Hatch Design Workshop

Why Premade Logos Are Great For Beginner Bloggers

WHAT IS A PREMADE LOGO. A premade logo is a logo that has already been designed. When you purchase it, the seller will personalize the logo with your business name and subtitle (photographer, boutique, food blog, etc.). Just like the ones below.

Premade logos will also be available to other people. But you can find high quality logo designs for a low cost. This is because the designer spent time creating the logo knowing that they can get multiple orders for it.

Why a Premade Logo is Better Than a Custom Logo

Here is a quick list of reasons:

If you are are UNSURE of what you want for a logo, then instead of going back and forth with a custom designer and committing to a high priced custom logo – you can purchase a low cost good looking premade logo in MINUTES.
LOW COST: A great looking custom logo design will cost good money, whereas premade logos range from $15-50
You can get HIGH QUALITY logo designs for a low price (since the designer is able to relist the design)
NO SURPRISES, know what you are getting – what you see is what you get
SAVE TIME – Skip the back and forth of explaining what you want when working with a designer

Who Are They Good For

Premade logos are great for beginner bloggers. If you are just starting a new blog, you want to get everything out of the way so that you can get working on the most important part of blogging – creating your content.

In my post The Biggest Mistakes New Bloggers Make [coming soon], I talk about how bloggers get too wrapped up in the design and look of their blog. Spending days, weeks, even months – trying to get the logo perfect, and constantly making tweaks to the blog design. Procrastinating on the real work, the hard work, of creating content.

New blogs don’t have any traffic. If there is no one visiting the blog yet, then to a certain degree the look of it doesn’t matter. You want it to look presentable yes, but your time is best suited to getting started right away on content. You can always upgrade/tweak the design as the traffic starts coming in.

That is why premade logos are great. Combine a premade logo with premade website branding graphics [coming soon] and you will have a great looking blog up and running fast, letting you focus on content creation.

I would recommend against premade logos for small businesses. Businesses who have a physical presence, and need to print out packaging, marketing material, etc. On a blog you can change/upgrade your look easily and just for the cost of creating the logo. While a business with a physical presence will need to reprint their materials and signage.

Where to Buy Premade Logos

The only place where I have really seen premade logos for sale is on Etsy. They are priced around $15-30. You can also find premade branding sets that include watermarks, and other blog graphics. I have a shop on Etsy here that sells premade logos and branding sets.

Recommended Reading

Blog Names Ideas: How To Create A Memorable Name

Topics: Blog Name Ideas, Blog Setup

Coming up with a blog name is a tough task when starting a blog. That is why I have written this guide, to help you go through step by step on how to brainstorm a name that is right for your blog. I will also go over how you can check to see if the name is available as a .com.

If you are a FOOD BLOGGER, you can go here and print out the specific lists that will help you with the brainstorming steps below. You can find a list of food blog specific questions to answer when going through exercise #1, a long food and kitchen related word list for mixing and matching to create blog names, and a list of creative and available food blog .com names.

What Makes a Great Blog Name

A great blog name will get peoples’ imaginations going even before they visit you. Just from reading the name, they know they are about to visit something special. Here are a few:

Jungles In Paris
Four Generations One Roof
Hippie In Heels

Rules of a Good Name

Here are a few rules to follow when you are in the later stages of brainstorming and finalizing your blog name.

Keep it SHORT, SIMPLE, and MEMORABLE. Four Generations One Roof is quite a long name, but since it is simple and straight forward it works. Shorter names work better.
A good name needs no explanation. Avoid hard to spell ones, or names where you change the proper spelling – such as “Rulez”
A good name is available as .com, more on why that is important later.

What is a Bad Name

A bad blog name is GENERIC, and since it is generic it has NO PERSONALITY. I have made up a few generic names:

Kitchen Cooking
My Travels
DIY and Building

You can tell what the blog is about from the name yes. But there are 1000s of blogs out there. Make yours stand out. Get specific about what your blog is about – the more specific you can get, the more memorable you will be. Use creative words that spark interest.

Getting Started

Now that you know what makes a good blog name, we can start brainstorming name ideas. Below are steps and exercises to guide you through the brainstorming process.

