EEF Etcetera | life, web design, and blogging!

Friday Linkup 5/18/12

May 18, 2012 2 Comments

linkup

I’ve blogged about my office before, but I’ve recently changed out some of the art for more whiteboards. I love whiteboards. Almost as much as I love lists. And these whiteboards are for lists. Oh god, it’s like crack.

Whiteboard One

The first whiteboard on the wall next to my hanging folders is where I jot notes and stick things up. It’s always kind of messy. I keep things like my blog schedule, postcards, and lots of random stuff on this board. I’m debating over making it a yearly-goal list.

Whiteboard Two

The first whiteboard on the wall above my computer is for my monthly goals. I write them all out, and they generally include things like “make a WordPress theme” and “make two Blogger templates.” These goals are pretty broad and kind of vague. One of my goals from last month was “move all websites from old server to new server.”

Whiteboard Three

The next whiteboard is for my weekly goals. These are a little more focused than my monthly goals, and often include things that came up during the past week (like client projects). An example would be, “follow up with client X about X” or “work on Blogger template.” One of my goals from a previous week was “move eef-etc.com to new server,” which was just one of the sites but part of my monthly goal.

I also put my check boxes for my daily workouts on this board. I just X out a box once I’ve worked out! Once I get 5 I can wipe them and start over (after a 2-day break!).

Whiteboard Four

This whiteboard is for things that I need to accomplish on that day. I typically choose a few things from my weekly list and break them down into more steps (if necessary) and knock them out in a day. I also put date-specific items on this list, right now I have “send york-law.com their weekly website traffic report” on my list. I also frequently have things like, “list new Blogger template on Etsy” or something similar on this list. You can kind of see the huge list I have for all the steps of moving eef-etc.com in the above photo. This was a multi-day process and I broke it down into a few days.

Crossing Off

I like to cross things off my list during the day/week/month and then wipe them off at the end of the day/week/month so that I can see everything I’ve accomplished. I find when I wipe them off immediately after completing them I actually don’t feel like I got anything done. The visual reminder of what I’ve accomplished really helps!

It also helps me keep track of what I’ve already done for multi-step projects like website server moves. I wrote down everything I needed to do, and some things had to be accomplished in a certain order, so having the list still visible helped keep me on track and the right part of the process.

I also love having my monthly and weekly goals out and visible. I’m able to break them down into daily tasks and work toward completing them. Before when i would just write out my goals on my blog they wouldn’t stay in my head and I would forget about them!

Are you as obsessed with lists and whiteboards as I am?

11 Comments Filed Under: Self-Employed Life, Self-Employment Tagged With: goals, list, office, whiteboard, work from home

Battlestar Galactica Photo Frames

May 15, 2012 2 Comments

I finally have these ready for you to download! You too can have awesome Battlestar Galactica photo frames on your blog! They are really easy to use, but I’ve made a little tutorial just in case you’ve never used frames like these before! I’m showing you the tutorial in GIMP (they are PSD files–which GIMP can run) but the process should be the same in Photoshop.

Download BSG Photo Frames

[Read more...]

2 Comments Filed Under: Design, Freebies, Resources & Tutorials Tagged With: Battlestar Galactica, corners, free, gimp, how to, photo, photoshop, template, tutorial

a peek at my apartment

May 14, 2012 14 Comments

Today I thought it would be fun to show you a few pictures from around my apartment! It’s not that cute since we can’t paint and almost everything we own was given to us or picked up at a yardsale, but it works!

Someone made a comment about how they didn’t have room for an office and that they were jealous that I had so much room. This is my office! I share the space with Anthony*, although we’re rarely in it at the same time (since he works all day outside the house). This is actually where our dining room is supposed to be… we eat at our coffee table (or in front of our computers). We prioritize computer space much higher than eating space in this household.

*Don’t you love how my side of the office is covered in stuff and his is empty? I think I own a good 80% of everything in our apartment! (but I share!)

