Awhile ago I hinted at the big changes planned for my future. Welp, I’m happy to report significant progress on one of them: my website redesign.
Now, that may not seem excitin’ to most folks but, for geeky me, it is. Partly because I’ve wanted to reorganize and revamp my site’s layout, categories, and overall user-friendliness for about three years; and, partly because teaching myself how to build a child theme is progress on another big change planned for the next two years. (I’ll share more about that at some point this year.)
So, if you’re curious, click on the picture (left) and a larger version will open up. That’s a sneak preview of my new site. It’s a working model and it’s not to scale; in general, it captures what I’m going for.
The goal is for this site to function as movie reviewer, book reviewer and paid author. I want the navigation simple and easy to use; the topics quickly identifiable; clean, uncluttered layout; everything works as it should.
My inspiration was the Critical Child Theme. After I downloaded and installed the theme, and its parent, I didn’t really understand how to make it work. (And I didn’t want to pay for support when I could, and wanted to, teach myself.) Plus, I was hoping for a framework like Twenty Eleven with its built-in features like post formats.
The decision to create my own child theme has required hours and hours of reading about custom post types (CPT), custom taxonomies, post formats, custom loops and queries. Finally, yesterday, I created my first CPT on the first go. My site didn’t break, pages showed up like they should, pretty permalinks worked. Yay!
Unfortunately, for the new layout I want, permalinks had to be re-structured and categories reorganized, renamed, or deleted, which means I may lose traffic and page rank. We’ll see. Those were my lowest priorities at this point, though. Also, there are design elements I want changed; namely, the header. My aunt is in graphic design so I’m hoping she’ll be able to help me create what I see in my head whenever I say, “Unleash the Flying Monkeys!”
Ewwww, I can’t wait!
Okay, sorry, I won’t geek out on you. I’ll save that for when the site’s finished. 😀
How’s 2012 treating you? Any breakthroughs or progress you wanna share?
I like it. It’s purty. 🙂 Especially like the layout with the latest movies and books.
Thanks, Shawn!
Very nice!!!! You should be excited.
Thank you, Laura!
I like it. Looks clean.
I admire your willingness to just wade into all that complicated stuff, Leah. A while back I wanted to change some fonts on my blog. Ugh. I decided to stick with what they gave me.
Good luck! I look forward to seeing the final product and all the new goodies you keep hinting at!
Thanks, Eileen!
It’s a lot of practice, and knowing that no matter what I do, if something goes wrong, I have a backup copy. 😀