There is 1 rule to follow when brainstorming.

Do not start checking to see if a name idea is available as a .com. It is tempting to check right away, but doing so will kill your brainstorming flow. And you might not have come up with your best idea yet.

Keep writing, keep coming up with ideas, and keep building on your ideas – you can underline your best ones as you go along to come back to later. Get as much down on paper as possible.

Exercise Number #1: Getting Personal and Specific

For the first exercise:

Write down what your blog is going to be about. Be as specific as possible – general blogs are not memorable and do not have memorable names.
Keep asking yourself who, what, where, when, how questions. Such as ‘who is my audience going to be, and why?’
Get very specific as to you why you are starting this blog. Ask yourself why, then keep asking yourself why, over and over until you get as specific as possible.

For example: “I am writing this food blog to share my recipes” why? “my recipes are special to me” why? “my grandmother taught me these recipes back home in India” why? “because she wanted to spend time with me”

Jennifer Wants To Start a Food Blog

“I’d like to start a food blog about my journey with sweets! I work in a candy shop specializing in making large batches of candy of all kinds, ie peanut brittle, chocolates, and fudge. I make food at work in a copper kettle, and I use a lot of cream in my cooking. I want to focus on recipes that are healthy, but with a little sweet taste to it, whether it be sugar or some kind of fruit.”

Exercise Number #2 – Pull Out Words and Phrases

Just from your personalized writing alone from exercise #1, you can start creating memorable and meaningful blog name ideas.

Go over your writings from exercise number #1, and start pulling out phrases and words that are specific to your blog, that make your blog stand out, that sound good, and perk your imagination.

Here are some words and phrases from Jennifer’s writings:

“Journey with sweets”
“I work in a candy shop”
“Sweets”
“Copper kettle”
“A lot of cream”
“Recipes that are healthy”
“Little sweet taste”
“Sugar”
“Fruit”

Blog name ideas start to emerge from these words and phrases:

Sweets in a Copper Kettle
All Kinds of Candy
Working in a Candy Shop
Sugar and Fruit
Copper and Cream
Copper and Candy
Journey with Sweets
Little Sweet Taste
Candy Copper Cream

There are so many unique names here, especially the ones with the copper. If you can make your blog and writing as specific as possible, just like Jennifer did, you will not only create a memorable name, but it will also make your blog stand out. I know I want to be visiting this blog soon.

If you have already come up with a list of great and memorable blog name ideas, you can skip ahead to see how to find out if your name is available as a .com.

Exercise Number #3 – Diving Into The Thesaurus

Not everyone is going to be able to get a name out of exercises #1 and #2. But that is ok, as those exercises feed into this one and will produce more ideas.

It is time to make word lists.

Make two lists. One that has words specific to you. And the second list will be words relating to your general blog topic. Use the words from exercise #2, and put these into the thesaurus.

Using Jennifer as an example:

Specific Word List

Sweet: Syrupy, Candy-Coated, Sugared, Savory, Confectionary, Bonbon, Pudding
Honey: Nectar

General Word List

Shop: Boutique, Parlor, Workshop
Recipes: Concoction

Those are just a few examples. Create as long of a word list as you can for both.

You can also add words just by thinking about your topic. What sort of tools are used, who works in your field, where does it take place, etc. And these words can be put into the thesaurus to come up with more creative words.

Adding To the General Word List

Kitchen, Workshop, Spoons, Market, Tummy, Yum, Feast, Melts, Chef, Cook, Picnic, Flavors, Baked.

Also think if there are any common says or phrases about your topic. These can be twisted to suit your name. “With a little sugar on top” or “Sugar and spice, and all things nice”.

Exercise #4 – Keep Brainstorming – Mixing and match

By now you should have a list of different words and phrases – both from your personal writings, and also from the thesaurus and word listing exercise.

Now it is time to start putting words together, mix and match different words to see what sort of creative and imaginative name ideas can be created.

