March 27, 2007
Pretty bells and whistles!
I spent much of the weekend working on getting my new niche blogs in shape so I can introduce them to the world. Each has a specific focus, unlike Skeet’s Stuff where I blog about anything and everything. They won’t be lovely to look at when I first bring them out. I’ve selected a very simple template that I think I will use for all of them. I had certain criteria that I wanted to meet: left and right sidebars so I can list lots of goodies without making the page too long or cluttered, broad center panel that keeps the focus on content, unobtrusive banner. My designer ran into some problems and hasn’t done my cutom template yet, but laying out the new places this way should make it pretty easy to switch over when she’s ready.
Something else I want is ease of navigation. I’ve been visiting a lot of blogs lately, looking at design concepts and features. Some work well for me, some don’t. One thing that I don’t ever want on my blog is confusion from my readers when they are trying to find something. I was really happy this morning to find Vista Icons, who have a whole slew of brilliant, high quality icons that can make my new sites more attractive and serve as nav buttons. As a for instance, I’m thinking about installing a chef’s icon on the sidebar here at my home place to make it easier for you to find the recipes and food products I’ve talked about. Maybe I could install a camera icon that will link you to all of the posts with photos. Much more attractive and appealing than going through a list of catagories, don’t you think?
Mahalo nui loa (thank you very much!) to Vista Icons for sponsoring this post and showing me an affordable way to add function and class to my blogs!
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March 27th, 2007 at 12:33 pm, Tricia Says:
Sounds like you have a great plan for the layout of your new niche blogs.
Using icons to represent some of your categories is a great idea, but remember to use ALT text for the image description or a word beside the icon so that search engines can categorize the link properly as well.
March 27th, 2007 at 12:40 pm, skeet Says:
See, that’s what I have you and my other mentors for! When I wrote the post above I didn’t have a clue how to do it, I just knew it could be done and that y’all could tell me how, lol! I just didn’t expect you to show up and offer the advice without me even asking. Mahalo, my fiend. You are one very cool gal and pretty handy to have around!
March 27th, 2007 at 10:44 pm, Imran Says:
Those are pretty cool icons. I have switched to iMac from PC. iMac icons are pretty awesome too. I love my iMac
March 29th, 2007 at 12:29 pm, Deb Says:
Interesting, I’m going to have to check them out! Good luck with the new blogs! I love having both niche blogs and general ones.