Blog Lesson Learned

Yesterday during the kids naps I did my normal routine of getting on the computer preparing to write a blog post when I was greeted with this:

Lovely right? 

Rather than spending nap time writing posts, I spent three hours trying to figure out what had happened to my blog and how to fix it. 

What did I learn?

I learned that my days of blogging being free are over! I have been blogging since 2008 and have never spent any money on my blog. I have done everything myself or found it for free somewhere. I found a free template and figured out how to change my blog to work with it. I’ve made my own sidebar buttons, my social media buttons, figured out how to combine my labels into a drop down format, etc etc. All of this stuff takes time but I do enjoy learning about blogging and have taken pride in doing it all on my own and not spending anything in the process.

From what I’ve figured out…what happened was that the site who hosted the free template (which is different from a free background…the template involves changing my html code of the entire site) exceeded their bandwidth allowance and basically it’s just gone. I lost not just my blog look, but also many of the elements of my blog that I had worked so hard to create. 

None of this is tear shedding worthy or anything, but it’s frustrating! Who wants to redo stuff they have already done, right? 

The way the blog looks for now is VERY temporary. I talked to Zach and decided I’m going to bite the bullet and pay for a professional to customize my blog. This year is the first year I’ve actually made a little profit from blogging so why not make it legit? Finding someone to do the work is pretty tough. There are SO MANY people who do blog design out there and the cost varies SO MUCH! 

I haven’t committed to anyone yet to do the design so if you have a recommendation of someone I’d love to hear it!!!

If you’re a fellow blogger who is using a free template from a site other than blogger…I highly suggest either buying one or sticking with the options blogger provides! It’s not worth the risk of losing it all!!!

Thanks for being patient with me while I get everything back to normal…and hopefully it will be even better than it was before 🙂 

Emily Parker

8 Comments

  1. Katie
    August 20, 2013 / 5:56 pm

    That is so frustrating!! Check out http://pixelmedesigns.com/She has done work for my friend Heather, the frugal blogger. She's always been happy with Pixel Me Designs. Not sure how her costs compares to others….

  2. Anonymous
    August 20, 2013 / 7:08 pm

    Hey Emily! It's Heather, Aira's momma!My good friend Jessica is a professional with blogging, web design, photography, etc. She does great work, but I'm not sure of her pricing! Her business is called Southtown Creative. Hope this helps and good luck!

  3. The Cutest Blog on the Block
    August 20, 2013 / 10:04 pm

    Hello! This is Ashley from The Cutest Blog on the Block. I'm sorry that this happened with your blog! Let me know on our Facebook page which template you had previously…I hadn't heard or seen anyone with this issue so I'm curious as to what template it was. Thanks, Ashley.

  4. Mandy's Notebook
    August 20, 2013 / 11:24 pm

    I follow Mandy @ House of Rose blog and she had wrote a lot of post about buying blogs and the process they took. They might be able to help. Good Luck!!!

  5. Dana D
    August 21, 2013 / 11:59 am

    I created my own because of this very same reason! Make it yours girl! It's gonna look awesome!

  6. Rachael
    August 22, 2013 / 1:28 pm

    Cheapcheapcheap as Glen would say

  7. Valerie Plowman
    August 22, 2013 / 5:29 pm

    Check out: http://designbytracy.com/She is a fellow BW mom 🙂 She did my old design and the design on my learning blog. I did all of my current stuff.

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