Here are some examples of name ideas using Jennifer’s word lists:

Copper Confectionary
Copper Parlor
Confectionary Copper Concoction
Candy Coated Copper
Spoons of Cream
A Copper Spoon of Cream
The Copper Candy Workshop

You can see that I have played around a lot with the word “copper”, since this is such a unique and visual part of Jennifer’s story.

How To Check If Your Blog Name Is Available as a .com

When you have a list of great blog name ideas, and have gone through the brainstorming steps – you can start checking to see if your blog name ideas are available as a .com

Remember, you don’t want to check to early in the brainstorming stage – as it disrupts the flow of thinking and can be discouraging.

You will want your blog name as a .com. This is the most professional and reputable domain you can get. It is the safest in terms of search engine rankings as it is the most established.

Another option could be .co. But check to see if .com is being used by someone else. Sometimes the .com is not available, but there is no website on the domain. If there is a website, then it is best to move onto another name as you don’t want to be competing with a company/blog/website that has the same name.

Checking Availability of a .com:

Go to name.com
Type in your name idea (with a .com) into the search bar
Hit search, and it will tell you if it is available or not.

Setting Up Your Blog

If your blog name is available, congratulations. Now the next step is to register your .com domain name. You can follow my step by step guide here on how to set up your blog with a .com.

What to Do If Your Blog Name Is Not Available.

If you have come up with a memorable and meaningful blog name that is not available, then you can try and adjust it to create an available name.

See if you can add a word (from your lists) onto the name:

Copper Parlor —> Copper Candy Parlor
Copper and Cream —> Copper and Cream Confectionary

Or replace one of the words with something similar (using the thesaurus):

Copper Candy Parlor —> Copper Sweet Parlor
Sweets in a Copper Kettle —> Confectionary in a Copper Kettle

Once you have an available .com name, you can head over to my next post on how to set up your blog with a .com.

Coming up with a memorable blog name can be a hard task. But the more specific you can get with what your blog is going to be about, the better your name will be, and the more memorable your blog will be. I hope these exercises have helped you brainstorm some great name ideas.

Food Blog Name Ideas: Exercise Tools For Brainstorming Names

Topics: Blog Name Ideas

This post is a mini tool kit for food bloggers looking to brainstorm blog name ideas. Use this post side by side with my blog name ideas guide which will show you how to use the tools here to come up with food blog name ideas.

I created this post so that food bloggers can have specific tools to help them when brainstorming names. The tools are:

A list of food blog specific questions for when you go through the personalized writing exercise (exercise #1)
A list of food specific words (to use in exercises #3 and #4)
And a list of creative and ready available .com food blog names

Personal Writing Exercise (#1) – A List of Questions To Ask Yourself

Not all of these questions might apply to you. But keep asking who, what, why, when, where, and how questions.

You can ask yourself “why?” after answering a lot of these questions, to get even more specific answers.

Why am I starting this food blog?
Why do I like to cook?
Why does cooking feel good?
Why do I like to create new recipes?

How often do I cook?
Who do I cook for? Why?
When do I really enjoying cooking (with family, for kids, for the community)?
How do I like to cook (fast, slow, dancing, with love, with others, on the BBQ)?

Who do I want to read my blog? why?
What do I want to teach people? Why?

When (time of day) do I like to cook the most?
When am I the happiest?
Where do I like to cook?
How do I feel while cooking?
What music do I listen to while cooking?

Where do I get inspiration from for recipes?
Are there any countries where I get my inspiration from?
Who taught me to cook?

What ingredients do I like to cook the most with?
Is there a general theme to the taste of my food (spicy, sweet, bbq-eq, hot, zesty)?
What kitchen tools/equipment do I use the most?
How do I like to cook (bake, stir fry, slow cook, etc)?
What does my kitchen look like when I am cooking?

Kitchen and Food Word List

I created this list to help you save time. Use these words to mix and match with words that are specific and unique for your own blog to create name ideas.

