Nothing But Words

Welcome to my new site design! It’s been two years since my last design change, which is eons in internet time. I’m using the WordPress Sustainable theme, but I’ve modified it substantially. I’ve simplified the sidebar, and the most significant change is my addition of a “welcome” page. The reason for both changes is to cleanly separate the different topics I write about – to make my site more like 3 separate blogs rather than 1 single blog.

A cardinal rule of blogging if you to keep readers coming back is to focus on a single topic. I like to write about a lot of different things, which can drive people away. I know that when I visit a site for, say, PHP programming tips, I’ll usually lose interest if the author starts writing about himself or other topics – I’m there for his PHP expertise, not to look at pictures of his dogs. I don’t want to stop writing about a variety things, but in this design I’ve clearly separated the main topics so that it’s easy for people to focus just on what interests them. With RSS readers being a common way for people to keep up with their favorite blogs, I’m clearly presenting the separate feeds as well.

Let me know what you think of the new design. In particular, let me know if something doesn’t look right in your browser (I’ve tested in Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera, but there are multiple versions of each out there, and variations on different platforms).

I made the effort to do this because I’m ready to return to blogging more frequently. My new job has kept me extremely busy since the start of the year, and I haven’t had time for blogging or for tending to my WordPress plugins. I’m still busy, but I’m starting to get my nights and weekends back, and I miss blogging.