THIS BLOG IS GOING TO BE GRAND CENTRAL!!

it will be the melting pot of photography, creative projects, and personal growth… i’m glad to have a new cyber home- i feel really cozy already.

i’ll share my thoughts &  process with you on the whole “blog switch” and tell you what i’ve learned blogging, so far…

1. CHOOSE A PLATFORM THAT IS EASY TO EDIT: i write, but rarely read what i write- i really rely on my sweet assistant jessica to tell me things like “you spell AWE, A W E… NOOOT aww.” thanks jessica OR my mama to publicly correct my misuse of there in place of their. i used to read what i wrote more, but when i switched to squarespace i had to be really careful backtracking and correcting, or it would tank my whole post- this happened MANY times, so i gave up and waited for jessica to sit down and say “how is your morning going? by the way…” it works well.  we laugh.  i try to do better, but rarely do.  she will probably correct this post too.
2. CHOOSE A PLATFORM THAT CAN BE CUSTOMIZED: i have a lot of “irons in the fire” – there are A LOT of creative things going on around here- I was constantly trying to categorize them so that they would be in the right place on the BLOG… little did i know that there were A LOT of people who didn’t even know there were other sections of the BLOG besides the main post page. (talk about wasted worry!) when i posted the last poll & got really great feedback (THANKS) i realized, that everyone really liked all the creative things too… and that i didn’t have to worry about keeping them off of the “photography” page. (thank goodness) there are some people who stop by just for that – so why not put all of my day in one place? once i realized i could do that, that opened up some serious opportunity for change.  squarespace is great at allowing you to build your blog/website to meet your needs (i really liked those features) but my once complicated needs were just simplified…
3. PAY ATTENTION TO DETAILS: two things, BIG THINGS i learned from squarespace (i’m really not knocking it- it just wasn’t a good fit for me) blogspot emailed me my comments- so i could always “chime in” to the conversation- i took that for granted and didn’t even think about comment tracking- i was constantly looking at my most recent comments, trying to find them and reply- it was not fun- and i didn’t have time to devote what needed to be devoted to make it functional. i’ve already responded to every comment- i can just hit reply here- it is SO EASY- last thing: exporting information- squarespace doesn’t export an .xml file- just a .txt file- so, you can get your post in the same format you posted them! i spent hours today trying to figure out how to not lose my blog!
4. DON’T COMPROMISE EXCELLENCE, YOU WILL ALWAYS DISLIKE THE RESULTS (even when no one else is the wiser) : my page header always, ALWAYS bugged me! i desire EXCELLENCE.  & fall short a lot.  A     LOOOOT.   but you know how it is when others are watching you? it’s not so fun! i would have to custom make my animated header and i never loved it… and i LOVE TO LOVE things… especially when it comes to the images that have grabbed my heart over the years.  so- i wanted a company that would give me that option, without making me build it (because i cheated through my flash class in college… and YES- i wrote that on my BLOG- kids, take it from me- cheaters NEVER WIN.  i cheated in photoshop too… and it has taken me YEARS to make up for it!! (shout  out to curtis for making me look like a pro… my professor told me i should study graphic design because my website was so great… little did he know i traded stock photography for my whole project!!!) bad choices, bad choices
5. DO YOUR RESEARCH WHEN SHOPPING: rewind back 2.5 years- shauna wants a custom blog- contacts two designers who give her a quote of $1500 for a little less than everything and $2500 for all the icing on the cake you could eat.  i had a feeling i could make my blog work for me for the moment- because i wasn’t quite sure what flavor icing i wanted, and i wanted to BE SURE before i bit off that chunk.
6. BE PATIENT- KNOW WHAT YOU WANT: i’ve been checking out other blogs that i dig, and they all had a few things in common: simplistic design, single column, flash header. i knew the company they were using, i looked into it last year when i chose squarespace (you had to know a little code, and LIKE I SAID… sister didn’t do her work) but this week, when i went back over to their site, i was pleased to see the brand spanking new upgrade!  LOOOVE IT.   PROphoto 3 has got it down!  they have it all- they make it EASY and it is affordable!!  seriously, you can have a fully customized blog for $199. that’s nuts. you don’t pay anything, ever again (you just have to have a web domain and hosting) and I KNOW ME. they had the $199 version (that comes with the blog in your email i guess and you have to install it… or the $269 version… where they do it all for you and let you know it’s ready. ummm… i went with that one.  (and i googled prophoto 3 coupon and got $10 off!) i didn’t give it a second thought (i have enough to do without having to figure out web-hosting, right?) and 2 days later… viola!

PROphoto 3, i love you. thanks for allowing this BLOG to be GRAND CENTRAL… thanks for having cool widgets that i can add to my blog that make me look like i really know how to design or that i paid someone a lot of money.    your secret is safe with me… well, it was- but i let the cat out of the bag- my bad.

so, if you are looking for a super easy, really customizable, affordable, clean, professional blog… check out PROphoto... and tell them i sent you!

just a side note: if you are a squarespace user-  it is extremely difficult to export all of your blog to another blog site- i blogged for a year, had to copy my code (for a year) and split it into 2 posts on blogspot to make sure that i didn’t loose it all- they say they can erase my blog anytime (rude)- it may be up forever, but you never know- so, you might want to subscribe to your RSS feed through email so that you can have a copy of your posts in case you want to do something special with them.

and here is a little NYC… BECAUSE THIS IS NOW GRAND CENTRAL.

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