At Berries and Cream Blog Design, we believe that you should always get the best value for you money. That is why we don’t make you settle for a design you merely like but make the revisions necessary for you to love your blog design.

We don’t think that value should be limited to your blog design, however, and we try to help you save money wherever we can. We recommend products and services that we have found to provide great quality at fair prices, and we also let you know if there are discounts for those services.

That is where CouponChief.com comes in.

CouponChief makes it easy for you to find coupon codes for online shopping. This includes coupons for hosting accounts and domain names.

I like many aspects of CouponChief, including its uncluttered design and user-friendly navigation. Found a great online coupon? Click on the Submit a Coupon link. Not sure how the site works? Click on How It Works. Want to see what stores are listed at CouponChief? Click on Stores. CouponChief even allows you to make money from coupons you submit. Click on Pays-2-Share for full details.

The sidebar offers valuable information and resources. You can browse by tags, connect with CouponChief online, sign up for their newsletter, add your site, and more.

The way the search box works confused me at first, but it actually did make sense once I thought about it. Typing a URL (like target.com) will take you directly to the coupon codes for that site. However, typing in a keyword brings up a Google listing of the different pages on the site that have that keyword.

Say you’re looking for hosting discounts but you haven’t decided on a host. Simply type “hosting” in the search box and click Search. When the results come up, click to include omitted results. (That was the part I found a bit confusing.) Now you have a list of all the pages that have the word “hosting” in them, and you can see what sites offer discounts on hosting. I saw hosting discounts for some of my favorite hosting companies – Bluehost and HostGator.

Domain names need not be purchased at full price, either. Search for domain names, and you’ll see that plenty of coupons are available to help you save money on that as well.

Share Your Experience

Did you search for online coupons before purchasing hosting or your domain name? What is your favorite place to find online coupons?

This post was sponsored by CouponChief.com.

If you’ve been thinking about redesigning your blog, now is the perfect time.

About three weeks ago, 3 new designers joined me here at Berries and Cream Blog Design. While I am now working with select clients only and am booked through the middle of August, Debra, Tina, and Kristin have design openings as early as next week and would love to work with you.

To get your project in queue…

simply make your selection and place your order. Your order confirmation email will also give you a link to complete a secure online questionnaire. In the questionnaire, you will be able to select a designer and provide information necessary for us to complete your project.

Once we have receive your order and completed questionnaire, your project will be assigned to a designer and placed in her queue.

All projects are placed in queue according to when the order is received through our website so don’t hesitate…

Get your custom blog design today.

Setting up and operating a WordPress website is so simple, it may seem as though maintenance is unnecessary. That might be true if you want nothing more than a way to keep a personal journal online. However, if you are holding a conversation with the world, there are things that need to be done to keep it flowing smoothly.

1. Update the Software

The developers at WordPress are working constantly to improve the platform and make it more secure. You won’t find updates needing to be done very often, but they should be attended to promptly.

Although you may be happy with the version you are using, you don’t want to miss out on any cool new features and failing to update the software could cause glitches and leave your site vulnerable at inconvenient times. Every time you log onto the Admin panel, check to see if there is an update.

Like all other features in WordPress, updating is very user friendly—usually it’s literally just one click away. The same location handles updates for WordPress itself and any installed plugins, themes or widgets. If you have updates that need doing, they will be listed on the Navigation Menu under Updates. Just click the link to go to the updates page. If there is more than one update waiting, only click one at a time and wait for it to finish before going on.

2. Fix Broken Links

Broken links are a sure sign of a poorly maintained website (and, in severe cases, an inept website owner). If the link doesn’t function, it may be because of updates made to the original site. [Ed. Note: Here at Berries and Cream Blog Design, we use the Broken Link Checker plug-in, which can be installed from your WordPress admin area.]

Fixing this from the links page is easy once you have got the new URL. First, check for broken links using a broken link checker. Then, once you have found the broken links, login to your WordPress control panel and go to the Links menu. Click Edit on the offensive links, then replace the old address and with the new one. Repeat for each link. Run a broken link check once more to see if you missed anything. Clean up any links that you have no plans to restore.

3. Monitor Comments

Most people have some kind of moderation feature set for comments on their blog posts. Allowing comment access without controls is a dangerous practice.

Spam filters are not perfect. Email filters sometimes catch personal emails by accident and comment filters can do the same. Checking regularly will make it easier to find any real comments and approve them. Once you are sure the folder only contains junk, empty it. Your hosting company will only allow you so much storage space and you don’t want it to fill up with trash.

4. Control the Media Library

How often to clean out old photos or other media files will vary widely from blog to blog. If you have a lot of photos or videos, they can fill your storage quickly. Deleting old ones can make your blog load faster, but you don’t want to remove them while people are still actively commenting on the post to which they are attached. Making the decision to delete can be difficult, but it is good practice to audit the Media Library every three to six months.

