Look What I Did!
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Take a look at my blog. I have never done anything like it. I redesigned the whole thing and it’s so nice to have something to call my own. I got tired of playing around with the same old options and knew I had to buckle down and learn.
I read everything WordPress had to say about CSS and visited the sites they recommended. I came over here to the forums and did a search if I got in a bind. I found lots of helpful information just by searching for an answer on the forums. I took an old blog that I use for experiments–and learned by trial and error—lots of errors.
This is the Digg design. I purchased the CSS upgrade and it was not easy to create but fun. I have no CSS training. I didn’t let that stop me—I dug in and am glad I did.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Wow, very nice indeed. Very pleasant to look at.
I’ll offer a few suggestions.
1. Since your site contains a lot of images in posts, before uploading your images I suggest that you optimize them so that the file sizes are smaller so they will load faster. Even with my high-speed 5mb DSL, it takes forever for your site to load. Generally I try to keep my image file sizes under 50k. There are still a lot of people on 256k or lower internet connections (a good number still on dial up), and they will be grateful. This FAQ talks about image optimization: http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/05/08/optimise-your-images/ .
2. Again, since your site is image heavy, limit the number of posts that show to say 3 or 5 by going to settings > reading and changing it. Again, this will allow things to load much faster for people on slower internet connections.
3. Your latest post title is tucked up under your blog title in Safari and Firefox. You can move the posts down a little by adding ” margin-top: 25px; ” to the .post section of the CSS. I just popped 25px in there as a test and it seemed to work quite well, but you can change it if you wish.
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i didnt read the response post so forgive me if i repeat myself,
good blog, but use a different color for your text, its not easy to read against a dark background. Also the font is big and its really image heavy. Image heavy isn’t a bad thing, its just really ‘in your face’, id take it down a few notches, clean it up a little bit. Good start though.
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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll work on these suggestions. I’ll go do it and then come back to see what you think. Thank you lots.
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@cello85, that is a good comment on the colors. I sometimes forget that I have a very high-end color corrected monitor and many times I don’t see the contrast issues with text.
@flowergardengirl, you’re doing a great job and now that you have come CSS experience, and have jumped in and found that it is fun and not too difficult, your on your way.
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Thank you Sacredpath, I made the changes you suggested. I have Picasa and will optimize my pics before I load them. Let me know if it loads more quickly. Looks like the post title straightened out. Took me forever to figure out the difference in em and px. I had them backwards which was very comical for awhile.
cello, thank you too and I’m still working on the body text color and main body color combo. I’m playing with it the dummy blog trying to get it right. It keeps affecting comment text too. It might be easier just to change the wrapper color to a lighter shade. What do you think? I have some eye problems and that is why the big text size. But I brought it down cause I didn’t want to scream at anyone ;) Maybe I hit a happy medium. huh?
Correction–I’m not using digg—it’s Garland. I love it.
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I’m a different woman now raincoaster. Thank you! I can conquer anything at this moment–even the laundry. I feel victorious, satisfied, accomplished, full of it, and down right amazing. That was so hard and I hope I don’t have to do it again for at least a week. I’m sure I’ll want to change something else by then. I may even take on Sandbox.
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Bravo! I really admire you. I’m taking my first tentative steps into this world, and you encourage me to explore new ways and forget being unexperienced. I’m curious: how many days did you devote to this work?
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How many days did I devote–that’s not an easy answer. Thank you for the kind words about my blog makeover.
I’ve been blogging for a year. In that time, I had several different host but came back here to wordpress cause I like them best. Great customer service and people on the forums help you out.
Through all that trial and error blogging, I learned that a blog will endure a few days of quirky behavior such as a total redux. So don’t worry about messing up cause the real readers will wait you out.
I worked on it at least 3 days. I’m compulsive and didn’t sleep much. If I’m making progress, I don’t want to stop.
I did a lot of research first. I also practiced on an unpublished blog to see how it would look. I suggest you do that. And search the forums if you make a mistake. I found several solutions that way. Good luck!
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In fact, I am still working on an unpublished blog, waiting for the moment it’s ready to be published. It’s not a personal blog: it is intended to make a cultural and very serious group known (not worldwide, perhaps…). So I feel responsible and wish to do the best I can. That’s why I found your example so important.
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