This is it! If you’ve been following this 10 week blog redesign series, this is week 9, and it’s time for the big reveal! (As well as a question I am hoping to get your thoughts on … ) I’ve been redesigning Lori’s blog, In My Kitchen, In My Life throughout the series and giving tips on how you can get set up with a whole new design of your own as well. Lori already had great content, and this redesign was intended to get her set up on WordPress and give her posts the proper garnish and setting that they deserved. So now her blog has officially been moved to WordPress, and here is the before and after:
So what do you think of Lori’s completed site? It’s kind of small in the preview above, but you can check it out more fully here on her new site: www.InMyKitchenInMyLife.com
I considered writing my own tutorial for how to move from Blogger to WordPress – but it’s already been written far better than I could write it! It is on WPBeginner and I encourage you to check out her tutorial, just click here. She takes you through clearly, step by step.
Instead, now that we’ve finished the overall site redesign, I want to offer a few do-and-don’t design tips to bear in mind when writing your actual posts themselves:
o Left align your text. Unless it is poetry, keep your text left aligned. Reading center-justified text just feels weird and does not make it easy to read.
o No crazy fonts in your post. Keep the font of your actual post simple and clean. No handwriting type fonts. When it comes to paragraphs of text, your goal is to make them easily readable, not distract people with individual letters.
o Keep text one color, preferrably black. There are better ways to emphasize and add interest to your writing than to make random words different colors.
o At least one image per post. Obviously, this may not always happen — for instance, my post on Wednesday when I lost my computer charger in the midst of our move and my battery was about to die! (Which, by the way, has been resolved, and thus, today’s post.;) But if it is a post with highly valuable and shareable content, I consider including an image to be a must. For one thing, Pinterest can be a HUGE source of traffic to your blog – and having a picture in the post makes it that much easier to pin.
o ALL images the max width. Figure out what the maximum width of your post is, and only upload images of that width – it keeps your blog’s photos looking beautiful and consistent.
o Take photos in natural light, if possible. Avoid using flash, it makes for much less attractive photos.
o A quick adjust in brightness/contrast can make a big difference. I’d say it’s much better to have a so-so photo in your post than none at all – but if you’ve taken your photo in natural light, often just a little tweak of brightness/contrast can really make it pop even more.
o Break up long paragraphs. Now, this will depend some on your target audience. If they are long readers, you probably don’t have to worry about this. But in general on the internet, people’s reading attention span is fairly short. This doesn’t mean you only have to write short posts (I definitely don’t, haha!), but it helps if you break up long paragraphs into shorter chunks – and injecting photos every few paragraphs can help, too.
Well, next week is the LAST post in this series – now that your blog is set up and finished, I’ll be showing how to use 6 powerful tools that are OUTSIDE of your blog to help promote and publicize your site.
And as we are nearing the end of this series – I’d be very curious for your feedback on something. Several of you have written me expressing interest in having me do one-on-one consultations with you to look at your site, while others have expressed an interest in having me do design work for their blog, while others are interested in how to redesign and optimize an online business, while others talk about the value of writing e-books. I know many of you have commented that you’re surprised I’ve been blogging even while in the process of a cross-country move … but the fact is we are very dependent on my online income right now at this stage of our lives, both from my Etsy shop and from my blog. I’d love to get your feedback on whether the things mentioned above would be helpful if I offered them, or if there is something else you would be interested in. I’ve been astounded by the great responses I have received from you throughout this series, and I’d be very interested to hear your feedback on this. And I can’t believe we are almost at the end of these 10 weeks! Crazy. I hope it’s been beneficial for you.
Please leave your thoughts and comments below, I love hearing from you!
Part 1: Discover your branding with “The Drawing Board” Printable
Part 2: WordPress vs. Blogger
Part 3: Design Tips + Design Worksheet
Part 4: Themes, Coding and Stylesheets
Part 5: Making your own graphics
Part 6: 7 Blog Layout Tips to Engage your Reader
Part 7: Blog Page: The Must-haves and the Panache
Part 8: 25 WordPress Tips
Part 9: The Big Reveal (That’s this week’s post!)
Part 10: 7 Ways to Promote and Market Your Blog
How beneficial has this series been? I think I had four of the articles from it opened in tabs yesterday as I was working on my blog! Is that evidence enough of its worth? Thank you and thank you, again, April!
Aw, thanks Lori. Both for your kind words and for letting me use and redesign your blog for this series. :)
Love the makeover:)
Thanks!! :D
This has been an awesome series. Love, love, love the new look. I’m bookmarking these for future reference! Hope you’re loving Boston!
