Every day I get lots of emails from photographers asking about custom blogs and I'm finding there is a lot of confusion on what exactly is a custom blog and why some cost more than others? With so many companies now offering "custom blogs" how do you know what it really is?

Whats your thoughts?

To me a custom blog is one that is not template based in any way. The concept, colors, layout is determined based on a consultation with the client. Granted the outcome may not something never before seen but it is individual to the client.

my $0.02

I think a custom blog is made from scratch- no template - no minor tweaking from a previous design.... completely new.

But, I think when people say they want a custom blog, maybe they just want a few things that make it unique- like the header, background, etc.

I'd imagine if someone pays for one, it should entail detailed technical customization. Such as overall function that personally suits the blog-owner, unique interactive features for the type of visitors they get, how it handles comments (on-page scroll / or separate page), custom plugins, stuff like that. Changeable background, header, colors, and fonts should def. be a given. And I would also agree that for it to be truly custom, it should be a one-of-a-kind.

So kinda' like your favorite sub sandwich, but blog version.

The one you're making for me

+1

I think a lot of people are looking for blog templates similiar to the website templates that are available and call these "custom."

I would think that it's anything that I couldn't do myself, with my limited knowledge of web design, using blogspot, typepad, wordpress, etc.

I know that if I were to call and ask you to do a custom blog, I would want it to be unique & define me, with a great background, etc.

One thing that's essential that nobody mentioned was personalization. A custom blog is personalized, and tailored to fit the photographer's needs.

Funny you ask, since I just emailed you a couple of weeks ago and have been struggling in my mind trying to figure out what exactly I want my blog to be. What I DON'T want is for my blog to look like everybody else's. What I DO want is a "smart blog" that works on people's smart phones. Do they all look alike? So what do I ask for then?

I think that perhaps the terms custom vs. customized is what might make it confusing.

I agree custom would be like mentioned, from the ground up- completely 100% personalized. Worth the pretty penny because you are working one on one with a web designer(s) to get exactly what is envisioned.

Then there is customized- which would be anything template based/used more then once, and it can then be customized to suit a photographer’s preferences.
There are tons of templates that can be tweaked so they appear to be custom, but I still think those fall in the “customized” category. With these I think the cost could vary based off how "customizable" the template is as well as the time spent for the web designer to set up. Though I think these should be considerably less since these are not being built ground up-- they just sort of emulate how custom customizable blogs can appear.

But I am far from knowing anything about web design so those are just my thoughts.

( I swear that is the most times I have ever used the word "custom" in a paragraph!!)

Interesting answers! I think a lot of confusion comes when custom is mixed in with all types of blogs.

So how important is it to you to have a custom blog over say a template blog which you can do a DIY job yourself to the design but not the actual layout or interactivity of the blog?

r-lr answered it perfectly. Most people have Customized Blogs based around a common design. Only a select few who have paid a lot have truly Custom blogs. I built mine based on stuff that plenty of others use. It was built by me from free pieces I have found on the net (Dynamic Drive Java etc...). But I still consider it customized because I never really went outside of the framework of blogspot.

For most, customized is fine like Ross or Rodolpho Arpia offer. Even Arpia admits that he took the time to learn how to "customize" the Google System. Ross's designs definitely have a different look than blogger, but I believe they are still based on a common framework when I compare 2 of the blogs he designed. Just my observations and Ross can correct me if I am incorrect.

Yeah, We have a framework we use for our blogs which took a while to make, as we created every plugin and component from scratch to work and constantly change it. However some blogs will use the same framework others require it to be made totally differently, as youll see some of the new blogs we are launching.

Most blogs consist of the header, nav, locked post, post body, footer but the style as you said should be different in order for people to want your style of blog.

every blog system will have flaws or limitations as does everything so its important to choose the correct one.

I was just very interested to see how people viewed the differences in what custom blogs meant to them as a whole, as people will call custom blogs that are made fully from the ground custom and blogs that use an existing system such as blogger or wordpress custom and therefore thats where alot of requests ive had have struggled to understand the difference in price in terms of the amount of work that goes into the different types and styles of blog.

For me, I like a bit of DIY, so I would want a customized blog rather than a custom blog. I would want something that looked like me but ran off of WordPress (mainly because that's what I'm using now) that the designer designed and then could hand off completely to me (so if I wanted to tweak down the road or make minor changes, I could).

I'm guessing we are all really more interested in blogging lately.... I subscribe to Jessica Claire's blog and since she made her switch to a blog instead of a site+blog, that's been really intriguing to me. I would imagine that I'm not alone on that one, so if more people are looking at that, then more people will equate schwankier blogs with some degree of customization.

I second!

Ross,

Your blogs are definitely unique and your sites are sweet. I think most want customized and not custom. You can always offer 2 part pricing with a "Customized Blog" based on one of your frameworks or a "Totally Custom" blog that is built from scratch (even though you could probably reuse some code). Most probably will be fine with the first, but if someone is high end, they may want to spring for something 100% theirs. That is my thought on the topic. Keep up the cool stuff Ross.

Thanks Chris,

We do currently offer that on our pricelist

we do custom, wordpress and movable type blog designs. The next few months will be interesting for sure, thanks for the promps again