Part 3: The blog design process

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May 162012
 

Blogger to WordPress Switch

I hope I’m not boring you to death with the tedious details… I guess I’m attempting to give you what I was looking for when  I finally made the decision to switch. I wanted the real deal. I wanted to know the process. So, here you are a super exciting tale of  switching from blogger to word press:

Lucky for us, today’s post is a lot less technical… we’re talking about blog design! I knew I wanted to give C.R.A.F.T. a new look with the big switch. I wanted a simple, clean, no clutter, look that was fun and well… kind of crafty! My first instinct was to DIY this look. This is slightly embarrassing to admit, but all of my graphics are done on Word (like my doodle owl in this post) or Picassa (any picture with words). I have Photoshop and I’m too scared to open it. Ridiculous, I know. Photoshop is on the to-do list. So, without further ado… here was my attempt at a header for the new C.R.A.F.T. (If you follow C.R.A.F.T. on facebook, you’ve  seen this special treat):

C.R.A.F.T. header

Super basic. And uhh… orange and mint. Any-who… I liked the dotted lines of C.R.A.F.T. (reminded me of a sewn line) and the random triangles were festive. I had a vision, but this wasn’t it. I declared I needed professional help. Finding someone to help was the most difficult part of this process. Here was my hunting for design help process:

  1. What self hosted blogs have a look I like? E-mail the blog owner and ask who did their design/ custom graphics! I e-mailed at least 10 people.
  2. E-mail their designer!
  3. Ask for prices and time frame.

That’s how I picked Kira from Primp my Blog… she responded fast, had super reasonable prices, and I loved the look of her blog (Her New Leaf)! She doesn’t install the designs for you, but Suffusion makes installing a cinch.

First, she asked me to collect some inspiration… Just for fun, here are a few that were on my list…

  • Oh Happy Day: I like the simplicity of the design with a touch of handmade… I feel like I could doodle that. Probably my favorite over all look.
  • The Letter 4: I like these colors too… neutral, clean, interesting… i love her layout and skinny header.
  • Inchmark: I always come back to this one, when thinking about blog design… so. simple. but gets her point across perfectly.
  • Say Yes to Hoboken- i like the colors…i think I like a lot of white :)

Next was the exciting part, she sent me my first round of headers…

CRAFT headers for word press

Which one do you like best? 1 & 2 were my favorites… I gave her my feedback on each one and then within the day we had round 2… it was a confetti explosion!!

CRAFT wordpress headers round 2

At this point I was pretty sure I liked 1 the best.  For round 3, Kira actually mocked up 4 headers in my template for me so I could see the real deal… This was super helpful! She’s good… I like how she gave me options (dots or triangles), different color schemes, etc…

Here are 2 of the headers:

C.R.A.F.T. header round 3

C.R.A.F.T. word press header round 3

We decided we liked the triangles better, Kira said they reminded her of little scraps of paper… that sold me on triangles. Round 4 was narrowed done to 3 designs… in the end it was either this or what you see at the top of the blog!

C.R.A.F.T. header round 4

The design process was by far the most fun part of the whole switching to Word Pres saga. Kira was not only the graphic designer, but my Word Press cheerleader throughout the process : ) Kira made the 7 social media buttons, the about me picture, and a few buttons! Obviously, the install was the harder part for me, it just took time and lots of patience… Things like this were pretty annoying… I have my lovely header and social media buttons all in place and I could. not. find how to get the words off of my header… no to mention I have 2 search bars in the header… oh man, I’m happy the install is done (for the most part, I tweak it every day).

C.R.A.F.T. word press header install

I truly love the new look… Thank you, Kira! Do you think we achieved the simple, clean, no clutter, look that was fun and well… kind of crafty? If you need a Word Press blog makeover, check out Primp My Blog! You won’t regret it : ) Tomorrow, I’ll give you the low down on the actual migration to Word Press… Talk about exciting stuff :)

 Posted by at 7:27 pm  blogger to wordpress

Part 2: WP themes, hosting options and costs

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May 152012
 

Part 2 of WordPress to Blogger switch

Once again, here is the schedule for this week…

I explained in Part 1 that WordPress.org,  is a tool to create a customizable web site (or blog). In a little more detail, WordPress.org is an open source software that has to be installed on a web server to work. Just to be clear, wordpress.org is completely different than wordpress.com. WordPress.com is similar to Blogger (See a complete list of differences between wordpress.com and wordpress.org here).

So, what web server am I suppose to use?

