Big news, everyone: enrollment for the drool-worthy Girl’s Guide to Web Design is officially open!

It’s been a long time coming, and what a journey it’s been! Working on GG2WD has been a complete labor of love for me, and I’m SO excited to be throwing open the doors to our first “class” of amazing, creative students on September 26th.

But in the meantime, spots in this 8-week learning adventure are already being snapped up fast – so if you’re ready to take the plunge and learn the coding, WordPress, and graphic design skills that will help you finally get the site or blog of your dreams online, head on over to http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com/enroll/. You won’t want to miss the video of me telling you exactly what to expect from the course, while curled up on our huge, comfy couch (click the image of me below to see it). :P

So what’s this GG2WD thing all about?

Well, The Girl’s Guide to Web Design could be just what you’re looking for if you’re:
- Someone who’s been dying to get that pet project up on the web (whether it’s a blog or a site) for AGES
- Someone who already has a blog or site up, but who wants to know how to spiffy it up/make changes to it – without needing to hire a web person
- An entrepreneur who has a constant stream of brilliant biz ideas and who is sick of having to save up for a web designer to get them online
- A graphic designer who wants to be able to take her gorgeous graphics and turn them into an honest-to-goodness website
- Someone who just wants to learn to code!

Want a sneak peek?

For a preview of what you can expect to learn in GG2WD, don’t miss our free web training tidbits. Our first tidbit, “The can’t-miss header design technique that makes any site or blog look good, even if you have NO idea what you’re doing“, reveals my secret source for stunning & unique photography and the easy-as-pie method to get a gorgeous header image (otherwise known as a “banner”) for your blog or site – WITHOUT needing to own a copy of Photoshop. Click here to check it out.

And our second tidbit, “Quick and sexy social media icons (don’t leave home without ‘em!)” will teach you and your peeps how to install a quick WordPress plugin that lets you add bright, happy-looking social mediaicons to your site in about 2 minutes – or instead, how to go the custom route to find social media icons that jive with the feel of your site. Sound like something you need? Here’s where to see it: http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com/quick-and-sexy-social-media-icons-dont-leave-home-without-em/

Watch out, internet!

By the time you’re done with The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, you’ll be a force to be reckoned with – and you’ll finally have the webby skills you need to bring your gorgeous vision for your blog or site to life on a computer screen. I can’t wait to work with you all, and I hope to see lots of you in the course.

So what are you waiting for? Click here for more information or to enroll. :)

~ Amanda

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Great to see you back here! Are you a creative type who'd love to learn how to DIY her own gorgeous blog or site? Then I've got a little gift for you: Chapter 0 from my web design course, The Girl's Guide to Web Design. Click here to grab it, on me!

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Hi guys! As you may have already heard, enrollment will be opening shortly for my latest pet project, The Girl’s Guide to Web Design! I’ve been working like crazy on it with my sister Allie (that’s us at left), and I hope you’ll join me in the quest to unleash your inner designer and create an awe-inspiring blog or site! This is NOT your average “online course”, so I’m pretty pumped to share it all with you. :)

And if you’re on Twitter, I’ve got great news: we’re doling out FREE TUITION for the Girl’s Guide to Web Design to 5 creative ladies! Yep – I said free!

Here’s how to enter the contest:

1) Follow us on Twitter (@GG2WD)

2) If you’re not already on it, sign up to our early bird notification list here (use the form at the top right of the page)

3) Tweet two times:

Tweet One:

Tell us about your visual dream for the site or blog that you’ve always dreamed of starting – or what you’d love to do to the site or blog you already have, if you only had the graphic and coding know-how! Take us inside your creative genius so we can see what you see in your mind’s eye. And within your tweet, use hashtag #GG2WD (otherwise, we’ll likely miss it!).

Here are some examples of what you might tweet:

- A topsy turvy creation as seen through rose-coloured glasses. DIY focus with a hint of bunting, rowboats, and freshly mowed grass #GG2WD

- No more purple background! Instead: soft blues and yellows, handwritten fonts and a rubber duckie in the header. Fun! #GG2WD

Tweet Two:

Choose one of the pre-written tweets below and tweet it out to your followers (the tweet must include a link to http://girlsguidetowebdesign AND the #GG2WD hash tag).

