When I first started blogging in 2005, blogs just weren’t what they are today.  They were pretty plain jane and most people were just writing for the fun of it.  Today, it’s become a business, and for some, a burden.  As with all change, some is good and some is bad.  This post is about the good and how to do it on a budget.

1.  Pretty Blog, Pretty Blog.
I have to admit, I like me a pretty blog.  Not fussy (I am so NOT a fussy person), but definitely not so plain and boring you aren’t sure the person writing the blog is real.

You don’t have to spend a fortune to be yourself.  You can say a lot about who you are with headers and labels and backgrounds.  And you can do it for free.  Try a ready-made template for blogger at one of these sites:
Butterflygirlms
Simply Fabulous
Easy to Scrapbook
The Cutest Blog on the Block
(this list could literally go on and on and on…do a search for “Free Blog Templates” or “Free Blog Layout” and see what turns up!)


Ask around and find someone new to web design and ask if they’d be interested in doing a blog makeover to build their portfolio.  Check with homeschool groups or public school entrepreneurship programs or computer classes.

And if you do decide to go the paid-route, check out my friend Abigail who did my blog at 32nd Street Blog Boutique!

2.  Have a Picnik (.com that is)

I LOVE this site!  You can get a paid membership for full benefits, but the free side has lots of great stuff too.  For instance, my watermarks on my photos were done at Picnik.com.  The site will even link up to your Photobucket or your Picasa web albums (and other sites as well) where you can work on your photos and then save them as either copies or replacements of the originals.

Take at look at the Learn More section in my left-hand sidebar.  Those photos were done in Picnik.  I chose a photo and then clicked on the CREATE tab, then the TEXT tab and typed in what I wanted to say.  You are able to choose from several different fonts as well as rotate, fade, or change colors.

You are also able to edit your photos with some basic editing tools in Picnik (the paid membership allows for a full range of editing tools, but you can do quite well with the free stuff) which leads me to my next point…

3.  Photos make all the difference.
I am a very visual person, so when someone writes about how to do something I NEED pictures to complete the story.  Perhaps you’ve seen blogs with really wonderful photos on them and laid awake at night wishing your photos looked like that.  But, alas, the budget won’t allow for a new camera.  What do you do?  You edit!

I don’t own a fancy camera…yet.  I just can’t fit it into the budget at this point, but I think my photos aren’t too shabby.  I’ve spent a lot of time studying other people’s photos and taking hints from these blogs:
Dancing Barefoot
A Familiar Path (Using Your Camera series)
Better In Bulk (she has a Bloggography series you should check out!)
I Heart Faces (Tutorial section)

And hey, if you don’t like your photos, use someone else’s!
Flickr Creative Common
Public Domain Pictures

4.  Add Pages
Originally, I added pages by adding new blogs, but realized recently just how much traffic was leaving my blog to go to my other blogs when I could just as easily incorporate the pages into my existing blog.  My gates in the menu bar lead to other pages on my blog that are specifically designed to offer a plethora of information on those particular subjects.  I keep them updated as I receive new information.

5.  Learn about your readership
I have Google Analytics attached to this blog so I can see where people are coming from, how long they stay, and a myriad of other things.  I’ll admit, Analytics is still a bit of a mystery to me, but I’m learning…I think.

A couple of other things I’ve added here that help me understand my readership is the Feedjit live traffic widget which allows me to see in real time the last 50 hits on my blog (including how they got there and how they left) and my Lijit search feature that gives me weekly stats on who is searching for what on my blog and what they are landing on when they do search.  (That’s how I found out my sister-in-law was desperately searching for some sort of Christmas present idea for us this year!)

6.  See something you like?  Borrow it!
As you’re surfing, you see a blog feature you like and would love to incorporate on your own blog…then do it!  Google it, ask the other blogger how they got that feature, do whatever it takes to find the answers.  You’re not stealing!  The only way you could ever be accused of stealing is if your blog begins to look EXACTLY like another blog OR you flat-out plagiarize.  Now, that my friends is wrong…but borrowing great ideas and making them your own (especially in bloggy land) is called resourcefulness!  For instance, I saw Link Within on another blog and loved it!  So, I clicked on the link in the corner, went to the site and signed up…for free

The gals at SavvyBlogging.net (#savvyblogging on twitter) have some excellent advice on all things bloggy.  However, remember as you are tweaking your blog…

7.  Stay true to you.
I cannot stress this enough.  Don’t get so caught up in becoming a blogging empire that you forget your peasant roots or forget YOU!

I hope this blog never runs away with me.  I hope you never stop seeing Amy written all over this blog.  I hope those who know me best come here and say, “Wow!  That really is just like Amy!” (good and bad!)

You can spend all the money in the world on your blog and make all the money in the world off your blog, but once you lose you, that’s it.  You either lose the true joy of blogging or you start a private blog to pour your heart out to because you have no where else to turn.

Are there things I can’t say here?  Absolutely.

However, they are things I’ve made the choice not to say.  The blog didn’t make the choice.  I did.  I do.  I will continue to do so.
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And that, my friends, is priceless…

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This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday.  This week’s meme is about all things blogging.
You can also find me At The Well today with my post on Child Rearing entitled: “Monkey See, Monkey Do”

HUGE selection of cloth diapers and accessories
from another mom of many!

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