Today’s post is going to be a little different than my typical DIY project. However, a HUGE chunk of my time has been going towards my new “blogger support” business and i thought I would share a little glimpse of what I’ve been doing behind the scenes. Plus, since everyone likes a good “before and after” reveal, I thought I would throw in a few of my latest redesigns.
If you missed my previous announcement back in January, I began working on Blogger/Blogspot blogs in my free time the middle of the night when I should be sleeping. It has been a lot of fun, and I’ve been super busy since there is clearly a demand from bloggers that need help. I also am getting ready to present at SNAP in a few weeks about optimizing your Blogger hosted blog. Blogs! Blogs! Blogs! Blogs! That is all I think about these days!
So what have I been doing with all those hours? My most recent client was Mindi from My Love to 2 Create. Here is what her blog looked like ‘before’:
She didn’t want a total makeover, but more like a refresh which included a cleaner layout, truncated posts and a drop down menu. Here is what her blog looks like now:
See it live HERE.
I love this makeover because it is so dramatic. Her graphic designer did a great job with her new header. I love the new logo!
Another client that wanted a cleaner layout (and a total reformat of her blog from three columns to two columns was Lori from Girls in the Garden. Here is her layout before:
And now the new look with only 2 columns. Again, we added drop down menus for easy navigation. Lori is one of only a handful of blogger in the Mood sewing network so we wanted to make sure we showcased that honor in the header:
See it live.HERE
Lori has amazing content and had everything organized beautifully with post labels, but there was no easy way to sort them. Now you can find her content by subject or pattern brand. She also features her most popular content in the side bar. She didn’t change any of her branding, but the change is still dramatic.
One of my most labor intensive redesigns has been Karla’s blog which is a marketing tool for her online and brick and mortar storefront. Just like Girls in the Garden, Lady Butterbug didn’t need a branding change, but needed her branding to be incorporated into a more user friendly overall design. Her blog before was very simple and pretty generic:
After discussing with Karla what she needed, and to make sure we stayed consistent with her store brand, I sent her a pre-design mood board to make sure we were on the same page. This was what we agreed upon:
After discussing with Karla what she needed, and to make sure we stayed consistent with her store brand, I sent her a pre-design mood board to make sure we were on the same page. This was what we agreed upon:
And here is the final blog following that design. A split header, rotating recent posts gallery, two tiered custom menus and newspaper style truncated posts are only a few of the features that makes this blog extremely custom.
See it live HERE.
I really enjoyed working on this design since it pushed me to code a lot of features I’ve never worked with before. Karla was wonderfully patient since it took a while to finally get everything working right, but the end result is amazing.
Lastly, I want to share Carlene’s Blog, Organized Clutter. She had a ton of great projects and content, but she wasn’t utilizing her post area optimally.
By expanding her post area (and overall width of her blog) we were able to showcase larger photos and more content. Again, we made it easier to navigate her archives using drop down tag-driven menus.
By expanding her post area (and overall width of her blog) we were able to showcase larger photos and more content. Again, we made it easier to navigate her archives using drop down tag-driven menus.
See it live HERE.
That is all I have for now, but there is quite the list of upcoming projects on my plate and I can’t wait to share those makeovers with you when they are done!
Finally, I have set up a Facebook page for the Blog Support business!! I would love if you would swing by and ‘like’ it, especially if you are a blogger. I post a daily tip on a variety of subjects related to blogging. (How to grow your blog, revenue and social media impact. Upcoming changes to google or blogger and other tips and tricks for bloggers.)
If you are a blogger on the Blogger/Blogspot platform and are interested in talking about how you can optimize your blog layout and design, drop me an email.
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