Photo by prawnpie
I spent the week at a technology conference. What did I do there? I made my own wiki, 1001 Kids Books. I discovered how to increase my personal learning network with Twitter4Teachers. And I learned how to bling my blog. I found out about book screenings. I was told about blog giveaways. It was suggested that we add polls. Bling bling bling bling.
Mind you, the Bling Your Blog session was designed for (mostly) junior high and high school teachers. But here's what I came away with:
(1) Beware too much text
(2) Add polls
(3) Add buttons, menus, text boxes
(4) Images and videos
(5) Giveaways
So, I ask you: How are you blinging your blog? How should I bling my blog? Must I? Or is my blog about as bling-y as a book blog should be?
To start the blinging process and to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day, here's my first book screening:
Lots of little reads this week....
I do them all. Never all at once. I am very mindful of having large blocks of text without images. Hard on the eyes.
ReplyDeleteAt Color Online, I worry we have too many images. I rotate images, which are live links to articles that have fallen off the front page or to sites that have posts I think members would enjoy.
It's about finding a balance. Sometimes I worry that I'm not succeeding but I remain open to changing including paring back, color schemes and pub schedule.
Menus are very helpful even if readers don't read them knowing there is a central location to find a particular kind of post is appreciated.
I think your blog is just fine. Some bling is fun but I would caution against overdoing it. A cluttered blog is visually overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteI'm not really a bling-ish type of blogger. I'm not really a bling-ish type of person. Though a little bling can be quite lovely...
ReplyDeleteI think your blog is great as it is. Too much bling is distracting for me sometimes. I agree, I prefer shorter posts, reviews etc to longer ones. A little A.D.D. here I guess.
ReplyDeleteBTW...very cool about hooking up with your high school buddy after 35 years. Looking forward to my get together as well.
My thoughts:
ReplyDelete(1) Beware too much text
Agreed. You don't want to look like a newspaper from 1912 with wall-to-wall text. But on the flip side, if you're writing a blog about books, you don't want to be too image-heavy either. Find a balance.
(2) Add polls
I've never had a poll...although who knows maybe I should start.
(3) Add buttons, menus, text boxes
Yes, but use sparingly. Don't have a sidebar that stretches for pages and pages. I limit myself to about 10 text boxes on the side and even that is probably too much.
(4) Images and videos
Absolutely. Both.
(5) Giveaways
Did it once and didn't work out that well, mainly because I didn't have money to follow through and send out everything. Do, but again sparingly.
At least, these are my thoughts as a blogger for the last five years. However, I'm always learning.
I think there are limits to how blingy a blog should be. Personally I like simple & straightforward; I hate flashy things, music and too many widgets. I hate it when a blog takes 10 minutes to load. What do I like? A clean layout with a focus on content. Giveaways are great to get more eyes on your blog but you don't need to do them all the time. Images yes; videos, keep to a minimum. Which is not to say "no". Just, you know, don't go nuts! :-)
ReplyDeleteI think your blog is perfectly bling-y. I think too much going on puts readers off anyway.
ReplyDeleteI am all about simplicity. Too much sidebar stuff is a distraction and I rarely ever look at it if there's too much. My posts tend to be a bit on the long side, but I change colors when quoting passages and switch to italics, so I hope that helps my readers not feel bogged down with too much info in one post.
ReplyDeleteI see you have a picture of a Kipper book here. Love me some Kipper!! I used to watch the show all the time with my nieces.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely with you it agree. In it something is also thought excellent.
ReplyDelete