Web Design – Page 6

Web Design and site maintenance

November 27, 2006 by Tricia

I’ve been very busy in the last week or more- posting away like a nut on all my sites and slowly working in the background for a popular blogger to fix up his main site and getting three others ready to launch properly.

If he likes my work I will be launching a small part time business doing web design, graphics, and site maintenance.

I haven’t tried my hand at creating full WordPress or Blogger themes but I’ve certainly had a lot of experience modifying designs and changing the whole look and feel of an existing design. At this time I would be willing to do that for others.

The majority of the work I hope and expect to take on will be Site Maintenance.

This is the type of scenario that I can see people using my services for:

1. Are you busy?

2. You have a family to take care of and a job, but you also love to blog.

3. You want to change several things in your sidebar or your header but you either don’t know how to do it well or you simply don’t have time.

4. You don’t want to tinker with your blog, you just want to blog. You’d rather have someone else fix things for you.

5. You’ve been trying to change somethings on your site, even adding a blogroll to the sidebar, but it’s not working for you and you’re getting frustrated.

6. You wish you could just hire someone to do all the stuff that you either don’t like to do, get frustrated doing or have no clue how to do- for a reasonable price.

If you fall into any of these categories you might be interested in what I have to offer.

I’m willing to tinker with your site after you’ve given up trying.

I can organize your sidebar so it’s neat and tidy, rather than glaring and distracting. Offer you design advice and possibly even make some graphics for you your sidebar or a new header for your site. Any of those changes can make your site seem new to you and to your regular visitors/ readers.

I haven’t set up any type of price lists yet. At the moment I have no idea what kind of prices that I’ll charge other than the fact that I’d like to keep them affordable and reasonable. For example- I can’t see working on something for an hour or two and only getting paid $5, but neither would I feel comfortable charging you a $100 for something that takes only an hour either.

Readers and Visitors – have you used the services of a web designer in the past? Would you be so kind as to help me out by telling me what kind of prices you were charged for the work that was done on your site?

Price for re-design?
new header?
title graphics in your sidebar?
adding a blogroll with graphic?
creating roll up menus in your sidebar?
Installing plug-ins on your site?

If you could reply back and tell me the approximate prices you made for web services I’d really appreciate it. Remember I want to offer you an affordable service that’s beneficial for both you and I.

Thanks!

When it rains it pours

November 9, 2006 by Tricia

You know that saying “When it rains it pours”? Well it’s starting to pour over here.

I’ve been off sick from work since December 4th 2005. By January 2006 I had a feeling I would be off work for a while, and I started this blog to keep me busy and to let out some of my feelings about being sick, in pain and house bound.

By the end of February I was starting to think of ways to be creative, and possibly ways to make some money on the internet because I wasn’t getting any better and I had a feeling I’d be off for quite a while. It didn’t help that my workplace put me off work in March for 4 months either.

So I spent a lot of time searching for ways to make some money – putting Google ads on my blogs etc. Of course the Google ads didn’t work because you aren’t allowed to have them on your site if you are running your site through traffic engines. They sent me a letter about generating artificial impressions and told me I was breaking T.O.S. so I took them off my blogs immediately.

I wasn’t having much luck finding ways to make money on the internet that didn’t take up all of my time or that were worth while. However near the end of September things started to roll for me. I found P and registered with them. By early October I was accepted and started writing some posts for them in order to make some money. I also hooked up with Mylot and I’ve made a bit of money there too. Then all of a sudden I had people writing me emails asking if they could ad links to my sites – the links were acceptable so I took them up on their offer and allowed the links to go up on various sites I run.

Then something else happened …

I’ve always helped others on the internet. Whether it was giving advice on the specialized care of reptile pets, running reptile related mailing lists, or helping others by creating websites, or graphics for their sites, working on site promotion (SEO), or fixing up code on their sites – I’ve always been busy, like for 11 years, doing that kind of thing.

A few days ago Mr. Fab from Pointless Drivel suggested that I start a business of helping others. I thought about it, and decided – why not? I’m good at fixing up messed up sidebars, organizing sites, creating headers and I’ve been doing it free of charge. Why not make a nominal amount of money doing something that I already do anyway?

Well, all of a sudden I have two customers! Two customers and I never even mentioned this on my site until now. Cool!

So sometimes when it rains, it really does pour and luckily this time it’s pouring in a good way.

