Shock And Awe Over At ProBlogger
Darren over at Problogger has released the results of a poll he’s been running. He wants to know how his readers — the ones who have blogs, anyway — came by their design. Here are the results.
“DIY - The results showed that 57% of you either considerably tweaked a free template (35%) or designed your blog from scratch yourself (22%).
Free Templates - Another 32% of you are using a free template (either a default template that came with your platform (11%) or one from some other source (21%).
Paid Designs - Just 12% of ProBlogger readers paid for their blog design - either by buying a non unique ‘premium’ theme (5%) or hiring a designer (7%).”
Am I dumb, here? I’m looking at this situation and seeing that 88% of the readers of a website with both “pro” and “blogger” in the title — not just any readers either, but readers who are involved enough in the community to bother responding to a poll — either messed around with a free template, tried to do the whole thing themselves, or used a template that came with the program or they got from a Google search. Am I missing something?
To my mind, and I freely admit I could be wrong here, when you want to make enough money at something to be considered a “pro”, you’re starting or running a home business. That makes you a business owner.
I hope to God 57% of business owners don’t also represent themselves in court when they’re being sued.
I know I snark a lot, and I swear, this isn’t meant to be snark. I’m seriously confused. Aren’t the readers of this site trying to become pro bloggers? Like, the kind of bloggers who make money at things related to blogging? (Jamie, the person I married who doesn’t read blogs and therefore doesn’t see the ugly ones, disagrees with me wholeheartedly on this. For his benefit, I will add this: I’m not saying that all self-designed sites are ugly. I’m saying that most of them are.)
Once upon a time, someone (me) thought it was a good idea to give me a copy of Coffee Cup. This is kind of a web design software. I messed around and I created something that was two things: 1.) Better than anything I’d come up with so far, and 2.) Kind of exciting. It was horrifically ugly, but it was mine, and I was very proud of it. Suffice it to say, you’re not looking at it right now.
It’s so easy to get caught up in how much you’ve improved that you can’t be objective and realize it’s not good enough. It’s not professional, and that takes a toll on your image. I have potential clients who I won’t even work with because of this. I can get people to their site, yes, but they’re not going to stay.
This is yet another example of people thinking making money on the internet is easy. I’ve ranted about this before and I’ll spare you another rant now, but come on, people! I’m all for “content is king”, but you can’t build a cluttered and ass-ugly store that’s prone to collapsing in the middle of the shopping experience and then steadfastly defend it by saying that the stuff you’re selling is really, really good. Content may be king, but the visual and technical elements of your site aren’t bloody peasants!
The thing I find most interesting about this post is the comments thread:
Daniel Bates says:
I think the high number of do-it-yourselfers and smaller number of custom designs is a result of the Darren’s fan base… Readers of this site have already shown that they desire to get their hands dirty or else they wouldn’t be reading, they just fork over the money to someone who already knows what they’re doing.
I’m talking out of my ass here, but I disagree. I don’t think that the readers of the site read it because they desire to get their hands dirty. I think they read it because they want to learn how to make a decent amount of money via their blog. I, for one, have absolutely no desire to get my hands dirty. I am not a representative sample, but I don’t think I’m alone.
AP Lawrence says:
I think the DIY attitude mentioned above is important. For me it’s even more than that: I want total control of every thing that happens on my blog. Once in a great while I will use someone else’s code for something, but if I can possibly do it myself, I’m going to..
His word choice here, in tandem with text from his page “Tutorials, Resources and information for Unix/Linux, Mac OS X and other general computing related topics,” says to me that this guy knows a boatload more about coding and design than I do. This dude is not your average bear.
Mr. Gentlenibbles adds (and thank God he had something to add because my life is better for having typed his name):
I ended up tremendously modifying a free theme and think I did a pretty good job. I probably would be willing to pay, but after searching extensively for premium themes I did not find any that I liked. I also considered hiring a designer, but really could not find enough information out there on who was good, scams, and so forth.
In the end, I had a blast learning to design my own and I think I am probably going to be a better blogger for it.
Mr. Gentlenibbles does not appear to have the intentions of retiring off his blogging income, and his template isn’t bad. (To my Christian readers, of whom I know there are many: DO NOT go check it out. His name says all you need to know.) But Mr. GN had fun doing it and in his case, his readers really are there for the content. I don’t think they give a ding dong what his site looks like.
Then we have Caitlin:
The high ratio of DIY-ers to paid custom designs is probably skewed from the “real world” numbers by Darren’s fan base. We’re all here to learn how to make our blogs better, which shows we’re already more interested in doing it ourselves rather than simply paying someone else to [design our] blog for us, so it makes sense that this carries through to the layout of our blogs.
Her blog, which has a pretty sexy header by the way, says this: “In my previous post about professional organizers, I said I had hired a professional organizer before, and I would definitely do it again if I had the chance!” While I disagree with her comment on Problogger - I still don’t think the desire to improve one’s blog is indicative of the desire for full technical responsibility - this sentence indicates that we agree on at least one thing. When it’s important, you pay to bring in the professionals. She brought in a pro for her home and I brought in a pro for my site.
Here’s my take. When the outcome of a decision could substantially impact my bottom line, I call in the professionals. I don’t have a professional organizer, but if I was about to sell my house you can bet your ass I’d be on the phone to one so fast the cat’s head would spin.
If you read Problogger to help you have a better blog, you might be able to get away with an amateur theme. If you read Problogger to have a professional blog (and the site is called PROblogger, not BETTERblogger), maybe you should get a professional site. Maybe. I don’t know. Call me crazy.
Here’s what I’d like to know. How many of his readers who intend to make any money paid to have their blog designed?
What about you guys?
How did your blog come to be? Are you happy with that? Do you plan to significantly change it any time soon? Does it even matter since your blog is not your business anyway and you’re happy to write about cat puke from your Blogger Dots theme?
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I agree with you 100 percent. I have been writing like mad for well over a year, and I am ready to start releasing it. I played around with Wordpress for about 3 hours in December, and decided that I had better things to do with my time. That is why I have hired a professional to do the design and back end for me, so that I can concentrate on what I really want to do - write! I intend to make money from it, and I will succeed.
(BTW - awesome blog, keep up the good work.)
I am behind the design and construction of my own blog. But it’s a little different since I’m a “Pro” designer.
However I completly agree with you. I have a lot of experience with small businesses that will forever be small because they insist on doing everything themselves.
We’ve used templates up to now and customized them as best as Harry could - we also hired some outside help for the functions he wasn’t able to code.
It’s time for the big leagues, and while free is nice, Harry and I both agreed that if we wanted to play with the Big Boys, we needed to act like grownups ourselves.
We’re plunking down a serious amount of money (for us) in January on a full site redesign by Brian Gardner. We are pros and he is a pro. We are not a jack of all trades - we are master of one. As such, so is Brian. We want our business to grow and succeed, and as such, only the best is good enough.
Those who the strength of a great image pay for premium. As a great example, Lamborghini doesn’t give away cars. If you want the Lamborghini look, you pay.
However. I’ll say that growing businesses must work within their budgets and spend what they can on the investments they need. Sometimes the budget can’t handle the expense - but with premium blog themes costing less than $100, there is no excuse for cheap when you’re in business.
