Sorry for the state of this site – I am doing a live redesign…
I am not accepting any new web design or development projects; I apologize for any inconvenience.
For questions regarding Sakeena, I am sorry for not responding but I will soon publish some FAQs on the theme and hopefully that will answer a lot of your questions! Thanks for all your wonderful comments!!
Problogger is celebrating! And with the celebrations come $54, 000 worth of prizes!!
Each prize has a different method of entry, and they are usual fun and simple. I am entering for two 20” monitors, because ummm, who couldn’t use that?
If you would like to enter, you have until tomorrow morning, so get to it!!
First is an Open Source Embroidery project called The Html Patchwork.
I just love this one! You can read about it at Craftzine
The second is an interesting piece of technology that I’ve never heard about before, called Arduino and I may be fascinated by it because of my electrical engineering background.
You can also read about this one at Craftzine and I think it would be fun to start a project using Arduino!
I like to think that the thing I do best as a designer is ‘read’ my clients, you know, give them exactly what they want. When I am working on a design, I will usually keep every bit of information that I’ve collected about the client in my mind… from my first interaction with them to every email, every conversation, and every remark about other designs.
My design process is not a complicated one and I believe that my clients appreciate the simplicity of it. My clients generally have an idea of what they want their website to look like… not in the same way that a design-oriented person would know… but in sort of an obscure, abstract way.
I have learnt that directly asking a client what they want often leaves me without clear direction, and it’s because a client knows what they want to ‘gain’ from having a website and what they want they visitors to ‘experience’ while on their website, and they ‘expect’ that their web designer is going to know how to put it together.
Every designer has her own method… mine consists of just one initial draft. A long time ago, I did about 3 initial drafts and made my client choose one on which to base the design, but I found that clients were often confused because they liked certain elements of each design, but were not sure how to articulate to me what those elements were. Now, I send just one initial design because usually people are able to easily tell you what they don’t want! I really believe that it’s simpler to describe what we do and don’t like when we have an example to work from, rather than trying to explain a concept without the aid of visuals.
Initially my client told me that she really wanted orange, and 2 right sidebars. Even though I was not thrilled with this draft, as it was too simple and almost generic, I sent it out to get a feel for the client. As I said earlier, if they don’t like it, I find that I can learn more about what they really want from their reaction. Having said that, you should know that this is not always the case, many times I do get a good feel for what a client wants right from the start and often the first draft I do is accepted and becomes the base design for the final layout of the website.
By sending the first draft, I uncovered a lot of key factors about the look my client wanted, for example, she really liked brown, she preferred a ‘grunge’ look, she wanted something artistic. This was the second layout I sent to her, which she totally loved and which became the design that was used for the website.
Note: In this article, when I refer to ‘my blog’, I am referring mostly to my motherhood blog, Adventures in Motherhood by Shaz
Back in university, I remember doing some business management courses where we discussed goals at great length, but somehow when I actually started my own blogs and business, it never occurred to me that I should actually define a quantifiable set of goals for myself.
One of the first things that Shoemoney discussed with me was my goals, or lack thereof – it was essential, he said. After that, I set about writing out some goals for my key blogs and my web development business, but still, I think I didn’t do enough. Then, yesterday, I started Wendy’s ecourse and the first assignment were to define goals!
It kind of clicked when I read her instructions –
What is the ultimate outcome you want your blog to achieve? 3 years from now, or even 10 years from now, where do you want your blog to be in terms of traffic, career opportunities created, impact on customers and readers, and/or revenue generated? Are there other results that are important for you to achieve?
I think I was struck most by this statement because it really made me look into the future and think about what I wanted to be, or what I wanted my blog to be, mostly I starting thinking about what kind of impact I wanted to have on my readers.
My motherhood blog started off because, ironically, I was looking for a way to make money at home and I bought into the whole ‘blogging=easy money’ myth. But, as it happened, about a week into it, I realized that I completely adored blogging, and about a month into it, I realized that there was no way that I was going to be making any money! I spent the next 10 months becoming friends with the most unexpected people, and being part of the most amazing communities, and although I didn’t make a $1, I still loved every moment of it!
In the past couple months, I have started getting a tiny income from my motherhood blog, thanks to Text Link Ads and now I am in a position to become a little more business-oriented with the blog – as a first step, I am going to define some of my goals, and really put a lot of thought into what I want my blog to evolve into, or what purpose I would like my blog to serve. What I know for sure is that I want it to be helpful to parents, especially moms, it’s not a place that I rant, but I try to convey my stresses and strategies as a mother, and I know that if even one mother derives some benefit from my words, then all my effort has been worth it.