If that last photo didn’t give you an idea of how small our space is, here’s a photo from our front door. (I don’t know why the light is so bad in this photo, but I’m too lazy to fix it)

Also, this is my second office, I spend a lot of time on this couch watching Netflix and blogging on my laptop (which lives against the wall). Sorry, I didn’t clean for you guys. I’m all about honesty on this blog. haha

This photo gives you an idea how small this space is! I do a lot of hopping around and working out in this area. This is also where I take my amazing outfit photos.

We do get a decent amount of light during the day in our apartment. We have three windows in our main living space, so as long as it’s not overcast I can typically go from 9-5 without using any lights. I like that!

I collected a lot of those celestial ornaments in Europe. I put them up for the holidays and never took them back down! What can I say? They’re fun!

What’s your place like?

14 Comments Filed Under: Life, My Life Tagged With: apartment, house, living room

Sunday Confessions 5/13/12

May 13, 2012 8 Comments

There is a blogger that is seriously ticking me off. I’m sorry for being vague, but I feel like this girl is just being awful and I can’t stand her. I can’t just stop reading her blog (which I did) and ignore her because she keeps guest posting all over the place. The closest way I can describe what she’s doing is taking people’s money and wasting it. And those people don’t have a say on whether they give her money or not, they just have to. Gyah! Okay, enough of that.

I am WAY over-booked this week. In fact, I did as many blog posts as I could for this coming week on Friday so I don’t have to worry abut blogging on top of everything else. I’m not sure on whether I’ll have any Building Your Blog posts or not because those take up a lot of time. I’ll see what I can do, but don’t hold your breath!

I’m frustrated with my lack of progress with getting in shape. I’m doing Body Rock’s 30-Day Challenge right now, and it is KICKING MY ASS. While I’ve definitely noticed an increase in strength (over the past few months), I’m not trimming down as much as I’d like. I think my eating habits might still be the issue, but I can’t live in a world where I can’t eat food with my friends or family. It’s one thing to pass up food for a special event, it’s another to do it forever.

Have anything to confess?

8 Comments Filed Under: Misc., Sunday Confessions Tagged With: bloggers, busy, confessions, sunday, working out

Recycled book tutorial

May 12, 2012 9 Comments

I originally made this tutorial for Katie’s Earth Day Awesomeness (that’s not actually what she called it) and thought I’ share it over here too!

I wanted to make a simple tutorial that anyone can do, using things that you would otherwise throw out. I literally just grabbed things that were about to go in the trash and made this cute little notebook (with ephemera pockets!). It’s a quick DIY and only took me about 15 minutes (including taking the photos!), so grab some trash and get to crafting!

You will need:

Thin cardboard (I used the back of an old notebook, you could also use a cereal box)
Paper (I used 5 sheets of barely-printed-on computer paper, you could also use notebook paper, magazine paper, etc. depending on what you want to use your book for)
An envelope (mine was from a birthday card I got this year and is 5×7)
Scissors and/or a paper cutter
Needle and embroidery thread
Push pins (optional, not pictured)

First you will need to make all of your pieces the same size. You can’t cut the envelope and still put things in it, so the envelope will determine your page size. I cut my 5 sheets of paper into 10 (which when folded makes 40 pages). Cut your cardboard slightly larger than the envelope and paper.

Fold everything in half (get a good crease on everything), and then stack it, cardboard on the bottom, envelope, and then paper. Fold them all together.

If you have a lot of pages like I do, you’ll probably have the middle sticking out a bit. This bothers me, so I trim the middle down to size (don’t trim your envelope!).

Okay, now that they line up I’m happier! It’s time to sew this book together!

My needle wasn’t sharp enough to punch through all of the pages and the envelope and cardboard so I punched through with two push pins. I used two so that the pages don’t move between me punching one hole and then the other.

From the inside of the book, sew through to the outside. Don’t pull the thread all the way through!

Now from the back, go ahead and sew back into the middle, being careful not to pull the thread out!

You should end up like this!

Make sure you pull the ends tight enough so that the book stays together. Shorten up your thread so you don’t waste it, and tie a knot. Clip the ends.

