Comments on: Podcast: Darren Rowse and Yaro Starak Talk Blog Design

By: Ida Eppert

Ida Eppert — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 08:01:44 +0000

Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to safeguard against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?

By: Bob DeCecco

Bob DeCecco — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 01:26:58 +0000

Another great resource as of late is 99designs.com – they have added a feature for WordPress blog designs where you can run a contest and have dozens of designers create a design based on your suggested criteria; then, you only pay for the design that you judge the winner.

This is a great way to minimize the risk of trying to find a designer if you don’t have a good one that you know, like and trust. Also, having multiple designers vying for your business creates a unique competition where people work hard to meet your needs. There are multiple options for pricing too, or, you can launch a contest at any price point you want to offer the contest winner. Not to mention, its a fun process!

Hope that helps some of your readers

By: mirc

mirc — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:57:37 +0000

…] hire a designer to create a unique design for your blog. For more information, check out this post about blog design. It includes a podcast and relevant links. Also, check out the web design blogs on Eaton Web. Some […]

By: how-to-find-good-theme » builda-blog.com

how-to-find-good-theme » builda-blog.com — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:41:16 +0000

[...] Now there are lots of decisions to be made when deciding on a blog theme the first one being, am I going to pay for a professional design or am I going to look for a free theme. I’ll give you one guess which one I am going to pick….yes I am going for the free theme! There are some very good arguments for starting with a professional theme and how to get one, and you can listen to some of them here at a podcast by Yaro Starak talking to Darren Rowse about blog design. [...]

By: hot links 2 » builda-blog.com

hot links 2 » builda-blog.com — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:16:50 +0000

[...] Time for this weeks hot links. This week I have been working hard on the research for my photography blog. It’s amazing how I can have a specific question I want an answer to, and I am able to find a blog post that deals with it. I have been thinking about blog design and then I heard that Yaro Starak had done a podcast with Darren Rowse about blog design that was very interesting, take a look: Podcast: Darren Rowse and Yaro Starak talk Blog design. [...]

By: Outsource to Increase Your Blogging Effectiveness - EatonWeb Blog

Outsource to Increase Your Blogging Effectiveness - EatonWeb Blog — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:21:49 +0000

[...] hire a designer to create a unique design for your blog. For more information, check out this post about blog design. It includes a podcast and relevant links. Also, check out the web design blogs on Eaton Web. Some [...]

By: Cool Links - 10-25-07

Cool Links - 10-25-07 — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:51:05 +0000

[...] Darren Rowse and Yaro Starak Talk Blog Design [...]

By: Mandy

Mandy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:18:08 +0000

I like the new problogger design especially the way it has a home page and then you click on the blog. But it did throw me a bit the first time I visited.

Problogger obviously has a lot of traffic and you can see the design works well. Do you think that type of theme would work well for less popular blogs?

I’ve also seen the Revolution theme by Brian Gardner and that seems to work well with news and magazine sites? They both have a professional feel with clean lines that’s very easy on the eye. Do you think they are aimed more at blogs that also sell a product?

By: Yaro

Yaro — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:23:48 +0000

@maneesh – It’s really a matter of how customized a look you are going for. It’s true you may spend a few thousand on a design and a bunch of other people will go and take elements from it for their unique design and only pay a couple of hundred, but I say imitation is the highest form of flattery (the number of people who have copied the “popular posts” section since I did it – and I think Darren was my inspiration with his old design – is some bit time flattery!).

I think the difference is between whether you want a “unique” design vs. a “custom” design. I like to have tight control over my blog layout, hence I get a custom design made by a designer I can work personally with.

By: Thilak

Thilak — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:26:13 +0000

Well, I recently got a redesign from sitepoint. I was an auction where I had to see some mockups and pick the best designer.

By: Alvin Phang

Alvin Phang — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:58:07 +0000

Nice interview Yaro! =)

By: Mike Rohde

Mike Rohde — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 19:27:47 +0000

Yaro & Darren, thanks for the mention of the logo work. I had a great time working with Darren on the new ProBlogger logo project, so it’s quite an honor to get a mention in your podcast.

FYI, I did a post on the process for those who might be interested:

http://summit.makalumedia.com/2007/08/27/problogger-logo-design/

Cheers!

By: Brad Shorr

Brad Shorr — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:35:19 +0000

Excellent podcast, especially the part about RSS. Hard to keep up with all these advances.

By: cooliojones

cooliojones — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:30:50 +0000

A good design is essential to more effective readership. Poling your readers and getting a consensus is a great idea as well. Great audio link! Thanks!

By: iyabo

iyabo — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:27:22 +0000

Yaro,

Thanks for your informative posts.I also run a blog and I’ve always found your posts useful.Just downloaded your podcast with Darren,hope to make use of it.

By: Hyder

Hyder — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:46:25 +0000

Yaro, I've started my own blog design company as well. Been doing web design for the past 6 years now. Great podcast, some good information.

By: maneesh

maneesh — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:37:51 +0000

nice piece.. had me hearing it over and over again like a song of sorts..

the part where you guys talk about money had me thinking.. coz it was pretty much agreed to by the two of towards the end that a neat unique blog design could well cost into 1000 or more at least around 800..

was just wondering, if such a theme is a regular blog design without much coding (unlike in the case with darren for his fav post widget) is spending such an amount worth it, when it can be easily duplicated for something really less.. you pay so much for being unique and within a couple of months you have sites mushrooming with pretty much the same setup…

imo, unless you are introducing something which is difficult to reproduce and would a good amount if someone tried to, one should stick to regular free themes and try and customize them as much as possible…

By: Martin Gommel

Martin Gommel — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:31:05 +0000

Thanks for the email, gonna listen to it now (can’t wait) !

By: Wayne Liew

Wayne Liew — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:03:10 +0000

The last one you both did was on traffic right? I will check this out for sure! Thanks for the nice podcast series, Yaro.

By: James Mann

James Mann — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:01:31 +0000

Excellent audio, thanks

I have been playing with the design for a few of my blogs, to see how badly I can mess up WordPress editing. It’s actually fun, but I have really messed it up a few times.

Your audio has given me a lot to think about and maybe I need to hire someone, instead of taking all this time learning the process.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:17:36 +0000

Maybe I should camp outside federation square, to catch you guys on your next outing. ^^

By: Yaro

Yaro — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:06:44 +0000

Lol – Yeah, I could say the same for me…maybe I should go meld two of our “better” photos together.

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 06:42:47 +0000

man – we’ve got to meet again some time so we can get a better picture of me