Sunday, December 18, 2005

Blogging the blog makeover: Progress report

The blog makeover is taking some time. It is going somewhat more slowly than some blog overhauls, but is perhaps faster than others. The pace of this blog facelift is leisurely and easy going.

It's a bit like my blogging style.

There is now a photo of me on the blog sidebar. If you haven't seen my picture before, it's there for all to see. It's part of the Blogger profile, and more information should be added to that useful item.

Along with the blog archives section is a listing of the most recent ten posts. The previous version of the template lacked that handy feature. It's now in place, right above the archives listing. I moved the previous posts list around a bit for fun. I finally settled on its current location.

The comments are now Blogger comments with random letter requirements for spam prevention. I have already removed a spam or two from the commenting section. Comments are important, and are necessary for any successful blog. I had been using a third party commenting system. I might place that system back onto the blog; or not. I haven't reached a decision on that issue as of yet.

The Haloscan trackback feature is not replaced as yet either. Bloggers link back system is in place. I don't think it's quite as effective as trackback. We'll see what happens.

I now have the blog post titles as live links, along with the recoded permalinks at the bottom of the post. It's now very easy to permalink any of my posts. There's a hint for everyone!

I'm still not completed my blogging makeover. Much of what I've been doing is experimental, and not cosmetic. I'm busily testing the edges of the Blogger template envelope and we'll see how far it will stretch.

Why am I continuing to use Blogger, you ask?

I'm glad you asked that question.

I use Blogger because it's such a commonly used system. Many new blog owners use Blogger and need assistance. I can offer it to them. Personally, if I were starting a new business blog, I would use TypePad. I recommend TypePad to new bloggers and definitely to my SEO clients. I steer them away from Blogger at all costs. The need for recoding, and the lack of features, is simply too great a problem. That said, I enjoy workarounds, and Blogger certainly requires them.

Anyway.

I'll keep all of you posted on the blog makeover.

Who knows. Maybe, I'll make some radical changes and you won't recognize the place.

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