time, and money if necessary.  No, not until you’re perfect.  Not until you’re the best.  Just until you know it well enough to be confident in your skills.  With persistence, it will happen in a shorter time than you think.

We offer a wide range of classes you can take from your computer in a live setting that allows you to listen and view as the instructor teaches.  You can see a full calendar of classes, or view the catalog!

8.  Don’t Wait

Many of us like to wait.  Wait until we are ready, wait until the New Year, wait for spring, wait until next month, wait until it’s just right, wait until Monday…  Being afraid to do something, launch something, change something, or learn something doesn’t need to wait.  Force yourself to start NOW and not only will time be on your side, but the imminence of being in the middle of your project will force you to push yourself to complete the task.  Better your blog, better your website, and better yourself….and start now!