Best,
Crystal
We certainly are loving Boston! Soooo much fun. :)
April, you are absolutely amazing! God has certainly given you great talent and I am glad you are able to use it. The blog redesign looks phenomenal and all the information you’ve given is priceless. I’ve shared it personally will several people.
Yes!!! I’d love to hear from you about personal consultations, etsy redesign, and e-books (I am editing my mom’s ebook now.) I think I may be your biggest fan!
Oh, thank you so much for sharing, Yvette, I really appreciate it! :) And also for all your encouraging comments, they really do mean so much. :) I’m mulling over plans for the future – you will probably be hearing about it soon! :)
Love.It.
Thanks so much April! I’m thrilled that you did this for Mom! As to Mom, she is so absolutely excited that I don’t think her grin has left her face :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Awwww, thanks, that is SO much fun to hear :)
It’s just BEAUTIFUL! This series has really flown by… too fast for me to keep up, really. It is my hope to go back and use more of this helpful information at some point in the future. Thanks for all of your work! I definitely think you have a talent for this kind of thing and would have no trouble drumming up more than enough work to keep you busy!
It really has flown!!! Time has such a habit of doing that. :) It’s definitely going to be interesting moving forward to see what to do as the next step! :)
You have done a wonderful job and it is got me thinking about my blog. It is on my to-list to do something with mine as it was me when I started, but I’m trying to make it something more, something to show who I am becoming. Thank you for the inspiration.
Aw, thanks Samantha. :) You’ll have to let me know what you end up doing!
April –
Wonderful new design on Lori’s blog. Thanks for all the work.
Thank you, Kevin! I had so much fun doing it. :)
This series has been SO HELPFUL to me – bless you!
Oh, I’m so glad it’s been helpful for you! Thanks for your comment, Bethe! :)
i have really enjoyed this series, especially since i’m planning a blogger to wordpress move myself.
i do have a question. When you move from blogger to wordpress, do your tags for each post move with it? or do you need to retag/categories each post after the move?
I know that categories are moved in the transfer … they stay with your posts, and you don’t have to re-categorize them. I think it is the same for tags. :)
Well done. I think your services iin this area would definitely be marketable. And you don’t find as many people willing to offer consulting , , , so that might be something to consider. I like doing my own stuff but find outside opinion invaluable.
Hmm, good to know! The consulting aspect of it is very appealing to me, so that is good news! Thanks, Dianne :)
I think it would be very beneficial for you to offer blog/shop design to earn additional money. Also this series is something I would have considered purchasing for a reasonable price as an e-book. Everything you mentioned with blogging I have found helpful.
Best of luck to your family.
~Emily~
Oh, thanks so much for your feedback, Emily, I really appreciate it! :)
I just made the move from blogger to self hosted wordpress. I had no idea what I was doing, and your series was a life saver! It is so well written and easy to understand (I have no idea what I’m doing). My blog is still a total mess but I’m going through each of your posts and making improvements. I would have totally paid for this as an e-book. You are so talented and I think you MUST start a blog design company! Thanks so much for all the time you put into this post.
Aww, thanks Danielle, I really appreciate the feedback! :)
Just now getting caught up – homeschool kept us super busy. :) Love, love the makeover! The changes that you made enhanced the personality of the blog while also encouraging interaction. Way to go! I’m still in the process of switching my blog (I’m more like the tortoise than the hare). I am really wanting to earn income from my blog eventually so I am definitely interested in consultation information. However, our budget it super tight so I would just have to see. :) pastor’s income + 4 kids + = not a lot left over. hahaha. Thanks for all the work you do – the information is so much more helpful than anything that I have found before.
love this! Can you check my site out and let me know what you think? be honest i am just starting out and would like some help maybe even start a new network of freinds!
I am thrilled to have found this series! I am planning a redesign and I have a feeling you are going to make it so much easier!!! YEAH!
This is fantastic content. Thanks so much April for sharing this information and making it so easy to follow.
I adore your blog and found this very helpful! I need help with my blog and craft site and trying to figure out how to combine them. I would love to have expertise such as yours! Let me know if you are ever willing to be a consultant (paid of course) for me. I’ve got a strange combo of book review blog and a craft sales site (www.treeswingreading.com and http://www.orangeugladshop.com. Wanting to combine them into one unified blog/site for better marketing, etc. Am looking to move from typepad to WordPress.
Anyway, great job! Love the look of your site!
Can you use my blog next??!!? (hehe) I need help, and this was an amazing job!