I started to write a post about how to set up your Facebook Timeline with Style (and how to win your own cover photo designed by Uniquehorn Designs). I was surprised with the lack of great examples Brand Timelines from Facebook. I was expecting to find dozens of posts showing off all the cool Timelines that brands are creating, but no luck.

Let’s fix that by taking a look together at some amazing Timeline designs from big company to small business to bloggers.

10 Big Brand Timelines

10 Small Brand Timelines

10 Photography Timelines

10 Individual Timelines

10 Blog Timelines

10 Random Timelines

I’m in a constant battle with organization. The harder I try the more disorganized I become. Or at least that’s the way I feel. I’m sure that at times you feel the same way. I will be sharing some of my favorite organizational apps that have helped me on my Android Iconia Tablet and my Android phone.

Action Method

Action Method is a project management tool I found to use for my business, but I’ve also quickly found I love using it for my other to do lists. I think I like it because you can view your tasks in so many different ways. You can view your tasks by project, by when they are due, or by color.

I think I also enjoy Action Method because it is very visually appealing and to me that helps with the overwhelmed factor I get as I stare at my to do lists as they grow. The app also auto syncs to your phone, your desktop application, the online version and your tablet with no worries.

I’ve used Remember the Milk in the past and enjoyed it, but I just didn’t really feel like it was worth the yearly fee to use it on my phone. With Remember the Milk I would still run into the issue of feeling overwhelmed with how much there was to do. Plus you can’t really try out the app without paying the fee as far as I’m aware.

After using the free version of Action Method for my business on my phone, tab and computer I chose to buy the yearly subscription. I had used it for 3-6 months before buying it and I was a heavy user since it was used for my business projects. I think a casual user may not even have to buy the subscription.

Another feature that I haven’t used is task sharing. You can easily share tasks with people and keep on top of what they are working on and what you need from them.

ColorNote

ColorNote has been one of my all time favorite apps. I use it for organizing everything in my life. I can do anything from make quick to do lists to keep track of prayer requests. I use it for blogging a lot, but I will be talking more about that in my blogging app post.

When you make a ColorNote you can choose to either make a text note or a checklist. You can then write your note and choose a color for it. I have been known to color code my notes for different things like blogging = blue, family= orange, church = purple, urgent = red, and so on. You have 8 colors to choose from. The best part is you can stick your notes on your home screen as an instant reminder or for instant access!

I also just found out they have a calendar feature that they just added which I’m so excited to try out!!

Evernote or Springpad

I was using Evernote, but I have found that with how disorganized I am this is only feeding the Disorganization Monster. I never got really good at using their notebook/tag setup so everything is just jumbled into one notebook. Most don’t have tags because it is hard to add those on the android app. They do have a great search on the web so that is what I mainly use.

It also drives me crazy that I have to login ever week on their website, log me in and keep me logged in!

Today I decided to try SpringPad. But because I haven’t had a real chance to use it (Zane just stole my tab), I wanted to mention both of these apps to you. I saw the video SpringPad has posted at the market and it looks like you can change the notebook and tags easily from the screen you are adding the note. Evernote you have to jump from the notes screen to a separate screen to add tags.

The thing that really sold me for SpringPad is it looks like it is incredibly easy to go from saving a link or note to sharing it on twitter or facebook (maybe G+ if I’m lucky). Right now with Evernote I’m saving it to Evernote then have to go into the online site, copy the link and then share it on Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest. There may be an easier way to do this from the Evernote app, but I haven’t had the time to figure it out.

Pomodroido

This is not my favorite app, but it is the best Pomodoro Technique app that I’ve found that works on a tablet. I find the color scheme annoying as others have mentioned in reviews and it doesn’t fit perfectly on my tab screen, but it works.

If you haven’t tried Pomodoro Technique I highly recommend it. I have just started it, I’m not an expert, I haven’t even read the huge manual I found on it, but just jumping in and doing it so far has helped with my “to do list anxiety”.

The basic idea is that you take your to do list and you work on one activity for 25 minutes then take a break and repeat until you have your to do list handled.

I tend to try and multitask but usually find myself overwhelmed and feel like I haven’t gotten anything done. With Pomodoro I get more done, I feel more focused and seeing the tasks crossed off my list keeps me motivated.

Right now I’m using an awesome application on my computer called Pomodairo. I also love that this particular program lets me make a short to do list. I have been putting my Most Important Tasks here so that I know I at least get 3 of the basic tasks for the day done.

