How To Design The Website Of Your Dreams

Good evening!

Hope you are all having a good hump-day! :D

My day has flown by. I have been busy ever since my interview this morning! This afternoon I was working on Eric’s Valentine’s Day Gift. :) I have spent hours on it, I sure hope he likes it! It is part of my plan for an economical Valentine’s Day this year. I can’t wait to post all about it this weekend and show you guys what I did.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are using a gift card for our V-day dinner out. We got a gift card to Moxie’s at Christmas (Thanks Kristi!) and this is the perfect time to use it. It will really help with our budget.

Tonight we have a real treat on Oh She Glows.

Andrew, from Go Healthy Go Fit is doing the first segment on how to design the website of your dreams. Andrew has poured countless blood, sweat, and tears into his amazing website (go see for yourself!) and he is here to share all of his secrets from getting the design you love and making some pocket change.

Designing The Website Of Your Dreams

I was very excited when Angela asked me to write this segment of guest posts, seeing as I spent quite some time redesigning my own site, Go Healthy Go Fit. When you are thinking of doing a design for a website, you first need to acknowledge what you want your blog to be. Is it a personal blog? Are you trying to monetize your blog? These are questions that may change the overall look of your site.

So let’s see the first step of what it takes to build an awesome website.

You Get Out Of It What You Put Into It

Whether or not you will be writing the computer code for the site itself is inconsequential. The magic really happens in the preparation. And what I mean by preparation is researching other sites.

Most people can’t close their eyes and envision the look of their future site, so for most of us we have to comb the internet in search of the best attributes of other sites. While certain niches will have similar attributes that are common in most of their sites, it is a good idea to look at great site designs outside of your niche in order to get a more complete understanding of what makes a great website. Here are some ideas for what you should be looking for:

Color schemes

Overall layouts

The size of the sidebar

The type of sidebar (two column, three column, etc.)

Logos

Ad placements (if you are going to be monetizing your blog)

Headers

Category placements

Features (tag applications, surveys, most popular posts, archives, top commentators)

Footer

You should find every list of “the best designed sites on the web” or something to that effect and just start looking at every one. Write notes on what you like, what you don’t like and anything in between. Here’s a list of a few of those lists:

If you want to see excellent blogs

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/08/now-more-than-ever-50-more-excellent-blog-designs/

If you want an idea of good templates to start with

http://www.bloggerbuster.com/2008/08/125-more-excellent-blogger-templates.html

If you want an overview of creating your own WordPress theme from scratch

http://www.tipdiva.com/2008/07/24/top-ten-tips-editing-your-wordpress-blog-layout/

The main thing to remember when you are doing your research is to take notes. Think of it this way: the more notes you take, the less ambiguity will exist in regards to what you would like the site to look like. That way, when you or your website designer are sitting down to implement/design the site, you will be able to do it much faster. This is especially important when you are paying a designer to do it because most charge by the hours. If you are able to communicate a verbal blueprint of what you would like, the entire process will go much more smoothly.

For next week’s post, we’ll take a look at how to make sure your blog’s design will be ready to make money.

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Thanks Andrew! :D I can’t wait to hear what you have to say about making money.

Look at the super exciting delivery I got in the mail today!!!!

LARABARS!!!!!!!!!

FREE LARABARS!!!!!

The lovely Bree asked me if I would like 2 BOXES of Larabars after she bought them and discovered that she didn’t like them. She so kindly offered to ship them to me, knowing that I was on a self imposed Larabar budget restriction.

I almost tackled the delivery lady when she rang my doorbell this morning! whahaha.

Bree- Keep an eye on the mail for a lil something special :)

The loot:

I am going to savour these as long as humanly possible! Maybe I will have one every other day instead of every day like I was doing…

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RENO UPDATE:

The family room is now naked!

Tomorrow Eric is home and we are going to start on the next room. Not sure if we will be doing the dining room or the sunroom. Most likely the sunroom (aka treadmill graveyard, sniff sniff).

Quick injury update: I am getting better each and every day. I still have soreness when I am on my feet a lot or when doing certain movements, but overall I am improving. I am really proud of myself for how good I have been staying off exercise. I think it has been almost a month now! Good God. I hate saying that. Anyways, I just have to remind myself that it is for the best.

I am probably ok to start doing some non-impact exercise now. But since I don’t have an elliptical and I hate indoor swimming pools, I am not sure what I will do. Yoga perhaps? Maybe I will feel it out in a couple days.

However, this leaves me unsure if I should continue to run. Running is hard on the body and maybe my body is not cut out for marathon training? I am just unsure. The last thing I would ever want is to get injured again. *sigh….

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See you tomorrow morning for the next Contest announcement! Not sure what it will be yet but hopefully I dream it up while sleeping. :)

Check out my new ‘What I Eat’ page if you haven’t seen it already!

Ciao!

“There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lie happiness.”
– Gelett Burgess