Blogging - where to go from here

frg

Started blogging about 3 months ago to help fill in the gaps between looking for work...
Anyways I'm finding it a thoroughly enjoyable experience, but so far my posts have been rather random with no real structure or direction. anyway I've reached a point were I would like to start to think of where to take this and would appreciate your views/ideas/input on photoblogging in general and my blog in particular. ( link is below my signature

thanks

denisegoldberg

I think that depends on what you want to get out of blogging.

I enjoy writing, and I enjoy sharing my photos, so that's what my blog is about. I always link the photos on my blog directly to my photo galleries so a click on the photo takes the viewer to the gallery where the photo resides. I have chosen to share odd moments, thoughts, my travels, and to highlight some of my photos.

If you want to create a blog to teach people about photography or about something else, then you may want to use a focused blog for that as opposed to combining everything in one place.

Do you have a photo gallery somewhere? If you do then I'd recommend moving away from blogger's standard photo insert, using html instead to show your photo and to provide a link to see the photos in your galleries. The HTML to use for this purpose if you have a smugmug site can be seen in this post - Adding photos to your blog. Obviously the code will need to be changed if your photos are hosted somewhere else, but it should be close.

Some of your images are dark enough that they appear to blend in with your blog background. Have you considered adding a border (in blogger, not on the actual photo) around your images?

I'd also recommend making some changes to your blog format. You are using the minima template from blogger. There's nothing wrong with that templaate - in fact it's the one I use myself, with a few changes. The biggest change I'd recommend is to make the text areas of your blog wider. I'd also recommend that you change from using pixels to using a percentage, to let your blog text expand and contract as the user changes their browser window size. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. One is to simply change your blog format from minima to minima stretch. I don't recommend that because then your blog will stretch the full width of the browser window. I've always liked a little bit of space around things. To change to a stretchy format but control the percentage of the screen used, see my notes at Stretchy blog format.

Another change? Your banner image has text running across it that is almost impossible to read. Either change the color of the text so it is readable, or remove it.

Are you getting any income from the ads? If not, I'd pull them off of your blog. All they do is turn attention away from your site.

I'm not sure that this is what you were after with your request. I apologize if I headed off in a direction that you don't find to be useful.

--- Denise

frg

denisegoldberg wrote:

I think that depends on what you want to get out of blogging.

I enjoy writing, and I enjoy sharing my photos, so that's what my blog is about. I always link the photos on my blog directly to my photo galleries so a click on the photo takes the viewer to the gallery where the photo resides. I have chosen to share odd moments, thoughts, my travels, and to highlight some of my photos.

If you want to create a blog to teach people about photography or about something else, then you may want to use a focused blog for that as opposed to combining everything in one place.

Do you have a photo gallery somewhere? If you do then I'd recommend moving away from blogger's standard photo insert, using html instead to show your photo and to provide a link to see the photos in your galleries. The HTML to use for this purpose if you have a smugmug site can be seen in this post - Adding photos to your blog. Obviously the code will need to be changed if your photos are hosted somewhere else, but it should be close.

Some of your images are dark enough that they appear to blend in with your blog background. Have you considered adding a border (in blogger, not on the actual photo) around your images?

I'd also recommend making some changes to your blog format. You are using the minima template from blogger. There's nothing wrong with that templaate - in fact it's the one I use myself, with a few changes. The biggest change I'd recommend is to make the text areas of your blog wider. I'd also recommend that you change from using pixels to using a percentage, to let your blog text expand and contract as the user changes their browser window size. There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. One is to simply change your blog format from minima to minima stretch. I don't recommend that because then your blog will stretch the full width of the browser window. I've always liked a little bit of space around things. To change to a stretchy format but control the percentage of the screen used, see my notes at Stretchy blog format.

Another change? Your banner image has text running across it that is almost impossible to read. Either change the color of the text so it is readable, or remove it.

Are you getting any income from the ads? If not, I'd pull them off of your blog. All they do is turn attention away from your site.

I'm not sure that this is what you were after with your request. I apologize if I headed off in a direction that you don't find to be useful.

--- Denise

Hi Denise ,

thats really helpful , thanks very much for taking the time to write all that ,
I didn't even know you could put a border

denisegoldberg

frg wrote:

thats really helpful , thanks very much for taking the time to write all that, I didn't even know you could put a border

You're very welcome.

I have a blog I use for experimenting, and I've just added an entry there that shows two ways of placing a border around a photo in a blog. I much prefer the 2nd example on the page, which is done with an HTML table. I know, I know, it's an odd use for a table, but it does nicely put a border around the photo.

You can see the blog page at http://denisegoldbergplays.blogspot.com/, in the entry http://denisegoldbergplays.blogspot.com/2009/09/photo-with-border.html (in case I add more entries, just so you can easily find it). I placed the code I used in a text file called placeBorderAroundImage.txt, accessible on the page http://sites.google.com/site/denisegoldbergplays/Home.

--- Denise