5. Database Maintenance

The average blog user does not need to log into the MySQL cPanel after setting up their WordPress site. While WordPress needs the MySQL database to function properly, it handles most of the updating itself. Your hosting company should supply support if there is a database error. However, those who are database-trained and are on cPanel hosting can update and maintain the database entries themselves.

Some companies provide regular database backup services. If not, and you don’t feel too comfortable about maintaining the database yourself, you should install a backup plug-in or consider hosting companies that offer daily backups.

The busy life of the average person can make it a challenge just to update blog content regularly. It is becoming more common to hire someone else to perform maintenance tasks. There are many companies operating WordPress maintenance services for a fee. They will do your backups and upgrades on a regular basis, leaving you only needing to worry about writing your posts.

This article was written by Christopher Shepard, an online entrepreneur, WordPress developer, and senior writer for Web Host Gear.

Welcome back to our ongoing series, Blogging Basics, where we give you blogging tips to create a successful blog. Click the link to view all of the posts that have been published in this series to date.

If you’ve been following this series from the beginning, you’ve learned what a blog is, become familiar with basic blogging terminology, and learned blogging etiquette do’s and don’ts. Now it’s time to actually start your blog.

The first step to starting a blog is to choose a blogging platform.

By blogging platform, I mean the program that provides the foundation for your blog.

Three of the most popular blogging platforms are Blogger, WordPress.com, and self-hosted WordPress. I’ll be providing a features comparison in a few minutes. Before I do that, however, I want to help you figure out what you need in a blogging platform.

Answer the following questions:

1. Why am I blogging?
   • to create a personal space where I can write what I want
   • to create a community
   • to make a little money on the side
   • to be my primary source of income
2. Is this just a blog, or do I want information pages, too – like About, Contact, etc.
3. What is my budget for starting this blog?
4. Will I want to add features (like pages, contact forms, and more) in the future?

NOTE: If you are blogging for any reason other than to create a personal journal, I highly recommend that you purchase a domain name (like berriesandcreamblogdesign.com) as this will give your blog more credibility with your readers.

Once you’ve answered those questions, you’ll be able to make an informed decision regarding which blogging platform to choose.

Compare the Platforms

Here’s a comparison of key features of Blogger, WordPress.com, and self-hosted WordPress.

Choose Your Platform

Based on the above chart, here are my recommendations:

1. If your blog is going to be strictly personal space, I’d recommend using Blogger. It’s free, you can change the design and layout as much as you want, and you probably won’t need more than 10 pages.
2. If your blog’s purpose is anything other than personal, I’d recommend choosing the self-hosted option. You will have complete control over your entire blog and will never have to worry about limitations placed by Blogger or WordPress.com.

You may wonder why I don’t recommend WordPress.com for any purpose if it’s so popular. I simply don’t think it’s as good a choice as the other two platforms. I don’t like that you have to pay to change the design of your theme, and I don’t like that you can’t change the layout of your theme – ever. If you want a different layout, you have to choose a different theme.

Your blog will have a hard time standing out from the crowd if you are limited to using the exact same designs as everyone else.

If you want to use a custom domain name for your blog (highly recommended), you not only have to buy the domain name, but you must also pay WordPress.com for an upgrade to be able to use the domain name with your blog.

In addition to the design and domain name limitations, WordPress.com’s Terms of Service prohibit you from having ads on your blog, meaning your blog can never legally be anything more than a personal blog.

Blogger allows you much more control over your blog than does WordPress.com, and the price is the same: free. On top of that, you won’t have to pay anything to get features that WordPress.com only gives you if you pay to upgrade.

Create Your Blog

Now that you’ve decided on a platform, you are ready to start your blog.

Blogger: Go to http://blogger.com/start and sign up for your free blog.

WordPress.com: Go to http://wordpress.com/ and sign up for your free blog.

Self-hosted WordPress: There are several steps for this type of blog, but I promise it’s worth the effort.

1. Decide on and purchase a domain name. A domain name is like your house address – it’s how people find you on the Internet.Based on my experience, I recommend NameCheap for domain name purchases. You may be able to find a discount code at RetailMeNot.
2. Purchase hosting. Hosting is like your actual house. It’s the space for your belongings. In the case of a blog, it’s the space for your posts, pages, images, and other content.I personally use and highly recommend Hostgator. I have found their service to be outstanding, and their customer service reps have never been less than polite and extremely helpful.
3. Install WordPress. Many hosts, including Hostgator, have a simple way to install WordPress. Log in to your control panel and look for Fantastico, Simple Scripts, or something similar.

If you need help getting started with your blog, we do offer WordPress installation services in addition to our design services.

What is your favorite blogging platform, and why?

I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Berries and Cream Blog Design is now offering custom logo and illustration design.

I am not an artist myself, so I partnered with someone who is. Paula Batchelor has over 25 years of experience in graphic design, including creating logos and illustrations.