Worth over cost wins every time. The return on investment justifies the expense. And you have to spend a dollar to make a dollar, folks.
@ Brett - Exactly. You have better things to do with your time. Yaro talks about this and frankly, if it’s good enough for Yaro, it’s good enough for me.
@ Chris - You have one of the sexiest sites ever - clean, but yummy at the same time. You get a pass.
@ James - We were typing at the same time, so I missed you. SO with you. There was one woman I considered to design IttyBiz, before I met Chris, who designed gorgeous sites with custom illustrations for $160. She lived in another country and didn’t need to charge any more than that. I mean, seriously. It would take the Average Joe or Joette 50 hours or more to get their shit together enough to do a site like that. What’s that, $3 an hour?
With my business website, I hired a pro right from the beginning.
With my personal blogs initially I didn’t think I needed to do that because they were “personal” well they’ve moved past that point so it’s time to get serious.
I purchased a premium theme (one of Brian Gardner’s) for my alternative healing website. My main website will be getting a customized theme. I really dislike the one I have. It was free, and I customized the heck out of it. It served its purpose, but it’s time to get serious. I’m not sure whom I’ll use yet. My new baby, Addicted to Writing, will be following the same route within a few months.†
I’m a big fan of custom designed websites and blogs. Maybe that’s because I’m a designer. A freelance designer looking for work. Hint* Hint*
First of all most of the people reading ProBlogger aren’t making shit, so that explains a lot. Darin’s topics run the gamut and are useful to other types of bloggers as well–except business bloggers, but that’s where I come in.
I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to find good designers or blog consultants, but it is. I guess there aren’t very many of us. I’ve landed a few clients who told me they found me via my comments at ProBlogger. Hint, hint. ;)
We all know there are people who simply decide something and then go about it and they haven’t A CLUE. I mean, people who wake up one day and say “I’m going to open a store!” and of course the store is a miserable failure.
The growth trend of “itty bizzes” (or maybe that should be itty bizzez?) means there are a shit-ton of new people out there wearing more hats than they should. They’ll hire an accountant but design their own gobstopper website in FrontPage.
There is no reason on this earth why anyone should have to make the same mistakes as everyone else when starting a blog. It’s like people are still teenagers who think they’re the only ones going through life. Get help. If you charged yourself at your own hourly rate for all the mistakes on your blog, would it be worth the money? Well, then hire somebody. Preferably me.
Good call on this one, Naomi.
@ Michael - Your comments remind me of the hopefuls who blaze onto the Internet, dream of riches and wealth off one ebook on sexual aids, and then cry in their milk one week after because it didn’t all happen overnight.
If we’re all starting to pitch ourselves for pro services, I’m in. Hire JCME for strong web content and words that make a difference.
But they don’t work miracles, folks. It’s a package deal. Between Chris, Michael, Jon, Naomi and me (James), you have one kick-ass team to propel every aspect of your business into online success!
[...] in the comments… The ever-wonderful Michael Martine of Remarkablogger wrote a comment on my most recent post that I liked so much, I’m putting it here. Whoever invented push-button publishing probably [...]
Wow, having looked at all of the linked sites so far from all of you, I think I’ll have to hire *all* of you (eventually), as James suggested. This is excellent stuff.
@ James - That was great. “Physician, whore thyself to IttyBiz readers.”
I would have had trouble answering that poll. I design my WP sites, but I usually start the code with a free template. I find it saves time in the coding. (Though, one of these days I’d like to make my own clean templates that have things the way I’d like them to save even more time…)
I guess I’d argue that if I customize it enough I have designed it fully since it never looks like what I started with.
I just changed my theme, I used a freebie that I liked the look of, but I hired a pro to design and implant my custom header and logo.
Click my name to see the blog, use this link [ http://www.charfishdesign.com/category/portfolio/ ] to see the rest of Charlie’s work. Good. Fast. Friendly.
Takes care of extra goof-ups that you make on your own.
A+ rating.
@ Stephen - You used Charlie? He’s so awesome! The last part is crucial. Eventually, everyone is going to get it in their head that they can go in and mess around with their code on their own. And eventually, they will fuck it up. Not that I would know anything about that or anything.
@Naomi - I am so glad you went with me and not the other cheap lady. ;)
Anyway, the way I see it, there are three types of bloggers starting up out there:
1. FreeRide Types
These people are not really in blogging for the money because they don’t completely take it serious. They are doing it to see if any free cash will fall into their hands via Adsense or affiliates and when it doesn’t, the blog slowly goes quiet and then eventually disappears. These types of people SHOULD NOT go buy a custom design… Obviously.
2. Serial Entrepreneurial Types
These people are serious about making their blogging a real “job,” but they are not quite sure how it will turn out in the end. They are dedicated to trying their best to make it work. They desperately want to spend the money to get custom design work done, but just can’t justify it yet until their blog/business takes off. For this reason, and this reason alone, they temporarily decide to use a free template. These people also SHOULD NOT pay for a custom design (yet). Assess your situation after 6 months of blogging then revisit the idea.
3. Dead-Serious Businessmen/Businesswomen
This person has a clear-cut idea, a bullet-proof business plan and already knows they are going to succeed. They know that to gain on whoever the their industry or niche competitors are, they will need to stand out. They know they will need to make a splash upon entry. They have done all the research. They know it usually takes money to make money. This type of blogger DOES spend the appropriate money to buy a custom design.
Why?
This type of person knows that design is just as much a necessity as any other part of their business plan. (And failure is not an option for them)
Of course, then again, I may be a little biased towards getting a good looking design, but I 100% believe every word I just typed.
Cheers!
I participated in that poll and I’m a “Pro” web designer. So, its true that the DIY doesn’t clarify level of skill. But as someone into designing blogs for clients I see the huge market of potential customers and say, “that’s great, plenty of work out there.”
I also think its normal for many people to start off with free templates to get there blog going. It offers the least investment initially. After they have there feet wet and start to make a little money they start to want their blog to look as good as some custom theme they’ve seen.
I’ve got a post over at blogelephant.com about criteria for hiring a blog desiginer to redesign your blog. Worth a look. I’ll be following up with a post shortly about how to do some of the leg work in designing your brand. Thanks.
Trust Chris to be the voice of reason.
@ Sean - Hi! Welcome to IttyBiz. While I can understand the desire to start off with a free template, it strikes me as kind of like trying to start a store in your guest room. If your store is totally incredible, people will still come. Not as many as would have otherwise, but they’ll come.
If you’re like the rest of us and not totally incredible, you’ll experience a total lack of success - what Darren talked about in his watching grass grow video - and likely give up. Love your tagline, by the way.
I’m a professional web designer. Wouldn’t look very good if I hired my blog design out to someone else, would it? :-)
P.S. Yes, I am available to hire.
On the actual topic, I think that there may be a higher percentage of web designers reading ProBlogger than is true in the general blogging public. Thus the high numbers for DIY.
Okay, well I’ll speak up for the 88%. :) I have not used a pro designer for a few reasons. First, I am a total newbie to the whole blog scene, and I’ve just been finding my way around and trying to decide what I like. Second, I don’t have the first clue where to look for a designer. How would I know if one is good or his/her prices are good? Honestly, the prospect is more than overwhelming.