Jorte

I don’t use this app any longer on my tab or phone. But with my experience I know that some of the basic calendars on Android devices can be hard to use or just ugly. If you are looking for a good replacement of the calendar that came on your phone or tablet I would recommend Jorte. This app does take a little setup but it has lots of options and you can make it work with you and your style.

Any Suggestions?

I’m always looking for new and better ways to get organized do you have any app suggestions?

How do you make your customers or readers remember you and your blog or business? How do you make them know instantly that they have arrived at your website, twitter feed or facebook page?

You create a logo that your visitors remember and associate with you and your business. Branding can be one of the most important steps when creating a business. Sometimes this can even make or break your business.

One way that you brand your business visually is by creating a logo for your company.

I have heard advice throughout the web on how to make a logo or brand for your business or blog. Not all of these suggestion for logos are good ideas.

We will be talking about 4 ways of creating a brand or logo and the pros and cons of each option.

1. Use your picture

I’ve actually seen a few suggestions to use your picture to represent you, your blog or your business. The thought behind this is that it is more personal. People really like to see a face behind a business.

You could also do this for very cheap by just taking a photo of yourself, but unless you are an excellent photographer I would not recommend using your own photos. You don’t want to use a bad photo to represent you and your business.

What is the first impression a bad photo is going to give? Is that photo going to be remembered? In a good way?

Another issue with using your photo is that your personal image and your face are constantly changing. Think about your drivers license. Do you still look like that person in that picture?

If you are using your photo on your business cards (and even as a blogger you should have business cards) or on your website or your twitter you will want to keep it up to date. With business cards this can start becoming expensive.

This also runs into the trouble where you are trying to make a “look” that your readers or customers remember. But it will make it harder for them to remember your logo if it is constantly changing.

Let’s now talk about the biggest issue with using your picture. This is not a logo. A logo should be simple, clean, and should be able to go from color to black and white (think photocopy). Obviously a photo is not a logo. It can be used in your branding but you should have a logo that can stand alone also.

2. Use a stock image or premade logo

Something I see constantly, especially in the blogging world, are “logos” created from stock images. This can be an inexpensive option especially when you are starting out.

But everybody is doing it and don’t be surprised when you are browsing the Internet and you find somebody using the same logo as you.

You will also lose a little bit of that personal feeling when people see an image that closely represents you but isn’t quite right. Then if they happen to find the same image on another website they will feel even less connected to you and your brand.

Stock images also have limitations on their licenses. Make sure and read the fine type. You may be limited to the number of printings you can have or limited on where and when you can use the image. Be careful.

3. Hire your brother or a friend

This could be a great option for you. A friend may offer to create a logo for free or a discounted rate. But you have a couple negative outcomes that could show up.

Sometimes your friend may think they know how to make a logo, but you may find that they don’t create it in the correct format so you may have to have it redone in the future. Or if the format is incorrect you may find you cannot use it for different marketing peices including posters, banners, stickers, t-shirts, etc. Logos should be created as a vector, not in Photoshop, and your designer should give you the original files.

You may also find that if your friend does create logos professionally that you will be at the bottom of their to do list. Your friend is still running a business and many freelancers over commit themselves. Doing a free or discounted logo is not going to be high priority for them.

You may find that nothing has been worked on for a month and you are still waiting for your logo. Or you may find that they rushed through your job just to get it out of the way and it is not up to par to their typical work.

4. Hire a professional

Hiring a professional designer will be an investment and this investment depends on the logo and the designer you work with. Talk with the designer and find out if you will work well with them.

Some basic questions to ask:

• How many mock ups will I recieve?
• How many revisions?
• Do you charge by the hour or by the design?

When you hire a professional designer for your logo you will find that they will spend the time with you to find out about you and your business. They will create a logo that is completely unique and will represent you and your business. When you see the final work you will be proud and say this is me, this is my business!

A professional will also make sure that the files will be in the correct format and may give you the logo in multiple formats for printers and for further work down the road. They should also get you the matching colors and fonts for other branding including your web design.

A professional can also help you learn more about how to make your logo usable in multiple formats including web, print, large or small, black and white or color.

Whichever way you go make sure that you pick a logo that you love and will love for a long time. Make sure that when you see this logo that in an instant you recognize it, it pops at you and that it truly represents you. Then use your logo everywhere: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, website, blog,  business cards, stationary, and anywhere you can mark your presence.

More Questions?

I’m always happy to help with questions so feel free and ask here in the comments or email me at (unicornbeauty (@) gmail.com)

Who are you trying to please?