I’ll write more later on the kinds of service that I hope to offer. I haven’t come up with any pricing yet but I’m certain that it will be reasonable. Feel free to contact me if you are sick of trying to maintain your site and have relatively simple things you want fixed up. My email link is in the top left sidebar.

Feeling Special!

October 24, 2006 by Tricia

I’m having a great week so far and it’s only Tuesday. I hope that it doesn’t all go downhill from here. LOL

The very popular Mr. Fab of Pointless Drivel fame has bestowed a great honor on me this week. He’s been calling me his technical adviser for a while now. Apparently this is a very prestigious position over at the Pointless Institute for scientific studies – here in known as PISS.

The only other blogger that has a higher position there, that I know of, is Shelli from Shelli’s Sentiments who is the Technical Director. I guess Mrs. Fab has the highest position or positions – she’s gotta be the Director and probably the chief Editor too because I know Mr. Fab checks some of his posts with her before he puts them out for all the world to see. Those ones clearly have her stamp of approval all over them.

So what’s that great honor? Well the Fabulous one left me and Shelli in charge of his place! Muhahahahah! The poor fool, he doesn’t know what he’s done! Shelli’s been MIA so until she arrives over there I’m trying to keep the peace at the Bosses place.

Then, earlier today, I found out that I’ve been the top visitor/commenter over at Doc Mom’s place You’ve got 2 B kidding. She actually has property on her blog! Can you believe that? There’s houses and cars on a little Cul de Sac and she awards a lot (a house!) to bloggers that have proven their merit by being faithful visitors and being the top commenter on the cul de sac for three weeks in a row.

So now I have to decide which lot I want. It’s a tough decision. You could give me a hand by going over to Doc Moms and looking at the satellite overview of the lots. Two are already taken. The Fab, and Zed from The world according to Zed already have lots on the Cul de Sac. There’s still room for more though! I think if we’re lucky Sans and Mel might join us soon too.

I wonder if anything else interesting will happen this week?

At 9:30 this morning I’ve got to go and see the Occupational health doctor at work. I never know if he’s going to say well it’s time that we tried getting you back to work, or if he’s going to keep me off for longer. I know that he was hoping that I would have had an appointment with my GI doctor by now to discuss the results of all my tests, but I only just had my MRI on October 11th. I called to make an appointment with the GI doctor and I can’t get in until December 13th! I’d like to see him earlier because depending upon what the results of my tests were he might end up trying me on some new medications, and if he does perhaps they will actually work this time and I’ll start to feel better. Anyway- wish me luck at the Occ Health appointment. The doctor is actually very nice but it always kind of feels like I’m going to see the Principal whenever I have to go there for an appointment.

Pain Pain go AWAY!

August 22, 2006 by Tricia

I feel like crap.

Fever, Chills, abdominal pain, bad, bad abdominal pain.

I’ve been feeling really off since the two Weddings a week and a half ago. I guess four long days of activities were just too much for me. However, on Tuesday I felt the worst that I’ve felt in a several months and I still feel that bad.

Have you ever had a pain so bad that you just wish that you could cut off the part that’s hurting? Say your leg, your knee, your wrist? Well, I’ve got a pain in my stomach right now that feels like a hand reaching just below my right ribs, as if it’s trying to rip and organ out. The pain in my lower right side feels like someones kicking me and stabbing me at the same time.

When the pain gets this bad I sometimes wish I could cut out the painful parts. Yeah, that would help for oh, about a minute, until I either bled to death or until the pain from the wounds set in. So, no, I wouldn’t do that, but I sometimes wish it were that easy to make it go away.

I have pain medication, and I’ve been taking it, but when the pain gets this bad it just doesn’t help. It doesn’t even knock me out so that I can try to sleep through it.

What really sucks about this is that I’m supposed to be going out of town on Friday for the weekend. We’re supposed to go to Chicago to see Bruce Cockburn play in a small venue on Saturday night. We’ve got some friends going with us so I guess if I end up not going Chris will be ok with the drive, but I wanna go. I’ve never been to Chicago. I know I won’t be there for long, but I want to see whatever I can see while I’m there.

I’ve also been meaning to write a number of posts for all of my blogs so that things will keep moving along here while I’m away (see positive thoughts – I’m writing as If I’m going right?). Unfortunately, I just haven’t felt up to writing.