I don’t even understand completely what a designer would be doing. Does design just mean the looks of a site, or is functionality part of it? If I hired a designer (assuming I could even come close to affording it in the first place) would they be actually coding? How do I know I’d like what the designer came up with? What if I didn’t?
And did you all REALLY want to know what goes on in my head at any given moment? :)
My blog (*sob* I want it baaack) came about because I wanted to post bout job and design type stuff. I made it myself to fit my website. That I also designed myself. Because I’m a designer.
So I guess I paid a designer (myself) (in Papa Johns).
@AmyL: Design is DEFINITELY functionality. Art = pretty. Design = form, function, whole shebang. It does for me at least. Most freelancers would code it (I would at least, and any worth their salt know how to). And there are phases. We (designer) talk with you (client), figure out what you are looking for. Come back with some prototypes (some = more than one). You say “well I sort of like two, but I want more _something_ and I hate green.” We explain our reasonings for green (if there are any) based on competition, trends, etc. And then usually bring back more prototypes along the path of the one you liked. And maybe not with green.
That’s a great crack, but soooo many people do that. That’s right up there with: “I’ll move off of Blogger when it gets serious.”
@Chris Cagle: Great points, man. I agree. Especially for a serious business (oh, there are plenty of comical businesses). Do it right or don’t bother.
@Joshua:
That’s a big fat maybe. Lawyers don’t represent themselves in court–they hire lawyers who are better than themselves. Sometimes, we’re just too close to our own stuff. We really do need someone else to do for us what we can so easily do for others, but sometimes not for ourselves. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
I’ll speak from the “wordpress designer” point of view here if I may.
1) People are CHEAP. 2) They think that designers just hit a few magic buttons and we spend an hour and VOILA blog template… they are so used to getting things for “free” template wise that I do think that there is pressure on the Pros to undersell their services.
I think that people really are only just coming around to the idea that there are professionals out there whose time is worth investing in to give them a custom blog design or plugin.
Just this last week, I have had 6 enquiries from people wanting a custom blog design. I have come reccomended by some great photographers and am quite sought after in that area at the moment. I am not really sure, though, how many of them are keen to progress, because it doesn’t matter if it is a blog skin or not, it still costs the same (at least $1200US) as designing a website in terms of time and resources.
There seem to be a lot of people out there that think that they can pay someone $100 and get a well designed blog that integrates with their website… purely because there are free alternatives.
Not saying there shouldnt be free alternatives, but that people need to realise that default themes and free themes just don’t cut it. That said, I am releasing a free theme in a month or so just for photographers, but thats mostly so I can build some traffic ;)
@ Naomi - I didn’t whore myself. I opened a bordello.
@ Chris - Yes. Man, yes, you hit the nail on the head. We were #2 for about six months and like you said, we used free but knew we were moving into something better. We planned for eventually getting a custom site. When we hit #3, then we definitely stepped up to the plate. You are so right. Failure is not an option for me, and design is just one aspect of the whole plan.
@ Joshua - Yes and No. You should definitely be getting a professional for anything that you can’t do yourself - even the tiniest task. Another reason you might want to hire out is to network and partner up to create some buzz: “Hey, I’m working with Brian Gardner on my site!” Both Brian and me benefit from that. A third reason is because you’re too close to your work, which means you’re your worst enemy for productivity and knowing when to let go. A fourth reason is because someone can “see” a different image that fits your business better. You focus on designing for your customers and earn money, the other guy is busy designing for you, and it’s win-win all around. What doesn’t make sense in that? You’re not screaming, “I have to outsource my own own work!!” You’re saying, “I’m so cool that I’m going to give this guy a chance to see what he’d do with my blog design. Because I’m cool. Isn’t that cool of me?”
(and now that I’ve typed all of that out, I see that Michael summed up much the same in two sentences… oh well. Sorry, Michael, I’ll just nudge you over and share your opinion. United we stand.)
@ Tea - People are not cheap. People have skewed perceptions which causes them to think everything is easy. Plus, the international Internet makes competition reeeal stiff. But people have gone cheap like mad and they’ve learned that “pros” in India really have no clue what works in the US (currently ruling the Internet) and Canada (quietly and politely plotting to overtake the US monopoly). Oh, yes, and they’ve learned that people aren’t easily fooled. Of course they knew that, because they’re people and they’re not easily fooled, but they assumed their potential customers were absolute idiots and could be emptied of their riches. Such is not the case, I assure you. Quality counts.
I’ll play devil’s advocate for a moment. Do consider that $1,200 is a shitload of money, though, so don’t be offended when people can’t afford that cost. For example, that amount of money is equal to one full month of supporting myself and two other people - tough to justify that expense in the real world. It’s convincing your clients that losing $1,200 (because that’s how they see it) is an action that will pay itself off. If you can’t convince them of that, you will not have many clients, or as many as you’d like.
So people aren’t cheap. People are misinformed and they’re cautious. They also have trouble seeing into the future - they dream, sure, but they need that reassurance that a leap of faith isn’t going to have them land in a SPLAT.
just heading to bed - so this will be short. But one reflection I have is that a previous poll on ProBlogger showed that a very very high percentage of my readers are in the first 6 or so months of blogging. I attract a lot of beginner readers. I suspect that beginner bloggers would be less likely to hire designers or have the ability to design themselves.
Just an explanation off the top of my head :-)
Naomi, first of all, thanks for the mention in your article. I’m glad Darren responded to this. He is the PROblogger, not his readers. A poll of viewers of the NFL wouldn’t result in conclusions about it’s players, would it? Likewise, his poll only tells what type of fanbase he has; new bloggers (as he pointed out) that are trying to learn how to be better bloggers. There is a breed of people out there (which I fall into) that would rather learn how to do something themselves (if achievable) than pay someone in order to have more control as well as a pride about a job well done and experience for the future. I wouldn’t go to medical school and learn open heart surgery if I thought I might need an upcoming operation, but I did draw my own house plans rather than paying an architect and I at least try to fix things around the house before I call a repair person. If you are not this type of person, you may have a hard time understanding. I did pay someone to build my site, because I was clueless when I started, but I now want to learn as much as I can so I can have more control and know what changes are capable and new technology is out there. Anyway, I just found your site (through a google alert for my name) and have really enjoyed it. Thanks, Daniel Bates - http://www.mymcclellanville.net
@ Michael & James: You’re quite right that there are excellent reasons for hiring another designer. I just think that in my case the reasons for not hiring one were more compelling at the time. Of course, that might change in the future.
I started with a standard Blogger template and ended up not liking it. I ended up redoing it but I’m still not happy with it. I’m a software developer and as part of my job I’ve done web applications. Although I can write the code, creating graphics and color themes are not my strength. I could still better than what I’ve done. There’s probably better uses of my time since someone else could create much better graphics and colors than I’ll come up with.
Hi - I’m one of the people you mentioned above.
I can guarantee you that I do NOT know “a boatload more about coding and design than [you] do”.
But I am very serious about my site, and I work very hard to make it the best I can. And I do make substantial money from it, both from advertising and from consulting work.