There are lots. I chose blue host not because I did a lot of research, but because it was the one that most bloggers I know are using (including Young House Love at one point). *That blue host link is an affiliate link, and I receive a small amount if you sign up for hosting through my link :) . I paid for 3 years at $4.95 a month which came out to $178.20. You can pay this through pay pal.  Blue Host has super helpful tech guys that will guide you through whatever you need on the phone. I called a few times :) . Like I said above, once you pay for hosting, you will install word press on your web server. Blue host dashboard looks scary and overwhelming, but you really only need one button (the one that says simple scripts, under Software/ Services)… There are lots of different tutorials (here, here & here) for the full step by step Blogger to Word Press Migration… read through a few so that you have the gist of what is going to happen. Remember in the end, I paid someone to actually migrate for me, but more on that later.

simple scripts wordpress to blogger

 

After Word Press is installed on your server, you can access you Word Press dashboard and install themes to see what they look like.

So, what is a WordPress theme?

This site sums it up well, “A WordPress theme is your superhero clothing. Your WordPress Pages, Posts, Permalinks and other basic structural elements are the arms, torso and legs of your superhero. The theme is the cape, lariat, boots and gloves.”

A theme determines how your site is going to look. There are free themes and premium themes. Currently, there are 1,515 free themes to choose from (and tons more premium themes):

Wordpress themesI made the decision to use a free theme (even though ProBlogger says free themes are evil) basically for the sole reason that it is free. Maybe I’ll switch at some point, but for now I’m on the free budget :)

How did I choose which of the 1,515 free themes I wanted to use?

I knew I wanted the search bar in the header… Kira told me to choose a theme that had the bones I wanted. I started looking through the hundreds of themes and noticed some real differences. Basically, I decided I wanted a theme with lots of great reviews and a flexible design would be nice.  Here are the most popular (downloaded) themes:

popular wordpress themesI started going through all of the free themes and noting things like:

  • What is the average rating? I wanted one with at least 4 stars.
  • How many ratings did the theme have? The more the better.
  • Was there a search bar in the header?
  • Was a custom header an option?
  • How many columns are allowed?
  • Was there a dedicated forum for support questions?

PageLines only had 15 reviews, and a lot less options that Suffusion. You can see under “Tags:” what each theme offers…

Suffusion Theme

Suffusion, PageLines, and Twenty Eleven were my final 3 choices… Suffusion had 237 reviews and 4 stars… I was almost sold…

Suffusion wordpress theme

At this point, I have Word Press installed through blue host and can access my Word Press dashboard. I downloaded multiple themes, and played with them.  This was the final sale for me on Suffusion…

Suffusion wordpress theme

I was panicking! And I suppose this calmed me down a teeny bit. Remember you can pay someone to do all of this for you. I looked into the Thesis theme, which a lot of bloggers use, but it costs $87. I didn’t look into it too much, I had decided on the free theme to start with Word Press journey. I wanted to attempt to build my site on my own because I wanted to be able to manipulate my blog. When I was on Blogger, I had the lovely Kim from 7-3-3 design my blog… I highly recommend her… she is super speedy, reasonably priced, easy to work with, and can read your mind when it comes to design… I certainly would have used her again if she did Word Press. The one thing I didn’t like was I always felt like I was going to mess something up and not know how to fix it. Which I did do often! Kim was wonderful and would always help me, but I wanted to make sure that I was going to be able to do little stuff on my own this time around. Suffusion allows me to do that.

I started building playing around with my site… Suffusion layout makes things so easy. It’s html for dummies… All you have to do is click options. For instance, here is the layout of my blog. You can manipulate any of these spaces. Pretty neat, right? I’m not going to lie, there are a ton of options within this theme… it does get overwhelming. But, it’s a quick learning curve.

suffusion wordpress theme

 

For instance, putting in a header is no big deal…  Using Suffusion is kind of like Blogger, with a ton more options…

suffusion wordpress theme

Another thing that makes Suffusion easy to work with is the dedicated support forum. If you have any questions, you can search the forum or ask! Those people are speedy and always online! I used it on multiple occasions to get rid of certain spaces or borders that I didn’t like. I’m re-reading this, thinking it sounds complicated, which is exactly what I don’t want you to think. Honestly, once you get the ball rolling… it gets easier! Tomorrow, I will go through how Kira @ Her New Leaf and I worked together on the new look!

 Posted by at 1:37 pm  blogger to wordpress

Part 1: Why switch to word press?

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May 142012
 

Blogger to WordPress Switch

My internet was down all. day. yesterday and today. I did get a fun painting down for over our bed… I repainted the big ol’ ikat canvas (that I just painted)! With that said, I am going to attempt to keep up with the schedule for this week…

  • Today: Why I decided to make the blogger to WP leap
  • 5/15: WP themes, hosting options and costs (I am using blue host)
  • 5/16: The blog design process with Kira @ Her New Leaf (She just opened Primp my Blog for all your design needs!)
  • 5/17: A step by step of my WP to blogger switch (He helped me)
  • 5/18: Advice for a new blogger thinking about switching to WP

As a blogger blog, you hear about this mysterious thing called Word Press all the time. (Do you feel like this?!) I always wondered why people switch? What’s better about it?  What costs are involved with it? How do you make the switch? I want to de-mystify the Word Press thing for you this week! It’s a scary leap, especially when you’re leaping blind!