Dish
Cuisine
Bite
Buffet
Feast
Dining
–
Sizzle
Zest
Spice
Seasoning
Marinade
–
Kitchen
Deli
Market
Parlor
Boutique
Bistro
Cafe
Tavern
Bar
Lounge
Garden
Eatery
–
Table
Apron
Wok

Chop
Pinch
Sauteed
Diced
Steamed
Boiled
Fried
Grilled
Brewed
Whisked
Infused/Fusion
–
Chef
Butcher
Farmer
Gastronomy
Foodie
–
Specials
Recipes
–
Veggie
Toast
–
Sugared
Savory
Honey
Baked
Brulee
Confectionary

Frosting
Icing
Melts
–
Taste
Aroma
Yummy
Tasty
Delicious
Delight
Flavors
Cravings
Crispy
–
Flame
Heat
–
Chopping Board
Spoons of
A Plate of
A Bite of
Servings of
Bowl of
Dash of
Taste of
Suger Coated
Honey Coated
On the Rocks
Better With
Bon appetit
A la carte
Voila

List of Available Food Blog Name Ideas

Here is a list of creative food blog name ideas that are ready to use and available as a .com. You can register the name and set up your blog here with Bluehost.

Spoons of Cream
Spicy Kitchen Parlor
A Garden of Spices
Chop Chop Tomato
Better With Pepper
My Hometown Flavors
Forkie and Spoony
When Vegetables Meet
Chop Chop Sizzle Sizzle
Sizzle Sizzle Specials

Chop Chop Wow
Wine in The Kitchen
Trips To The Market
Market Aromas
Banana Leaf Diaries
Spice On The Rocks
The Hungry Chopping Board
Chocolate Coated Melts
The Flaming BBQ
Playing With Spices

A Fairytale of Flavors
Wine and Chef
Kitchen Danceoff
Garden Veggie Delights
Talking Kitchen Walls
Sunkissed Kitchen Walls
Spice Melody
Spoons of Melody
Bake Bake Baking
Chop Chop Wok

If you have your name ready, then the next step is to set up your blog with a .com. My post here will show you how to do that.

How To Start A Blog: Becoming a Blogger Today

Topics: Blog Setup

If you have never set up a blog or website before, it can all sound quite technical. But it is not really. There are only a few steps to take, and within about 15 minutes or less you can have your own .com up and running with hosting and WordPress installed. Whether you want to start a food blog, travel, DIY, or lifestyle blog, I will show how to start a blog in 3 steps.

What You Need To Start

There are 3 things you need to start a blog:

A .com domain name
A hosting account – this is a company that keeps all of your blog files, and delivers them to the screens of the people visiting your blog
WordPress

If you don’t have a name yet, I have a post that can help you with that: Blog Names Ideas: How To Create A Memorable Name

And if you have not checked to see if your domain is available yet, type it into the search bar at name.com to see if it is available.

Getting Started – Getting Your .com And Hosting Together

The first step is to get your .com. When you sign up to for a hosting account from Bluehost you will get a .com for free.

And when you sign up for a .com with the same company that does your hosting, you don’t have to add in the technical steps of trying to connect the 2 together – since both will already be in the same place.

We are going to use Bluehost, as this is the one I have been with for the last 5-6 years. Not only will you get a free .com, but it is really easy to set up WordPress with your .com (it only takes a few clicks).

So lets get started.

Head on over to Bluehost.

Click the green ‘Get Started Now’ button

And select the Basic plan, seen below. It does say the price is per month, but this is paid upfront for the year. This helps you save money. There is also a 24 month and 36 month option, and the longer you sign up for the cheaper it is as a monthly cost. The 12 month basic plan ends up being $5.95 a month ($71.40 for the year).

Then enter in your blog name into the “new domain” box shown below.

On the next page, enter in your details for the “account information” section.

In next section “package information”, select the plan length you want. And the only checkbox you need checked is “Domain Privacy Protection” as this will hide your personal information from public records. Everything else can be left unchecked.

Then all you have to do is enter your billing info and hit submit at the bottom.

Setting Up WordPress

Log into your Bluehost account to begin setting up WordPress.

Scroll down to the “Website” section, and click on “Install WordPress”.

Then under “domain” select your blog name, and click next. If you get a message saying you are overwriting what is there already, that is alright since we are starting a brand new blog.

Next, type in the name of your website, along with your what you want your login details to be. These will be used when you want to log into your WordPress blog. Click next.

