Today’s post ought to be short and sweet. When it comes to the blogging quest (read nightmare), that’s not a guarantee.
Thought of titling this as “Along came a spider…” but then would SEO put my blog in touch with arachnophobics (I coin words)? The spider in this case is Gregg Morris. My dear Tweep @greggvm yesterday took my blog effort and turned it upside down.
I no longer am using Headway on WordPress, I’m now on Thesis, and what a relief. I see light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to Gregg (I must remember to use 3 Gs). He took his valuable time and spent it with me yesterday to re-launch the blog theme into something without the kinked-up sutures in which Headway had captured me.
I trusted him although we had never spoken prior to yesterday. How? We tweet. Why? We tweet. (More on that later.)
Another blogger I respect, too, is Nicky Jameson. She is also a Thesis user, and she has a boatload of WordPress tutorials on her Web site which I purchased for a more-than-reasonable fee and downloaded (took an hour). Watched the first one on Feedburner and tinkered as I watched…it worked!
So, thanks, thanks to my extraordinary new/old friend Gregg, who without concern for his valued time, inserted himself into mine to come to the aid of a damsel in distress (who didn’t, is that “wouldn’t?” ask for help).
Koodles!
Good to see you have your blog sorted out but (sorry to say) now it just looks like every single other non-optimized Thesis theme. This is why I don’t like it; where’s the originality?
I checked out the Headway theme and I will definitely be purchasing it over Thesis. I take it from your previous posts that you were having issues with the look of Headway? Good luck with Thesis then – I’m guessing you’re not a technical person?
In one minute I jump on the phone for a call; I’m coming back to you to reply, John. Thank you for your comment! Hang ten, please!
Nope, not an IT person, John, although I know more than most non-folks due to trials and tribs. I liked how the Headway theme gave me an amazing look; however, my links were broken, widgets were not working, permalinks were driving to one post only, etc. It was frustrating and time-consuming (although I knew no different). So a colleague migrated me to Thesis. I see your point re it looking like everyone else’s blog; however, isn’t content king?
A couple of quick points about John’s comment and yours first if I might. I have no interest in Headway vs. Thesis. There’s a gazillion good themes out there. Pick one you like and go. If it works for you, great. If not, dump it and get another one.
I believe that we “customize” (looks) themes not “optimize” (performance) them. You can make Thesis look like what you had in Headway without much effort. Yours looks like everyone else’s at the moment because you haven’t done much “customization.”
Content is indeed king and it’s looking like context is queen.
Enough of that though. Did you see Venessa Miemis blog post a few days ago? Here’s the link if you didn’t: “An Idea Worth Spreading: The Future is Networks” https://j.mp/bHvjRa.
She is the futurist that Mark Schaefer interviewed back in December. Here’s the link to that one: “A futurist’s view of the ‘next big thing’ in social media” https://j.mp/cezFnK. She is one very smart lady ( a lot like you! 🙂 ).
The Idea Worth Spreading post is a bit long but when you get to this part, stop for a moment and think about what you described in your post above. “It all seemed not only intimidating, but damn near impossible. How do you meet people? How do you make a business connection? How do you build trust with strangers so that you’re not strangers anymore, but might help each other. (And help is anything from lending your neighbor a hammer, to making a referral to help someone maybe land a job, to emailing or tweeting a link online to information you think someone might find useful.) Help comes in all shapes and sizes.” Then go on and read about core strengths and then what she says about Twitter and gifting.
We sort of showed, and you described, how you build trust in strangers by how you use Twitter and then how you go about giving that gift.
Gregg, I am delighted you wrote and provided such fab fodder to digest. Naturally, you’ve spawned a post topic for me which you’ll shortly see. The hidden gifts of Twitter are becoming more realized each day I blog. Thanks for being along for the unfolding ride and gifting me with your generosity and expertise.
Four blog tips on the house.
1) Content trumps Thesis, Headway or whatever. Just write good stuff. You can pimp your ride later.
2) Community follows great content.
3) Never use “koodles” in a blog post. You probably just cut your readership by half … certainly all the men.
4) Gregg is such a great guy he has earned yet another “g.” From now on he will be Sir Greggg : )
Duly noted, Mark. Thank you for taking time to say so.