New Custom Design Tools for Blogger Users

This week Google began testing a Blogger layout tool that allows people to customize the look of their blog. For those bloggers that do not use wordpress or understand wordpress.org plug-ins this is a nice new feature. .Check out a preview on Bloggers You Tube Channel


The templates tool supports professional designs, prebuilt templates and a color control to alter the blog's palette of colors. Those familiar with CSS and HTML will find the ability to integrate stock photos and custom background scenes, too. There are 15 templates, hundreds of stock images , custom colors, fonts and blog layouts. Google has made the Blogger Template Designer available through Blogger in Draft, Blogger's test lab, also known to developers as a sandbox or test bed.
Note-Template Designer does not support Internet Explorer 6

Nice Wordpress Theme

I attended a free webinar today hosted by Adria Richards (Wordcamp speaker & CEO of Freshworkshops) on Selecting a Wordpress Theme. The hour long webinar was basic. I am in the 1st steps of setting up my Wordpress blog. Everyone on the webinar was new to Wordpress- all Blogger users, so non-techies will feel comfortable with the content.

My takeaway: there are 3 ways to get your word press theme up and running

Free Themes. On Wordpress.com / Wordpress.org. Free is great and does not mean sub-par. Expect common designs and ease of use. Downside on free, there will be no support services for the technically challenged and if you set up thru wordpress.com you are limited to about 70 templates, no plug ins, and limited on analytics.

Commercial Themes- if you prefer some support or different design options there are many providers that sell templates. Expect to pay $ 30- 200. The upside of buying a Wordpress theme: may have support services from the designer when it comes to installing and customizing. There are trillions of templates - too many for me to digest. It was recommended to check out www.welovewp.com for some design ideas.
Custom- looking for a unique design and have bucks to put into the project ( I didn’t pay much attention to this option as most of my clients & I do not have the budget luxury )

One question that orginally perplexed me was the difference between Wordpress.com vs. .org. Wordpress.com has limited templates (approx. 70), no plug-in but requires no installation. So if you are technology challenged or want a blog template for personal use, Wordpress.com may be for you. Wordpress.org is preferred by designers and webmasters since you can edit codes, upload your theme, install plug-in bells and whistles but you will need some technical ability to install it on your server. Cons- you are responsible for preventing spam, backing up, installing newer versions and should have some technical interest to handle these housekeeping issues.

What I did learn today, certain servers are more Wordpress friendly. This was good to find out before I started the process. I love learning new facts!!

A lot of handy links were provided by the Freshworkshops moderator – this one has a lot of detailed information http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org

So now I know I will need to adjust my server and go with wordpress.org….next step installing ….stay tunes.