Pre-written tweets to choose from:

Finally, a coding course for creative chicks! Learning web design never looked so non-intimidating: http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD
- – -
Ditch your fear of code, unleash your inner designer and create an awe-inspiring blog or site with @GG2WD! Visit http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD
- – -
Just stumbled across @GG2WD – an 8-week online course that teaches you to design a gorgeous site or blog! http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD
- – -
Learn to design a blog or site once and for all with @GG2WD! Click here for all the (non-intimidating) info http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD
- – -
Been wanting to create a blog or site for ages, but don’t know where to start? @GG2WD will teach you! Visit http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD
- – -
Learn to create the uniquely gorgeous blog or site you’ve always wished you had the chops to make with @GG2WD. http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD
- – -
Just discovered this great new course by @GG2WD. Going to learn to create the website of my dreams! Visit: http://girlsguidetowebdesign.com #GG2WD

Contest Rules:

- You may tweet as many times as you like. Each pair of tweets counts as a separate contest entry.
- We’ll be picking the 5 winners based on the passion and imagination that go into your tweets, so don’t hold back! We want to know exactly what your big, crazy vision is for your future blog or site!
- We’ll announce the five winners sometime between August 29 and September 19th (never fear – you’ll have plenty of time to enroll in the course if you don’t end up winning a free spot).

Good luck, and don’t forget – we’re adding new juicy course details to the site every day.

P.S. Have a friend who’d love to win this contest? Use the social media icons below to tell her about it!

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Here’s a fun little video my sister and I put together today. It’s a promo piece of sorts for The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, which I’ve been working on around the clock for the past few weeks. Not that I’m complaining; it’s been tons of fun, and the only thing I’m NOT particularly enjoying is the way I keep dropping salad dressing-covered lettuce leaves on my keyboard while I eat and work at the same time!

But back to the issue at hand: course enrolment opens soon, and I’m expecting the class to fill up fast, so make sure you’re on the early bird notification list so you don’t miss out (Just click here to visit the GG2WD site and sign up using the form on the right side of the page). :)

And now for that video I promised you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_fDJKio2Rs
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I briefly mentioned this in last week’s post about whipping your website into shape with CSS, but I think it’s time to make it official.

So without further ado, I’m insanely excited to announce a very special “coming soon” I’ve been working on: The Girl’s Guide to Web Design, an online course geared towards creative types who love design, but don’t (yet!) have the coding knowledge to make their vision a reality on the web.

The focus of this eight-week adventure is on learning coding and web design skills in a non-intimidating way, and by the end of the course, you’ll have created a totally unique, gorgeous WordPress site or blog for yourself (or know how to transform the one you already have).

Like the sound of this? Fill out the form below to get on the early bird notification list for the course. You’ll be the first to know when registration opens, and I’ll send you tantalizing sneak peeks of the course content once a week.

Want to know more? Here’s the scoop:

GGWD is all about empowering ladies like you to design a beautiful blog or website on the WordPress platform.

It’s also about learning to code, and actually liking it.

And perhaps most importantly, it’s about getting on with things so that you can conquer the world with a killer site for your business or a blog that’s set to be the next Design*Sponge, This Is Glamorous, or 101 Cookbooks.

Of course, wanting to be an internet big shot is not a prerequisite for taking the course – but wanting to have a site or blog that’s totally “you” IS.

You’re in the right place if:
- You’ve got a head full of ideas for your site or blog (and maybe a web hosting account), but beyond that, you’re feeling stuck.
- You’ve already got a site or blog, but its design doesn’t reflect the amazingness that is you and your idea.
- You know you need to learn to code, but it seems like all the info out there is geared towards weirdo programmers.
- You feel blocked from your dream by your lack of web knowledge.
- You’re sick of waiting around, and you’re ready for your web presence to BLOOM!