You can be finished now if you want, but I think it looks a little plain!

I added some rub-on letters, but you can decorate your book however you like. Make sure your design matches where the top of your envelope is! (you don’t want your pockets upside down!)

Did you notice you’ve got two pockets? One on the front and one in the back. My envelope was really torn so I stuck a sticker on it to keep things from falling out of the front pocket. If you open your envelopes less destructively, you probably wont need to do this.

Use your book however you want! It can be a journal, notebook, art journal, or anything you want! Use the pockets to store ephemera or stickers/small supplies to use for on-the-go journaling.

Honestly, I’m going to be boring and use mine for grocery lists (because it’s such a waste to use a new sheet of paper on a grocery list) and keep coupons in the pockets. I might make an art journal this way soon though, because it’s super-easy and fast!

Hope you liked the tutorial! Please share photos if you make one!

9 Comments Filed Under: Crafts & Cooking Tagged With: binding, book, earth day, hand bound, recycle, tutorial

Friday Linkup 5/11/12

May 11, 2012 3 Comments

linkup

Blogging & Social Media

How to develop a routine to manage social media – on Kikolani
Tips to avoid Pinterest overwhelm – on The Tiny Twig
27 Ways to get people to listen to you – on ProBlogger
Get your blog love back – on Kyla Roma
Getting over blogger’s block – on I Rock So What

Business

Startups, this is how design works
2 Ways to set yourself apart from the competition – on Epheriell Designs
The time-saving preflight checklist (for printing) – on Action Printing
8 Ways to get more out of your Facebook fan page – on ProBlogger
On failure, success, and moving forward – on A Beautiful Mess

Other Awesomeness

This thread on Reddit is the story of my life
How to create a cinemagraph – on Blythe Ponytail Parades
The truth about what happens to your coffee – on Thought Catalog
Shanghai Skyline - this is the biggest image ever!
Sleepy kitty eye mask tutorial – on Beth Wilson

Also, have you signed up for Sneak Peeq yet? I was worried it was scammy, but Moorea is working with them and I trust her! I recently got my free sign-up presents! Pearl earrings and pearl ring. You get $10 when you sign up so you can use it toward a product, and get some of them for free! I also ordered some dry shampoo which came with some free hair styling stuff cream for $4, it should be here soon! Give it a try! (affiliate links–I get more free stuff when friends sign up)

Have a link to share?

3 Comments Filed Under: Friday Linkup, Misc. Tagged With: blog, blogging, business, crafts, diy, links, linkup

choosing a blog layout

May 10, 2012 11 Comments

building your blog

What? Why do you need to choose a blog layout before you even start blogging? Well, if you know what you’re going to be blogging about, you should be able to figure out what kind of layout you need before you even write your first post. Or, if you’ve been blogging for a while, maybe you need to re-evaluate whether your layout is working for you!

What is a layout?

A layout is not the design, although it is part of the design. The layout determines where your blog elements are displayed, and how your content is displayed. It’s the framework that you fill in with content and pretty-ness, and it needs to function properly so that your blog can work well for you and your visitors. While layouts can vary greatly and I’m not going to cover every possible option, I’m going to cover some common ones and give you some examples so you can figure out what works best for you!

What elements do you need to include, regardless of layout?

I don’t care what layout you choose, but you need to make sure your blog includes some key elements, and that they are easy to find. These elements are:

Header or logo
Content
Navigation (Pages and/or Categories)
Social media links
Search form

Sidebars and footers are recommended, but depending on your blog, may not be the best fit. I’ll show you an example of a blog that doesn’t use sidebars to start us off!

Are you a photographer? Do you have a blog where you post LARGE photos and need to cut back on clutter so your readers can focus on just the content and images? A full-width layout is for you. This keeps the focus on your content and readers don’t get distracted by anything on the side. If you use a layout like this, make sure you include navigation, social media, and a search form at the top. I would highly recommend utilizing your footer to showcase featured posts, remind people to check out your Facebook, and pop on over to your shop so they can buy a print. You might drop your pages back in down here too–just in case readers missed them at the top of the page.

