I mentioned before that this blog would be undergoing major surgery shortly. I’ve already begun exploring some possible options but here are a list of changes that i’ve already decided on;
- A photo section – which displays all my flickr photos. I currently just pull the latest 6 pictures and place them on the homepage but i want a dedicated section as photo’s are an important part of blogging and getting personal.
- Portfolio section – it’ll be a dedicated page which details all my major past & current online projects. Designed to sell myself & my talents more – simple as that.
- Pagination on homepage – at the minute, the only way you can access past posts is through the archives page. 5 posts remain on the homepage but after that, they disappear. Given the fact i blog more than most, it’s easy to miss some posts (although not if you subscribe in an RSS reader) so i’ll be introducing page numbers to encourage people to look at more posts.
- AJAX – The homepage lacks AJAX features and not only does that result in more page loads and waiting, but it’s starting to look quite retro now WITHOUT some elements of AJAX. AJAX is basically loading new information without refreshing the entire page. You see it on gmail for example.
- Lighter colour scheme – in order to conform with modern styles i’ll be ditching the relatively dark colour scheme i have at present and replacing it with a much lighter one.
- Emphasis on RSS subscriptions. I’ll have an email subscribe box on the site and i’ll be pushing RSS more on this new theme. On that note, i’ll also be blogging about RSS shortly and why you should make use of it if you’re not already.
I’ll be working on this myself and probably modifying an existing theme heavily, using bits and pieces of other themes to guide me. That’ll get me off to a good start in 2009 – i should see an increase in traffic and more RSS subscriptions. Although college has somewhat stunted my blogging for the last few months, i shouldn’t have that problem in 2009 as i’ll have a netbook with me at all times – allowing me to ‘write on thought’.
I’ll also be condensing my portfolio of sites and domains – selling off the stuff i have no time for. This blog, BeerChief, theleavingcert.com and my jackpot network are safe. They’ll all be developed and enhanced in some way over the next few months. After that, the rest could all go, i’ll have to analyse their potential and see what i could get for them.
The likes of chromeguide.com, famousnerd.com, closelyguarded.com…. these are all nice little sites that i really have no plans to do anything with. Hanging on to them may be wise as the domains are all valuable and 10 years down the line, who knows what two word domains will be worth? On the flip side, any cash i get can be ploughed in to larger projects. For example i could sell 4 or 5 sites and use the money to develop one biggish site or simply improve some of my existing sites.