If you’ve been putting off learning to create a gorgeous site or blog because you’ve run up against a roadblock or 30, this is your course. I’ll use normal-person language to teach you to take a bare-bones WordPress site and turn it into something visually astonishing. Something you never thought you had the chops to do.

Yep – this course will give you those chops! My teaching style is straightforward and lighthearted, and I don’t hold back, so you can expect to learn my top-secret designer’s methods for creating an authentically YOU site or blog that will make you want to do the happy dance.

And the best part? It’s all easier than you think it is. But this is the only place you can get it all under one roof – with lots of support along the way.

So if this sounds like something that might be down your alley, fill out the form below to get on the early bird notification list and get access to fun sneak peeks for the course. You’re going to love this – I promise!

Sign up for the early bird notification list below:

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Sites shouldn't take forever and a day.

Confession time: I have a little problem with the way most people approach web design. And more specifically, I have a problem with the way it affects you – the person who needs a website made.

So what’s the thing I take issue with, pray tell? I’m glad you asked! It’s all in the timing.

Let me explain.

Too often, I’ve seen entrepreneurs kick off the development of a new site or blog with incredible zest and zeal. But by the time the site is ready, they’ve totally lost that spark. They started off bold, bright and jazzed up – and finished bored, deflated and wondering why they even cared in the first place.

So why does this happen? It has to do with the amount of time spent on the project.

Traditional web design allows web projects to stretch out indefinitely – until they’re “done”. This seems reasonable enough. A website is a complicated entity, after all – and there are a lot of factors to consider when you’re building one. But as one of my first bosses told me, a task will expand to fill whatever space you give it. And that can be a dangerous thing, especially to an entrepreneur, who has a head full of brilliant ideas and a tendency to flit from one to the other (I’m the first to admit I’m one of them!).

Throw in the fact that humans have limited attention spans, and you’ve got a recipe for website disaster. We can be really excited about something for a while, but eventually, it’s going to lose its luster. When you’re on week 9 of going back and forth with your web designer about whether the text in your sidebar should be grey or dark grey, you better believe that shine is gone.

That’s why I do web design the way I do.
By getting a fully functional, custom-designed site after a single day of working with me, you get to ride the crest of creative energy that got you so pumped up in the first place. You don’t have to wait to get your brilliant, beautiful message out into the world, whether that message is contained within blog posts, innovative products or stupendous services. Inertia is invaluable.

So where am I going with this? Well, it all comes down to the fact that I couldn’t get my message out without the willingness of my brave clients – clients who have stepped up and agreed to come along on this wild ride with me. I admit – I’m secretly thrilled every time I meet an entrepreneur who likes my way of doing things. It puts a bit of pep in my step and a sparkle in my eye. I keep coming across more of them, too – which is pretty exciting. Like yesterday, for example. While perusing the discussion board of a Facebook group that I’m a member of (it’s aimed at women entrepreneurs), I found a post that made my heart go pitter-patter. Stormy Sweitzer of Maoomba, a site dedicated to simple and delicious gluten-free and dairy-free food, had this to say:

“Wow – talk about a powerful sidetrack! My husband woke up Thursday with a notion of a business he wanted to create. In just 4 days, and on very little sleep, we went from concept to launch. It just reinforced for me how powerful inspiration can be when it grips you and how much fun it is to get caught up in the process of getting something started. Here’s to a week of inspiration and productive creativity to you all!”

Yes, Stormy! How amazing to grab a new project by the horns and churn it out, start to finish, in only 4 days. The new business venture is Stormy’s husband’s Will’s South African travel company, Extraordinary Life Travels South Africa. I kind of want to book a trip right now – and it’s partially because I love their take-charge style.

Yep – as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t get any better than riding the wave of entrepreneurial inspiration. Those burning-the-candle-at-both ends, couldn’t-tear-me-away-if-you-tried stints are the most invigorating moments of life.

And doesn’t your website deserve that kind of momentum?

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Whip your website into shape with CSS

by amanda on June 17, 2011

Ever sat there giving your website the evil eye, getting all worked up because of that one little detail you can’t figure out how to change?

