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We had the opportunity to sit down with some very smart bloggers and get their tips for simple, effective things that can be done to improve the look and functionality of your blog. During our chat, we discussed design and coding tips, SEO tips, and some general blogging “best practices”. You can watch the chat below and I’ve also highlighted some of the key tips that came out of our discussion.
When I started blogging in 2003, the tempates that were available for blogs on platforms like Diaryland and Blogger had very little personality let alone style, so I took it upon myself to start learning some rudimentary HTML.
The first bit of code I learned, though, was actually BASIC way back in 1984. I learned how to create a blue square and a red circle with goto and if-then statements. It was magical, and even though it had been 19 years since I had coded anything, I think it was that early experience that made me think I could change my online environment in 2003.
I started teaching myself CSS and HTML so I could create blog templates for myself that would better deliver my individual personality and message, and that control did incredible things for my creativity and ability to grow my talents. I began to really own my space online in a way I had not before, and I discovered a love for blog design that would eventually launch me into a whole new line of work.
The CSS and HTML that I do now is small potatoes compared to what the people in the video below do who build whole systems, but I know enough to have discovered the powerful levels of human expression and creativity that can be born out of a few lines of code.
This whole preamble, though, is just me getting you to watch "What Most Schools Don't Teach", because it's great code inspiration:
I first ran across this video at Karen Walrond's Chookooloonks.
If you've ever wanted to know how to code, please start, and make sure this kind of knowledge is handed down to your kids. Code really is the new literacy, and it opens both personal and professional doors like none other in history.
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Check out Code.org. I've just signed up with their Codecademy, and it looks like a good place to start learning code from the bottom up. Also, WCSchools has a wealth of free tutorials.
UPDATE: I've just been told about Treehouse, which offers paid but more in depth, project-oriented tutorials to teach you how "...to build websites, create iPhone and Android apps, code with Ruby on Rails and PHP, or start a business."
The previous owner painted the walls in a darker cream with a couple of very dark burgundy accent walls, so I am looking forward to lightening up the mood of the space with bright, light colours and a couple of vibrant spots to give it some spark.
I have been surrounded by basic rental apartment white for twenty years, so I am more than a little excited to put some pizazz into the place. I think that's how I found myself falling for brighter and brighter colours as I went along.
I started off with some nice blues and greens, because I've always wanted to find that perfect robin's egg blue for a wall I could call my own, but damn it if the rest of the crayon box of colours didn't start looking pretty good, too.
And that's how I found myself thinking that Snow Cone Green, Rumba Orange, and Rose Parade might be just what I need. They probably aren't what I need, and the Palinode's probably having minor heart attacks looking at some of the colours I've laid out here, but they're pretty, yes? I think they're damn spanky.
I haven't picked out the two or three brighter colours I want yet, so let me know what inspires or horrifies you.
If the whole enterprise turns out disastrously, we can always repaint, right?
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PS. Here are the colours I'm leaning most toward right now:
Wednesday, March 13, 2013 We had the opportunity to sit down with some very smart bloggers and get their tips for simple, effective things that can be done to improve the look and functionality of your blog. During our chat, we discussed design and coding tips, SEO tips, and some general blogging “best practices”. You can watch the chat below and I’ve also highlighted some of the key tips that came out of our discussion.
