New Look for Blog? - Thing 24

Number 1 on the Thing 24 "to do" list is "Find a new look for your blog." Oh, the quandary! I really, really like the way my blog looks and have worked hard to get it to this place...but can I not actually do a Thing requirement? I know how to change templates and fonts/colors, but I really don't want to change my blog's look.

The Solution:

I maintain not only my SZSRocks blog, but also am a co-author of the ERHS Media Center blog, and I have recently created and will be maintaining a blog for the Minnesota Mineral Club (MMC). Since my MMC blog is currently under construction and hasn't been advertised yet, I decided to try a new template from a third party site (as recommended in "For the Curious" in Thing 24), for this blog. I really liked a lot of the templates at mashable.com, but quite a few of them, including the one I wanted to use, are in a foreign language! That was draw back #1. Not to be discouraged, I clicked on the link listed for "How to Install" in "Thing 24: Curious" and followed the directions....Success!

Now, for the rest of the story...

My newly loaded template deleted quite a bit of text I had posted, rearranged and deleted some of the gadgets I had added and basically really goofed up my blog. I was extremely grateful that I hadn't messed with my SZSRocks blog. After my initial panic, I calmed myself and decided I could "fix" this. After trying various things for close to 2 HOURS...yes, I can be a little obsessive...my blog was still broke. When I embedded the new template, my "Layout" tab vanished and was replaced by a "Template" tab. This meant that I could do very little "fixing" or editing of this blog. In severe frustration mode, I searched the Blogger help, found a similar post thread and posted a question as to how to "fix" my blog. No response. Went to bed. Still frustrated and annoyed. Don't like feeling like this. Seriously thinking about deleting the blog and starting from scratch. In the morning, as a last ditch effort, I did a little more searching and found the 20 Sticky Posts blog. I found a post describing my EXACT problem, followed his directions to get my "Layout" tab back, it worked flawlessly, and I then posted my extreme thanks in the comments section of his post. He even replied to my comment. I bookmarked the 20 Sticky Posts blog in Delicious and I highly recommend you do it too. All is right with the world again!

The moral of this story: If it ain't broke...don't fix it!

To Do List - Thing 24

1. Find a new look for your blog. This one deserves it's very own post. I will post about this one separately after this recap.

2. Take a look at Page Elements. Since finishing "23 Things", I have continued to play around with new gadgets for my blog. Gadgets I have added include RSS subscribe buttons for my blog, delicious badge and bookmarks link, Twitter updates, Atlas Quest stats, Geocaching stats, Geocaching web ring, list of my favorite blogs, Rock Star badge from a blogger I follow, my Facebook badge, a Minnesota Mineral Club widget (I created) and a New Orleans badge (they used my Arnaud's photo!). I am very comfortable adding and deleting page elements. One gadget I would like to see from Blogger is a drop down menu of my post labels, similar to blog archives. This would help keep my blog in better proportion. Just wishin'!

3. Add some information to your profile. I had filled out my profile pretty completely when I set up my blog for "23 Things", including a profile picture. It is fun to click on the link of one of your interests and find other bloggers with the same interest...it really is a small world, isn't it! For Thing 24, I added my Flickr photos and other blog links to my profile.

4. Consider your display name. I changed my blog profile to my first name, but will continue to use SZSRocks as my blog title. I use SZSRocks as my identity for many different websites, so will not be abandoning it anytime soon.

5. Time to give that avatar a new look. I hadn't touched my avatar since Thing 1 during "23 Things." I had, in fact, thought about deleting it from my blog. That being said, I forgot how fun it was to play around with avatars. I have now changed and added my new avatar to my blog. I used Yahoo avatars, like I did in Thing 1. She is in a winter setting. I lost track of time investigating all of the avatar options...it really is fun! It reminded me again of how easily it is to get distracted on the web.

6. Register your blog. The SurveyMonkey form was very easy to use. My blog shows up in the CMLE blog listing. Success!

Welcome Back to the Things - Refresh Your Blog

SZSRocks Blog Snapshot.png
Originally uploaded by SZSRocks

I have been periodically adding to my blog since I finished "23 Things on a Stick." I use my blog as a journal. I blog about family happenings and my hobbies. I also use my blog as a reminder. When I run across a new Web 2.0 app I like and think I might use again, I try out the app and then blog about it. I also use my blog as a "testing" ground to see how different applications work, how easily they embed, etc. I try to label my posts so that I can easily go back and find a post (Flickr, photography, image generator, presentations).

As for blog comments, I don't get many. Most people who read my blog (family and friends) are not registered with Google or Blogger and they are tentative to post anonymously. My blog counter as of today shows over 3,000 visits. In the blogosphere world, this isn't a huge number, but I am amazed that my blog gets any views at all! I comment on blogs, Flickr, etc. when I read or see something that interests me. I would like more feedback on my blog, but comments are not necessary for me to keep blogging. I really enjoy my blog and I like to share it with others.

I follow quite a few blogs via RSS feeds. I have had to weed out some at times when I get too many feeds to actually read. I usually scan the post titles and only read the blog updates if the title catches my attention. Most of the bloggers I follow post about Web 2.0 stuff, letterboxing, geocaching and recipes. I have my RSS feed reader set up on my iGoogle home page.

The SlideShare presentation "The 25 Basic Styles of Blogging...And When To Use Each One" was an interesting break-down of the different types of blogging.

P.S. I just discovered the Firefox Picnik add-on. You can take a screenshot with the Picnik add-on and send it directly to Picnik for editing. That's how I got the screen shot of my blog for this post. Very cool...and easy to use too!