Site Templates Are Your Friends

When you start your first website, you probably don't need a lot of fancy features.  You need to get comfortable putting your message on the interwebs--you can always change it up later.

Templates are your friends.  They give you a variety of looks for your site--maybe not as much variety as you want, but still.  If you decide it's really not you, press a button and it's gone.

If you have a blog, you already know how templates work.  Was I surprised that setting up a "real" website is just as easy.

So find a template you like and concentrate on the more important issues: what you want to say, and your domain name.  I'm happy to help you with both, of course.  But I want you to learn how to update your site yourself, so that you can keep it fresh and keep readers (both human and search engines) coming back for more.

FYI, I created my own website, KatharineHadow.com, using a template. :)

Another office supply I can't show you a picture of

I try many office products because I'm always looking for ways to organize my work better.  Some are great, like the Post-It Weekly Planner.  Some work well but they're too cute--as if the designer would rather make the page pretty than present a more logical way for me to store my information.

I recently bought an Organizher budget planner from Mead Westvaco, mostly because I like Flex binders and because who doesn't feel that they could have a better handle on their expenses?

The pages are attractive, all right, but they didn't seem to fit my needs.  The packaging said I could visit the Mead website for more downloadable pages. 

When I went online, the extra pages weren't available, so I shot them a little email.  I was surprised and pleased today when they sent me back their templates.

I can't show them to you here, because I can't figure out how to display PDFs.  Let me describe the expense sheet to you.  It has five charming columns headed in lovely feminine scripts:

expense/amount/date paid/check no./confirmation no 

It's a handwritten log of expenses sorted by date, like my check register.

Darn!  I was hoping for something that would help me organize my finances.  The appealing page design was just supposed to help me get in the mood.

So I sent them these helpful suggestions:

 

The templates you sent are pretty, but I assume that an Organizher customer is buying the book to put her budget in order.  These templates seem to assume that the customer already has a budget and is merely tracking expenses. 

Selling a beginner a pretty book doesn’t help her.  She throws up her hands and says, “I spent $15 on this book and it looks like so much work.  I knew I couldn’t do this budget thing.”

What you want her to say is “Gosh, this book is really helping me get my budget on track.  I should tell all my friends about it.”

And it does look like a lot of work.  I assume that the buyer isn’t paying cash, but is using a credit card at Target—the only place you sell it.   That’s where I got my planner, and on the same trip I bought gifts and laundry detergent.  This makes it more work to track expenses by category.  If she’s paying by check, why would she want to record the purchase both on your budget sheets and in the check register?

Suggestions:

I suggest one or two pages at the beginning of the book explaining how to draw up a budget, the way the Franklin Covey planners do.  If she doesn’t need them, she’ll throw them out.  Be encouraging so the beginner will feel that she can do it.

“Congratulations on buying this book to put your budget in order. Don’t be intimidated by planning a budget.  It doesn’t have to be perfect, although you’ll get better with practice.  Use rough numbers.  All you need is an idea of how much money you have, so you’ll be better prepared for unexpected things that may affect your spending.”

Use the next page to plan your overall expenses for the year. 

The budget plan should have a large and inviting space at the top for the buyer to record her financial goals, i.e., pay off MasterCard balance, take family to Disneyland, buy a new car.  Asking her to dream first is an invitation to step into the budget process.

Then she records her expenses.  Fixed expenses (mortgage/rent, commuting, utilities) are usually easy, but variable expenses are rougher.

“Don’t know how much you spend on gas, utilities, groceries?  Carry this book with you for one month and write down every purchase.”  Carrying the book around for the whole year sounds like a lot of work.  A month sounds doable.

After getting a rough idea of expenses, and multiplying by 12, the customer can go back to trying to make a budget plan for the year.

“Subtract expenses from income to get an idea of where your budget is heading.  Now figure out roughly how much your financial goals will cost and divide by the number of months until you want to achieve them.”

When the budget goals are set, the purpose of the receipt folders becomes clearer.  Stuff all the receipts in the folder and figure out where the money went at the end of the week or the end of the month.  After lugging the book around for a month, this’ll seem like a huge time saver. 

The folders could also have spaces for writing in purchases without receipts, i.e., tolls, vending machine purchases, etc.  Note that if she writes on the folders she can’t reuse them next year.  She has to buy a new budget planner or at least new folders.

Every year at tax time at my house, we scramble to figure out our deductible expenses.  A sheet to track these (there usually aren’t that many)—and maybe an extra folder for those receipts--would probably be a big help.  I would certainly use it.

The websites sheet is just plain silly.  Who wants to keep a written list and then retype URLs into their browser every time except people on public computers?  It would be better to write two lines about learning how to bookmark, and then send her online to find budget templates that fit her situation.   

Don’t assume that everyone has internet access, of course; tell her that there are perfectly fine books at the library.  The basics of budgeting don’t change.

Internet users might want to see Microsoft’s budget templates at

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CL102207099.aspx (must use IE to download) and I’m sure there are other good ones as well.

See also http://www.iseek.org/iseek/static/Budgeting_10.pdf

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I'm sure Mead will appreciate my help just as much as all the other consumer products manufacturers I  send suggestions to...  But, really, just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I want to sacrifice function for form.

Flag on That Play

I don't pledge my allegiance to the flag, but to the republic for which it stands.

The US flag symbolizes the men and women who have followed it into battle. Because of their sacrifice, our flag requires respect.

This is not respect. This is somebody saying, "Wow, won't we look patriotic if we put American flags on our fleet?"

Umm...no. You would look more respectful if you looked up the guidelines for displaying the flag, known as the "flag code."

You can find an explanation of the flag code at
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30243.pdf.

I'm as guilty as anyone else. I used to wear those American flag shirts from Old Navy. Now I understand that "No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations."

Now I leave the display of the flag to those who have earned that honor.

And, in honor of Flag Day, today, I remind you not to decorate your truck, or your trunk, or your table, with the flag.

Learn more about the flag code at
http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30243.pdf.

Scanners

If you scroll down this page and look on the left-hand side you will see that I have replaced the old picture of me.

With a scanner, anyone who can doodle can now be a graphic artist. Obviously. So why are we still seeing so much clip art?

InDesign Lust

I haven't always been just the content lady. At other jobs I was the only marketing person in the company. When we needed ads, I taught myself Illustrator and Quark.

So when I read Art Direction + Editorial Design by Yolanda Zappaterra I found myself itching to have a little more control again over the way my words looked on the page or screen. Read the book for yourself and see if it doesn't cause you to say, "Wow, I wish I could do something like that."

I could, I said to myself, if only I had a graphic design program. And if the graphic design program also included Dreamweaver, I could apply ideas to my websites as well...

Then I remembered that I have two graphic design projects coming up that might justify purchasing software: people close to me will celebrate milestone birthdays this year, and their families are reuniting to celebrate with them. I could buy InDesign, I said to myself, and produce keepsake books for the occasion.

Then I looked at the price of InDesign. Yikes! I decided that my websites looked good enough with their template design, and I could put the birthday books together with a flatbed scanner and a Sharpie marker.

Adobe does offer the 30-day free trial. If I end up going for it, you will hear about it here.