Hi All – You’ll notice a whole bunch of new changes to BlogAboutBeer.com today if you visit it from the web (rather than your RSS reader). While it’s not the handmade theme I mentioned a few days ago (unfortunately, due to an extreme lack of free time, that project will have to be put on the back burner for the time being), I’m still pretty happy with the way it turned out. I found a free theme I was actually pretty impressed with and then hacked it up a bunch to get to the nearly-finished product you see here.
Important Changes:
Since I was already knee-deep in WordPress routing around changing the theme, I went ahead and made a bunch of other adjustments, too. I limited the number of posts which appear on the homepage to 5 in order to cut down on load time. I also discovered that, overtime, I had somehow built up to nearly 40 installed plugins (most of which I wasn’t even using) on the old theme, so I deleted all but 10 or 12 of them, which should speed things up considerably as well.
I cleaned up the sidebar quite a bit; again eliminating a bunch of clutter that just wasn’t being put to use. I tried to make better use of the advertisements on the site (there has to be some, blogga’s gotta get paid!) while streamlining them and hopefully making them less obtrusive than before (which I hope will, in turn, lead to more ad sales 🙂 ). I installed a plugin called Sexy Bookmarks (you can see why) to encourage more social interaction with the site. And last but not least, what’s probably my new favorite part – I added the option for threaded comments. So now you can reply directly to any comment left on any post on the blog (check it out, you’ll see what I mean).
Alright, I believe that’s everything. There are still a few kinks to hammer out this morning but it’s all part of what I hope will be a whole new & improved BlogAboutBeer.com as we move into the new year. Keep your eyes peeled for lots more fun and exciting stuff going on ’round here soon, too. And of course, if you have any comments or suggestions on the new look of the site, let’s hear ’em!
Thanks,
Luke
4 Comments
this has to be one of the funniest beer ads I’ve seen in a while and I had to share
happy holidays, everyone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzEjDBQbC0
Welcome to the Sexy Family! Glad to have you on board!
My pleasure! Thanks for having me. I’m digging it so far.
Lookin’ good! I was on vacation when this post came out so was reading a more recent post and thought “Damn Luke’s made some nice improvements”.
It’s the first time I’ve seen the sexy bookmarks. They really stand out from the typical sharing plugin – I might have to use it in the beer blog I’m getting set to launch. Did you consider the Comment Luv plugin at all? I’m debating whether to use it or not but noticed a few other beer bloggers have it.
Anyways, nicely done with the upgrade.