“Lawyers hire other lawyers”.. well, for example, I used to hire people to do my taxes. But then I’d look it all over and ask questions, and read, and darn it: they were not doing as good a job as I could do myself.
Who cares more about my taxes being right - me or some guy I’m paying $250.00 to? The answer is obvious: I care the most. Realize I am not talking about getting big refunds, I’m talking about being RIGHT - all correct, legal, and audit proof. I do my own taxes now.
Same goes for my site. Who cares the most? I do. It’s MY income at stake. Would I pay a professional designer for advice? Yeah, maybe.. if he or she is really, really good. But will I follow that advice blindly? No - I’ll examine it very, very carefully and reach my own conclusions.
I spent a fair amount of money talking to SEO firms a few years back.. I wrote a post about the experience - search “Is there value in SEO firms” at Google - I should be the top link. Here’s the takeaway: most of those folks knew less than I did and were not listening to what I said at all. Should I hire them? No thanks..
I think people give far too much credit to so called “professionals”, “experts”, whatever.
You started out with “I hope to God 57% of business owners don’t also represent themselves in court when they’re being sued.”
I probably wouldn’t if it was a relatively small amount. But if my financial life were on the line, I might hire a lawyer to guide me through protocol, but in no way would I entrust my fate to them. *I* would study the applicable law and *I* would be strongly involved every step of the way.
Doctors? Same thing. You can’t trust your physician to be “up” on the latest in medicine - he’s too busy seeing patients. Most people with serious ailments need to do their own research..
Oh well, I’m sure you get the point: it’s MY blog, my money, I’m not going to trust anyone else with it. That doesn’t mean I won’t seek advice, doesn’t mean I won’t listen to unsolicited advice: it just means the final decision is mine and mine alone. To make that decision intelligently, I need to learn, and far too often, I find the “expert” really isn’t at all..
@Anthony: you make some really great points, but you’re a rare breed, man. Most people cannot do what you’re doing. Not even by half. Or, if they try, they get decidedly unspectacular results.
You are correct about self-appointed experts. Their name is Legion. On the LinkedIn business network, people can ask questions and others can answer them. Of course, I go for all the blogging questions. Yesterday one question attracted about 10 or so answers from armchair quarterbacks who were saying just the stupidest things. I don’t often do this, but when I gave my answer to the original question, I condemned the other answers as ignorant and amateur. The real expert had entered the room, so to speak. Real experts stand out. The guy liked my answer so much he contacted me personally.
A smart person such as your yourself, Anthony, knows how to do the right kind of research and educate himself in order to deal with experts on a more even level when it’s necessary, and knows when he can and can’t do it himself. But a lot of people are just barely capable of managing certain aspects of their own businesses. They really don’t know how to find out for themselves what they need to know like you or I can. I’ve seen a lot of people get ripped off by weekend warrior web designers who thought they knew something.
@Michael
(aside: I thought I already had you in my RSS feeds, but if I did, it was in the wrong place, so I just added you again).
Maybe I’m giving too much credit to the average Joe’s intelligence, but I really think anyone who is capable of writing a blog that has any real value is capable of learning enough about mechanics and design to do themselves a lot of good. As for those who don’t have anything useful to offer, good design isn’t going to help them, is it?
I think there is a good example of some (very minor) poor design right here on the very pages we are commenting upon. The design of this site is pretty, but there’s no “Next Post” links and (big sin in my book) the pages don’t validate at W3C.
Now, I *guarantee* that Naomi and her husband are plenty bright enough that if they had learned more about this sort of thing and not put themselves entirely at the mercy of the designer, they probably would have had post-to-post navigation and would understand the value of producing valid HTML.
So were they “ripped off”? No, of course not - as I said, it’s a darn attractive site - but there is work that should be done to make it better,
and being an “informed consumer” can help that.
:-)
I see that Firefox AutoFill did a bang-up job of sticking my email where my web site should have been..
Sorry ’bout that..
@ Anthony - I think the difference between what you’re saying and between what the rest of us are saying is a) you’re talking about informed shopping, learning and self-improvement - I’m all for that and b) you’re talking about hiring true experts to do the right job. As Michael said, there are plenty of armchair pros and geeks who open a package of software. There are also many good experts who do not make errors on taxes (I’d sue the pants off my accountant if that were the case) or who screw up on their professional jobs. Don’t lump the wannabes in with the ones who really do know what they’re doing.
One thing I will say: As I mentioned, I’m all for learning and self-improvement. But when learning ends up costing me valuable time and money that I can’t afford at the moment, I’m far better off, financially and business-wise, to outsource that task to someone who can do the job properly. I’ve learned this lesson the hard way.
None of us here have said that we’re the be all and end all of website design. Hell, I’m a writer. My designing skills suck, and while Harry is a designer, he sure as hell isn’t a coder, which are two good reasons why we’re ditching our rather crappy look and moving up into the world in a month or so. And we did our homework, researched well, and hired a pro to do the job.
Why? Because we want our business to be better than it is. That’s the moral of the story, I think.
@james
But unless you ARE just as informed as they are, how do you know who’s really an expert and who isn’t?
I’ll hire people for anything that isn’t that important to me. Anything that is important, I’m going to learn everything I can myself. I may still hire someone (I might not have the time or I may dislike the work), but I’ll sure know what they are up to and why..
My web site is responsible for 50% of my income or more.. you bet your bippy it’s important to me..
The wonderful thing about the web today is that you can educate yourself on so many things.. from lawn care to medicine.. and thereby protect yourself from the charlatans.
By the way, I don’t think your site is “rather crappy”, but I’ll watch to see how much better it becomes :-)
Oh man - you manage to compliment me, make me raise an eyebrow, stir my thoughts and make me laugh all in one comment. That’s amazing, and I’m going to analyze your comment for days to see just how you managed to pull that off!
You bring up an interesting thought: How do you know who is an expert unless you are one yourself? You don’t. You take a calculated risk as an informed consumer based on the information and judgments you make. Which is exactly why we all need to be damned pro salesmen and marketers, because we may meet consumers like you ;)
I agree with everything else you said, definitely. But… bet your bippy? LOL
Hello, y’all. Here’s my thing. I don’t really think it needs to be mentioned in a blog post because every single one of my RSS readers doesn’t need to read this with their morning gin and tonic.
It’s all well and good to discuss the theory. The reality is that most of the sites out there whose owners are saying “I designed my own site and see? It’s awesome!” have really ugly sites with few subscribers and paltry conversion rates. They comment on Problogger, talking about how they just hit 25 subscribers, when the same people were commenting on Problogger a year ago, talking about how they just hit 20.
Not all. Most.
To Anthony - I’m phenomenally grateful for your contributions to this conversation. It’s nice to have a new commenter who obviously has so much to share. If I responded to each and every one of your points I’d be here all night, but I will say that I respect your position.
You can’t trust your physician to be “up” on the latest in medicine - he’s too busy seeing patients. Most people with serious ailments need to do their own research…
I agree completely and wholeheartedly. I seldom see a doctor for this very reason, and I live in Canada with free health care! People with serious ailments need to do their own research, yes, but they don’t do their own stitches. Yes, it’s possible. Yes, the very talented can do a good job and the marginally talented can stop the bleeding. But in the time it takes me to learn to do my own stitches I could be back from the doctor and casually sipping my fourth margarita.
