Do-It-Yourself Photo, Website & Blog Resources

When starting this blog, my expense budget was $0!!!  I wanted it to look clean and professional but with no experience and only basic computer skills, I needed some help to figure things out.  Trial and error definitely is a learning strategy but I didn't want to spend a ton of time making mistakes.  A blog I follow had a New Years post about creating a new look for her blog. By following her tips, tutorials, and using links from this post, I edited the photos and made the header on this page.  I created a "button" and am working on building a code that people can use to add my button to their page.  You will find her posts and links helpful to:

• Edit personal photos to make them look more professional.
• Update your blog by changing the look or adding new features.
• Update your website using ideas from these sites.  Create a "button" or ad that people can add to their page to link their readers directly to yours.

Here is the link for the Samster Mommy blog I'm referring to.  Natasha's post was amazingly helpful and gives you a list of resources she used!
http://samstermommy.blogspot.com/2011/01/happy-new-blog.html


Two of the best blogs Natasha refers to are Sneaky Momma Blog Design  and Beautiful Blog Designs.  Sneaky Momma has a list of her tutorials on the right sidebar.  Click on Beautiful Blog Designs and you are taken directly to a list of her tutorials.  I refer to these sites often when updating my blog or looking for a new feature!
Picnik is a fabulous site that I discovered last fall.  I LOVE this site! You can upload and edit photos for free.  The Samster Mommy blog has a link for a tutorial on how to use some of the free and advanced editing options on the Picnik site.  I was really excited when I saw information on Picnik in this blog!

Give your blogs and websites more pizazz for free!  If you don't have one, maybe now that you know how easy it is, you can start one!  Enjoy!

-Melissa