I do have a nice series of photos on Breath of Life right now that I’ve set up to automatically post each day for the next two weeks. This weeks series is photos of Toronto’s Kensington Market. It’s a very interesting place to visit, and I managed to get some great shots while I was there the Saturday before last. I’d love it if you would check out the daily photos and let me know what you think of them.

I’ve also been busy over the last few days working on a new theme for Odd Planet and creating a new home for it too. Krome, formerly of Kromes Obsession, and now from Sugar Vamp and I’ll Dream, had offered to create a new WordPress site for me some time ago. I had been thinking of taking her up on her offer in order to create a collaborative site that I’d been discussing with a few interested parties, but over the weekend when I got it in my head to move Odd Planet, I decided to contact Krome and ask her to do a theme for Odd Planet. She said she would, but she wanted me to hunt for photos or pictures that I would want to use in the theme myself so that I’d be happy with the results.

Well, I went hunting for pictures to use in the theme and the next thing I knew I was designing Odd Planets new home myself. Now I’m in the process of moving all the posts from the original site to the new site. I hope to have it done before the weekend, as I’d like to be able to set up some posts to automatically post while I’m playing in Chicago. Playing – yeah right, that’s hard to believe with the way I’m feeling now. Anyway, if you’d like to check out what I’ve been up to visit Odd Planets new home and let me know what you think. The sidebar isn’t sitting right if you look at it in Internet Explorer, but it’s working for all the rest of the browsers.

I’m off to take another pain pill in the hopes that this one works. Wish me luck!

Need some ideas

March 18, 2006 by Tricia

So, did everyone go out and have some fun on St. Patrick’s Day? If you did- How are you feeling today? 🙂 I image some of you are barely functioning.

I didn’t celebrate St. Paddy’s day this year. I didn’t even have a drink! Shame on me- I’m part Irish. I’ve even got the traditional auburn hair and occasionally hot temper to prove it. I should have gone out and had some fun. Oh well, at least I won’t have a hang-over. 🙂

We can’t really afford to go out on the town and party right now anyway, nor did I feel much like it. I’ve been off work due to illness for four months now. I’ve been getting sick pay from my workplace, but it’s not as much as my regular working salary. I’m glad to have the sick pay although, in one week it will run out. I’ll then have to apply for medical coverage from Unemployment, and that money will likely be a little less than my sick pay.

What I really need is to start feeling better soon so I can get my life back on track. Unfortunately I just don’t seem to be getting any better.

I guess what I really need to do right now – other than get better! – is to find a way to make some money from home.

My husband is a talented musician, he plays 13 instruments. I wish he had chosen a career in music so he could use his talents to his advantage. He choose not to pursue a career in music after touring with a few bands as a teenager. He didn’t like the lifestyle after seeing how it affected some of his band mates, and he thought that his love of playing music would eventually die if he did it professionally. He’s content to play for his own enjoyment, and being the life of the party whenever he choose to play at gatherings. He has started giving guitar lessons though, and I’m hoping that that will bring us a little bit of extra income.

As I sit here worrying about money I’m also thinking I’m pretty good at procrastinating. I was asked to write an article for a magazine two weeks ago. The due date is April 1st. I stand to make some pretty good money if they decide to use the article but I haven’t written it as of yet. I do have all the background and research done. I just have to write it. Tomorrow- I will definitely write it tomorrow!

I’m eagerly awaiting my Google Adsense pin number as well. I’ve finally made enough money on my four websites to enable me to receive a check from Google, but I can’t start the process of getting paid by them until the pin number arrives. I know that I can’t really rely on Google Adsense to bring in much income, but one of my sites has been doing very well, and it’s picking up monthly. I can’t count on it to pay the bills, but hopefully it will bring in some extra spending money.

I’ve been thinking that I could possibly make graphics for people. Banners, or headers for their sites. I’ve made websites for others in the past, and have 10 years experience running my own websites – which includes marketing them and getting them to the top of the search engine listings for their topics. What else? I’ve dabbled at touching up old photographs with great success and have restored a number of ancient pictures for friends. I have a full complement of graphic software including Firefox and Adobe Photoshop to work with. I also have a Wacum tablet which helps me do fine art work on the computer. I think if I put my mind to it I could put all of these skills and resources together and make something of it.

What else can I do to make some money from home while I wait to go back to work? Do you have any ideas for me? I’d love to get some feedback.

When it rains it pours

Feeling Special!

Pain Pain go AWAY!

Need some ideas

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