Showing posts with label blog design. Show all posts

Blog Planner

I have been going around and around in my mind about using a blog planner or any planner of that matter. I actually bought a little simple planner to play around with until the end of the year. But dog gone it, my life is just not that busy.



I have no idea what to keep up with. I am not so busy that I can't just sit down after work and come up with something to blog about.

But....

I want to make my blog better ( I say this every year). or better organized. I want to spend more time on it and try and bring in more traffic. I want my blog to grow.

I would consider my blog a "lifestyle" blog I think. I blog about things I do, see, or experience. I try my best to leave politics or news out of it. Because I'm not that educated on either one. I often do reviews and sometimes those have deadlines so It would be nice to keep up with them in a planner. Maybe plan out blog post for the future? Right now my post are usually spur of the moment. I have a tag called "random". seriously.

When I go online to read about blog planning. I only find sites that lead me to professional bloggers that do a lot of marketing, and selling. People that are focused on one topic. They speak too big in vocabulary for me to even understand what they are talking about. I mean, heck, I just learned recently what "monetizing" is. 

I do get ideas of a post sometimes and I will either snap a reminder photo or jot it down in my "notes" app on my phone. Maybe that's enough for me or maybe its not. I like being organized and love to be creative. But I want my planner to be more than a pretty book.

So I'm asking my readers for advice.

Do you use a blog planner? What about a daily planner? Do you carry a little journal around with you all day or do you use a special app on your device? I am curious. I would love to have new ideas ready for the new year that will soon be here.

For my blog friends that “Monetize” I’d also love to know what you use for that. 
I use Adsense but for some reason, The ads have stopped showeing up on my page as of November 1st. I’ve checked all my settings and everything is active with no violations. Been to help and support but with no advice. I’m ready to find other options. 



MY COMMENT EMAILS!!!

I do not have a post planned for today but I'm breaking in here a minute to complain about a Blogger issue I'm having just in case some of you are having the same problem.

It seems Blogger has updated some security features. I have no idea. It was too much to read but I complied. I mean, I had to comply or it else....you know how that works right?

You see, when my sweet blog readers add a comment on my post, I get a little "DING" email notification letting me know you commented, then I grin and open it up to read your comment.

As of yesterday 5/24/18.....Silence. I mean, notta.
I know at least Jack has had to comment already.

So I log on to my blog and BAM! comments!!!! I was never notified of them. My comment email notifications have stopped. I went to the blogger forum and noticed I am not alone. I lot of bloggers are experiencing the same problem. Ive also noticed my "contact form" is not working either since Im notified by my email too. This can really be a problem.

Theres more. People who follow me by email. They will not get a notification that I just posted a new post. So sad.

I guess I will actually have to log onto my blog every couple hours to see if I have any comments as these make me happy throughout the day. Even if I don't reply to them, I read every single one and some days I reply back right here on the post. Sometimes I only reply back to the reply bloggers via email. Just depends on the day and the subject.

Anywho! I want my notifications fixed. Hopefully they will find the glitch and fix it!
What about you???


New Blog Look

Guess what? I won! Yes I entered to win a free blog make over at over at life and linda and two days later I got the memo that I had won!

 

I now have a "My Fairy Blogmother". 

So, what do you think? 

It was about time It got a face lift and I was planning on eventually giving it a redo but there is only so much you can do from Blogger itself. They have some nice templates but I like my own personality to show through mine. Frankly, I was just too lazy to mess with it. 

Linda contacted me via email and got some ideas of the look I was going for and it took off from there. 
I even learned a few things along the way. 

Did she make it look great or what!? Be sure to visit her site and see example of her other blogger designs.

My blog is not the only thing that got a new look today. My butterfly bush got a nice trim and decor. My daughter came for a visit and we made an Easter tree. We also baked cookies.

 

My daughter is an adult and lives out on her own. Living 30 minutes from us, she manages to visit every few weekends. When she comes home, my mommy engine goes full throttle. I fix her meals to eat, we bake, shop, tell stories and laugh a lot.... And yes, I have to throw in those life lectures (maybe to much). No matter how old she gets, I somehow can not let her grow out of those fun childlike traditions we have during the holidays. 





Need A Makeover

I have been putting a lot of thought into giving my blog a makeover. I have been blogging for seven years now using the same template. I can't believe I've let this happen. I like change.
I have changed my colors and back ground photo before, but not the layout.

I'm skeerd I will not like it or that it will mess up my other past post. I'm not real smart on the whole "backing up my blog thing", which you need to do before you make any changes, just in case.
However, I could and would figure it out.

Then this happened. I found a blog makeover giveaway over at life and linda. She is also known as "My Fairy Blogmother". I signed up. Maybe I will win. I'll know by Sunday. Fingers crossed.

If I do not win. I may go ahead and tackle it myself. Blogger has introduced some new templates and clean looking layouts. I just don't know if I want the type of layout that readers have to click "read more" to move on to the rest of the story. That's what it seems everyone is doing now. Well see. I think I'm pretty good with HTML codes once I get into them. That's something MySpace (before facebook) taught me years ago when I used to help my daughter set up her site. MySpace was all by HTML codes. Now I know why older folks leaned more toward Facebook. ha!

So, I'll sit here and wait to see if I win a blog makeover.
Either way, be prepared to see a change coming soon to my blog look. Don't worry, The name and link with stay the same. Just the layout will look different. If I don't chicken out first it will be sometime next week.

I hope in the process I do not lose anything. Wish me luck.