I’ve been spending a considerable amount of time tweaking, customizing, and improving Reader Meet Author lately. Since the Theme Debacle is over (for now), I’ve been focusing on adding new stuff both for readers and for myself. I was going to post this in the “Tids & Bits” sideblog… but it’s important enough to me to warrant a full fledged post.
Why do you care? Good question! I don’t know if you do and that’s why I’m posting this. I’d love feedback on any or all of the changes or features that I’m about to discuss. If you have a moment to spare, drop me a line or leave a comment and let me know what you think. In addition, if you have any ideas on ways I could improve RMA or anything you’ve seen elsewhere that you’d like to see here please let me know. And be honest. I can take it. Promise. Haha.
- Theme: After months of playing around and switching themes on an almost daily basis I finally decided to go with this one, called Subtle. It’s very customizable, easily updated, and has the nifty info boxes on the front page and post pages. Plus, if I get the hankerin’ to change the look again I can just change the “style” of Subtle and/or the header graphic. Honestly… what do you think?
- “Tids & Bits”: This part of the front page is a sideblog, or a blog inside a blog. It lets me post… well… tids and bits… without interrupting the flow of the larger posts. It’s also where I’m going to house F/Us… which as I’ve said before are follow ups. Not f#$@ yous.
- Reader Submit: I mentioned this in a previous post. In a nutshell, it’s a way for readers to send in suggestions for new topics or ask questions. There are more details on the Submit page.
- Series: Ok… series aren’t new. I’ve had them for more than a year now. But not only are they now featured on the front page and in the menu bar, but each series now has it’s own page with a description, any updates or news on the series, and a list of all the posts in that series. Visit the Series page and click on the name of a series to see the new page.
- Archives & Find: Archives aren’t really new. I’ve been using the Extended Live Archives thing for a while now. But Find gives you another way to find stuff. The archives are an easy way to find things by the tag or category that I put posts in. Find lets you search by keyword, month/year, or category. You can also scroll back through every post using the Next/Previous Page links at the bottom of the page. It’s all about options, baby!
- Subscribe to Comments: I’ve been trying to get this one to work for a while and by George I think I got it! When you leave a comment you can check a little box and have any comments posted after yours emailed to you. The next time you return to any comment there should be a link that says “Manage Your Subscriptions” that allows you to subscribe to other posts and unsubscribe from previous ones. Of course this all depends on you having cookies enabled.
- Post Rating: Yet another way for readers to have input and direct the topics of conversation around this joint. It uses the “star” system and lets folks tell me if they liked or didn’t like a post. That way I can 1) get an idea of the types of topics people are interested in and 2) get an idea of the overall feel for a post. You’ll find the post rating stars in the Info box that accompanies each post.
- Similar Posts: Also located in the Info box is a list of posts that are similar in some way to the one you’re reading. It’s based on keywords so it’s not 100% accurate just yet. But it’s pretty darn smart and it links up to all of the old posts that new readers might not have seen before.
- Footer Stuff: Several little things down in the footer: Credits and Who’s Online. The credits page should be of interest to any other blogger out there with a WordPress-based site. It’s a list of all the plugins and modifications I use here. Ya know… in case you wanna put something similar on your blog. And of course it gives due credit where credit is due. Who’s Online shows… well… who’s online. It’s really more for me than anyone else. But it’s kinda interesting. It shows when search engine bots are crawling your site and when registered users/guests are here.
- Polls: I have the ability to publish polls now as well. As soon as the need arrives you’ll see it. Haha.
- Email Subscription: Not entirely new I guess. But the kinks have been worked out and it’s ready to go full time. Just use the easy subscription box in the footer of any page.
Those are the things everyone should notice. I’ve improved the behind the scenes stuff as well. It should make for a better experience across the board. With all of the additions I’m sure there will be a few glitches, grammar mistakes, and misspellings. If you see any I’d appreciate a quick email or something so I can fix it.
