January 25, 2015tinyexpats

Blog maintenance

I was pretty happy with my theme, but Blogging 101 got me so hooked up on improvements that I went and browsed what other options were out there. That’s how I came across this look, which I think could work for me even better, but, of course, there’s lots of work to do now to make it work again. Hopefully, I will be done with this by the time Blogging 101 gives out next week’s assignment :)

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40 comments

  3. I’m a big fan of keeping neat and tidy with my blogs; drop down menus are something that made a huge difference in both my blogs.

    I usually keep about three or for months worth of posts in the archives and then convert them to pages and file them in the drop down menus.

    It certainly saves people some time in finding what they’re after on my blogs if I give them categorized menus rather than making them wade through months or years of archive entries.

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    • Well, I’m not a big fan of footers in the first place. Both my blog themes have them available but I never use them.

      If I look at what’s in your footer, I’d start by removing anything that is repeated in one of your sidebars. All of your links to Instagram, Facebook, email and the like are in both places; I’d keep them in the sidebar for better visibility.

      I would also bring the logos for the various online expat groups you belong to into a sidebar position for better visibility. I find a lot of people who visit Beyond Prague do click on them, so they are worth putting in a good spot. They give you some credibility as the writer of expat related matters.

      I minimized my use of “Categories” completely once I went to drop down menus. If you opt for drop down menus, the “Categories” section will simply become redundant.

      I’d also get rid of the the “Tags” section. Tags are useful when writing a post and marking it for proper routing to the “Reader” section of the site, but I personally don’t see what they give to a blog page either in usability or aesthetics. It’s just a big clutter of words to me.

      The best thing to do is to make a firm decision as to what your blog is primarily about and build a hierarchy of subject importance around that:

      If you look at Beyond Prague, for example, you’ll notice that the header contains entries about all the kinds of things a visitor to the country can see and experience. I consider this the heart of the blog, so I put it in a place of highest importance.

      Pages about the nuts and bolts of actually living here, dealing with bureaucracy, finding accommodation and the like are at the top of the sidebar. They are important, but I suspect more people will look at my blog as potential tourists rather than long term expats.

      Spots further down the sidebar are for things that I think readers might be able to make use of; a small sampling of blogs I follow and posts I’ve recently liked that may lead readers to blogs they had no idea existed.

      If I had a footer, I’d reserve it for information of least importance that could all be packaged in unobtrusive, collapsible menus and wouldn’t hurt a blog visitor’s experience if they didn’t look at it at all.

      I hope that helps

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