Whether it’s a green border that you wish was blue, a box that’s all squished up next to a list of links, or a not-quite-right background pattern, it’s no fun having a site that doesn’t look exactly the way you want it to (especially when you’ve already put in so much effort to figure out Blogger, or WordPress, or whatever).

And let’s face it – sometimes hiring a web designer just isn’t in the cards, so what’s a girl to do? Well, you COULD sit there and fume. You could try for the umpteenth time to fix the thing that’s bothering you, and could get good and P.O.’d when it doesn’t work. You could try Googling weird things like “how to make pink links grey” and wade through technical documentation that’s written for people who’ve been doing this for a million years already.

Or you could read my new Understanding CSS post on Design*Sponge.

I wrote it just for you: the owners of blogs, websites and online shops that deserve to look as beautiful as the vision you have for them. It’s a non-intimidating, couldn’t-be-simpler guide to using CSS (otherwise known as “Cascading Style Sheets” – but you don’t even have to remember that) to fine-tune the look of your site. In other words, it’s everything you need to know about whipping your website into shape. Kind of like squats for your website, sans the deep muscle burn.

You’ll learn how to control colors, spacing, background images, and virtually anything else you want to tweak on your site or blog. I tell you exactly how to write the code and where to put it, in super-straightforward language geared towards people who have exactly zero programming knowledge.

Here’s what people are saying about my Understanding CSS guide:

“You must be psychic because i was just searching css how-to’s this morning in desperate need!!! and now…here it is! i can’t wait to read this, and finally learn what means…instead of what I *think* it *might* mean. : ) thanks!”

“This is the best yet of the biz ladies series!! thank you SO much for such a clear & helpful guide. bookmarked & ready to share with all my blogging ladies!”

“Wow, what fabulous info! I have a bit of HTML knowledge just by messing around a bit with it but this will really help me take it to the next level. THANK YOU!!!”

“THANK YOU for this super-informative post!! There are a few elements on my blog that REALLY bug me (i.e. green bullets) and I am now armed with the knowledge to fix them! Wish me luck!”

“Where have you been all of my life?? I am so, so excited about all of this! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your expertise with all of us ladies. I am really happy I discovered this. I have always wondered how to do this, but never even knew what CSS was.”

So what are you waiting for? Click here to go to the guide and dive right in – or bookmark it for a rainy day.

Oh yes – one more thing!

If you read the guide and decide you like my teaching style, I have a special invitation for you. I’m in the middle of developing my women’s web mastery course, which will teach you everything you need to know if you want to up your web savvy and create a beautiful, love-every-last-detail website for yourself. If you’ve ever dreamed of running your own Design*Sponge, Apartment Therapy, or 101 Cookbooks, but felt intimidated by all the technical know-how you’d need to get it up and running, this course is for you. It combines all my best training, tips and tricks, and it’s totally geared toward women (especially creative types). Because maybe you need a web developer…or MAYBE you can do it yourself! ;)

To get on the early bird notification list for my course, click here. I’ll send you an email as soon as the course is available, so you’ll have first dibs on a spot. You’ll also get my CSS Cheat Sheet, which reveals two of my most powerful site-transforming tricks that you can put into place right now to pretty up your site:

1. How to make super simple, on-the-fly CSS tweaks to your site without needing to mess with your stylesheet! GREAT for busy blog and site owners with an eye for style.

2. How to add a background image to your site to totally transform its look and feel (and ditch your boring, plain old background forever).

Again, here’s the link to sign up to be notified about the course (and to get the CSS Cheet Sheet): http://betterthanchocolatewebdesign.com/grab-the-css-cheat-sheet/

I sincerely hope you like the guide and that it helps you get a site you can be proud of. And thanks so much to Design*Sponge for letting me write yet another Biz Ladies posts. You guys are great!

If you liked this post, please like, share or tweet it using the buttons below. Thanks!

Image Credit: Design*Sponge

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Last week I finally took action on something I’d been putting off for ages: creating a Facebook page for Better Than Chocolate.

I’d convinced myself that setting up the page would be frustrating at best, but to be honest, it was kind of a breeze!