Below is a small sample of Paula’s work:

Full details of this new service are available at our Custom Blog Design A La Carte Page. Look for the title “Custom Artwork” – at this moment it has a “New” badge.

UPDATE: Thank you to those who tweeted my plea or responded in some way. I’m excited about the talent that has come on board, and I’ll be introducing you to the new team shortly. I will not be considering any new responses at this time.

If You…

• enjoy creating blog designs
• are familiar with the Blogger and/or self-hosted WordPress platforms
• would like to earn money for doing work you love

I want to hear from you!

Berries and Cream Blog Design is growing, and I need additional designers. I’m looking for people who have experience working with CSS and XHTML. PHP experience would be great as well but is not required.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact me directly: .

Please tell me a bit about yourself and your design experience. If available, please also send a link to your portfolio or to examples of your work.

I look forward to hearing from you.

While I never take a project I would be ashamed to claim, some projects are taken for business reasons only. Reap in Joy Ministry is more than a business project to me. It represents my beliefs and convictions, and I am thrilled to have been a part of this project.

Reap in Joy Ministry's website before makeover; click to view full size

Reap in Joy ministry after makeover; click to view live site

About Reap in Joy Ministry

Reap in Joy Ministry is a local church ministry that helps to plant churches, encourage pastors, and support missionaries while reaching lost souls for Christ in North America and abroad.

Using an auto dialer (not to be confused with telemarketing), Reap in Joy Ministry is able to help churches reach large numbers of area residents in a short amount of time. Reap in Joy has proven to be an effective tool for reaching the lost with the Gospel.

The Problem

Reap in Joy’s website was unattractive, limited to only 3 pages, and not at all user-friendly. Because of the 3-page limit, all kinds of information were jumbled together with no clear breaks or sections, making it virtually impossible for visitors to find the information they wanted.

My task was to create a website that would be attractive, easy to manage, user-friendly, and would not limit the number of pages available.

The Solution

The decision to move the site to the WordPress platform was made because a WordPress website is easy to manage, does not limit the number of pages that may be created, and non-native functions (like a contact form) can be easily added with plugins.

The custom design was created around an image provided by Reap in Joy Ministry. The site’s colors and images were selected with an eye for enhancing and directing visitors’ attention to the content.

The Result

Reap in Joy Ministry now has an attractive, easy to manage website with clear navigation to help visitors find exactly what they want. The unlimited page capability allowed me to break the content into logical groupings with each type of content having its own page. In addition to transferring content, we were able to add new content.

New functions were also added: a photo gallery, contact page, and section for newsletters are just a few of the additions that were made.

Goal Accomplished: Another Satisfied Client

Mr. Bolduc and his volunteer staff are delighted with the new Reap in Joy Ministry site. It meets or exceeds the project requirements: to create an attractive, easy to manage, and user-friendly site.

Let Us Help You, Too

Is your website unattractive, hard to manage, and difficult for users to navigate? Berries and Cream Blog Design can solve your problems with a custom WordPress website.

Order your Custom WordPress Website here.

Berries and Cream Blog Design is sponsoring Build a Beautiful Blog Week which is being hosted by Simply Stacie and Kelly’s Lucky You. This event starts on Monday, May 24, 2010. The week will be filled with tutorials, articles, and giveaways to help you build your blog. Over 35 designers are participating, and I am proud to have a part in this helpful event.

You can get a sneak peek at some of the week’s articles at Kelly’s Lucky You. I encourage you to stop by next week and check it out.

Thanks to everyone who entered, Tweeted, and blogged about our Mother’s Day giveaway.  I loved reading the memories each of our entrants had of their mothers. They were all sweet and personal.

Sadly, only one winner could be chosen. As you can see in the screenshot on the left, random.org picked comment #5.

Thrifty & Chic Mom says:

May 11, 2010 at 12:45 pm

I tweeted http://twitter.com/ThriftyChicMom/status/13800630080

Congratulations, Ellen. I’ve already notified her of her winning status. If she does not respond within 24 hours, I’ll pick a new winner.

As thanks for participating, I will be sending each of our contestants a special discount code that will give you 25% off a custom header.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our fellow mothers! We hope that you have had a wonderful day filled with love.

We’re holding a special giveaway in honor of moms everywhere.

One entrant will win a custom header for both themselves and the blogging mom of their choice.

Rules:

1. Entries will be accepted from May 10th – 17th, 2010. Any entry left after 11:59 pm EST on Monday, May 17 will not be considered valid.
2. Leave a comment sharing your favorite memory of your mom.
3. You do not have to be a mom or a woman to enter this contest.
4. This contest is open to both US and international participants.
5. You can earn 1 extra entry by tweeting about the contest. Please leave a comment with the URL of your tweet.
6. You can earn 1 extra entry by writing about this contest on your site. Please leave a comment with the URL of the page or post that mentions the giveaway.

The winner will be selected using random.org and will be announced on Tuesday, May 18.