When I first started blogging, there would have been no way I would have been able to afford to invest in a designer (if I hadn’t been one myself) or any other type of investment. Since I’m sure there are other people that are in the same boat as I was, I decided to do a whole post on branding on a budget. Sometimes DIYing your brand can be difficult, bit it’s not impossible if you are willing to put the work in.

Find a Good Template – $10-50

There are so many templates out there that aren’t super expensive. The best places to look would be Etsy or Creative Market and you can get templates for either WordPress & Blogger. There are a few things to look for when you’re searching for a template in order to find a good one.

1. Make sure it’s responsive – You’re paying for a template so why not make sure it will still look good if someone’s reading from their phone.

2. Keep it Simple – If the template you choose has a lot of details in it like a background, it will be a lot harder to customize (especially if you don’t know much coding).

3. Look for a Live Preview – Some listings will have a link to your template in action. This will show you exactly how the site will look to make sure it’s what you’re looking for.

Customize the Template

You never know how many other blogger have purchased the same template that you just bought, so you want to make sure to add some personal touches to make it more unique to only you.

1. Create a Logo – Try making your own logo, this will help you stand out from all the other bloggers that might have the same template. If you need help, then consider hiring someone to design the logo for you. A logo could be a little more expensive, but you don’t want it to be too cheap because you never know what you’ll get.

2. Create a Style Guide – A style guide consists of your logo, color palette, and fonts. This will help you with what you should be using for different aspects of your blog. You should stick to 2-3 fonts and you can break them down into using the same for titles and image templates, another for subtext in an image template or headlines and then the main body font.

3. Create Image Templates – Templates can be created in Photoshop, Illustrator or even Canva. They will help with your consistency and also save you time when you are writing your posts.

4. Google is Your Friend – Everything that I’ve learned about coding has been from googling what I’m trying to accomplish as well as using trial and error. You do need to be careful and make sure you are always downloading a backup of your site to ensure you can’t completely mess up your blog.

Stay Consistent

Now that you’ve branded your blog, you want to try to stick with it and make sure everything looks cohesive. Hopefully, people will start to recognize you from your images and if you rebrand too often, it will be hard to remember you.

Have you ever DIYed your brand?