I know I’ve seen blogs that use this layout, but can’t for the life of me remember which ones they are. Anyone have some examples?

—–

The two-column blog layout is very common. The sidebar can be on the left or the right, and can be wide or narrow. This leaves less room for your photos/content, but still gives you a decent amount of space to showcase your content. Unless you make your sidebar really wide… Mine is pretty wide, but I still get photos at 640 pixels wide which is pretty decent. I still recommend navigation below your header, and utilizing your footer. Since you have a sidebar you may not need multiple columns, but this is still a great spot to give your readers a reason to stay on your blog!

When you have a sidebar, I recommend using the top part of it for a photo and blurb about yourself, social media links, and search form. Below that you can put pretty much whatever you want. One thing to keep in mind is that unless you have separate sidebars for singles posts or pages you will want to keep the sidebar content to a minimum as it looks weird to have a sidebar continuing really far past the content. Also, if your sidebar is really long, chances are that readers aren’t looking at it allllllllllll the way down the page anyhow.

Bloggers who use this layout: SillyGrrl, PuglyPixel

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The double-sidebar is becoming pretty popular. I used to use this one, but found my blog looking too cluttered. I personally am not that big a fan of this layout as it does tend to get cluttered, but some people do use it really well. It’s nice to have two sidebars on one side because it keeps everything together, but still separate from each other. It allows more of your sidebar content to appear above the fold. You can have double-sidebars on the left or the right, and depending on how wide they are, you can often still have a decent amount of space for your content.

If you use this layout, I recommend making one sidebar for your links (still having your “about” blurb and social media at the top, then links to your content), and then have the other sidebar be for sponsors or anything that takes you off-site. Whichever sidebar is closest to your content should be “your” sidebar, and the one farthest from your content should be links to other people/sponsors/etc.

Bloggers who use this layout: A Beautiful Mess*, After Nine to Five**

*I personally think the sidebars are too big and the content too small on this layout… The sidebars together are as wide as the content and are very distracting.

**Ashley removed the header and put her logo in the sidebar, pretty cool! Her logo is still at the top along with her navigation, so things are still easy to find. Don’t be afraid to be creative like this, but make sure everything is still easy for your readers!

—–

The three-column layout with the content in the middle is a very classic blog layout. A lot of blogs use this because the sidebars can nicely frame the content. One thing to watch for on this layout is if you don’t leave enough space between the sidebars and your content things can look really cluttered even if they’re not!

Again, I would recommend making one sidebar “your” sidebar, and have the other one be for sponsors and outgoing links. As always, make your navigation easy to find, utilize that footer, and make sure your content isn’t lost in a sea of sidebars!

Bloggers who use this layout: Little Chief Honeybee, Paper Crowns

—–

How wide can my layout be?

It depends on your audience, but I am ALWAYS seeing blogs that are too wide for many readers. I’d say 1,000 pixels is a good width. Or, get a responsive layout that resizes depending on the reader’s screen resolution. I recommend you read this article I wrote about screen resolution, and check out my responsive layout for self-hosted WordPress if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Okay, so say we have 1,000 pixels to fill with content and sidebars. I know I want to have my photos be 640 pixels wide. 1000 – 640 = 360. But then my layout has some padding (otherwise my sidebar and content would be right on top of each other) so I end up with 640 pixels for content width and 340 pixels for my sidebar.

Still confused? Most designers will let you know the design width, content and sidebar size. If not, ask.

If you are making your own, switch to a low resolution on your computer and make your layout to fit. Some people still use 1024 x 768 but you can probably get away with designing for 1280 x 800 unless you have a lot of older readers (who typically still have smaller monitors and lower resolutions). So if you are designing for 1280 x 800, you probably want to still keep your content and sidebars around 1,000 pixels and let a bit of a pretty background pop through on the sides.

We’ll talk about the pretty stuff later, just figure out how much space you have to play with considering the elements you need to include, and possible design features in the future.

