The LifeLines remodeling project that I began more than two weeks ago is still underway, so I hope you’ll continue to “pardon my dust” as you click around the site. Here’s an update:
Blog remodeling
For the most part, the rebranding part of the remodel is complete. You can see the new LifeLines logo in the banner of each page, and I’ve carried that across to my LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, Lulu.com bookstore, and Smashwords.com bookstore.
I’m fairly confident that my switch to Feedblitz as my delivery system is also complete. The first email you received from LifeLines via Feedblitz revealed some corrections I wanted to make, but I think those are complete now, and subscriptions should be handled fairly automatically from now on.
It’s the upgrade of my theme (to Thesis 2) that is taking longer than I expected. Installing the software went pretty smoothly, but actually using it is more difficult than I anticipated. I am feeling the struggle of having to unlearn many of the coding skills I picked up over the past few years. For example, before the upgrade, I had coded some distinct fonts into my blog, and I thought those would be retained through the upgrade. They weren’t. So I’ve spent a lot of time learning how to add fonts back into my menus and applying them to different styles (headline, header, body, widget, etc.). If I had realized how difficult this would be, I probably would have chosen from the list of standard fonts already available. Oh well. That’s how you learn.
Blog reorganizing
I’ve also spent a lot of time reorganizing the content of my blog. The three main categories of customers I serve are individual people, businesses, and nonprofits. But I’ve learned that a business who comes to me for help with a news release has no idea that I also write fundraising letters for nonprofits, and help people publish their memoirs. I want my new site to make it clear that “helping you share your story” has a broader application than clients first realize. And I want to make it easy for visitors to self-select the type of writing they need.
Blog reviewing
Will you help me? Will you click around the site and let me know if I’m on the right track? Will you give me an honest review of the work I’ve done so far? I’d love to hear what you like or don’t like, or what suggestions you have for further enhancements, or what you miss about the old site.
In the meantime, I’ll keep tweaking and learning and experimenting so that LifeLinesPublishing.com can be a comfortable, efficient resource that is a pleasure to use.
Thanks for your help!
Love the remodeling project, Melanie. The logo looks great and the selections on the pages are clear for searching your writing skills.
Thanks Ann! For some reason, your comment landed in my to-be-approved file, which shouldn’t happen if you’ve commented here before. Maybe that’s a side effect of some of the new technology I’m using. You’re approved now, so feel free to comment all you want!
Looks good, but honestly I thought your previous site looked awesome and did not need changing. Still, I guess every brand needs some refreshing. :-)
You’re so kind, William! I did feel like my content needed reorganizing, so that was kind of the impetus behind the re-brand. You know how it is when you start a remodeling project—you replace a window, and the walls need repainting; once that’s done you realize how shabby the carpet looks. Before you know it, the whole house is re-done!
I like new look. I think it was a good idea to highlight all your services. God bless you.
Thanks Ann, good to hear from you!