It’s been a few months since I started my EFL blog. It has become a valuable means of communication for me. I love writing to the blog and seeing that people read my entries!
I started to feel that I need to give my blog a makeover. For me, it’s like feeling the need of redecorating your house:-) Here is my list of ideas. I would be happy if you comment on my list and give me more ideas.
* I’d like to self host my blog on my own domain using WordPress. I’m still not totally sure about it but I think that if I self host my blog, I’ll have to learn more about blogging (background stuff) and this will give me more freedom and expertise.
* I think I need a unique picture/logo that represents the character of my blog. Still thinking what kind of picture it can be…
* And… I want a unique theme.
Any ideas?
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Your blog looks great to me! Interesting comments here.
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Dear Burcu,
I appreciate what you do here..You create amazing blogs and write helpful articles. I thought the following link might give you some ideas with the makeover.
http://smartlifeblog.com/12-service-providers-you-can-outsource-your-blog-design-to/
See you tomorrow:))
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As others have said, I think content is the key; although having said this, I also think your blog looks perfectly fine the way is is.
If you do decide to go ahead and change the look of it, there are some nice free WordPress templates available here:
http://su.pr/1vNlbg
best wishes,
Sue
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Just a quick comment or question about WordPress / edubloggers. One thing that I really like about WordPress is that they have some really nice template designs, but what has always put me off them is that I find WordPress blogs really slow to laod! I’m not really sure if this is a problem due to my location here in Morocco or if they are generally much slower??????
Anyone had similar experiences?
Best
Nik
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Hi ya,
Just read Nik’s comments. I didn`t go the self-hosted route as yet either as I think it’s a good idea to develop a strong readership first (based on following your content) as losing the edublogs.org listing will make u less attractive to google.
However once you’ve got a regular following, say 5K users per month, you can inform them of change without losing the stats or PR.
K
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Hi Burcu
I agree with Nik.
I love your blog. I find it easy to navigate and the content fantastic.
It was your blog that started me off on my experimenting with my blog on edublogs. (The result is coming soon, I hope.)
Thanks
Tamas
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Congratulations on taking a decisive step. It is part and parcel of working online. There is always a learning curve you in any form of learning.
I have been using wordpress from the day I started writing online. The main thing is to try it out on your own and discover your own mistakes on the design. And quickly dunk the idea once it does not work.
DM on twitter if you need help. Or visit the contact form on my website.
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Hosting your own blog is a major decision but absolutely worth it. The freedom you get will overweigh the trouble.
And as edublogs lets you export your data you can still maintain your blog here and slowly build the new one. When you are then ready to make the switch you can easily import your old content in your new blog.
If you have any question, feel free to contact me
Talk soon,
Kirsten
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KirstenWinkler Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 10:56 pm
All comes down to your provider and how fast your database is. If you have a database on your own are on a shared one.
There are also some plugins from WordPress where you can preload content etc to make the blog faster.
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I’m surprised that you are doing a make over so soon. I think your blog looks pretty fresh, certainly much nicer than mine, which have been on the same boring blogger templates for in one case more than 2 years!
Personally I think you can get too hung up on the design stuff. For me it’s all about the content. That’s why I read your blog. There are loads of great looking blogs out there, but that wouldn’t make me read them. Good content still comes top of tthe list.
Sorry not to be more helpful, but I’ll keep reading whatever it looks like.
best
Nik
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burcuakyol Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 2:53 am
Valuable advice from an experience blogger:-) Thank you Karenne! I agree with you and decided to maintain my blog on edublogs and learn about self hosting at the same time…
All the best,
Burcu
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I have had to try continuously to post here on your blog, the anti-spam word was asked about 10 times *puzzled* anyway finally went through..
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Hi Burcu, I too started off with an Edublog last June, I was a bit disappointed with their servers going down from time to time plus like you I wanted to host my own blog which I have done since January. It took me ages to decide on the layout etc., (wordpress) I am so fussy, until I found the layout I liked and bought the image of The English Teacher which I found http://www.istockphoto.com/index.php Please feel free to contact me if need be you know where to find me. All the best. Aniya
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I use WordPress.com for Six Things. It’s great, and has lots and lots of beautiful themes to choose from. Highly recommend it. I don’t find it hard, not once you get used to it. It’s all pretty easy on these sites nowadays.
For nice photos that are free, try http://www.morguefile.com. It’s where I get all mine, they are shared there by different photographers.
I always think nice nature photos or landscapes are a good bet for a webpage or blog. Or some kind of striking image of something simple, like a pencil or a blackboard or a piece of chalk… It’s up to you really!
Look forward to the makeover, and happy decorating!
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The person whose blog I admire has left the first comment! Thank you Lindsay:-)
Actually I’m quite happy with Edublogs. It is powered by WordPress and I can use many WordPress features. The thing is I want to learn the technical side of blogging by self hosting my blog. For this, I need to buy a domain, a web hosting package and install the WordPress software on my computer. This way I will have the full control of my blog. But so many details… I’m still thinking about it.
Thank you for the suggestion about photos. You use very good pictures in your blog entries. They say a lot!
All the best,
Burcu
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Dear Nik,
Thanks for the comment. I’m happy to hear that you read my blog. I totally agree with you that it is the content that makes a blog worth visiting. Maybe I should be focusing on writing worth-reading entries rather than changing the look of my blog for the time being. At least until I have regular followers as Karenne suggests.
All the best,
Burcu
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Hi Aniya,
Thanks for the comment! I’ll definitely get in touch with you when I feel ready to self host my blog. I think I should practice by myself for a while
All the best,
Burcu
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Dear Kirsten,
Thank you for the comment. It’s a good idea to maintain the blog and slowly build the new one as it is a trial and error process:-)Sometimes painful…but fun!
All the best,
Burcu
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