August Empress

TGIF! Today I’m sharing a wonderful talk by Tina Roth-Eisenberg of swissmiss, where she shares her thoughts on being a Swiss designer now based in NYC, creating and building her blog and launching her own product TeuxDeux (she also created Tattly!).

Image via smissmiss.

Beginning on the 8th of October I will be running the next Your Darling Blog design workshop, and I am beyond excited to be giving away one scholarship to Your Darling Blog which includes the workshop & 3 weeks of feedback on your design!

This is a great opportunity for blogger’s to create their own blog design, learn lots of new skills and be inspired.

Your Darling Blog is for bloggers who want to infuse more of their personality into their online space. Over 7 weeks I’ll be teaching you how to create a blog design that expresses who you are, including:

• Access to a private blog and daily posts delivered to your inbox
• Tutorials demonstrating various design styles and techniques
• Step-by-step process of designing 3 unique blog designs
• Creative lessons and assignments to craft your brand and inspire your blog design
• Private Flickr group to share your work and connect with others
• Shared insight from a selection of talented web designers
• An extensive collection of examples, inspiration and resources
• 3 weeks of individual emails with me to get feedback on your work

Be sure to read the lovely testimonials from past students.

To be in the running to win a Your Darling Blog Scholarship, you must complete these three steps:

1. Create a blog post explaining why you want or need to participate in the next Your Darling Blog workshop. Your post must include a link to the Your Darling Blog Website. Please also leave a link to your post in the comments below.

2. Tweet about your post, this giveaway post, or about the workshop on Twitter, including the handle @yourdarlingblog.

3. Sign up to the Your Darling Blog Mailing List (if you are already signed up to this list, you can skip this step).

This giveaway is open to anyone worldwide and will close on 24th August ,2012. I will read all entries and select a winner to be announced on the 27th August, 2012. I repeat, all three steps listed above must be completed to be eligible to win. The giveaway is valued at $295 AUD.

I wish you the best of luck and I can’t wait to spend the next workshop with one of you!

Update: I’ve created a little download of design elements you can use in your blog post.

Update: This giveaway has now closed, good luck everyone!

Happy hump day! My goodness, I just realised my last post was dated 3 weeks ago! I’m sorry it’s been so quiet around here lately while focusing on the current workshop and working on some changes around my business, all exciting stuff but I won’t leave it so long until the next post, I promise.

Today I really wanted to share with you some more handy WordPress resources and plugins, there’s so much you can do with WordPress and these are just a few that will make your site more flexible or improve your WP development skills.

Instapress – Highly customizable plugin to embed your feed from Instagram.

Advanced Custom Fields – The possibilities are endless in customising your site with this incredible plugin.

Building WordPress Themes from Scratch – Written by Joe Casabona, learn everything you need to know in taking your HTML/CSS files into a WordPress theme.

Create a Responsive, Mobile-First WordPress Theme – Written by Ellen Bauer for Smashing Magazine.

WordCamp – Attend a WordPress conference in your city!

Custom Sidebars – If you need to show different sidebar items on different pages, this little plugin is there for you.

Client Orientated WP Development – Improve your development process for client’s projects, created by Jonathan Christopher.

Price Table Plugin – The quickest way to share your price offerings in a clean and minimal table.

WP Snippets – Code snippets for WordPress developers.

Recipe Plugin – The best way for food bloggers to easily manage and showcase their recipes.

Pretty Link – Create shortlinks coming from your own domain.

Please know that I am not affiliated with any of these links. Photo and image by me.

If you’ve ever wanted a custom-design for your blog then now is the time! Your Darling Blog is for bloggers who want to infuse more of their personality into their online space. Over five weeks I’ll be teaching you how to create a blog design that expresses who you are and what your brand is about.

Throughout the workshop you will learn skills that will benefit your blog and brand long after the workshop ends. The one-on-one design feedback is one of the most valuable aspects of this workshop, providing a personal experience that isn’t available in many other online courses.

Don’t miss out on securing your place in the next workshop, registration is currently open until the 25 places are filled. Make 2012 the year you take your blog to the next level!

Here are some lovely words from past students, you can also visit the site for more testimonials:

“Jo’s class is AMAZING. From start to finish, all of the class materials were presented beautifully. The topics that she covered for the design of blogs were all encompassing – from color palettes, typography, to style. There were so many tips, tricks and inspiration from the class that I found myself truly inspired to tackle the redesign of my blog (where before I winced at the very thought of such a thing). This has been one of the best investments I’ve ever made for my blog!” ~ Amy Ng

“The Darling Blog Design class has been a tremendous help in guiding me towards a specific “feel” and brand for my blog. Jo’s inspiration, guidance, and feedback are invaluable! She kept me on track when my ideas strayed from my original design brief. Her feedback had been wonderful – every detail is considered in her evaluation. Even the smallest recommendation makes a huge impact on the blog design. Thank you so much Jo!” ~ Samantha Stewart

“As a designer I was a little skeptical about taking this course, but after signing in on day 1 my fears were quashed – the resource links alone made the course worth it! I felt my designs lacked originality and purpose and the Darling Blog workshop really helped me define my goals along with learning some new design techniques and really exploring my creative side (and I couldn’t wait to receive my email every morning to see what the next tutorial would be!). This has truly been a soul searching journey just as much as an artistic one! Jo is extremely talented and knowledgeable and the end result of my brand new blog design is even better than I had imagined. What’s more though, I have fallen in love with design all over again – I hope there will be a YDB 2!” ~ Nichole Williams

I hope to see you in the next Your Darling Blog workshop!