Gaining Confidence in Typepad by Trial and Error

Seven years ago, ready to shift from utilizing a free blogging platform to freedom over my design, I realized the blogs, whose interface most closely matched the blog I hoped to build, used Typepad. Once my blog's content transferred, I set the intention not only to redesign my blog, but learn how to do so as independently as possible. I didn't have previous knowledge in web design or a lot of money or time to invest. Thankfully, I quickly realized thanks to Typepad's user-friendly interface and online Knowledge Base, as long as I was willing to experiment and play, I could create the blog I envisioned.

The colors, formatting, the sidebars, and banner of my blog have changed over the years, but what hasn’t is my confidence in being able to easily learn and apply Typepad’s features with little to no challenge. I say this because Typepad is easy to use and I am willing to play. "Play" meaning test out features, search their Knowledge Base, and sometimes hit preview over and over again.

If someone tracked a single change on my blog, they might see a color, font, or a sidebar image change multiple times. I appreciate how easily this happens. I go to Theme Builder, play with size and color. I experiment with how images, links, borders, and columns look. In the Content section, I can seamlessly add a new tab on my navigation bar, quickly move sidebar images, and again, thanks to Typepad's Knowledge Base, create buttons using HTML.

There are many reasons why I enjoy blogging; one, I didn’t expect I'd like utilizing web design. Financially, I need to be able to facilitate all aspects of my blog, and I need reliable help when I know what I want to do but don’t have the expertise to figure it out. Typepad allows me to play and learn, make mistakes, and quickly fix them. I thank Typepad’s thoughtful and user-friendly platform for this. Never once have I made a design decision and worried I couldn’t change it back or would need excessive amounts of time to correct the mistake.

Typepad helps me share my story without the stress of needing prior web design expertise to do so. The skill set I've received developing my blog with Typepad has given me the confidence to format professional ezines, newsletters, and web pages. While I can now navigate other, less user-friendly platforms, my preference remains here, where I know I have the tools to keep building.

Kelly Sage is a certified facilitator with Women Writing for (a) Change and the Young Women Writing for (a) Change Coordinator. She facilitates adult, young women, and homeschool writing circles. In her former life she was a middle and high school English teacher. She writes about homeschooling and living with young children on her blog, www.sagetribe02.com.