Kelly's World

Today I implemented a new search function on my blog, which you can find on the top righthand side of my page, in the sidebar. Instead of just the usual “type and press” enter style, I have now adopted the Google-style “find as you type” method.

This is thanks to the plugin “Search Light“, which I found courtesy of the WordPress for Beginners blog (yes, I’m definitely a beginner here). I find it interesting that WFP haven’t implemented it on their own site though.

It seems to work pretty well, and the skin looks to match in pretty closely with my blog theme. I also just discovered when writing this blog post that you actually have an option to hide particular posts from the search drop down, which could be pretty handy.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on it! Are there any plug-ins for wordpress that you would recommend?

There’s so many different blogger titles – mommy blogger, professional blogger, style blogger blah blah blah. But what am I?

When I look back at what I write, it’s all very much my personal thoughts and experiences, so would I be classified as a personal blogger? Is that even a title?

I have also contemplated going to blogger meet ups like the ones organised by Hello Owl, but I don’t think I would have a very interesting way of explaining who I am, and what I write about:

I think it and I write it, because I don’t know how to keep it to myself

Yeah wow. Captivating. Snore.

Whilst I have dabbled in discussing my short-lived singledom & dating life as well as various relationships, I also wouldn’t say that I’m a dating blogger. Likewise, just because I have posted photos of the day for nearly 1.5 years, I also wouldn’t call myself a photo blogger.

If you had to categorise me, how would you do it?

I have been feeling a bit sick of my old blog theme for a while now, and finally decided it was time for a change. The new theme I found via the wordpress theme search, but I intend on changing it up a bit to make it my own. But first, a review of the changes:

The old blog layout

The new layout

The main change with the new layout compared to the old is that it feels a lot cleaner. The old one had a lot going on the page, with all the various blue headings and boxes and the header image really grabbing your attention. I would like to hope that the new one has you looking at the right places (aka my content, not a bunch of swirling lines) but with easy navigation so you can still find what you need. I also like the rough grunge look too – I think that’s very “me”.

In the near future I have some improvements I want to make:

• A custom header. As self conscious as I am, I figure my head needs to make an appearance here. Thus the canon will have to surface from its camera bag, and a photo shoot will need to take place. I expect this will take hours, followed by the requisite photoshopping to take it from a bad photo to an interesting header.
• Better navigation from post-to-post. I noticed that I’ve again lost the “previous post” and “next post” options, so I’ll have to get this working again!
• A featured image per post. If I don’t get some colour on this blog somewhere I fear it will become depressing to look at, and I don’t want that!
• A better related posts plugin. Something that really makes you want to stay on my page and read some more of what I have to offer (and hopefully what I have available is actually interesting)
• A clean up of my categories and tags, they’re pretty all over the place and there’s far too many.
• A better About page. I think it’s time I stopped hiding and spent some time letting all you readers get to know me!
• A contact me page. Again, while I want to remain as anonymous with regards to my specific identity and contact details,  I would still like to set up a form so you can contact me personally if you felt the need. However if you’re offering to send me millions of dollars provided I first give you my bank details, or if you have offers for penis enlargements, I may ignore you. Actually, I will ignore you.

Of course, while I have my own ideas for this site none of it matters if it doesn’t work for you – the audience! I would absolutely love and adore you if you took the time to let me know what you think of the new layout, and if there’s anything else you think I need to do to it. After all, I’m very much a newbie to all of this, and you can’t learn if there’s not someone willing to share some advice! So please – comment away!

Recently I read about a new WordPress plugin called “Published Articles Since Last Visit“. The plugin detects the date of the last visit from the returning visitor, and shows a list of articles published since then. It will also put in a suggestion for the reader to subscribe to your RSS feed. The text is fully customisable, so you can leave it as the default (“Welcome Back. Recent articles you may have missed”) or change it to something silly “Why so long since our last meeting? Here’s what you’ve missed!” I’m boring, I left it as the default *grin*

Click here to view the plugin in action on Kelly’s World

The best thing about it is the plugin is fully compatible with Google Analytics. Within the plugin settings you will be able to see statistics purely based on this plugin i.e. how many clicks there were from the links, and how many returning visits. Handy information indeed!

If you’re interested in getting the plugin for yourself, you can visit the plugin website here or just search for “published articles since last visit” in the plugin search within WordPress. Enjoy!

I follow a few blogs, but it’s rare that I ever approach anyone to see if they would be interested in doing a blog link trade. Thus, here it is ladies and gentlemen. If you like my blog, and you’re interested in having a link on the home page (currently only occupied by my sister Amyob) please add a comment in with your blog address so I can take a look at what you have, and add you to my site. Thanks!