What's With the Blog Face Lift?

Over the last month, you might have noticed a few changes I've made to the blog.  The biggest change is the new title, blaring my name at you at the top.  I must admit, I'm not exactly comfortable with some of the changes (aka my name blaring at you at the top of the blog) so why would I make them?

Photo courtesy of Ohmega1982

Back before Christmas, I began reading Are You There Blog? It's Me, Writer by Kristen Lamb.  The book is a collection of her blog posts related to writing and blogging.  I hadn't really read anything by Ms. Lamb prior to December, but some of the people she is associated with started following me on Twitter, and then I found her book on sale on my Nook, and so I snapped it up.  I can always use help with blogging, after all.

Next, I read the blog post Your New Writing Blog: Avoid These Faux-Pas by Roz Morris, author of Nail Your Novel, about blogging basics.  She suggested many of the same things that I had read in Are You There Blog? It's Me, Blogger.  Hearing the same advice from two different sources moved me to action.  I have made links to both sources, so you can go read their great advice, rather than detailing all of the advice here and making an insanely long post.  I will share the changes I made, so you can get a sampling.

• I deleted the left sidebar.  I also deleted some of the extra "stuff" I had needed when I started to fill space.  This did clean up the blog significantly, and moved the posts to the most visible place.
• I moved the "About Me" back to the main page.  It is now up at the top where it is visible, complete with an updated picture of yours truly.  That's one of those uncomfortable changes, by the way, but both Kristen Lamb and Roz Morris were adament that people want to see who they're reading and don't want to go hunting for it.
• I added a search box. Now that I have a blog history, I need help relocating specific blogs.  Up it went. I also added a subscribe by e-mail.  It's a relatively new feature on blogger, and can allow people who aren't google affiliated, or don't want to join the follower block, a way to follow your blog.
• I started tagging my name in all my blog posts. It increases people's ability to search your name and actually find you.
• And finally, this weekend, I put my name up at the top of my blog.  I kept Motivation for Creation as the URL, because I know how hard it is to spell 'Schiffbauer'. (It's my husband's fault.  That's the reason my twitter handle is @LASbauer, too.) I wish I could change font size, so my name could be a little less...well, large, but I can't figure out how to do that, and leave the Motivation for Creation big, so it is blaring at you, and I'm sorry.  However, you certainly know whose blog it is!

It was a tough sell to put my name up there.  I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to do it.  What finally convinced me to do it were my own experiences this Friday.  I went on a four hour blog reading bender, trying to get caught up with the reading and commenting that got neglected during the week.  When I was catching up on the Nightgale blog challenge I would look for the names of people who had commented on my blog, and not be able to find them.  I had no idea whose blog I was reading.  It was very frustrating.  I decided to save anyone who might want to find me (hopefully!) the same frustration.

Are you happy with your blog design, or are you ready for a blog face lift?  Do you have any other blogging tips you'd like to share?