Up and Running - My Terms

What started as a little sprucing for a few friends has grown into something beyond my wildest imagination. I am not a professional web designer. I'm a homeschool mom who loves design; I happen to have a couple tricks up my sleeve. I also believe every blogger should have a hip, cool space that reflects them! Why have the same thing as everyone else?

I am setting up shop and my quest is to make the blogosphere a brighter, more personalized place. I've priced out the cost of blog design out there. Design work is expensive! Paid by the hour or paid by the job - professional design can cost hundreds (or even thousands!) of dollars. But most bloggers don't need all the bells and whistles. They just want pretty, hip, customized images and graphics that reflect them. That shouldn't cost thousands or even hundreds of dollars! But it takes many hours to create a customized space. To help my family's homeschool expenses and offset my hours, but still make blog design affordable for everyone, I've decided to customize blog headers and templates for donation.

Here is an excerpt of an email I recently sent to a client about the business ends of things:

"About the business end of it. Ugh, I really hate the business end of it, I really do! I accept any type of Paypal: credit card, balance, e-check or bank transfer. I know blog design is expensive. I decided to offer my designs for Bloggers because you aren't Blogging for profit. It's a hobby. I always advise that a donation would be an amount your husband wouldn't question. As a general guide, people usually pay me more than a babysitter or house-cleaning service but less then they'd pay a graphic designer. I will keep track of my hours, if that helps you, great. I do say this... I will complete the entire design and get you live before I will accept a donation. I do this so you are sure that any donation DOES NOT dictate my design work. I want everyone who feels like they want a fun, personalized space to get one. For some, they are comfortably able to donate more than others. And I do not feel badly about that, nor do I let Bloggers feel badly about that. This is supposed to be fun. So from here on out - it's a non issue... see how you feel at the end, I'll let you know my time invested."

I do ask that you host a button that links back to this blog on your side bar, acknowledging my work. It's a small, unobtrusive, clickable button that looks like this:

It's a win-win. Email me if you're interested.