A quick post to cover some small changes here on the format of the blog.
There is a personal part of me that is way too much into symmetry and simplicity. One of the many reasons I like this template for the blog you see today (I am also known to change templates a lot…) is that the design provides simplicity.
All of my internal blog stuff is on the left such as my categories, comments, posts, and links to other blogs.
Everything in the middle is content.
Everything on the right is functional items, from setting up a subscription to the blog, the ads, and other blogs in the same area that you can go visit as well.
Because I like changing things around on either side of the content, things start to get a little cluttered and I reach a point where I change things back to simple.
Today was one of those days.
Gone is the poll about what you would like to read. I’ll come up with a new question and post it. Gone is the link to the relationship bloggers conference in Chicago that I posted about here. The Alexa blog ranking moved from the right column to the bottom left. I moved the Subscription area on the right to the top of the column.
What’s the point? A few:
- It is good to experiment. But don’t let the experimentation take over the philosophy of the template for the blog. In my case, clutter is bad and simplicity is good. I was starting to see clutter.
- The template adds or detracts from your enjoyment of reading the content. Content is everything, and original content especially so. There are few blogs out there writing about technology for writers and I want to ensure that experience isn’t hampered by cluttered sidebars.
- Working with the template design keeps me personally engaged in the blog. It is much more my blog because the design is as well. Yes, the code is from someone else, but the evaluation of what goes where in the sidebars is mine. And that keeps me close to the blog which helps my motivation. It will help yours too.
Take a good look at your blog from the point of view of someone coming here the very first time. Does the template portray what you want it to portray to your audience? If not, change it.
And get that press release stuff in the pages , Scot!
Scot
