Dana’s blog is built on the Genesis framework once again!  This framework by Studiopress is amazing!  Can’t get enough of it

Go check out her new site!

I designed her logo, business cards, letterhead, and her entire blog from top to bottom!

Go check it out!

For those not familiar with PT4P: This is a membership program for photographers just getting their business off the ground as well as for established photographers.  Michele provides a ton of materials from Dressing Guides, Announcement card designs, to the workflow she uses to go through her post processing and much much more!  With your membership you also get private access to her forum where you can discuss anything you’d like!  I’m telling you… LOTS of wonderful information here!  You can check out all the details here.

Michele basically gave me a list of everything she wanted to include, and let me run with it.  I sat for quite some time just brainstorming what direction I was going to go in.  Michele had mentioned that she wanted something different than the typical photography blogs you see around.  Huge undertaking… huh?

Horizontal blogs are becoming a bit more popular but people are still hesitant on them since they are so new.  Michele and I chatted about doing one, but the more we talked about it, the more we steered away from it.  It’s different, but it may be TOO different at this specific time.  So… I took the horizontal blog concept and threw it into a vertical blog concept.  The result- South Paw.  By leaving the header static, this constantly kept the branding in front of the client at all times while still being unobtrusive, and I felt this was hugely important.

Once I had my idea for South Paw, I wanted to still offer a more classic version of a theme as this is what photographers are more used to.  But our goal was to have everything accessible on an iphone, ipad, and ipod.  Most of the photography blogs you see have a flash based header, and we all know, that doesn’t work on todays electronic devices.  So in Clean Slate, you have a theme that is fully accessible on the iphone, ipad, and ipod, so no matter where you readers/clients are viewing, they can always see your work!  Very important thing if you ask me!

I also wanted options in both themes to easily change fonts, colors, etc. to work with everyones branding, so this is included as well.  You have the shell of the theme, but you have full control of your design. Exactly what I intended!

Each theme comes with 10 predesigned layered psd headers that can be easily edited with your colors, logo, and images.  They also come with 10 predesigned backgrounds in which the colors can be changed as well.

Michele chose to use the South Paw theme for her new PT4P blog.  She used one the headers included with the South Paw theme and I think it looks great!

Interested in purchasing? First you must be a member of PT4P.  You can do that here.  Once you’ve done that and gained access to the forum, you can find all the purchasing information on the themes here.  Pricing for each theme range from $150-$500 depending on the amount of help you need installing and customizing your design.

I love to browse istockphoto.. I could literally spend hours there.  My favorite illustrator has been kicking out lots of new stuff lately, and I’m loving these ones above.  I really love the Chic Designer one   Too bad I don’t get to use these illustrations as much as I used to.  But that’s a good thing!  I really enjoy doing more “grown up” designs.  But I still love to do this fun stuff too!  I know I’ll get to use the top left illustration in an upcoming blog design, so I’m super excited about that!

Click the images above to be taken to their source.

Go check out Evelyn’s new site!

Essentially, these are 2 different databases and are entirely seperate from each other and would require 2 separate subscription forms.

RSS Email Subscribers:

If someone is subscribed to your blog via rss, they will receive emails every time you do a new blog post.  The covers your entire blog, so no matter what category you put a post in, they will receive this update in their inbox.  In some cases that can be different, but in the majority of all cases, this will cover the entire blog.

Newsletter Subscribers:

This is when readers/clients subscribe to your newsletter client.  This is usually done through companies like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, or YMLP.  When someone subscribes this way, they will only get a newsletter that you specifically send out to your subscribers.  This has to manually done within your newsletter client.

Well, can people who subscribe via rss also be subscribed to the newsletter?

Yes and No!  No, in they can not just complete 1 form and be subscribed to both.  They would need to specifically enter their emails in 2 separate subscription forms to be subscribed to both.  However, you can access the emails for your subscribers via rss in your feedburner account and manually enter them in your newsletter client.

How do I access the emails from my RSS subscribers?

Login to your feedburner account.
Click on the feed that has all your subscribers.
Go to Publicize.
Select Email Subscriptions.
Select “View Subscriber Details” (at the bottom of the page)
This will then drop down and show you all your subscribers email addresses.

I don’t have email subscribers to my rss feed. How can I get some?

Follow the same steps above, but after you click Email Subscriptions, you will need to hit Activate to turn this feature on.
Then you’ll copy and paste the “Subscription Form Code” into a widget in your blog for readers to begin subscribing.

Have a question on this that I didn’t cover? Leave it in the comments and I’ll come back to add it!

I especially love the Crush sample above.  Makes me think oranges!

But I’m mainly feeling like black white & gray at the moment.

So this is the result!  Such a drastic difference.  They wanted to really play off the “trim” in their name throughout their website, so I created a frame for the site and images throughout to tie that together.

I built their website using wordpress and we will be adding a blog on within the next few weeks that will match the design.

Go check out their new site!

Alisha from Hoot Invitations needed a new website for her new business.  She wanted bright fun colors, but a clean and simple design.  She also wanted a custom logo with a little owl that I drew for her.  I love the way everything turned out and especially love the background we chose to go with the site.  We just launched her site, so go check out all her amazing products she has available!  I love all her products and the images makes you want to buy everything in her store!

Go check it out!

If you do upgrade and experience an issue, it is most likely caused by a plugin.  I’d deactivate all your plugins, and then start activating them one by one until you find the culprit.

If you need any help updating your wordpress blog, please shoot me an email!