That is it. Bluehost is now installing WordPress onto your .com domain.

You are all done setting up your blog.

Next Steps – Making It Look Good

You can log into your blog by typing your url, and adding /wp-admin to the end of it. So www.mynewblog.com/wp-admin

Once you are logged in, you can start adding posts.

You will most likely want to change the look and design of your new blog. And you can do that in the Appearance —> Themes section in the sidebar.

Here you can view all of the available free themes. Though you’d probably want a better looking one, so check out Genesis Child Themes which is a great place to get good looking themes (the Foodie Pro Theme, is great for food bloggers).

If you ever buy a theme, it will come as a .zip file. Go to Appearance —> Themes in the sidebar of your WordPress dashboard. At the top click on “Add New”. And on the next page at the top click on the “Upload Theme” and select the .zip file you have. Once your theme is uploaded to your WordPress, you will then need to click on “activate” to use the new theme.

I hope that has helped you get your blog started with a .com, along with getting WordPress set up.

Now you can start creating your content. Other steps that you can take include having a logo created for your blog, and maybe look into buying a graphic set to brand your blog. You can view my blog posts below that help you through those steps.

Recommended Reading

Why Premade Logos are Great For New Bloggers

How To Know Which Colors Work Best For Your Brand

Topics: Graphic Design Tips

Having a color palette for your brand does 2 things. First it helps you create a consistent look across all of your materials, whether that be your logo, website/blog design, social media, marketing materials, packaging, Youtube videos, and anything else you create relating to your business.

Second, it helps your viewers/buyers/audience know right away what sort of business or blog you are.

Imagine going onto someones blog, you can tell straight away the general vibe and feeling of the brand by the colors they use.

If they have bright colors, then you know it would be more of an informal, playful business
If they have dark colors such as rose red and royal green, then they are more luxurious

So it is quite important to have a solid color palette that represents who you are as a brand to your readers/buyers/audience.

In this post, I will show you HOW TO CHOOSE COLORS that work well together and make up a themed collection.

But first, let’s have a look at different ready to use color palettes.

Vintage Color Palettes

Rustic Color Palette Theme

Ocean Color Palette Scheme

Feminine Color Palette Schemes

Bright and Colorful Color Palettes

Luxury Color Palettes

Figuring Out Which Color Palette Works For Your Brand

You will need to think about what sort of image, what sort of tone and voice that you want to give to your readers.

Visit websites of brands that have a similar vibe and tone that you want to achieve and see what type of colors they are using.

Start asking yourself questions, such as “what is the tone/style that I want to create for my blog or business?”.

Is it serious? Then you would want to avoid a bright color palette
Is it luxurious? Then you would want deeper colors – such as rose, navy blue, royal green
Are you starting a travel blog focused on beaches? Then you could go with a beach styled color palette such as different shades of blues or greens, along with light shades of brown (for sand)
Are you creating a bakery food blog or business, then would a pastel based color palette work best?

Think about the tone of the brand that you are creating, and picture what sort of colors associate with that. You can even search Google Images or Pinterest for general images based on a theme, and see what sort of colors pop up.

A vintage tone: shades of brown, yellow, tan, sepia, black and white
A more feminine tone: blush pink, rose gold, mint, baby blue
A rustic tone: fall colors such as dark brown, dark orange, and greens

Selecting Your Colors

Once you know what sort of color palette you want for your brand, then the next step is to find the specific color palette.

The easiest way to find a good looking color palette is to search for one, either on Google images or Pinterest. Use search terms as “ocean color palette” if you are looking for colors for your travel blog or travel business, or “rustic color palette”. Or you can search for specific colors “pink and grey color palette”, “rose color palette”.

If you are planning on working with a designer to create your logo or website – choose a good designer, and let them make the color decisions. You can make general suggestions: “I am going for a vintage look” or “it is luxurious”. As a designer will know best when it comes to what works well together.

Above, I have created a number of themed color palette collections that include the hex number so you can easily use them for your logo and branding, website design, or marketing materials. These color palettes are designed so that the individual colors work well together as a group.

Recommended Reading: