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.

Recently a client asked me if I could point her in the direction of a good site that could show her how to build up her website. I don’t really keep track of sites for beginners, but I remember a site I Stumbled Upon last week that really caught my eye.

The website I stumbled is Web Design From Scratch. The range of information on this site is wonderful, from the basics of a website to javascript and DHTML. He doesn’t just tell you how to code a website (HTML) but he also teaches you how to plan your website, how to create the graphics, and how to pull a design together.

I’ve been looking through the site myself to find ways to help me to improve my own websites. Looking at his ‘My Workstation‘ page I see he has some wonderful things I never thought of, namely the noise cancelling headphones and the crib sheets.

His basics section includes the information you need to understand before getting started. Some of this info is essential and not necessarily common sense. If you’re interested in starting your own website or blog for the first time, or taking over your own website from a designer/consultant, I definitely suggest reading this Basics page before doing anything. A lot of people will suggest to just sit down and jump into it, but that leaves gaps and will cause you issues later. Better yet, pay the 1GBP to download the page and print it off, review it on your own over coffee.

For my readers I also want to point out a section I’ve downloaded and begun reading, Business of Web Design. If you’re interested in making as much as you can from your blog or website you’ll be interested to read this section. He shares a lot of good information, again, some I that hadn’t even occurred to me. This is for web design, however, you can apply a lot of it to your own website no matter what the topic.

Please let me know your thoughts on this site, and make sure to Stumble it if you like it.

I’ve been doing some website work for some clients and I’ve had to keep track of the time I spent on the product on a piece of paper. The other day I cleaned off my desk and that paper went missing. This time, I remembered the amount of time, but next time I might not. Kinda risky since I need to break down my time spent.

Have you ever tried using timesheet software to keep track of your design time? I was so excited when I found this link that I had to rush in and try it. I think this script may just save me. I tried the free online demo, but you can also download it and install it for free, for up to 10 people. For just me, this works out fine. I’ve downloaded it, I’ll play with it and let you know how it goes.

I decided yesterday that I would go around and check out some other websites. I’ve been commenting my visitors and following links from their sites to other sites I haven’t seen before. A couple of times I followed links from some amazing sites and ended up in a dark alley. One site in particular was so messy I could barely read it and it took me about 5 seconds (the time the site took to load) to close it. It was ugly.

I know we all have something to say, we all want to blog. And I know we don’t all have design skill or talent, but that’s no excuse for what I saw on this site. There are a lot of free designs out there, or you can buy designs from a site like Prime View.

Prime View is a leading Arizona web design company that has been around for 11 years. The ‘WWW’ only came about in 1995, so that puts this company right up and out there in the beginning. They specialize in design, e-commerce, and marketing (such as search engine optimization). They have some pretty big names under their client list, like Nissan and The Univeristy of Phoenix. You can take a look at the kind of work they do with their cool before and after gallery.

Building websites is not just about the content anymore. You need to put the effort on both ends to earn your readers and to get them to return. Your design doesn’t have to be cutting edge, but it does need to have functionality and appeal.

Please take the time to look at your own blog’s design today and tweak just one thing you think could make your visitors leave into something that will make them want to stay. And leave me a note to let me know. If you’re feeling up to it, and you need something to blog about, let everyone else know, too. I would live to see some before and after screen caps.