—–

What layout is right for me?

If you’re new to blogging you might not have that much to put on your sidebars, so a single sidebar might work well for you. But if you know you’re going to have a lot of sidebar content in the future you might want to plan that way now so when you are creating or looking to buy a design you can have a design that grows with you. Decide whether you like the look of both sidebars on one side or one on each side of the content. Or maybe you hate cluttered sidebars and one sidebar is best for you even if you’ve been blogging for ages!

If you really want the focus on your photos/content, a full-width layout will be the way to go, but if you feel like you’re missing out or readers aren’t finding your content, a narrow sidebar might be a better option.

And obviously, if you have a lot going on in your sidebars, use a two or double-sidebar layout, and utilize your footer to spread the clutter out and make things look less cramped!

—–

What layout do you have? Does it work for you?

11 Comments Filed Under: Building Your Blog, Design, Resources & Tutorials Tagged With: advice, blog, blog layouts, building a blog, content, design, width

What I wore

May 9, 2012 21 Comments

As you may or may not know, I rarely actually get dressed. I wear my pajamas until it’s time to work out, and then I switch to shorts and sneakers and put on a bra. After I workout I normally hang around in my smelly clothes for a while before switching to pretty-much-pajamas. It’s pretty sad, but these kinds of things happen when you work from home.

I think if Modcloth had a big sleepwear section, those of us who are self-employed would stand a great chance of being their “Blogger of the Moment” or whatever it’s called. In fact, I think most clothing companies discriminate against self-employed bloggers who live in pajamas. I’ve never heard of a clothing company contacting a blogger to model or promote sleepwear. Why not? I’d totally do it!

I’m officially calling out sleepwear companies and offering my services as an incredible model (look at that action shot!) in exchange for pajamas and or/yoga pants.

You know you’re jealous of my awesome bedhead and messy eyebrows! I actually finally got my hair cut (I think the last time I had it cut was September!) because Supercuts was having a $6.99 haircut sale. Now if only I could take care of my eyebrows I might be allowed out in public again.

I included some great detail shots for you all so you can imitate my style. You know you really are jealous I get to wear this stuff all day!

I’m wearing

Bedhead: c/o my bed (green tint c/o bleaching henna out of my hair)
Edelweiss hoodie: c/o Edelweiss Lodge and Resort for being an awesome employee
Pajama bottoms & t-shirt: c/o myself from American Eagle
Slippers: c/o Anthony from Bearpaw

Maybe one day I’ll stop mocking these kinds of posts and companies will actually send me stuff. Maybe. Doubt it though.

What are you wearing?

21 Comments Filed Under: Life, My Life, Self-Employed Life, Self-Employment Tagged With: clothing, outfit, pajamas, what i wore, wiw

choosing a blogging platform

May 8, 2012 10 Comments

building your blog

Alright, we know why we want to blog, what we want to blog about, what we want to name our blog, the importance of getting a domain, and NOW finally, it’s time to look at where we want to host our blog! Why did we wait this long? Well, it’s easier to start out on the platform that works for us (and what we’re doing) than it is to move platforms later, so logically, you should know what you’re going to do blog-wise before you decide on a platform.

Except I’ve met very few people that have actually planned that far ahead. In fact, to my knowledge I haven’t met anyone who’s planned that far ahead. Oh well, let’s talk about platforms!

—–

Blogger

Blogger is a very popular and very easy platform to use, and it’s FREE. Blogger is really fast to set up and you can use one of their default templates and have a decent looking blog in minutes. However, you’re more limited on what you can do, and you don’t even own your content. Blogger can delete it without warning.

Blogger Pros

Free
Easy and fast to set-up
Easy to include Google ads
Several standard templates to choose from
With many templates you can adjust colors and layout widths without coding knowledge
Blogger code–while not always legit coding, is easy to learn and edit
Designers often charge less for Blogger designs than they would for self-hosted WordPress designs

Blogger has a lot going for it, and for most beginners is a great place to get started. While it seems that many bloggers eventually move on to self-hosted WordPress as their blogs grow, there are quite a few “big” bloggers that have chosen to stick with Blogger. A few “big” bloggers that run on Blogger are: Little Chief Honeybee, Keiko Lynn, and GrrFeisty.