I want to be happy in the work I do, not disgruntled that I have to work. I want to make my family function better and also be happier. I want to make my customers find joy and to truly love their new logos and or websites.

Are you trying to make a living, make a difference, or leave a legacy?

My goal is to make a living, but that is so that I can make a difference in my family and in so doing leaving a legacy in my children. I also have decided just recently that I want to try to always be working with a charity or non-profit and giving of my services. God has given me these talents and given me the business that I now have and I want to share these with others. I want to help out and hopefully make  a difference.

How will the world be different when you’ve succeeded?

I’ve talked a little bit about my dream of quiting my daytime job. This would be one of the biggest difference in our lives and one of the best. The reason this is important to me right now is I feel like my boys need more structure in their lives. With my day job this is just not possible. My schedule is constantly changing day to day and even week to week.

One other exciting goal for after I quit my day job is to start doing preschool with Zane. I did a little before Zarek was born and loved it and really would rather do homeschooling with him than to pay to send him somewhere else.

Is it more important to add new customers or to increase your interactions with existing ones?

This is a hard question for me. I am trying to balance this out a little right now. I think maybe this is hard because I’m just starting to grow my business, so I’m constantly trying to find new clients that will become clients now and in the future. I’m finding that I do love that I have clients that stay around and use me as on of there resources.

Do you want a team? How big?

I don’t think I really do want a team. I’m pretty happy just working by myself right now. I have worked in the corporate world for so long and worked with others for so long, some time alone will be nice. And who knows someday I may change my mind and will want to work with someone, but not right now.

Would you rather have an open-ended project that’s never done, or one where you hit natural end points?

I would rather have projects that have end points. I enjoy doing large projects but somehow there is this relief and joy in seeing something done. Even large projects I break into smaller projects just to be able to see that end point, to see that check mark on my list.

Are you prepared to actively sell your stuff, or are you expecting that buyers will walk in the door and ask for it?

I have be actively looking for clients but I have also been really blessed with some really great referrals. I have even just had people find me through my site, twitter, and other social events.  Which it is always wonderful when someone just happens to find you.

Which: to invent a category or to be just like Bob/Sue, but better?

I’m kinda a “be like Bob/Sue, but better” kind of person. My aspiration for my business is to help bloggers and entrepreneurs showcase their blogs/business. To help them show off their passion, pride and love for their blog or business. And in this I want to be able to spend time one on one with my clients and not just make a site that works and is there, but make something that really shows off their business, their personalities, something that they love.

If you take someone else’s investment, are you prepared to sell out to pay it back?

My intention is to take in no loans. Maybe this is a crazy idea but so far so good.

Are you done personally growing, or is this project going to force you to change and develop yourself?

Are we ever done growing? I know I’m not. I try to be continuously learning and growing. In a way starting up my business has pushed me to be more involved and to learn even more. I have a huge stack of books to read right next to me right now. I have lists of tutorials and articles to read in my bookmarks. I also have gone to a conference by myself for the first time this year and am planning on going to WordCamp in the fall also. I would love to go to BlogHer, but we will see.

Choose: teach and lead and challenge your customers, or do what they ask…

I love to teach my customers and I love to challenge them. One of the things that I do that is probably unique in the web design world is I try and make my designs as user friendly as possible.

I try to make it so my clients will be able to edit small things themselves. I try and make it so that the menus are easily editable in the control panel or widgetize the sidebars so they can move things around to there liking. Now sometimes this is hard for them and when they feel stuck I am there for them. I will first try to send them instructions on how to do it to see if they can learn how and if they just don’t feel like they can do it then I do it for them.

How long can you wait before it feels as though you’re succeeding?

This is another really hard question, even just the other day I was noticing the mountains and valleys in my business right now as I work on learning how to balance everything. Some months I am amazed at how fast my business has grown, but even just last month I felt as if I was struggling. I didn’t feel like I was a failure, but I felt like I didn’t get as much work as I wanted for the month. But then I sat back and looked at my business for the last 6 months as a whole and it has been growing and I am succeeding. So I would say that I already feel like I’m succeeding, I’m getting to my goals and that’s all that matters.

If you want to see some of my work check out my portfolio at Uniquehorn Designs. You can find the original list, with all 16 questions, at this great blog post: 16 questions for free agents.

These are my answers what are yours?

I have to admit I’m actually depressed about this. I don’t know why I’m depressed and it upsets me even more to think about the fact that I’m depressed about being pregnant. I want to be happy. We waited six years for our little boy and to get pregnant again is such a huge blessing for us.

But all I can think about is the money, the budget, my friends, my work, my new business and so much more that terrifies me.

