One Word – Widgets

You are now reading Small Business Branding on the brand new blog design.

I chose the Colormatic theme from Unique Blog Designs and went with one of their new themes. First I must say this theme has been the easiest one I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with. I’m completely amazed at how easy was to get this theme loaded and going. The main reason I chose to leave my CUSTOM theme and switch to this easier cheaper theme (it cost me about $70) in one word.. Widgets! And lots of them!

It is so easy for me to change the colors, move the widgets around and countless other things. I know playing with a blog design doesn’t pay the bills but I can tell you it’s made it tons easier for me to develop the site further and feel great about it. Before the previous theme would go wonky on me and the sidebar would literally end up in the footer and all I was trying to do was add a simple code to the sidebar.

I installed it myself! Ok, so when you get your theme you have the license to install it on ANY site you choose and I chose to put it on my Scrapbooking Site first and it was super easy to customize. I can’t sing it enough that I’m SO thrilled with this theme!

Now that you get the point…

This will now allow me to work on developing traffic, create a deeper relationship with my readers, and increase my income. Mostly because I’m flat out Happy! It was so darn discouraging previously and now I feel like nothing will stop me.

The biggest thing I learned about this process is that on a Custom design, you can’t use widgets. You either choose one or the other, maybe I’m mistaken but that’s what it looks like. Also, Angela was amazing at walking me through the process. To begin with the site needed an update to the newest version of WordPress, so I shot some cash over to my host (Reliable Webs) and that was done within a few hours. Then Angela installed the site today and it all happened so quickly. I know I’ll probably be tweaking the look of the design as we go along but at least now I can feel great about the site and bring the best information to you.

When it comes down to it, when you’re not happy with what you’re doing how could you possibly be as productive as when you are?

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Vera Raposo

Oh wow I know the last theme messed up in so many ways. I'm glad you like it, I have accomplished so much with it and have been extremely happy with it. :-)

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Love Graphics

Love the new design. Before the new design I was unable to view posts for some reason, kept getting an error. I am excited your site is working perfectly now.

Noobpreneur - Hey thanks for the Congrats! I too feel it's nicely laid out. Yeah, the custom theme I had was nice but I always had big white space on the main page that drove me nuts and I could never figure out how to fill it up.

Too much of having to go inside the code, which is easy for some but not me. I'd much rather focus on wonderful content, and nuturing a great community here.

Spielzeugkiste - Yes I get your point. :-) You are right about this, it's really important not to lose the content, if anything you will see alot of improvements yet we will stay consistent with our writing.

As for the hosting, I actually downgraded if you can believe that. I was using a VPS and it really wasn't needed. I now use Reliable Webs (you'll see them on the sidebar) mostly because they are real people who answer my real questions.

I hate having to spar with a hosting company to get the answer I was requesting. They give you too much gobbly gook in their responses that don't even answer the question you asked in the first place.

And then they fail to realize that you need a dictionary to decipher their "gook" and then it's not what you needed in the first place.

I had enough, and now I'm with a really FAB company that is super fast with their answers (love Scott!) and they know me as me, not just a customer over a help ticket system. They helped me with my decision to switch, and it did take me a long while to decide but I've definitely made the move now and again I'm thrilled! (sorry for the blog post).

Spielzeugkiste

Forgot to ask: did you also have to upgrade your hosting? I heard that sometimes add-ons require more processing power or RAM on the server, so the blog doesn't stop from showing. Anything changed?

OK, a new design, but hopefully nothing changes in the content you and your co-authors provide. Good to see that the transition went smoothly - I have seen others not being that lucky.

Noobpreneur

Vera,

Congrats on installing new theme design! I must say, it is laid-out well and the design elements are just right (not too clutter the pages).

I agree that the ability to easily customise a theme should be our #1 priority, because us bloggers are (and should be) spending time on blogging and marketing, instead of figuring it out where to put what.

Cheers!

Thanks Angela, the nice thing about this design is it's easy to change the colors around if the grey doesn't suit my fancy. I'm thinking more of a cream design. Not sure. And I would've been lost without your support so thank you for being there along the way. :-)

Angela Wills

Vera love the look! I know I helped a little but you did almost all of the work and you did a great job.

Albertus - yes it's true but sometimes even worse they have a terrible design that repells visitors.

Nicolas - Absolutely! Being happy on projects makes things go so much easier. That's why I no longer do any client work, too time consuming and brain draining for me.

Christina - yes I was SO surprised at not only how easy this theme is to work with but how great it looks.

Thanks for the comments everyone! :-)

Christina Lemmey

The new design looks FAB! I like the clean, simple layout. Isn't it amazing how we can still achieve that professional look with the simplest of designs?

Nicolas

You're right, happiness with your work serves as the most important key to success. You really need to satisfy yourself so that the flow of ideas would come continuously.

Albertus

hey

for sure every business needs a blog / website. It really helps to connect with the customers 24/7 and proper marketing of the website will do wonders for the business's branding.

It never fail to surprise me that many businesses nowadays still do not have a website.