Blogger Cons

Blogger branding
Lack of SEO
Unimpressive gadgets
They can delete your blog at any time

EDIT: Blogger comes with an ugly navbar at the top and apparently it’s okay to hide the navbar with some CSS. SillyGrrl just posted a really simple tutorial on how to hide Blogger’s navbar. Hiding the navbar will make your blog look SO much more professional! Do it now!

Blogger lacks all the amazing SEO options that WordPress has–which means that content on a Blogger blog is not as searchable as content on as self-hosted WordPress blog (that is using SEO options). I’m also really not impressed with Blogger’s “gadgets”, if you compare these to the thousands of plugins that WordPress has, it’s really kind of pathetic. Sounds harsh, but it’s true. There are WordPress plugins that do things I never even would have thought of doing!

And the worst thing about Blogger? They can delete your site at any time. ANY TIME. No warning. No chance to back things up (although you should be backing things up on your own anyhow), nothing. Here’s a little Wiki summary of their terms. I think this is pretty terrible, and even if I had my site backed up, I’d be enraged if they deleted it! (Although I don’t think it happens too often!)

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WordPress.COM

Okay, so there are two WordPresseseseses…es. WordPress.COM is hosted on their server and while it has some nifty features, it’s actually more limiting on what you can use it for than Blogger is. I don’t recommend WordPress.com for many reasons, but thought I’d touch on it lightly if you hate Blogger but still want something free.

WordPress.COM Pros

Free
Easy and fast to set-up
Several free themes (templates) to choose from
With some themes you can adjust colors and layout widths without coding knowledge
Support forums to help you out!
Akismet (anti-spam), global tag system (helps your blog pop to the top of their blog list), other handy features
Premium features (adding domains, etc.) available

Seems alright, and it’s not the worst thing ever, but it doesn’t really do much that Blogger doesn’t do. I don’t know many blogs that use WordPress.COM. Gwen Erin is the only one I can think of off the top of my head!

Given the choice between Blogger and WordPress.COM I’d go with Blogger. Why? Here are some WordPress.COM cons:

WordPress.COM Cons

You can’t put ads on the blog (so no Google ads)
They sometimes run ads on your blog (or you can pay to make sure it doesn’t happen)
You don’t get the plugins or control that self-hosted WordPress offers
You pretty much have to pay extra to do anything cool at all (including edit a theme)

While running ads may not seem important to you now, you may feel differently in the future. What if you start getting thousands of hits on your blog everyday and know you could be raking in some extra cash if only you had a different blogging platform? That would be pretty annoying. The fact that they “rarely” run ads on your blog is also annoying–I’m not sure how often it actually happens, but it would annoy me if I went to my blog one day and saw on ad for something I didn’t care about or want on my blog.

I feel like the whole point of WordPress is that it has AMAZING plugins and features and you can do SO MUCH with it–but this doesn’t include WordPress.COM at all. With WordPress.com you don’t get the great plugins and SEO options and any of that cool stuff. Hell, you have to pay just to edit your CSS. Lame.

—–

Self-Hosted WordPress (aka, WordPress.ORG)

Self-hosted WordPress is my lover. I want to marry it. Or at least have its babies. I might be a little crazy. But I make a living off this thing, so it’s only right that I love it!

Anyhow, self-hosted WordPress is all sorts of awesome, and you can do some incredible things with it, look ultra-professional, and I’m going to have a lot of trouble thinking of real downsides. Let’s get to crackin’ on the pros!