Hopefully before too long I’ll have more news to share. But for now these are the new things to play with at RMA. Try ‘em out… give ‘em a look… and let me know what you think. Your feedback is, as always, greatly appreciated. If you’d rather not leave a comment you can always contact me by email.
Thanks,
Derick
14 Comments
When I started blogging about 6mnts ago, I spent many a sleepless nite pondering about my next blog entry (nearly drove me bats!) But since then, I’ve come to the conclusion “You can’t please ‘em all!!” (to say the least!)
My only advice to you is, just let it flow - carry on blogging the way you’ve done up to now.
There are loads of readers out there, some will leave a comment and others will just lurk!
I enjoy reading your blog, and if I like what I read, I’ll fly back like a boomerang, haahaha!
If you’re interested to see who’s visiting and who’s lurking on your site, may I suggest you install a sitemeter, it’s FREE & EASY to instal. http://www.sitemeter.com
:-)
I, too, used to spend a lot of time wondering about what to write. My goal now isn’t so much pleasing everyone as finding ways to let the people who read my blog have some input into what sorts of things they’re interested in. And that’s really what I’ve always been about: interaction and feedback.
I’d like to provide multiple ways to interact because I know a lot of folks don’t like leaving comments. That’s the kind of stuff I’m looking at now.
Interacting and feedback! That’s a large problem to conquer! As I’ve said before there are readers and lurkers.
Some times I don’t know why people take time to read something good, only to say NADA! We also don’t behave like that when we’re in a crowd - but that’s where the lurkers come into the picture, haahaha!
Hell and damnation! That’s one of my pethates, when I leave a comment on someone’s site, and they just ignore me! (maybe I have a problem with being ignored, hehehe!)
Believe me Derick, I’ve tried getting people to pay me a visit - but SOME guys are just plain stubborn.
Blogging is hard work and a load of effort goes into what we give, but I’ve come to the conclusion, blogging is also a very ungrateful past time.
I doubt if there is anything you can do about receiving feedback from other readers, BUT, at least when YOU receive a comment , YOU will relate back - even it it’s on your own blog. CARRY ON REGARDLESS!
:-)
Yep. That’s really all we can do, huh?
Of course we care…altho I’ve been neglectful in actually commenting. Ha. You def have an abundance of features. I’ve already been using some of them, altho the email thing doesn’t help me b/c I usually end up checking the site before I get the email. Anyway, I’d be interested in seeing more of your photography…I love the places and things. Oh, and about polls…do we get to decide what you should be for halloween again?! lol
Many moons ago I had an email service that sent the message about new posts instantly. But it had all sorts of ads and crap that got attached to every email so I dumped it in favor of FeedBurner’s. I’ll check and see if that’s something I can change on my end.
As far as the photography goes, I actually have a lot more. But I have no scanner. Let me rephrase that. I have no working scanner. I’m working on that as well.
LOL @ the Halloween poll. Ahhh yes… it was about a year ago that I was being told to dress like a tampon. If you noticed… I never did any more polls. LOL. Just kidding… that wasn’t *really* why. But I’m a little scared to do another Halloween poll regardless… haha.
And the theme changes again…lol. I think I like the new layout and the font is good too. I hope you soon find peace with your WordPress theme. Ha!
LOL! I just knew you’d say something :P I ran across this theme a few days ago… it’s new… and I couldn’t figure out how to tweak it so I wasn’t going to use it.
And then today I had an epiphany.
I’d say it won’t change again… but you wouldn’t believe me anyway (and I can’t really guarantee it won’t… haha).
I swear I pay attention to the content, too. Not just the layout. ;)
Haha. If you’ll notice… I didn’t lose anything content or feature-wise this go around.
Did I?
Oh, yes, more photography!! Me likes pictures!!
Must get scanner working… must get scanner working… must get scanner working…
Yes yes…Photography. Definately. It’s always funny to see pictures along with reading your stuff. (ie the muffin top post)
I borrowed the pictures in the muffin top post. I haven’t really photographed many muffin tops in the past ;)