So if you’ve been procrastinating on setting up a page for your site or business, here’s your official no-excuses guide to getting it done (in 7 easy steps).

Oh, and while you’re at it, I’d love it if you would “like” Better Than Chocolate on Facebook. :)

How to set up a Facebook page (also known as a “fan page”), in 7 easy steps:

1. Log in to your personal Facebook account and scroll down to the very bottom of the page. Click the “Create a page” link.

2. Here’s where you choose your business type, by clicking on the appropriate box. Pick carefully, because this is a permanent thing! Don’t choose “Local Business” unless you’re an actual brick-and-mortar business operating in a specific town or city.

3. Now pick your “Category”, and in the box underneath, type the name you want your page to have. Put some thought into this, because you can’t change your page name once you’ve set it. You may want to follow your biz name with a couple of words that describe with you do. For example, if you run a petsitting service called Patty’s Paws, consider setting your page name to “Patty’s Paws Petsitting”.

4. Tick the “I agree to Facebook Pages terms” box and click the “Get Started” button. You will be taken to your (admittedly plain-looking) new Facebook page. At this point you’ll probably want to fancy it up with some content and photos. Start by uploading a profile picture from your computer. To make your Facebook page as high-impact as possible, try using a profile picture that’s 180 pixels wide by 500 pixels high. That’s the max size that Facebook accepts. Anything smaller will look kind of dinky. (Check out how a full-size profile picture looks on the Better Than Chocolate Facebook page). Now post an update – perhaps something about how you’re excited to be live on Facebook.

5. You’ll also want to click the “Info” item in the menu on the left. When you do, you’ll be prompted to enter some basic information about your page. Click that link and fill out the fields on the next page. You dno’t have to fill them all out, but you’ll definitely want to put in a description of your business or website and what makes you unique, and include the URL for your site in the “Website” box. Click the “Save Changes” button to save your stuff (you can always come back and make updates to this area later).

6. When you’ve got your page set up the way you like it, click the “View Page” button at the top right of the screen. It’s time for you to become the first fan of the page by “liking” it using the “like” button at the top. Other people will see this come up in their newsfeeds, and you’ll officially be in business!

7. To promote your page and get other people to “like” it, click the “Suggest to friends” button and tick off the names of people you want to suggest the page to. Once you get 25 likes, you’ll be able to claim a “vanity URL” for your page. So instead of a URL with a bunch of numbers in it, you’ll end up with a cool one like http://facebook.com/betterthanchocolatewebdesign. To pick your vanity URL (which once again, is permanent!), go to http://www.facebook.com/username when logged into Facebook, and follow the prompts. Be sure to keep search engine optimization in mind when you’re picking your vanity URL. This is your chance to associate some important keywords with your Facebook page. I personally decided to put “web design” on the end of my vanity URL, because I’m always trying to target those keywords with my SEO efforts.

Happy Facebooking! If you found this post useful, I’d LOVE it if you would share or tweet this post using the buttons below!

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A couple of months ago (back when there was still snow on the ground), I got the idea for a snazzy new blog post series. It came to me in a flash: wouldn’t it be fun to take you behind the scenes of some of the sites I’ve built, explaining how they came to be and what makes them tick?

Well my friends, this is the first post in that series. So, without further ado, here’s the very first “Under the Hood With…” – featuring the adorable Lauryn Galloway, a wedding and portrait photographer based out of Virginia who has a thing for stinky cheese and a little TV show called Glee.

Lauryn came to me via my Get a Website in a Weekend article on Design*Sponge. She was about to launch her photography business, and she’d been working with another graphic designer to develop her logo. Now she was ready to start thinking about her web presence – a place where she could showcase her beautiful, light-filled photography.

The first step was for her to fill out my Better Than Chocolate Questionnaire. As I do with all my clients, I reviewed it in-depth and put my thinking cap on. My mission: to unearth her biggest, most authentically gorgeous website dreams – starting with the perfect shade of pink!

