Tag Archives: DIY Blog Design

DIY Blog Design: To self-host or not?

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18

So, I started this series a little bit ago, and then I became a bit blogging-reclusive. Sorry, gang. I was having some not-so-fun times, and then I went on vacation, and then … I dunno, I just haven’t felt like writing. I’m making myself get back in the swing of things.

In the last post of this series (also the first post of this series), I talked about my general plans for both this blog and the series. One of the first steps to building a blog, or re-designing a blog, is to decide what platform you want to use, and whether or not you want to host it yourself or let another site host it for you. If you’re new to the wonderful world of web hosting and blogging, let me break down those terms for you a bit. The platform for your blog is the software/website that you use to create the blog–basically, it’s the place where you log in, write your posts, approve comments, et cetera. Different platforms have different features that appeal–or don’t appeal, in some cases–to users. Blogging platforms are sometimes called content management systems because they allow you to manage your content (posts, pages, and whatnot) without having to code it directly into the pages yourself. You open up a “new post”, type in your content, click publish, and presto, it shows up on your page, no coding required.

Hosting is all about where your website is stored in cyberspace, and from where users can access your site. You can have WordPress host your blog at WordPress.com for free, for example; Blogger, Google’s blogging service, will also host your blog free, and I’m sure there are other blogging services that will do the same. The alternative is to self-host, which means that you pay a third party to host your site at a web address that you have purchased (like InsatiableBooksluts.com). Monthly fees for hosting can be as low as $3 or $4 a month, or be over $20, depending on what kind of hosting you need. I pay about $9 per month, and that works well for this site.

I decided to make the move to being self-hosted because I wanted more control over my blog. When using WordPress free, you get very little control over your blog; you have to pay for upgrades to give you some control, but to get full control, you have to self-host. (Blogger, I know, gives you a bit more control over your blog, but still not as much as you get with self-hosting.) I also wanted to be able to have full control over my content. As far as I know, you own your content using a free blog host as far as copyrighting, but they also are able to take down posts and even whole blogs if they choose. It’s their site and they ultimately control your blog. I’ve never really heard of this being an issue, but it’s still something I wanted to have control over.

Another advantage to self-hosting is that I have a lot more storage space (not that I probably would have gotten anywhere near the allotted 3 GB storage with just text and images), and I can use that space any way I want. I could also branch out my website if I wanted, including adding pages that aren’t run through WordPress, because I have that space. Hosted at a free blog service, every page I created would have to go through that platform. I have more freedom with my own space to create the site that I want (although, not necessarily the skill . . . heh). I also really love being able to add custom plugins that developers offer; my blog’s functionality has increased significantly.

I gave up a lot of things when I switched over, though. One of the big things I gave up was the WordPress community. Those “likes”, the WordPress.com blog subscribers, the ability to be Freshly Pressed–all of that poofed when I became self-hosted. If I had been self-hosted from the beginning, I’d probably only have about five readers because I never would have been Freshly Pressed. Getting readers if you start out self-hosting requires you to hustle twice as hard because you’re on your own. Another thing I gave up was the quality of hosting and tech support that I would get from WordPress. If something breaks on my blog, I am on my own to fix it; if my blog gets overloaded with too many views (heh, because that is likely… in my dreams), my hosting company may or may not be able to handle it. I know for a fact that WordPress.com hosting can handle over two hundred thousand views in a single weekend without any issues; I have no idea if that would interrupt service to this blog. I doubt I’ll have to worry about it–ever–but it is a difference between using WordPress’s hosting and buying my own.

When you’re looking for hosting, you need to make sure that your host plays nicely with WordPress or whatever blogging platform you choose. (They all should, in theory, but some don’t–especially if you go with a less expensive package.) I didn’t like GoDaddy’s hosting for WordPress at all; I found it slow to load. I use HostGator now, and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve heard Liquid Web is awesome, but it’s a little more than I want to pay for hosting for this site. Ask around and see who your friends use, and if they’re happy with them. Tip: I would definitely look for a host that will install WordPress for you. Otherwise, it’s kind of a pain. Most bigger hosting companies should offer this.

Whether or not you self-host really just depends on how much control you demand over your online space and whether or not you want to pay to get that control. I figure I pay about $130 per year renewing my domain and paying for hosting. I’m comfortable with that. If you don’t plan to do a lot of blog customization, and you’re okay with having restrictions on what you can control, you may want to opt to have WordPress or Blogger, or your platform of choice, host your blog. If you want a custom URL, you can always upgrade to one without moving all the way over to self-hosting; it might run you $20 or so a year, but that’s much less expensive than paying for decent hosting.

As far as which platform to use, if you’re going to self-host, I highly recommend WordPress. It’s powerful, open-source, and free. I find it intuitive and easy to use. If you’re not going to self-host, I recommend checking out different services and talking to other bloggers to see what they think of the services they use. Weigh the ease of use versus the features offered. I use WordPress for my free blogs because I like the platform; even though I know I could get more customization at Blogger, I find it unwieldy enough that I don’t like to use it. Choose the one that fits you best.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with blogging. Do you have a platform you prefer? Have you changed over from free hosting to self-hosting–or vice-versa? Or changed platforms? Tell me about your blogging experiences in the comments!

DIY Blog Design: Introduction

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16

This post is not about books. Don’t worry, there is a review forthcoming. There will always be books!