Let’s clarify a few things to get us all on the same page:

  1. If you have a .blogspot blog (i.e. nameofblog.blogspot.com)  Your blog is hosted by a google server. Google owns/ controls your blog
  2. If you have a dot com blog hosted by blogger. (i.e. the old C.R.A.F.T., creatingreallyawesomefreethings.com) Google still owns/controls  your blog. (I made that switch on 10.28.2010, 6 months after I started blogging, more on that here)
  3. If you have a self hosted blog (i.e. blue host now hosts C.R.A.F.T.) you can use WordPress.org, for free, as a tool to create a fully customizable web site. According to this, “WordPress is limited only by your imagination. (And tech chops.)” You own your website (blog).

Blogger makes things simple and easy, but as lots of limitations. Here is a list of reasons I finally decided to switch from blogger to Word Press:

  1. I want to own my website and content.
  2. Plugins v. gadgets. Blogger uses gadgets and there are a limited number of gadgets.  Word Press uses plugins and there are bazillions and counting. Plugins do everything from help you with SEO, speed up your blog, add a pin it button to posts, make your blog compatible with mobile devices, etc, etc, etc…  Hereare 7 essential plugins for craft blogs. Here is the current number, as of this post:

    Word Press Plugins

    source

  3. Search bar in the header. I just really wanted that thing up there. Maybe you can do this with Blogger, but choosing a word press theme with a search bar in the header is simple.
  4. SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I don’t know a ton about this, but did a lot of e-mailing and asking other bloggers lots of questions, the super sweet Linda from Craftaholics Anonymous said, “You can have SEO plugins built into your site to add the tags, target words, and rename your images for you when you are uploading them into your post.  You can add your own SEO tags and titles in Blogger if you understand coding and do it correctly. But it takes a whole lot more time and effort and you have to know what you’re doing. {you could easily just mess up your SEO :) ”
  5. Pages. I wanted the capability to have more than 20 stand alone pages that blogger allows. Having more pages will let me organize the blog better.
  6. I wanted the capability to post on an ad free pages. Blog Her does not allow you to post about things you get paid for on a page that includes their ads…That’s why I started another blog, hi, im jamie, to work with Clever Girls, Social Spark, and Blue Print Social. You can not post on ad free pages with Blogger.
  7. Menus. This is also to help organize content. I love the pull down menus. (You can do a limited version of this in blogger, but it’s complicated). See how my pull down menus help organize content…

CRAFT custom menu

Since switching to WP, I have found 2 more things that make me like Word Press better…

  1. Replying to comments. Blogger recently gave us this capability, but it takes way less time to do it on Word Press. You can reply and approve from your dashboard (vs. doing it from the comment section of the post). You can also install a plugin to make spam comments almost non existent, and there is even a plugin that will save all e-mail addresses from people who comment on your blog. (This could be useful to tell folks about an awesome giveaway, a new series, ask for guest posts?)
  2. Uploading and sizing pictures. In Word Press, you can upload a picture and get a link url… you can’t do this with Blogger. You need the link url to make buttons and things for the side bar. You can get this info with other photo storing sites, but it makes it easier since it’s built into Word Press. It also makes sizing pictures way easier. Have you noticed that all pictures in a particular post are the same size now?!Link URL for Word Press

There are certainly a few thins that I’m finding more difficult with Word Press too…

  1. Writing a post. It takes more time. I’m sure this is partly due to me being a newbie, but Linda and Dana both said the same thing (they were both Blogger blogs at one point too!)
  2. There are lots of things I don’t know what to do with. I’m learning, but there are so many more buttons and plugins and widgets and I feel like I need to know everything… and I don’t. That feels frustrating at the moment.
  3. Blog Lovin’. For some reason, this is the one site that has had a problem with the switch. It says this… and I don’t like it, but what do you know… I don’t have any idea how to fix it :)

CRAFT on blog lovin

I think Linda summed up most peoples feelings when finally decide to switch from Blogger to Word Press, “Its a HUGE change and, let’s be honest, its SCARY. Its like putting your baby into the hands of a computer tech that you’ve never met and hoping they take care of it and they don’t drop your baby…..just sayin.” haha… I love it!

I hope that was helpful. I’m trying to post about the things I wondered/ wanted to know about before I switched! Please leave any questions you have in the comments, and I will do my very best to find you an answer or tell you about my experience!

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 Posted by at 9:00 pm  blogger to wordpress
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