Lauryn’s logo was inspired by a ripe, juicy grapefruit, and we needed exactly the right pink to convey that mouthwatering feeling. But because the pink in her logo actually consisted of many different shades (as you can see in the blown-up version below), I wanted Lauryn to pick the one that really spoke to HER. So, I whipped up a graphic with a few different swatches of pink to make sure that we nailed it:

From there, the site just sort of fell into place. Lauryn knew she wanted all her text to read in lowercase letters only, and she had a series of super summery photos that worked perfectly as “buttons” in her sidebar, each leading to a different page on the site (as seen on the left). I personally love the ice cream ones.

Then, inspired by the hand-drawn look of her logo, we used a sketchy line to separate her sidebar from her main content area – and I set her up with Add To Any, a super useful WordPress plugin that encourages people to share and bookmark her posts through their favorite social media sites.

If you’re not using some kind of share/save plugin on your WordPress right now, I strongly suggest you look into it. There are lots of free ones (Socialize is also good), and you can search for them and install them right through the Plugins area in your WordPress dashboard.

Lauryn also knew she wanted a cool font for her post titles. Luckily, the Thesis framework for WordPress (which I use as the basis for all my sites) makes it easy to choose fun, non-standard fonts for certain areas of your site. Google’s Gruppo font did the job nicely, jiving with the casual, handwritten look of her header.

A quick sample of the Gruppo font:

Before long, Lauryn was good to go with a blog designed to help her real in tons of her ideal clients (check out the finished product at http://lauryngallowayblog.com). And wouldn’t you know it – she’s doing quite well for herself! In fact, when my fiancé and I were taking a tour of the wedding venue we eventually chose, the property manager had seen Lauryn’s site and gushed like crazy about how much she loves her photography. Score!

But what really counts is what Lauryn thought about how the whole thing went down. Here’s what she had to say about the experience:

Tell me a bit about your initial vision for the site.

I knew I wanted clean, simple, easy to access. That is how I like my house, and life in general!

Do you have a thing for retro soda pop and grapefruit-y colors? Tell me a bit about that.

Ha! I actually do love real soda. No corn syrup. But the whole color scheme for my branding came from an inspiration image. Also, when I described what I wanted my brand to be about, those colors kept coming to me. It was just a perk that the photos I’d taken of the Izze sparkling juice bottles matched!

What kind of positive feedback have you gotten about the site?

I think the most positive thing I have heard is that my site is ME. And matches ME. That is exactly what it should be!

Lauren's new Instax camera - and some snaps of her and her husband Jared

Tell me one little-known fact about you. Something fun or intriguing. :)

I am a nerd for books and for history. I have kept every single textbook from college. I just love having them all around me. There are books in every room of our house. And, yes, I have read those textbooks! The history ones are my favs.

What do you like best about being an entrepreneur?

I think I enjoy two things the most. The flexibility of scheduling. And the creativity. I get to make my own schedule and I have such a huge avenue for a creative outlet.

Is there anything else you want people to know about your website and/or what went into making it?

I guess some advice. I spent months researching and honing in on exactly what I wanted before I reached out to a graphic designer and blog designer. And I think that is why I am so happy with how everything turned out. Take your time. Know yourself. And don’t copy anyone.

Thanks Lauryn!

P.S. If you’ve ever dreamed of being a freelance photographer, you’ll want to check out Lauryn’s series of “Getting Started” posts – here, here and here. She bares it all and tells you the story of how she got her feet wet and how far she’s come since she started.

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Got a question for me?


Well, it’s Friday afternoon, and I’m grooving to my friend Dave‘s latest mix and letting myself get nice and hungry in preparation for my man’s birthday dinner tonight at Le Taj – Montreal’s most delicious Indian restaurant! But before I can lapse into a full-blown butter chicken reverie, I’ve got a burning website question to answer. This time, it’s about when to fork out the dough for a premium WordPress theme. :)

She asks:
As I am a new WordPress user (in the process of developing our interior design website), I have many burning questions (don’t all of us newbies, haha). One biggy at the moment is – when is the right time (your recommendation) to upgrade to a premium WordPress account/theme? Our biz doesn’t have any income at the moment and don’t have much to spend on our own, but we want to market our biz more and get our name out there to get clients. Should we go full swing into it now, or should we wait a few months until we have a few clients and get their feedback?