It didn’t help that the weekend I realized that my period was late we overdrafted our account horribly. We had the money to cover everything, but TJ was in a hurry and instead of depositing the money with a teller he put it in an ATM. He put it in Friday afternoon and it didn’t post until this Monday afternoon. At least six things posted on the account on Saturday and this morning it went through before the deposit. He is going to go in to talk to the bank manager, but I don’t have too much hope in them helping us.

I already have been depressed this whole month on the fact that our budget is -$80 a month and we don’t have any savings to pay our taxes. I feel overwhelmed with the fact TJ can’t find a better job and at my job I have no hope of a good raise. The last two years my raises have been less than the increase in the minimum wage in Oregon. My wages at this job are going backwards. Yet I have few choices in a new job. If I find a new job it cannot be in the same town, which is where Zane goes to daycare. I pay almost nothing for a wonderful woman to watch Zane and I could never replace her. So a new job would mean a longer commute.

Then there are my friends. As the first one to have a baby it’s been so hard. I’ve been so excited for my friends to start trying this fall. I had even hoped TJ would find a new job so we could start trying in the fall with them. But now I feel like my friends are going to be upset because here I am pregnant and they all want to get pregnant but have to wait for one reason or another. I know that sounds like a blanket statement, but 4 out of my 5 best friends want to get pregnant and have to wait. I don’t want to tell any of them and I feel horrible about not wanting to tell them. Plus I’m terrified that my friends are going to end up having difficulties getting pregnant and seeing me pregnant isn’t going to help. I hated when I learned someone was pregnant when we were struggling to conceive and I don’t want to hurt them in this way.

My work isn’t going to get any better. Being pregnant and being a mommy is almost a disease at work. I am surrounded by women who made the choice not to have children.  Half the time I’m treated “special” because I’m a mommy and half the time I’m treated like I’m stupid because I am a mommy. Most of the time they “know” what I’m going through and what I need. If I point out something I do need like having a set schedule, I’m asking for too much from them, because they don’t understand how important this is to a child.

I had been hoping to start getting my business off the ground, but I’ve already been feeling discourage for so many reasons. I want to be a work at home mommy. I wanted to stay home with my Zaney and now I want to stay home with both my babes, but unless a miracle happens with my business this is just not going to happen fast enough. Please pray with me that God will make this happen for us, somehow. And if you want to hire me to do any graphics or web design for you this would really help my family.

I’ve been trying to keep all the negatives out of my head and fill myself with the positives.

My husband is so excited. TJ sat down with me and comforted me when I had an inkling and told me how wonderful it was going to be. He told me he had a plan to make things better. I try to keep thinking about what a blessing this is and how for so long I had thought we wouldn’t have children. I’m trying to get myself excited about going through the whole experience of being pregnant, which I loved. I am trying to think about how close Zane will be with his little sibling. I am even trying to convince myself how great it will be not having my periods for a while.

Hopefully the hormones will pass soon and the joy will fill me. Hopefully soon.

I’ve had one frustrating day. Everything has just been going so slow for me or just plain not working. We went out to do some chores and I thought. Oh, we are going to be near the Old Navy and going to target I should look for some summery shirts for work and my trip.

Well Target was bust I tried one thing on and hated it. Everything else was expensive. And to top it off Zaney was starting to get cranky. We had forgotten his shoes so he couldn’t walk and it was frustrating him. Then Zane threw TJ’s phone and broke it. So we rushed to the car where we could strap Zane in and investigate the phone (TJ got it working later, I wonder what a cell phone repairman makes?). I gave up on Old Navy and we finished our chores.

We got home and tried laying Zaney down for a nap. He didn’t want anything to do with it.

TJ took Zane to the car parts store with him to let me work on my digi-scrapbooking. Well the computer has decided that it wants to be slow again. And it’s trying to drive me crazy. I finally got it to work for me. So now you get your first free treat below.

TJ came home and laid Zaney down because he was nodding off. And TJ went to change the oil. Zaney must have woken up and he started talking to himself. We ussually let him talk to himself in his crib, so I let him stay there.

When TJ came up and was done with the oil change. Zaney was starting to cry. My mom called, we set up a time to take her out to eat tonight, and she informed me that the woman I met to offer my services as a web designer is considering having her nephew do it. Which was very disappointing to me. Tj reminded me he was leaving for his Saturday appointment. And all this together was just too much.

But at least I got this little one out to you. I created it with my little boy in mind. It has 12 sheets of 12×12 paper in 300dpi.

Download Here