I've been blogging for a couple of years now and think I'm going to keep it up. I know blogging seems to be on the wane and replaced by other forms of social networking. But there's more space here, and a bit more permanence. I like it.I'm pondering a few changes, though.
Some of them are technical. I'd like to improve the way the blog functions. I'm not sure I can do that well without moving to a different site, e.g., migrating from Blogger to WordPress or TypePad. And stubbornly, I'd rather see how much I can do without moving. (Because who likes to move?)
Maybe I will switch to a template with fixed-width blogging space; I think that would allow me to format with pictures or textures instead of just color blocks. What do you think? Prefer the cleaner look, or like the ones with backgrounds and cool headers? I'm not sure.
I'd also like to have a couple tabs across the top, instead of being forced to put all non-journal content on the side. None of the Blogger-provided formats have that, but it looks like outside designers have adapted templates to do it, so I could probably switch to one of those. I'd have to create blog posts containing the content I wanted on those tabs; they wouldn't be able to function as separate pages as in other environments. But that would still help.
Two things I'm not sure I can do without leaving Blogger and migrating to something like Wordpress: a tag cloud - which organizes your topics visually instead of just listing them - and a graceful way to display recent comments.
I did finally find a work-around for the latter. I just subscribed to my own comment "feed" and posted it on the side. Scroll down and see. It's not beautiful and it's slow to load, but it's a start. May help readers to feel more "heard" or encourage interaction with each another.
What other features do you like in a blog?
5 comments:
Dave Lilly (married to Jonelle Holzmann) has a blogger blog with tabs:
http://therealdavelilly.blogspot.com/
I love having tabs on my blog. I couldn't figure out how to do that in Blogger.
Mostly I switched to Wordpress because I was going to do my own domain & experts advised me that WP was the way to go. Something like 90% of the most-read blogs are on WP. It's not perfect - I even miss a few of the things that were easier in Blogger. But overall I have no "buyer's remorse".
Blogger does seem the platform for amateurs, whereas Wordpress is good for most anyone, is it? Worth pondering. Not having my own domain already makes the whole thing less professional. But that might be hard to overcome. Wish I had a less common name, when it comes to things like this.
http://www.martiksmith.com/
is available.
I am glad to know that you are not giving up blogging. It has been a while since I have been able to catch up on my subscriptions, but I do read. Your blog is pleasant and enjoyable, and very informative as well.
Thanks for the encouragement, Angie. I have been able to follow more blogs with less effort since getting all the ones I like - even those that are rarely updated, or that I don't always read - in an aggregator (Google Reader). Much easier to go to one site to see who's been blogging! I still have to click through to see (or leave) comments (unless I subscribe to comments), though.
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