Well, I was going to respond, but Naomi’s last paragraph summed it up for me.
I have a differing opinion from Anthony. If I don’t know how to do something well, then I will probably ask for help. If its REALLY important to me, I’ll definitely ask for help. There’s no shame in that.
Sure, I’ll research the topic, learn as much as I can, but in the end the true expert will be able to do the job better than I ever will.
I’m a designer. I design. I make things look pretty. I don’t program, I have a programmer who does that. He makes my pretty designs work well. Although I know how to program, I’m not the expert and never will be. I’m a specialist, so I defer to people who have proven skills.
It would be just peachy if I were a superman with the capacity to do everything under the sun, but life’s too short for that. I don’t want people to devalue my work, so I don’t devalue the work of others. That’s just how I roll.
I’m not a pro_blogger_ by any means. I modified a template to fit my style. I was very happy with it in the beginning, but currently there is some mess around the tabs. I’ll get to it when I get to it, I’m pretty sure none of my ~10 readers stop reading because of that. =)
They might, however, stop because of the typos. :) I was meaning to write ‘tags’, not ‘tabs’.
I agree with you on the design, especially since I married a graphic designer. It’s silly but in this media saturated society people tend to subtly judge people’s competence by how well their graphics come across, something that is true in many industries but is especially true on the Internet.
That said, I have to quibble with one detail in your post … in most jurisdictions business owners could not represent their businesses in court even if they wanted to do it.
Businesses may legally be “persons” under the law, but this is one right they don’t have due to the legal interest in protecting investors, etc. There may be exceptions for certain administrative proceedings or small claims court matters, or perhaps for a single proprietorship, but the public policy seems to be that if you want to gamble on your personal future by going pro se on an individual matter, go ahead, but please do not risk the future of your employees or investors by doing the same thing with your business.
Which in a way underlines the point you are making in your post … serious professionals often need the help of other serious professionals to be successful. Not that you want to throw money around on things you do not need, but you can’t do everything yourself no matter how talented you are … or think you are.
The line you use to determine this seems like a good one. If it will seriously impact your bottom line, then do it right the first time. And blog design, like legal issues, is a place where you need as much help as you can get.
Maybe I’m misreading your point. Are you assuming that all free themes are, inherently, poor designs? If a blogger uses a quality free theme (of which, IMHO, there are hundreds, nay, thousands), isn’t that the same as ‘hiring a professional’, albeit with no exchange of money?
I answered Darren by saying I ‘tweaked’ a free theme. But that’s only because I didn’t feel honest by saying I used a free theme out of the box. But admittedly, my tweaks to my present theme have been very small. I suspect that a lot of the other ‘tweakers’ may not be ‘tampering’ as much as they are just changing a few colors or column widths.
As a web developer, I’m fully capable of doing my own, but, quite frankly, why would I? It’s a blog - not a client project. Time is money.
Beside, I sort of thought the survey was misguided to begin with. It belongs more in a web design blog, not a ‘blogger’s blog’, which is what Rowse’s site is really about.
I would prefer we all avoid as much pretentiousness toward designs of bloggers (what ‘ere they may be) when it comes to encouraging and promoting blogging. Personally, I could care less if all my friends had a completely blank page design - if they would just get on the stick and at least have a blog, I’d be happy. The proliferation of free themes is a great boon for the blogging world and what has enabled millions of people to start a blog and look halfway decent doing so.
As for those that did their own design, I wonder about that. A lot of them probably did one based on the basic theme that they enhanced overtime. I fail to see why that should be discouraged.
As much as I’m a “pro” web designer (albeit more of a developer), I want to encourage as many folks as possible who are willing to try and tinker. Keep clogging up forums with CSS questions. Keep the great conversation alive. Bring XHTML/CSS and the hands of the masses. One day, there will be no such thing as a web designer/developer as we currently know ourselves. Anyone with half-a-brain will be able to start, run, manage, and create quality professional websites. The tools are being improved and created every day. I’m all for it. It might put me out of business, but I’ll be happy to step aside for such a cause.
[...] This post got me a few emails. Well, it’s 1:00 am two days later, and I’m still answering, so it might have been a smidgen more than a few. It would seem like there are a few people in the world with some questions about starting their own businesses. Because I’m really nice, I figured I’d slap together some linkbait a list of informative resources on running an online business. Under that heading, I include blogging. [...]
Hi Naomi, thanks for the link out, despite your disagreement!
However, we actually hold the same point of view. :)
You said “I still don’t think the desire to improve one’s blog is indicative of the desire for full technical responsibility”.
I don’t believe so either, so obviously I was unclear in my comment on ProBlogger. I was trying to say what Darren himself pointed out above; that most of his readers are brand new bloggers, many of which haven’t learned the ways of the blogging world yet, and definitely don’t have a start-up budget, so they’re more than willing to save a buck and DIY their blog, just as they want to learn about blogging on their own, instead of hiring a consultant. They don’t yet know that becoming pro blogger is every bit as serious as starting a business.
As you must know with your marketing business, getting a new small business that is not yet making money to spend it can be like pulling teeth!
“…it strikes me as kind of like trying to start a store in your guest room.”
And yet, loads of people attempt to do just that! I’ve seen soooo many small businesses try to make it big by opening their business website on Geocities, Freewebs, or even on LiveJournal or Blogger! I’m a huge proponent of the idea that if you don’t look like you are willing to spend a few bucks on your business, how can you possibly convince your customers that your business is worth their money?
In addition to Clutter Cubed, I also have a day job in a laboratory and run a small business, and for my own business, I certainly hire professionals for the many things I cannot do as well as they can. I, too, brought in a pro for my site. Speaking of which, I’ll probably be contacting you in the near future for some marketing services. :) It’s sometimes tough to find quality Canadian-based services for small businesses.
I’m not a pro-blogger. I’m just a scientist and crafter with a penchant for keeping too many things. ;) Perhaps in a few months I’ll re-evaluate, as Chris suggests above.
@ Lawrence - You’re absolutely right. There are some very beautiful free templates out there that rival paid templates and premium ones. I think we all showed a nice display of sweeping statements by giving the impression that “free equals cheap and ugly”. As you’ve pointed out, this isn’t the case.
What most commentators unanimously seem to agree with is that many of the free templates that people seem to gravitate towards are ones that, while nice, have that definite smack of “free template.” I browse blogs all the time, and I can say that probably only a small handful of the ones I’ve seen don’t sing out, “My owner went cheap on me!”
That’s the problem. Not that a template is free or not free, but that people inherently seem to gravitate towards templates that look cheap and do their business a disfavor.
@ James - I think an important thing to point out is that sometimes people know quality design - but are not willing to pay for it. Take for instance Brian Gardner’s free templates. They are in use EVERYWHERE.
Why?
Because they are quality. But the problem is that EVERYBODY USES THEM. When everyone uses something it looks cheap, even if it really isn’t.
@ Chris - I think you’re absolutely right! Some people do know quality design, but go with a free theme anyway, and you’ve hit the nail on the head about the saturation level of some of the higher-quality free themes.