Self-hosted WordPress Pros

Free (WordPress itself)
Many hosts include a one-click WordPress install, so it’s easy to put on your server
You can run a network of WordPress sites (multiple sites with multiple users all run off one-installation)
SEO amazingness is available (themes, plugins)
Many, many, many free themes
With some themes you can adjust colors and layout widths without coding knowledge
You can cover your blog in ads if you want
Support forums to help you out!
Plugins for anything you could imagine
Amazing premium themes and plugins are available

So, WordPress is free. The part that’s not free is the server to host it on and the domain name. But considering you can get both for under $100 a year, if you’re serious about blogging, self-hosted WordPress is the way to go. There’s no “branding” required, and you don’t have to worry about your content being deleted (unless you do something terrible and tick off your host). You own it all, and can do pretty much whatever you want!

Mos hosts do have a one-click install, even for WordPress networks, so if you plan on having multiple blogs or websites, it’s really easy to set up through your server’s cPanel. I currently run two networks (migrating everything down to one) and love the fact that I can do all my updates and changes through one login.

There are plenty of free themes to choose from, hundreds if not thousands. And you can edit them all to your liking. You will need coding knowledge for most, but there are many that allow you to change colors and layouts with no coding.

wordpress post dashboard

Hard to tell in the image here, but you can get themes or plugins (there are advantages and disadvantages to both, maybe we’ll talk about that later) that allow you to add descriptions, meta tags, and more to each post to help you out with SEO and make your blog searchable! That’s what all those little boxes underneath the post I’m writing are. Pretty snazzy, eh?

And of course, for all your self-hosted WordPress questions, there’s a very active forum and community. I love that I can search the forums or ask a question and get all sorts of help and support! This makes things a little easier for those just learning, or even those of us who have been at it for a while and run into an odd error.

Plugins are awesome. Want to backup your blog? There’s a plugin for that. Want to add your Twitter feed to the sidebar? There’s a plugin for that. Want to do something really crazy that you think someone’s never thought of before? There’s probably a plugin for that too.

And of course, the most important part of self-hosted WordPress is that YOU own the content. You have control over everything. You can remove any and all branding, don’t have to worry about someone deleting your content because you removed a toolbar or something, and you look professional. Some great blogs that run on self-hosted WordPress: EEF Etcetera (what?), SillyGrrl, Kyla Roma - and no, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a lot of designers use self-hosted WordPress, it’s a great platform!

Self-hosted WordPress Cons

The learning curve for self-hosted WordPress is steeper than many other platforms
To really customize a site you need to know how to code (at least CSS, but PHP will help you out too)
Designers charge more for WordPress designs than most other platforms
You have to get a host and domain name–it’s not optional
You can seriously screw something up since you have access to everything

Basically, the downsides to self-hosted WordPress are that you do have to shell out some money for a domain and server/host, and that you have to know what you’re doing or be willing to pay for someone to do it for you (or learn to do it yourself). And if you mess with the wrong thing, you can destroy your site. You have access to every aspect of everything, and messing with the wrong file can screw you up. That said, you don’t HAVE to do any coding to use self-hosted WordPress, you can use free or premium/purchased themes and just make use of the great features that come with WordPress and any themes or plugins you use. It doesn’t have to be complicated, and can be easy to set up and get started (some hosts will just do it all for you, so all you have to do is login and start blogging!).

—–

So which is best?

I’m obviously pretty darn biased. BUT, I will admit that self-hosted WordPress is NOT for everyone. If you don’t want to tackle it now (or ever) I’d recommend a Blogger blog. They are great to get started, let you learn how the basics work, and you can always move to self-hosted WordPress in the future if you want. Just backup your blog frequently!

If you are ready to launch a professional blog, or intend to do a lot of branding for a business, I’d go with self-hosted WordPress and get a great SEO plugin or a premium theme (affiliate link) with built-in SEO and learn how to use it. There are thousands of beautiful free and purchasable themes for self-hosted WordPress, so you have no excuse not to have a great looking blog.

Now, I’ve just covered three options, but this post is really long and you are all going to tell me it’s “TLDR” (too long, didn’t read) anyhow, but there’s also TypePad, SquareSpace, and I’m sure many other options for blogging. Look around and figure out what works best for you. There’s no right or wrong answer, it’s all what suits you, your budget, and the time you have to commit to learning a blogging platform.

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