I need some help from someone who wants to pay it forward this holiday season. I have tried so hard to get a blog up and going and I have to terms that I DO NOT KNOW HTML or whatever in the hell you call it. I've got all these neat ideas and I can't put it to action. I am a photographer and best of all a graphic designer but I can't CODE. Stupid I know..I've read tutorial after tutorial stayed up all night, i'm lacking major sleep and I just want something cute and fun, I've went to pages where they want to charge a couple hundred dollars to do it and i don't have that kind of money (I am just a new business trying to get off the ground). I see so many cute blogs and I want one!! I'm not going to try and steal pages, as a designer I know how it feels to be stolen from and I'm not that kind of person. I respect their work!(even if they bought it somewhere else) I do not want the average photoblog (bc I am a photographer), I use my website and facebook for client sneek peaks, I am using my blog for tutorials for aspiring photogs, doing giveaways & contest, helping other small business that offer cute stuff (yeah I'm a girl if you haven't noticed yet) I also want to add a link to my store (which I don't have up yet) In my store I am going to be selling unique frames, crafts, and also my graphic designing that can be purchased aka branding/logo/headers blah blah blah.. I see people have these cute blogs with everythign that I want and I don't know how they do it, Ive got several websites that have the kind of site that I want if you want to check them out (listed below) Would someone PLEASE HELP ME..YOU ALL SEEM TO KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING HERE!! and its probably simple to do and I'm stupid! Here is some inspiration that I like: http://lilaccreative.com/portfolio <-----she has cute site she has designed http://www.aprilshowersblogdesign.com/2008/09/layout-and-header-gallery.html <---these are all cute and then here is my inspirations for a shoppe which I have already came up with a name http://thecustomboutique.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=PremadeBoutiqueWebsiteTemplates&Sub=312&isThumbs=Yes&Thumbs=200 I have a website already that is more for my photography side-I used wix.com (web building for dumbies) Once I can get a blog and shoppe going I will redo my website to collaborate with my blog and shoppe. I just need serious help, please just somebody
I have a WordPress account and tried that too, apparently there are great plugins especially for a photographer, however it's just like blogger in my book. Html and this coding that I don't understand. I just don't like setteling for an ugly template. That isn't good marketing for me and I might as well not do it at all. I hate that I can't figure it out. I design logos and branding packages yet I still can't code which means I can't offer custom blog templates. I make headers for people, but those arent hard to install. When it comes to designing a blog page, I don't know the dimensions I am to use and I don't know how it all works (like the buttons you use, would I put those in the design in photoshop..how do you code that to link to a page..I don't KNOW I'm so confused. I've searched all over the net, and I'm not getting good answers.) I'm one of those people that want to learn and will drive my self nuts trying to figure it out. I know what I want , I just don't know how to get it and I refuse to pay hundreds/thousands of dollars to do it.. I browse lots of pages that are either wordpress or blogger and I see them and they are so cute I don't understand why it has to be SO HARD to get one.
I use WordPress for my website and most of my clients do too with our own templates. There are a lot of great tutorials out there on how to create your one template or you can buy one already made such as the ones on templateforest.net. If you want a custom made template, PM me and we can come to an arrangement.
Don't give up. We were all where you are right now. Huge learning curve and lots of trial and error. So many errors! You'll need a self hosted wordpress hot on your own domain name. If you host with a good company i.e. Hostgator your control panel will be Cpanel which includes Fantastico. Fantastico has a lot of free scripts including Wordpress, although you may have to do an automatic update to the latest version of wordpress. You install the script directly from within Fantastico directly to your main site or to a folder on your site. It's easy to do. Just follow the instructions. One of the main things you must do to start with, is to decide on the style of your blog. One, two or three columns. We mainly use three column templates as that leaves plenty of space to monetize the blog. Then go do a search for "free wordpress templates". Select how many columns you want (to save you plodding through them all) and pick something you like the look of. You could even do a search for "photography" on those template sites that have that facility. Then use your graphic experience to update/personalize it, so it doesn't look like anyone else's. If you want a sales facility on your blog, then you might try the one we use on FastPLR.com It's called WPeStore and we got it from www.tipsandtricks-hq.com Good luck!