I use Photoshop nearly every single day of my life with the work I do. But rarely do I ever use it for what it was originally created for: editing photos. But recently I’ve been playing around with it a bit, and it’s really a lot of fun to create and collage things together. Here are some pictures I took today.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

That is what I think about free templates. Unless you are going to take that free template and then change it drastically yourself, then using a template that is distributed freely to hundreds and thousands of people, and then using it on your website/blog is like singing “Amazing Grace” to the tune of “Gilligan’s Island”. People will notice that the words are different, but the focus will be on the hilarity of mimicking a popular tune.

So here is my latest idea, and I’m still rolling it around in my head, but I wanted to write some of it down:

Everyone knows that non-exclusive WordPress themes are cheaper than custom made ones. The drawback is, everyone has it, and everyone recognizes it, and where it comes from. (I’m still amazed at how many blogs I run across that use Kubrick’s default theme.) So.. what if there was a site that developed “limited edition” themes. Like.. this theme only goes to the first 100 buyers, and it costs $. Then more elite themes that only go to the first 20 buyers, and it costs $$. Then every once in awhile, you slip in an exclusive theme that costs $$$. It is sold only once, and those only come, say.. once a month. It could even go up for auction.

The first challenge would be to draw in an audience. There would need to be an excitement about the cool new themes, and if you’re going to be one of the lucky few that gets to own it. This could be compared to baseball card collections or Woot. I think to kick start it, there should be plenty of basic, free themes. Then draw them in with more intricate designs. To make that part even more interesting, you could retire themes after a certain period of time.

Breaking off on that thought, what if instead of having individual pricing, the users simply subscribe. And as members, they can download certain themes, upgraded users get access to the upgraded themes.  These themes are only available to a certain amount of downloads for a certain amount of time. Then, you could offer free trial memberships.

It would take some good planning, marketing, and programming, but I think it could gain popularity.

The past two months have been such a roller coaster!

January, I just barely made it through. Personal problems were hurting my work ethic and reputation, which hurt my wallet, which made more personal problems. But I somehow managed to get through. Lots of thanks and love goes out to my wonderful friends that I work for. It really does prove that having lasting business relationships are what makes one successful.

February has given me a kick in the rear. Now that I’m finally recuperating from January’s slum, I have work piling in on top of me all at once. I’m trying to keep it organized, but.. let’s just say that it’s a process.

I’m so excited about design and how much I’m growing in my ability. Coding has always came easy to me, since I’m a mathematical/logical thinker, but design is more creative than anything else. I feel confident that I have good artistic ability that comes from my dad, but honing them into something worth while takes time and experience. I’ve been secretly studying logo design (Ok, if you’re a logopond lily, it’s not such a secret); it’s something I really would love to be good at.

Looking at Dad’s art from way back in my baby years, I think he has always been awesome, but he can see through his eyes how much better he is. I see the same for me, except that I’m still 20+ years from reaching an equivalent level with Dad. I think I’ll get there eventually, and in the meantime, I’m at least making a decent rapport with the web design world. One of my goals in starting a blog was to get my name out there more, but so far, it’s slow going.

So anyways, that’s what’s going on with me– just a girl, trying to make a living, with a lot of goals, and a lot of expectations, and mostly, just a lot of hope. Please interact! I love to hear from people.

Marketing on the internet has so many options, it makes my head spin to think of them. One thing that is pretty popular, and I think a great idea, is to have a simple landing page. It’s important for a website to have the most content about it’s subject as possible, but when you’re trying to focus sales on a main item, it’s good to have a page that simplifies the information to hook an interested reader in. You can then use this to be a landing page for tergeting advertising, like paid linking and Google Adwords.

AShop Shopping Cart Software is a good example of this use of marketing. Here, they have a main page that gives you summarized details of what they are offering, and then link you in to their main page to find out more. The points that they list on the page are relevant, and convincing. This is a competetive market, and I think they spell themselves out well.

However, as a designer, I would definitely spice up the look of the content. It’s important for the reader to feel comfortable reading text on a computer. This borders on “squint and follow lines with finger” readability.

But as I said before, what you’re actually reading, is good stuff. It’s concise, but to the point. It doesn’t offend or name call, yet it convinces the reader of a need, and that they have the solution.

This is a type of marketing I might be trying out myself. I’ll let you know the results.

Anyone that knows me and/or has read my about and services pages, knows that I’m absolutely addicted to WordPress. It’s my obsession. What it all comes down to is that it really just makes my job so much easier.

The other day I was going through a checklist of good SEO WordPress tips, and realized that I wasn’t using Google’s WebMaster Tools! So I used my Google account to login, and started going through it’s checklist. If you haven’t done this, whether you’re using WordPress or not, then you should really check it out. It’s not a comprehensive solution, of course, but definitely a great start or addition to other efforts you’re making for good Search Engine Optimization.

One of the things I liked is that the list of websites linking in to my website was over 7,000 strong. A lot of them are duplicate links from the same website, but it was still a much longer list than I have ever seen before. It was eye opening.

One of the links I found was on a review of WordPress itself. I am in a list of the “Best Paid-For Wordpress Template Resources”. I am also the only one in the list that offers customized themes, not just a resale through affiliation. Now, I don’t know much about this Doug guy, but in my opinion he is definitely top notch! The review isn’t too bad either, you should read it.