I told some people awhile back that I was going to chronicle the redesign of IB here, since I’m tackling it myself. I feel pretty awkward about it because I only know a little bit about what I’m doing here–which, really, is kind of what makes this a unique walkthrough. I always seem to miss steps when designers explain stuff, even when they dumb it down a lot (I am dumber than dumb, apparently), because they’ll always assume knowledge of something that I am not quite familiar with. The assumption is different with every designer, too, so I am always just a few pieces short of having a completed puzzle. Then I have to look at about a zillion other blogs until I find that “A-HA!” bit that makes everything clear. I’m hoping that, by going through the whole process here on the blog, someone else might be able to save themselves hours of reading and watching tutorials to find those hidden nuggets of information.

I could save myself a damn lot of time and effort by hiring a designer, but uh . . . . . . I don’t have money to hire a designer. Like, at all. I don’t make money off of this blog really, either, so for me, hiring a designer just seems a little wasteful of my resources. I know a lot of bloggers out there are in the same boat, hence, this series.

I don’t have a plan for this series, because I’m going to be updating in real(ish) time, with my real problems and frustrations and setbacks. I might fail in my original goal and have to improvise. We’ll learn together.

What I already know about web design

I’m not going into this totally blind, I have to tell you. I already can write HTML and CSS. I am somewhat proficient at Photoshop. I’m already familiar with how to use WordPress, not just writing and publishing posts, but also what’s making it work the way it does. I know a little JavaScript and I am basically familiar with how PHP is supposed to work, even though I can’t actually write the code from scratch.

If you’re thinking about tackling your own blog design and you aren’t at least passing familiar with how to use all of this stuff, you’re going to be doing a lot of learning on the fly. If you don’t want to learn about all of this stuff, that’s okay; you won’t be able to do your redesign exactly the same way that I’m doing it, but I’ll do my best to offer tips throughout for people who are less code-savvy. If you do want to learn, I’ll start a page of resources that you can use to bone up on your coding skills. I can also start a glossary for terms that you might not be familiar with . . . including terms that I learn that I am not currently familiar with.

The basic plan for this redesign

One thing I’m not going to do–and what I don’t recommend that you do if you’re not someone who is very proficient at both WordPress and PHP–is creating my own theme. I’m basing my design on a theme called Thesis, made by DIYThemes. Thesis is pricey; the basic package is $87. (I saved up t-shirt money for awhile before I could afford to buy Thesis.) I didn’t want to buy a “premium” theme, which can run anywhere from $20 to $60 (or more, from what I’ve seen); I hate most themes, anyway, and I have a specific idea of how I want IB to look. Thesis, although it’s a little more than premium themes, allows me to create the design I want without having to code everything from scratch.

Thesis is a little tricky to learn to use at first, but it offers powerful customization without having to know how to code. It has a webpage “builder” in it that lets you customize damn near everything using CSS, but without having to write out a stylesheet or any PHP. I know that there are other themes out there that are similar (the main competitor for Thesis is Genesis by StudioPress, which is slightly cheaper at $60), but I have heard a lot of buzz about Thesis and it had some great tutorials available, so I went with it.

What I plan to do, if everything goes well, is create a “skin” for Thesis that has a magazine-style front page. This way, I still have powerful functionality (stuff like SEO, fast loading–all of the stuff that I would have no idea how to optimize if I created a theme from scratch, which I learned when I once created a theme from scratch. I almost cried when I had to scrap it) but I can make it look and act the way that I want.

If you don’t want to use Thesis for a redesign, don’t sweat it. There will still be posts that will relate to you, and I’ll try to give as many tips along the way as I possibly can for people not using the same method I’m using.

Who is this series for?

If you’re a blogger who isn’t really terribly web-design savvy, but do have some knowledge or are willing to learn it, this series is primarily for you. Or, if you want to see me struggle half-blind through redesigning my blog, drag up a chair and sit awhile!

This series is also mostly aimed at self-hosted WordPress users. I will be tackling the “if” and “why” of moving to self-hosted WordPress in an upcoming post. If you use a different blogging platform, you can still benefit from the basic design concepts; however, I have no idea how to integrate that into the platform you use. If you’re not self-hosted, you may still be able to benefit from some of these posts (that is, if I don’t totally fail to create something that would benefit anyone, ha!), but I will probably tackle custom CSS in a future post. If you’re interested in learning how to tweak CSS at your WordPress.com blog, leave me a comment and let me know. The more people who comment and tell me they’re interested, the higher up on the priority list the post will go. ;-)

Needless to say, this series is not for professional designers. I’m not a professional designer. I’m documenting the process of hacking my way through it, hoping that it might be helpful for other people who just can’t hire professionals. If you are a professional and you want to help out with comments, tips, links, and what-have-you–great! But please don’t make the mistake of thinking that I’m trying to hand out professional advice and leave me comments to that end. Be respectful, too, of other non-professional designers in this space. We’re not trying to trample on your profession or keep you from getting work; most of us couldn’t afford to pay you even if we wanted to hire you.

And believe me, I would love to hire you and not have to do this myself. Love.

In the next few posts, we’ll cover if and when to switch to self-hosted WordPress, the basic components of a blog, and start building a mock-up of what we want the site to look like. In the meanwhile, I’ll work on gathering resources–more difficult now that I’ve lost all of my stupid bookmarks when my computer crashed, but I will prevail!–and making a page for those. Meanwhile, we’ll return to our regularly-scheduled book programming shortly.