Happy New Year Readers! I hope your 2015 is off to a great start! Here at Our Little Smarties, we are kicking off 2015 with a brand new blog makeover.
I bought this new theme for more than a month, and finally had time to install it last Friday. The installation was easy, but halfway through the process, I nearly ‘killed’ my blog.
Suddenly, there was a server error and my blog was completely down. I e-mailed my hosting provider for help; thankfully Bryan came to my rescue within just 10 minutes. Frankly, I really like this guy – he’s always fast in his response. With his great service, I can enjoy blogging on this space with ease.
The main difference of this theme as compared to all the previous themes is the static front page. It makes my blog looks more like a professional website and less like a “blog”. It gives readers a welcome and general introduction of this blog. For me, I can showcase the important and recent posts all in one page.
The slider, as you can see at the top of the blog, shows all my featured posts. The recent posts are showcased at the center of the blog with a short excerpt. This followed by recent campaigns and popular posts. I will add more when I’ve time.
Just when I thought everything was in place, I viewed my blog on IE to double-check (currently using Google Chrome). Much to my dismay, the alignment was haywire. I had to check my stylesheet again to re-align it. Then I had to check it on my mobile phone, iPad and tablet to make sure all go well. Thankfully, they did. (If you see anything wrong, I appreciate if you can inform me, thanks!)
Not to worry if you still prefer the blog lay-out. You can click on “BLOG latest updates” on the top navigation bar to read this blog in the usual blog lay-out.
The usual blog lay-out
Subscribe to this blog
Finally, I’ve fixed the issues with my blog’s newsletter subscription. If you want to be notified whenever a new post is up, you can subscribe to my blog using form on the bottom right of my blog.
Your e-mail subscription will look like this
Alternatively, ‘like’ us on Facebook. I will share the post on my Facebook Page whenever a new post is up.
Monthly Instagram Giveaway
Don’t forget we have a monthly Instagram giveaway happening on the first of every month. Do check out my Instagram @ourlittlesmarties for details.
Last but not least, I hope you like the new lay-out. I appreciate if you can spare a minute to let me know your feel about it. Any comments and recommendations are well appreciated. Just leave your precious comments here. Thanks and have a great week ahead.
Lots of Love,
Emily
Nice, clean and professional layout you’ve got there Emily. Good start to the new year. Personally I feel a little overwhelmed by too many posts on the home page that I don’t know where to navigate with this new template. So I’m still reading via the usual blog layout.
Dear Susan,
Thanks for your comment! Appreciate it. I removed some of the elements on the front page to make it less clustered and distracting. I hope it’s better now. The thing I like about this theme is the option to read on the usual blog lay-out. Just one more extra click to get you there. 🙂
It looks nice, clean and beautiful. Great job, Emily! Luv it!