Then you have people like me; I’m more than willing to pay for a high quality design, but right now I don’t have spare cash for a custom design for my hobby blog. That’s why I ended up with my current theme. It’s free so it’s in use elsewhere, but I haven’t seen it everywhere/i>. I’d love to have a custom theme in place by June, though.
@chris
That “cookie-cutter” stuff is sad to see.. way back at the dawn of history we saw a lot more originality. It’s not that originality doesn’t exist today, but it gets drowned in the millions of sites that look just alike.
But I think it’s also true that standards set expectations and then expectations set standards. People are now accustomed to seeing “blog” style layouts: two or three columns, 120 or 160 columns , text taking the rest. That’s become the standard “blog”, so that’s now what people expect. Menus are almost always in sidebars today.. there are exceptions, but by and large the old days of index pages are gone.. I still hang on to mine, but even I have a “blog style” entrance for those who prefer it. I *like* old style indexes like I have at my /index.html , but the tide has definitely turned and I keep thinking I need to switch into the main stream..
@ Chris - Point. But then wouldn’t the obvious solution be that designers no longer offer free templates and charge? Too late now, though, the market is glutted with free everything. In five years, we’ll probably kick ourselves for having offered free content on our blog.
@ Anthony - Blog trends are changing. The same old you’re seeing regularly around has become far too commonplace and less unique. They all look the same. Ho hum. Boring.
Harry did some research into trends and the usual style of blog layout is on its way out. Portals are the new “in” thing to have and will be sweeping the virtual world by storm.
@ James - But if Brian never offered the free templates that undoubtedly got his name out to the masses - do you think he would be enjoying the same about of business success as he is now?
I think not. Isn’t the whole point of the story here about maximizing your revenues with very little overhead? I think Brian found the best way to do this. His free templates are great FREE marketing, and what did it cost him? Maybe a few free hours here and there over the course of a month or two to develop.
For a designer looking to break into the custom template market - Brian chartered the exact way many of us are trying to now emulate.
@ Caitlin - And you are going about it the right way. There is no shame in testing the waters first before jumping head first into spending a large (relatively speaking) amount of money on design.
The catch-22 here is if you had a crystal ball - and knew you were going to be successful - how much MORE successful would you be if you spent the money on design up front? It’s something many online business owners won’t ever know and are not really ever willing to find out first hand. (Who wants to spend $500 on a design and have the business flop 4 months down the road?)
@ Chris - True, true… Same reason we blog. (You’ve obviously had your coffee today, haven’t you!) So it all comes down to: You can’t have it both ways. Free has its purposes, paid has its purposes, and it’s tough to justify things either way.
@ Chris - You’re quite right about the catch-22 as well.
I started my entire business with a smaller budget than Naomi used to start her blog. Four years later, I consider it to be fairly successful.
While I don’t have a crystal ball to tell me how much more/i> successful my business would have been had I spent more money right upfront, I will say this with 100% certainty: My business would be more successful than it is now had I spent more money on it right off the bat.
Buying the better equipment instead of buying the cheaper version and upgrading later. Getting a custom web design right away instead of DIY-ing it for a while. Spending more on advertising to generate business. All those things and more.
My excuse is that I was in college at the time, and needed to make money so I could buy food, but looking back I wish I had done things differently.
I hadn’t ever really though about it quite like this before, so thank you for bringing it up. You’ve got me thinking about my blog differently as well. I already knew that “eventually” I would like it to make some money, but I have always been putting it and myself down, saying it too small to be worth spending money on, no one reads it yet anyway. I’m ashamed to say that it never even occurred to me to consider my blog as any sort of business worthy of a business plan and custom branding.
Thank to you, and others in this thread for helping to adjust and refocus my outlook. :)
Please forgive the fact that apparently I fail at basic HTML today. :P
@ Caitlin - You don’t need to know HTML - leave that to your designer ;)
@ James - Yeah, the only problem was that I had that coffee about 6 hours ago. Run..n..in..g… L..o..w….
As you can imagine, this is one topic that I am particularly passionate about… and actually qualified to discuss with any authority.
@james
Well, if Portals are “in”, I’m way ahead of the curve :-)
But getting people to USE portal technology is something else again. I used to offer about a dozen different RSS feeds broken down by subject; the usage was very low so I now only have a few main categories and am even thinking of giving those up and just doing two: full text and partial text, all subjects in both.
On the site itself, I still break down into lots of categories, but again analysis of logs show people flit around anyway so I’m not sure it has any point.. yet it seems so logical to organize, doesn’t it?
I’m not sure that Harry’s research is correct - unless you mean something entirely different by “Portal”. I say “about.com” is a Portal, but a site like IttyBiz is not. Personally I find IttyBiz much more interesting..
But anyway, we were talking about design, not content. What do you see replacing the two/three column blogging standard?
@chris and caitlin
“You don’t need to know HTML - leave that to your designer”
I agree and disagree. No, a blogger doesn’t HAVE to know HTML.
But they’ll be better of if they do know a bit.
For example, if you don’t know that a good designer is going to separate content from presentation, you don’t know that he or she should be providing you with a lot of CSS.
If you don’t know that standards are important, your designer may give you a slightly or even badly broken site that looks great in your browser but is going to suck eggs in mine. If you try W3C validation on your site and it fails miserably, knowing a little bit of HTML would let you understand whether this was because of a minor mistake that cascades or indicates really bad design.
Again, “informed consumer”.
Thank you, Anthony. I wouldn’t know a portal if I woke up in bed beside one, but I’m glad you think we’re more interesting than About. I will go back to having things fly over my head now.
@ Anthony - Portal as in Problogger.net’s home page. He uses exerpts of text to draw readers into his site in all places, not simply in a linear, chronological fashion. Current layout (like Itty Biz) means that people read what’s recent and what’s on today, but everything that is older is forgotten and gone. People rarely search archives or categories. Portals offer a buffet of all sorts of content, regardless of date. Chronological blogs offer the flavor of the month. Flitting around is what you want people to do - because they’re STAYING. They’re browsing, they’re reading, they’re sticking.
So when I say portal, I *am* referring to design and not content. The portal allows your content to be continually browsed and seen, not just forgotten. Not quite the same as About.com, which is just a collection of everyone else’s stuff in one place. Sorta.
@ Anthony - I think Chris was joking because she typo-ed her html in her previous comment.
Mmmm… buffet of content…
@james
Funny you mention Problogger - I think that’s a horrible example of atrocious design but the content makes it not matter..
There are ways to get people interested in old content - I do a quite a bit to help them experience mine. I won’t get into details here because we’re drifting a bit, but as I said: I’ve positioned myself as a portal since almost Day One (Nov 1997)..
Back to base design: Problogger is a two/three column blog. Other than the garish colors and the over-the-top advertising, it looks like every other blog other than the front page.
And no offense to Darren, by the way: he can get away with this because he’s a “Peacock” of sorts
( http://aplawrence.com/foo-web/peacocks.html )
in his case, not a good looking bird, but still he has the content to get away with it..
But I guess we’re drifting.. sorry Naomi..
