Dappled Air

How time flies. I just realized that I have been blogging at Dappled Air for over a year. My first post appeared on June 16/2008 . Now after a year I have gotten the hang of blogging and am in the middle of redoing my main website Marlies' Creative Universe. The website has gotten so big and so diverse since its inception in 1997, that it is time to split it up and switch to a different CMS. Currently I am using TYPO3, but the new sites will be in Wordpress. For the last half year I have been immersing myself in the intricacies of Wordpress. Thank goodness I learned to use TYPO3 and now switching to a different CMS is much easier. I will keep on using Dappled Air as my blog for my personal musings. Specific interests will be taken over by the various sub blogs. I am in the middle of activating them which is quite a big job in itself. If you check out the links below you will find that they are in various states of readiness, but from each one there is also a link to the section on ...

I have run into a little snag with my blog. I am trying to cover too many subjects and so find it difficult to submit the blog to be included in sites. I guess, that is the problem when your interests are all over the place rather than limited to just a few. So I am trying to figure out how to solve this problem. My main website is called Marlies' Creative Universe for exactly that reason. When I started it in April of 1997 it was manageable, but now after all that time it has grown to humongous proportions and is more like 5 websites in one. On top of it due to the amount of traffic I am generating and the fact that I am using TYPO3 as CMS the site literally crawls. That is not good for visitors, as they have to wait for the pages to load. So temporarily, I have solved this slowness problem by making most of the pages static rather than dynamic. It helped, but I still will have to figure out a way to improve this on a permanent basis and that brings me to the problem of switchin...

I love fonts and pictures and icons. Recently I noticed that many icons come now as png files and they are really pretty. So, I have started to collect them as well as the regular ico files. This week I have been using some of those icons as pictures for my posts. They are small but at the same time are perfect to convey the idea of the post. The image to the right is an icon. I am curious if I am the only one who has started to use icons as pictures or if there are others like me. I would love to hear your answers and am looking forward to reading your comments. I also use the ico files with my still Windows XP computer to help me find the folders I am looking for faster. Right click on the icon you want to change Select properties -> customize -> change icon Now look through the default folder or browse to the folder where you have your downloaded icons save -> select your icon -> select OK The folder will now display the new icon Related articles Extract Resources From ...

I just had been thinking about what to write next about on my blog when I came across this very timely and helpful article on Chris Brogan's blog called: 40 ways to deliver killer blog content This is the first time in my life when my brevity with the written word and not the spoken word, you can't shut me up at times, is to my advantage. Keeping the blog article short and to the point gives your article a pretty good chance that it will be read as nobody has the time to read a 'book' online in a blog. I remember my first essay I wrote, in an English course I took at the age of 18 in Bournemouth, England, that had the teacher's comment on it: good but brief. First of all, I had to look up what brief meant. I also painfully remember what chore it was after the holidays to write thank you cards. My mother hovering over me and ridiculing me for not being able to express myself in writing. Well, all I can say not everybody is comfortable writing long essays.

Now that I have been blogging for a few months, I am starting to figure out how to make it a more effective blog that attracts readers. I have found a few blogs that offer helpful info and added them to my RSS feed. Here are a few helpful articles: CopyBlogger: "the ultimate blogger writing guide" DailyBlogTips: "write your title carefully and after the post" CopyBlogger: "10 ways to avoid writing insecurity"

Image by Zemanta via CrunchBase After adjusting the look of the blog, the next step is to improve the blog content itself. As synchronicity is always at play I came across some interesting articles in my RSS reader and by following the links I gathered some helpful info that I will have to analyze a little more in depth. Not the first item I came across but the one I found the most helpful was the ' Zemanta ' Firefox add-on. Once you am logged in to your blog and start to write your article Zemanta is ready and listing in and supplying helpful info like what tags to use, links to other blog articles with similar content and pictures. Related articles by Zemanta Zemanta is a Great Firefox Blog Add-On Zemanta Use Zemanta to Easily Share Blog Content How to generate some income with the blog is another area I am currently exploring , as well as how to write better copy. Here are just a few sites I have come across that I find helpful: Chris Brogan CopyBlogger - copywriting tip...

Geck Image via CrunchBase Now that I have a few months of working with blogger behind me, I just had to change the look to suite me more. Well, that was easier said than done. Wading through tons of links and checking them out took a bit of time. Then, just when I thought I had found a site or article that would be helpful, I found out once I tried the code that it did not work and I was off again to look for another site/article. Given my temperament, I just could not take an existing layout template and use it. I had to have the means of customizing to my view. I love to look at layouts for ideas and stimulation, but then I go off in my own direction. Here are a few page that I found very helpful with info on how to customize your blogger blog: Blogger Templates, Tips, Tricks and Hacks BlogU - Creative Blogging Blogger Buster - this site is a treasure trove of goodies Kid Tech Guru: 50 amazing blogger tricks Three Column Blogger Tips for new bloggers WebTalks Free Template Sites Bl...

My transformation of my blog is just about done for now. Most of it was easy and working with a test blog was really helpful. After looking at my 3 column blog, I realized that I needed to make the content stand out more and searched through my hard drive to find a background that would add to the design. I think I fond it and like the leaves and blue sky, it gives it that 'dappled air' look. Also putting a thin dashed border around my 2 sidebars helped visually. Now, the one thing I didn't really like was that long 'labels' list and I wanted a label cloud. I had bookmarked a site with instructions for a label cloud and decided to give it a try. It was very easy to follow them and adjust the colors to my website. I am pleased with the final result.

When I first started this blog, I just took the template that I liked and adjusted the colors to suit my style. Now after a few months I realized that I would really prefer to have 3 columns, but how to change it took a lot of research and reading. I forgot to take a screenshot, so now that I have created a test blog I set it up with the 2 col template again and some test entries and took a screenshot for reference. I tried yesterday to make the changes and it would just not work, so I switched back to the 2 column style. Then last evening I came across another site with instructions. I realized that the problem the first time around had to do with my initial template I used. I had started with the 'Minima lefty' template and following the new instructions I had found I had no problem converting to 3 columns. The only thing I had to change was the code for the original left column, to make it the right column. Taking screenshot of the 3 column layout straight after conversi...