What makes your blogging efforts worth it?
First is the Sandbox Designs Competition because I was going to use this theme as a base for a new free WordPress theme anyways…
And
The TAKE CREATIVE LICENSE ADOBE STOCK PHOTOS DESIGN CONTEST or the “mashup” contest, which I may or may not enter, depending on how inspired I feel, although, I know I am not that good!
Wish me luck! And good luck to those entering as well!
I only recently declared that I would not consider moving from textpattern and at the time, I had given some thought to leaving textpattern, but decided against it. I love the control panel, I know that it’s not for everyone, but I completely appreciate the simplicity of it.
I also love how easily I could create new blogs, customize my RSS feeds, and use textile, but I can also do all of these things with expression engine as well, and truth be told, I can do it better! Still, it’s sad.
The main reason that I decided to make the move was the new version of expression engine, with an awesome “multi-site” feature, which allows users to run multiple sites on the same install. I have to say, I am so completely in love with ExpressionEngine 1.6, it is a work of art!
So far, I have imported my motherhood blog articles, thanks to ee community support and Lisa Wess! I have to import my food blog posts still, and then work on the design, and figure out how to setup the domain. I will be also moving this blog, so that all my 3 core web properties would be managed from the same control panel. I think this will save me a lot of time.
I’ll give more details of the move once it is completed.
I collected my prize from Wendy last night, it was an hour long conversation with her and Shoemoney aimed at helping me grow my online business. It was eye-opening to say the least.
At some level I felt undeserving of the prize because I am hardly an internet marketer and I think I may have sounded like a complete dork because I really didn’t know what questions to ask! But they were great to speak with, and certainly gave me a lot to think about.
It was a very interesting experience having experts critique my online business strategies, or lack thereof! Some of the projects that I thought could possibly be a good source on online income turned out to be not-so-great ones, and surprisingly the projects that I am doing just out of love were the ones that they both thought had the potential to succeed. I got some really good ideas to make the things that I am already doing more successful, and also a lot of general tips.
The most important things for success, according to Shoemoney are:
And for online businesses:
Wendy had awesome ideas for my personal online pursuits, which I will be blogging about in the coming weeks, as I start implementing them. It was a great opportunity, thanks to Wendy!
Yesterday I launched Willow’s redesigned website and I was probably just as excited as she was about it! I totally love the design, and how it really reflects her new role as a comic writer, but still maintains an Eastern and Islamic feel.
Interestingly enough, this was actually the first draft that I sent to Willow (with a few improvements of course), and she loved it! I knew she wanted a fusion of the things that she was passionate about, and she did a great job of giving me all the information I needed, but still initially I was very un-inspired.
This is an excellent example of how changing your perspective on something can make all the difference… almost literally! My first attempt at this was with the left vertical bar being horizontal, and it was plain… nothing to get excited about… but once I flipped the entire layout, I felt it worked much better and I suddenly got that much needed inspiration!
A few days ago, I found out that I was the winner of a phone consultation with Wendy Piersall and Jeremy Schoemaker, and it would be an understatement to say I am excited about it!
It’s fitting that I mention Wendy on my first post here, because in only a few short months, her words have been an amazing inspiration to me. She is one of those people that you meet (or read) and you know right away that your life will be changed just because you crossed paths. Wendy is one of those people that gives because she genuinely wants to see others succeed, especially parents who work from home.
Being able to build up my own business is something that I’ve always wanted to do, and although I do feel extremely fortunate to even have this opportunity, it does come with a fair amount of challenges. I don’t have the benefit of working ‘normal’ hours, I don’t have the luxury of a quiet office away from home, I don’t have the security of a regular paycheck, but still, the thing that I miss the most is the support and encouragement of teammates.
I think that the value of working within a team is one of those things that we sometimes don’t really appreciate until we have to do without it, until we spend everyday cheering our self, until we spend countless hours every night working on projects all on our own, until we crave some feedback and realize that the room is empty.
But I am learning now that my ‘team’ is other entrepreneurs like myself, other parents trying to make it work, trying to do what we love while making a better life for our family, I am discovering that my support and encouragement now comes from wonderful friends that I’ve found because I share my life with them, and I am amazed that my inspiration comes from virtual strangers whose care shines through their writing and reaches into my soul.
These past months have been a remarkable experience for me in so many ways, so much that it’s not just about running a business, it’s not just about making money, but about so much more… It’s about learning and teaching, it’s about being someone’s shoulder to cry on, it’s about friendship, and I think that realizing that this world is in fact still full of beauty makes every gut-wrenching moment worth it!