Drifting’s fine, Naomi probably loves the attention because she’s a vacuum like that…
I didn’t say I liked Darren’s design. I said that his layout was the way to go. It’s in a three-column style, yes, but not laid out chronologically but in portal fashion. There are tons of ways to get people to dig deeper, sure, but having them do it of their own accord is smarter. Less work :)
@naomi
I think James just said you suck :-)
No, of course he didn’t.. and no, James, I didn’t think you were holding up Problogger as an example of good design :-)
HAHAHAHA! Vacuum! Get it?!?!
Oh man, I’ve been sick and didn’t get to this post until now, dammit! This is like the story of my life. I think what happens besides what’s been mentioned already is that a blog is like your baby. You want to grow it and take care of it yourself, which I think is great.
But I agree with you, Naomi. If it’s a matter of making or losing money, you’d be better off leaving it in the hands of professionals unless your content is so awesome it doesn’t matter either way. There are a few blogs I read that I think the design could be better, but have lots of readers. They are the small exception though. In fact, I can only think of about 2 out of 100 or so off the top of my head.
Anyway, if you are afraid of trusting a designer to accurately project your vision, the best thing you can do is find a company that has good communication that fits your own style and will work closely with you. That way, you can work on it together and feel like you are in the loop, but have the expertise of a professional there guiding the process.
Okay. I have come back to take up my cause again.
Last night, I got bored and spent almost an hour Stumbling through sites. Do you know how many F-Ugly sites there are out there? And the blogs? Oh my god, my eyes. Seriously, I’m glad Harry wasn’t there to see the blogs and sites I found. Horrid.
For every 10 sites and blogs I landed on, there was ONE good site. I counted. I saw stuff that looked like it came from the dark ages and other stuff that looked like my toddler drew it. I saw stuff that I couldn’t even look at long because it hurt my head.
People. For the love of Pete, please make better sites and blogs. Free, paid, premium, custom… I don’t give a s***. But there is NO excuse for this garbage. Honestly.
And yet, we have a perfect example with ProBlogger: if your content is compelling, “pretty” doesn’t matter.
You know, you should have seen my site a few years ago - really, really plug ugly.. but I still had plenty of traffic and plenty of money..
Design is an “extra”. It isn’t going to help crappy content and lack of it won’t hurt good content.
@ Anthony - No, no, dude, I’m talking *seriously* ugly. Problogger has a fine design. Not great, but fine - and AMAZING compared to 90% of the sites out there. I couldn’t believe how bad most places were. The sites I’m talking about… nothing could save them. Not even Superman.
@ James - I wonder what a site designed by Superman would look like? ;-)
I would like to add that design is not just about aesthetics - at least, good web design isn’t. It’s also the designer’s job to make it user-friendly and to invite interaction that meets the site’s objectives. I would argue that’s another reason it’s worth having a template custom-designed for you, so it fits those objectives (money-making or otherwise). In fact if you’re really taking your blog seriously you probably want a designer who has lots of experience blogging and designing blogs as well as solid experience in visual design and usability/interaction design.
Design is an “extra”. It isn’t going to help crappy content and lack of it won’t hurt good content.
Unfortunately, bad design can really hurt good content. If your site is neon pink with atomic orange accents and text (yes, I’ve seen it outside MySpace) then all the good content in the world can’t save you, ’cause people don’t stay long enough to get the full effect of the content.
There are some atrociously fugly sites out there.
Incidentally, I like the look of Darren’s blog. I find it plain, but that seems to be the way lots of “professional” blogs are going these days.
I’m with Caitlin on this one. The lack of it will definitively hurt good content. Maybe, may-be, if it was Dooce I’d still read. But generally, ugly = bad taste and poor judgment. I’m just not going to stick around long enough for the blogger to prove me wrong.
All right. I’m learning here. Must have good design to supplement good content. Sooooo, what is good and what is not? Is it kind of like selling a house where you go with the neutral colors so as to appeal to the most buyers? I know that I want to make my own blog look more ‘professional’. Are there certain elements that are must-haves, if you’re looking to build a successful business/blog?
@AmyL - I’m sure we can discuss that for a while!
I think we start with the same basic requirements of any good web design, like
- Fonts & colours that are easy on screen-reading eyes
- Typography and layout that make the structure of the content clear (space & shapes guide the eye, titles look like titles, links look like links…)
- Make it easy for the visitor to tell which page they’re on when they arrive. Blogs don’t always make this easy.
- Avoid flashing, moving things
- Design for your niche
etc…
Then pay attention to some blog-specific stuff:
- is RSS subscription encouraged (and explained, depending on your audience)?
- are comments invited, easy to make, laid out in a way that makes it easy to follow a conversation?
- can you tell who the author is? (especially in multi-author blogs)
- are plug-ins or widgets useful, or do they take focus away from the important content?
I’m sure there’s more but I’ve said lots. What do others think?
@ Amy and Tzaddi - This is more about useability, but still very valuable:
Navigational flow - make sure your blog leads people where you want them to go. If you want a sale, your links, navigation, and gentle guiding of the reader should bring them to that point. If it’s to read more, same thing.
Less is more - Each click you force a reader to make costs you something, be it a sale, a deeper reading, or a comment, etc. People are lazy and the less they have to do, the happier they are. It’s been said somewhere that each click costs you 7% of your clients.
Colors - Use one main color and use only one or two complimentary colors in accents. Choose colors that go well together, like pale green, brown and white (woodsy fresh look).
Use of colors - ALWAYS use a dark font on a white background or a white font on a dark background. Light blue on white or grey on black is a recipe for squinting eyes and frustrated readers.
Use of white space - Lay out text or images in “islands” surrounded by white space. People like white space, because they can focus better than on a page that has absolutely every bit of space filled.
The F Factor - The eye and brain follow an F pattern for reading or observing. It scans from left to right along a straight line, drops and repeats.
Perception - What image are you trying to project? If our blog was white with pale blue and pink accents with plenty of photos of homey-looking women smiling at you, you would probably wonder about Harry and me. (Maybe you’re already wondering. I wonder all the time, like how I actually make it through the day without falling over or how to get more people to subscribe to our feed.) The point is, ask strangers or neutral people WHO your website looks like, not WHAT.
Anyone else?
Hmmm, interesting discussion! I didn’t read it all last night, but it’s fun to see everyone’s opinion.
To the stuff Tzaddi and James point out that make a good design, I would also add grid. Making sure everything is neat and well-laid out along a grid (including the typography and line-spacing) makes a big difference in the overall perception of the design as well as the readability of the content. Usually, when I work on a blog design, I pay more attention to this than anything else just because on a blog, the content should be the most important focus of all.
So, as mentioned already, it’s not just a matter of making things look pretty, it’s a lot more complicated than that. The truth is, a lot of free themes and designs aren’t usually focused on these small nuances because they are time consuming to do.
On the other hand, there are some good quality free and commercial themes out there, but when you use them, you have two major risks.
1. Your site looks like someone else’s and you fail to establish your brand because people don’t recognize you from the herd.
2. Your site looks good, but it doesn’t match your own brand as well as it should.
My husband and I sell Wordpress Themes and Joomla templates from our shop, but we do so under certain conditions.
1. If the theme is for a professional site, we make it pretty generic, but well-done with the intention that someone will have the knowledge to get in there and customize it.
