I’ve had this website online for a couple months now. I’m actually surprised I’ve found enough to write about for the blog section. I was nervous to feature a blog so prominently, but as it turns out, I’ve been enjoying that part of the site so far. There may be times where I don’t post an entry regularly, or change the posting times a little, but I like the idea of keeping things changing as I need them.
I do need to finish building the site, however. Not only am I missing a few pages and sections, I have not decided how I will move over the old art galleries so I can redirect the old site to this one. I’m not sure why I’ve had so much trouble making decisions about what to do with this website; afterall, it took a few years to even start this new one up! Maybe that’s why I’m not so quick to just throw something together. I’d rather make sure I take my time, think it through, and create something that can be used for a long time. Even if things change down the line, it will hopefully be easy to make those changes.
I also don’t know how many people have tried subscribing to the blog using a reader like Bloglines. I have noticed that every once in a while, I get updates through a feed, but not regularly. I know part of that is how I have the settings on the blog. I’m actually torn — my old site got a lot of traffic and search engines were constantly on my site. I don’t necessarily want that to happen this time around (especially with images), so I’m trying to find the best way to work around that and have a good balance for what I need. At this point, I don’t know if many people are actually reading or if any of them use a feed. I’ll just have to give it more thought and see what changes to make in the settings.
I know I need to finish the site and make it look more “professional.” At the same time, it is a personal site, and I’m trying my best without spending too much time on a section only to realize I don’t like it and have to start all over. I do wonder what this site will look like after a few years. Will it even have a blog? Any art galleries at all, much less new art? Will my interests be completely different? It should be neat to see how this site changes — not to mention me!
Well, it’s for you, by you and a work in progress. You’ll know where to go with it, I’m sure. Meanwhile, I do enjoy reading your entries. 🙂
I think your blog has been coming along nicely, and I look forward to seeing you get sewing again so you can post project updates!
Thanks Mary! I do have fun with the entries, but I’m in a situation where I should focus on non-webpage stuff right now (it’ll give me more to blog about later, heheh!).
I have added a plug-in that allows people to subscribe to comments if they’re interested in what others say or if I reply back (which I try to do).
It doesn’t solve some of the things I’ve been trying to figure out, like whether or not I should change some of my blog settings (gee, why can’t I get the perfect balance?) that seem to be affecting things like readers. I guess I’m just not ready to do that yet. I really should finish the rest of the site, but ugh. Not looking forward to it and still trying to figure out how I’ll do the galleries.
Christopher: Oops! You posted right before I did…
Yeah, I definitely need to get the sewing projects rolling so I can use them as updates (hoping to soon, have some cheap fabric to test out some patterns and use them until I get better fabric). Fortunately, I have other things I can blog about, but of course the sewing seems to be on my thoughts a lot lately.
I finally found the “follow up”. Not hard to do, I just wasn’t looking in the right place.
Very cool! It also looks as though you can click a link in the email updates to control your subscriptions. I’ll probably subscribe to most of Christopher’s entries that I reply to and if the list ends up too long, I’ll unsubscribe from the older ones (saving any that I really really want to keep following).
It’s a shame it’s not more like social networking replies, where you automatically get updates without having to subscribe, but even on some of those it stops updating you after 5 replies or so (which can be a good thing or else you’d get flooded by a bunch of non-important replies). It’s just disappointing on blogs where, if you get a really good conversation started, it ends quickly because people don’t know you’re replying back. That’s why I decided to go ahead and add this plug-in. Just in case someone wants to keep chatting back. 🙂
I suppose my next thang will be to figure out how to start subscribing to wordpress blogs so I don’t have to constantly type in new URLs. I like the lj way of having everything I like to read right there in one place.
My own blog is really a documentation of our move, so it won’t be hard to find things to write about. Unlike your personal blog, ours is part of a website where pottery can be viewed, ordered, commissioned and a general diary of a working studio… sort of a professional hobby, I guess it’ll be.
But I like WPs style. Definitely want to subscribe to you and Christopher.
You could use a reader that keeps them all together and updates you in one place for everything. I’ve been using Bloglines, but I think there is a Google reader.
The thing I didn’t really like too much about this setup at first is that unless you have a plug-in installed for being notified when more replies are posted to an entry, and the person clicks it when they post to an entry like this one, they won’t see my reply. You don’t automatically get an update if I reply to you like I have here (I get updates on my entries automatically, since it’s my site).
I’ve thought about doing something with art and using this site, but I keep flip-flopping about it. I really don’t want to be an artist for $$ again. I guess we’ll see what happens. The site is here if I need it and decide to do it. I have some ideas, but I just don’t have the space to do art at the moment much less do it for a living.
You can also set up a Gravatar icon — that way, you can have an avatar that “follows” you around on WP blogs. I set it up and was ready for my site, and when I reply on Christopher’s blog it’s ready. As long as I log in with the same email address I use for the Gravatar site, and as long as the site supports it I think (I am not sure if Blogger sites use it, which is a shame because it seems most of the blogs I read are on there. I just don’t want to have a ton of log-ins, which is why I like the Gravatar setup).
Christopher can tell you more about that, and readers. Have fun getting settled in! 🙂
The notifyer works. 🙂
Thanks, Mary! Yes, it’s been working nicely. Hopefully people will click the option so they can see any replies 🙂