I answer:
This is one of those times when you may as well start out on the right foot. Even if your business doesn’t have any income at the moment, it’s worth coughing up $100 or so of your own money to pay for a premium WordPress theme. There are several differences between free themes and paid themes, including the amount of support you have access to, the likelihood of your theme “breaking” when you upgrade WordPress, and the customizability of your site (you guessed it: premium themes usually come with support, allow for smoooth upgrades, and are highly customizable).

You may be tempted to start off with a free theme and upgrade later, but you’ll probably have to put in a fair amount of work learning the new theme, rearranging your content, and that sort of thing. I strongly suggest going premium from the get-go.

The premium theme that I use for all my designs is Thesis. I love it because you can effortlessly change your layout, add a header image, tweak your search engine optimization settings, and tons more. It also has an amazing support community, so if you want to do something fancy with it but don’t know how, you can ask your question in the forum.

Thesis costs $87, which is pretty good for such a versatile WordPress theme. To find out more and decide if it’s for you, visit this page.

Have you worked with Thesis before? What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

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This is what I did last week.

The bad news: I’m back from my trip to Barbados, and sadly, I was only allowed to buy one bottle of delicious rum at the duty-free (did you know that Barbados is the birthplace of rum? I enjoy that tidbit, personally).

The good news: I may be feeling gypped on the Captain Morgan front, but I’ve got some other sweet-as-can-be goodies to share with you! I recently discovered the magic of two FREE tools that every woman entrepreneur should have in her toolbox – especially if you spend a lot of time online.

I think you’re going to love them. So, without further ado, I present to you the unstoppable duo:

1. A sneaky way to see your site through other people’s eyes

Ever been hanging out at your friend’s house and snuck a peek at your website when she goes to the kitchen to grab a snack? If so, perhaps you’ve wondered why your gorgeous site looks a little different from what you’re used to. Well, I’ll tell ya. It’s because everyone uses different screen resolutions.

Your resolution controls how the pixels on your screen are used – so a really high resolution will make everything look smaller, while a really low resolution will make everything look big.

When you’re having a website designed, it’s important to make sure your site won’t take up too much room on the screens of people who use low resolutions. If this happens, they’ll have to scroll horizontally to read all your content, which is pretty annoying (a definitely no-no in the world of web usability).

So how do you make sure your site is displaying as expected across a range of resolutions? Enter View Like Us, which lets you peek at how your site looks at 800×600 (low resolution) all the way up to 1920×1200. Just plug in the URL for your website and hit the “Check Up” button to see mini screenshots of your site at various resolutions. Genius!

2. A to-do list you’ll actually want to look at (mais oui!)

I first heard about TeuxDeux thanks to Marie Forleo and Laura Roeder of Rich Happy and Hot B-School. After completing the RHH B-School program (definitely worth checking out!), I decided I just HAD to be there for Marie‘s amazing Rich Happy and Hot Live event in NYC in November last year (see if you can spot me in the promo video at the 20-second mark!).

On Day 2 of the event, the brilliant and lovable Laura Roeder was schooling us in a talk about using systems in your business, and she mentioned TeuxDeux, telling us that it was an amazing to-do list tool that would change our lives. Well, she wasn’t lying. I finally got around to trying it a couple of weeks ago, and it has totally revolutionized the way I feel about my workday.

Before, I was using Google Calendar to manage my tasks, which felt awkward and annoying. I hated the interface and the cluttered look of my calendar once I had entered all my tasks. TeuxDeux is basically the opposite of this. Its maker describes it as “a simple, designy, to-do app”, and that’s exactly what it is. It makes even the most daunting list of tasks look calming – which is saying a lot. And the coolest part is that it has a “someday” section where you can file ideas and dreams for the future. This has been the biggest plus for me. I have a constant stream of crazy ideas running through my head, and I finally have a place to capture them all.

Seriously – try Teux Deux. Your sanity will thank you.

Have you tried View Like Us or Teux Deux? Did they rock your world? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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