To make a blog all you need is a host with Fantastico, the rest is pretty much done for you. Fantastico will install the script for you and there are hundreds (thousands?) of free Wordpress themes created by others that you can use. One of the traditions of this blog is to always use these free themes to show you what can be accomplished with them.

I think there are a lot of great themes out there that are so close to being wonderful. Usually when you get a theme you’ll need to tweak it to make it work for you, this is a given. Not everyone wants to put the same information out there so it’s important to make sure you spend some time on that. But you can do more.

I don’t understand Wordpress as well as some of the great designers out there, so when I find that they’ve made a great design I try and fix it up to my tastes. I found a design made by WP Designer that was perfect for what I needed, but the design had a half naked woman on it. Naturally, I couldn’t use that image, so I bought one from iStock for $1 which I also modified before putting into the layout.

I set this up back in February and it stuck with me for a while. I usually get tired of designs before they’re even finished, but I was so happy with this one, and so proud of how the template turned out. Just a minor change and very little cost made this theme very personal and it looked great! Around summer I decided it was time to change up and I set out to find a new theme.

My needs were basic, I needed a 3 column theme that looked nice. After trying quite a few nice, but poorly coded themes,  I gave up and went back to my last one. But it really was time for a change, so I searched through iStock again for something I might be able to use.

The next image I found changed the entire face of my site, litterally. This image wouldn’t allow me to simply change the image, I needed to change the entire layout to suit the colors, which were completely different. I used Paint Shop Pro 7 to colorize the images and asked Jenny to help me color the words. But because the layout was the same, for the most part, and I loved the Hearts so much, I decided to install the Theme Switcher plugin that was suggested on another blog. Now you can view either theme while reading my wonderfully interesting personal blog.

Company branding can be one of the most important parts of marketing a product or website. Have you ever watched a movie and they’ve taken the name of the company off a sticker, but the design is still there, and you know exactly who that company is? That company has been successful in creating their brand where it’s identifiable without the need for words.

I’ve been considering branding The Blog World for this same reason. Making this site recognizable is a huge key to its success. The truth of the matter is, I don’t have a clue how I would do this. Kolbrener, a branding agency, has a very insightful website that I’ve been inspired by. I’m not sure if they realize exactly how much helpful information their website is giving away - for free. Definitely worth checking out.

It’s coming up. The domain name prices are going up. Enom emailed me today to say:

In April 2007, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved certain domain registries to increase their prices. Domain registries are the private companies which manage the registration, technical operations, and control the allocation policies of the TLD’s for which they are responsible.

Domain registries VeriSign, Afilias, Neulevel and Public Interest Registry applied for and received price increases and have announced they will be raising their wholesale prices to all ICANN-accredited registrars.

I have to say, I’m pretty uneasy about this. Not so much about the higher price, I think it could be good for the domain economy. Might get people to stop impulse buying names. No, I’m a little more worried with where this is headed. Are they trying to take us up to paying the older prices? The domain prices went down because there were less domains available and the likelihood of getting what you want was very slim. Now a finding a .com domain with one word that’s available is a miracle. So prices should be lower than ever, right?

I’m not going to be raising my prices on E-Starr, I’ll keep it at $10 per year. The price for me to purchase domains is going up by 50 cents, so I think I can cover that. Between the new registration fees and the credit card fees I won’t be making anything from the domains, but that’s not really the purpose for me to offer them with the hosting.

How do you feel about this?
Are you going to renew your domain early to avoid higher fees?

So far I’ve been dabbling in blogs trying to learn what works and now I think I’m ready to go full off into an experimental niche blog. The experiment will be to see how well I can do and how much I can make as a pro blogger without compromising the integrity of my blog. Wish me luck?

I’m going to start a DIY blog. I have a lot of work that needs to be done around my home and my home office. I have no creativity and very little talent, so I think maybe that will be how people can relate to me. I’m going to try to find ways to release that creativity that I’ve never been able to tap into.

I’m going to start it off with a little interior painting project I have coming up for my son Corey’s room. Jay and I decided to let the boys decide on a theme for their rooms and then we’d get them going. Michael’s room was first, he’s 8 years old. He wanted a camouflage room. Basically, the painting was a disaster. One wall was to be camo and the other three were to be the lighter brown color. It’s been 3 weeks since we started and it’s just now done. The baseboards have spillover, the camo wall has a brown line down it, and half Michael’s door is brown.

I plan to do Corey’s room on my own because I kinda blame Jay for the other. Then on to my home office. I really want to get creative with my home office so that I can continue to be creative while working. I think the bland walls and lack of decoration makes my job pretty boring. Thankfully, I’ve found DoItYourself.com’s community with other skilled DIY’ers to help me out. Because knowledge is power and I’m feeling a little helpless.