2. If we make a theme that has a lot of design, we focus this more for a personal blog site.
3. We don’t sell in large quantities, so it’s not likely that the themes are going to be all around the internet.
Anyway, I don’t think the issue is black and white. It’s not a certainty that your blog will fail if you don’t get a custom design. But, I personally think if you are going to take a risk and make a business out of it, you might as well do it right and go all the way.
For the ordinary folks:
Keep in mind that the people insisting that this is so vital mostly do have axes to grind: they are designers.
Let’s draw an analogy here. I’m a “consultant” - usually more of a troubleshooter than anything else. A customer calls me with a problem within my area of expertise and it’s something where I have to go to them to fix.
How shall I dress?
The “designers” here will say I need to wear a suit and tie and in fact many people in similar professions do. After all, I’m not coming with a screwdriver and I am going to be charging a lot of money.
Now no, I can’t very well show up wearing a Spandex bathing suit with my hair died orange. That would be the “neon pink with atomic orange accents and text” that Caitlin mentioned.
But I can show up in jeans and a clean shirt, because what’s important is what I know, not what I’m wearing.
So yes, a really garish blog can distract from good content. But you do NOT need a professional to be non-distracting, and a plain jane look will not adversely affect your performance. I’m going to say it again, and I don’t care how many people disagree:
Content is one thousand times more important than presentation.
Also, so many of the so-called professionals I’ve dealt with really aren’t. Many “web designers” are artistic types who really don’t know much else about web sites - I have had to fix their screw-ups more than once - for example, I’ve had supposed pros turn cgi pages into static pages - now THAT was really helpful!
And, as I’ve mentioned before, many designers will give you broken, non-standards compliant pages because they really don’t know squat about the mechanics of web sites. Of course the free templates can be just as bad in that area..
And usability? Lip service, mostly, and a lot of very lovely sites fail miserably in that area. As I pointed out before, this very site, this very page, has no link to take us to the next or previous chronological post - that’s very poor usability, but it isn’t going to kill poor Naomi because she has compelling content.
So: you aren’t taking any risks by not hiring a professional designer to create your blog. Concentrate on the content. If you have money to spare and want to get a nice dress up suit, great. But jeans and a clean shirt will be fine, really.
By the way, you can start evaluating a designer with some simple tests.
The W3C has web pages that will validate HTML, CSS and RSS.
Run your designers own pages through these tools.. and if they have reference clients, do the same for those pages.. it can be quite educational, and having broken html, css and rss can affect some of your visitors very badly - in other words, it’s a lot more important than choosing the precise shade of green in your logo..
I did that for a few of the designers who have commented here - some of them are squeaky clean, some have some minor transgressions, and some have really bad results.. so what does that tell you?
I’m a copywriter. I’m absolved from any failures :)
I also will say that our theme is really badly coded. We’ve run into some issues because of that. Harry has had major headaches and plenty of frustrations resolving issues, and many of them required professional assistance - many of them we left as is because we know we’re moving to a better site.
@james
And how much has that affected your business?
Probably very little.
I have a humongous site - many, many thousands of pages, and not all of them are compliant. In fact, I only started caring about that a few years ago, so before that, well, it was pretty awful. But again: in spite of bad design, broken html, poor usability and all those other sins, I have always had lots of visitors, lots of incoming links and made plenty of money.
I’ve been cleaning up my site because, well, it’s like washing my car. Not washing it won’t get me anywhere cheaper or faster, but I like it clean (and I *really* need to get to a car wash soon!).
@ Anthony - Unfortunately, with the exponentially high rate of competition for writers and with the fact that we must constantly combat the truly negative perception of writers thanks to thousands of idiots who can’t write and pass themselves off as pros, our look, image and site has to be as perfect as we can get it.
Agreed, that’s mostly a brand thing and bad coding isn’t something hung out for everyone to see. But if a function doesn’t work well or if the coding doesn’t allow us to alter certain navigation, that affects the experience users have on our site. It doesn’t take much for people to click away, as I’m sure you must know.
I can also say that with each tweak we make or functionality we improve, our visitor satisfaction improves and does affect our readership.
But you weren’t saying the contrary - you were saying that the effects of poor coding don’t have major influence on our clientele if they’re not blatant. True.
Car washes in winter are cause for great laughter up here in Quebec, especially when doors freeze shut. Nothing like a sparkling car you can’t get into :)
Fair point, Anthony, but I do think that there is also some overemphasis on site validation at the expense of other issues.
I guess that with anything, people (particularly coders) get overly dogmatic about a set of principles…and in many respects is a distraction from design discussions.
Should ALL “professional” sites validate? Validation is by no means a marker of any sort of success either as a designer or as a pro blogger, or as a web marketer.
The errors that show up on my site are mostly related to Joomla’s flaws…. I am aware of them and need to get in and fix those… but they really are not the end of the world to me and thus are low priority.
I actually agree with Mike Davidson’s assessment of the situation: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2004/06/march-to-your-own-standard
Validation is just one aspect of a whole range of considerations in providing a solution to a client. And sometimes, it really is a matter of making compromises in the real world of web design and development.
Kudos Tea B - Very well said. Standards are very important - but by no means the determining factor as to whether you got a great design or not.
One of the problems with using software validation as a way of evaluating web design work is that the validators aren’t always right. For instance, the underscore hack I just wrote about is valid CSS 2.1, despite the fact that most software validators (including the W3C’s) report it as invalid.
@tea
No, you misunderstand (my fault): I’m saying that that is important, but having small problems there isn’t going to kill you..
This page right here throws a lot of errors.. they are NOT the designers fault (well, I didn’t check every one but the ones I scanned were not) and they are all minor.. they MIGHT cause odd behavior on some esoteric browser, but they will NOT hurt Naomi’s business..
Howdy, people who subscribed to comments and also live in the US. Does anybody want an iTunes gift certificate? I got one from a FAN and I can’t use it because I’m Canadian. Come comment if you want it — Jamie’s taken away my email privileges. (Granted, I asked him to…)
I’d be more than happy to take it off your hands. :)
SOLD!
How was that for a fast response? I’m on top of things.
That’s what I like to see… I sent you an email. I have temporary reinstatement of privileges for this specific instance. :)
I got it. Thank you very much!
This has to be the longest comment thread I’ve ever participated in. You sure know how to spark conversation, Naomi! ^_^
I figure if I can get over 100, I will be like Brian Clark and my life will be complete.
Well, I’m all about making Naomi’s life complete! This is number 95. :)
Making Naomi’s life complete would make my life complete. (96)
HA! I was getting comment notifications and had no idea what you guys were talking about. Completely forgot I left that comment. And I’m not even drinking! I guess this is 97. And Amy? Go to bed. You have four children for crying out loud.
ROFL. That’s why I stay awake, silly. It’s quiet here. On top of that, they all sleep in late every morning, and I’m golden.
98!
Lol. I meant “so” I’m golden. Guess I should take my lack of coherence as a hint to go to sleep. But Psych is only half over!
99!
Naomi’s life is now complete. 100.
I’ll be the icing on the cake and the vote that left no doubt in people’s minds.
Comment Number One Hundred and Freakin’ One!
*tosses confetti*
Celebratory party at Naomi’s place! BYOB.
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