Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

March 22, 2007

Above the Fold: BRAINPRINT — bytecomics.com/blog/

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 12:15 pm

What Would a BRAINPRINT Look Like?

ABOVE THE FOLD

In a comment over at Performancing on March 6, Troy Shanahan said “I wouldn’t mind you having a skim over my blog… but it’s so badly laid out that I really don’t expect too much improvement.” It sure sounded like he thought his blog was a mess.

I thought to myself, here’s a guy who seemed like he felt in trouble, but I went and looked. His only problem was an over used template that he hadn’t made his own. It seemed to me that a few changes would make a big difference . . .

So I invited Troy to get tweaked Above the Fold. Here’s how the Above the Fold Tweak Process works.

  1. I make a “before” screenshot.
  2. We talk through some changes for readability.
  3. The blogger makes the changes.
  4. We talk while the tweaks are in process.
  5. I take an “after” screenshot and share the results in a post.

Tweaking BRAINPRINT

The blog:

URL: http://byetcomics.com/blog/
Blogger: Troy Shanahan

Before

Unfortunately I took this before shot of the About page on Troy’s blog. I hope you’ll be able to transfer what you see from this page to his new home page. I didn’t realize that until after we were well in the process. My mistake — sorry.

BRAINPRINT

Three Tweaks that We Agreed Upon

In this series, we concentrate only three important tweaks for each blog that is featured. On Troy’s blog, those three tweaks were these.

  1. We would put up the header he had designed.
  2. We’d adjust the template to work with the header.
  3. We’d decide on a color palette that worked.

Troy and I started with the header. What we did first was go to the byet comics site and look at what’s there. We looked at that header and back through some of the comics. Somehow we got on the idea of doing a collage around one character. Troy went off and did that.

When he came back with the header in place, all I could say was “Wow! What a difference!”

It took awhile to figure out how to get WordPress not to show the type for the name of his blog and the subhead. Finally Troy realized the answer was to use display: none; in the style sheet.

The next adjustment was choosing the color palette to match the header. Adjusting the “a link” to green. We used a color tool to get the right one. H2 sidebar heads went to the right shade of orange.

We made other changes. Can you see them?

For the results, turn the page now.

After

This is Brainprint now. Click to enlarge.

Brainprint


Troy’s Turn to Talk

Troy, tell us about your blog.

The blog itself is my ‘alternate vent’, where I originally planned to blog about things that either would not fit into a comic, or I honestly could not be bothered trying to fit into a comic. It’s evolved from that into a way for me to vent in a form that other people seem to enjoy reading, and is, in my opinion, a good way for me to get feedback on my writing skills.

What advice made the most difference? In what way?

Well, it was definitely the header. You woke me up to the fact that the header defined my blog, and that all visitors to my site would remember ‘hey, it’s that blog with the cool header’.

Your initial discussion with me sparked my creativity, something that has had insufficient exercise recently. The collage idea was partly yours, and the rest of the design flowed from that. I think the header finally made the blog mine, instead of ‘just another wordpress weblog’. This gave me a surge of confidence and pride when I saw the finished header in place, and I suddenly wanted to finish the whole design, just to prove to myself that it could be done, and done well.

How have your readers responded to the changes?

Heh, what readers? My blog is mainly frequented by family and friends, whose (probably biased) opinion doesn’t help much, but from the few random people who find the blog, the response has been nothing but positive.

In fact, I seem to be getting more return hits than I used to, and that has certainly prompted me to rethink how I use the blog. It can only get better when you work your way up from nothing, so, thanks Liz!

Remember we agree only to three tweaks in this process. But three tweaks can sure make a difference!

Troy, the best part was getting to know you! It was fun getting to be part of your blog’s transformation. You are a pleasure to work with.

Anyone want to give Troy a word or two moving forward? I have to go the dentist. (agian!)

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Related
Above the Fold: 11 Things Right about Escape from Cubicle Nation
Above the Fold: SmartWealthyRich.com





Filed under Branding, Successful Blog | 21 Comments »




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21 Comments to “Above the Fold: BRAINPRINT — bytecomics.com/blog/”

  1. March 22nd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
    Sheila at Family Travel said

    Wow, cool! The header really made such a difference; I’m impressed. I outta go put up a link to this in a couple of places….

  2. March 22nd, 2007 at 4:39 pm
    Steli said

    I love the header!!! It makes such a difference! Great work

  3. March 22nd, 2007 at 7:29 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi the header did make a difference didn’t it? Troy is one creative guy who has quite a future!

  4. March 22nd, 2007 at 7:34 pm
    Steve Harper said

    You really helped him make a difference in his BLOG. I wish I knew how to customize my BLOG more as I hate Blogger’s standard templates.

    Great BLOG you have I look forward to becoming a regular reader.

    Ripple On!!!

    Steve Harper

  5. March 22nd, 2007 at 9:11 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Steve!
    Welcome!
    There’s a lot you can do with a few little tweaks to make a blog your own. :)

  6. March 23rd, 2007 at 7:35 am
    Troy Shanahan said

    To Sheila… Thanks for anywhere you link me! I’m a bit of an unknown in both the blogging and webcomic communities, and getting just that little extra recognition would be great!

    Liz… this was simply amazing. Getting to know a fellow blogger was perhaps one of the most interesting and memorable experiences of my life. Not to mention a blogger who knows a hellava lot more than me about everything to do with blogging. Thanks alot, there’s not much i could think of that could possibly repay the help you’ve given.

  7. March 23rd, 2007 at 8:08 am
    ME Strauss said

    Troy,
    No payment required in a act of friendship. :) It was as much fun for me. :)

  8. March 23rd, 2007 at 5:21 pm
    Michele Moore said

    Amazing work and transformation! What an incredible difference. Many thanks for the inspiration. Now, I want to do it too!

    Michele Moore – HappinessBlog.com

  9. March 23rd, 2007 at 6:03 pm
    Jonathan-C. Phillips said

    Well, like everyone said, the header is what i think makes the blog stand out more, i really like it!!

    Maybe a “subscribe to comments” plugin would help to have more returning visitors (just Liz has on her blog, at the bottom of the reply form). Like you said Troy, you have many people among your friends and familly that visit your blog, but the other “regular” readers might return if they were notified of a new reply to one of your posts! my 2 cents!

    You two did a great job! Keep it up! :)

  10. March 23rd, 2007 at 6:37 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Michele!
    I’m dleighted you’ve been inspired. Every blogger should find a way to take ownership of his or her blog. Good luck as you do it. :)

  11. March 23rd, 2007 at 6:40 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Jonathan!
    Yes, the header is what makes the real differnce, isn’t it?

    The subscribe to comments pbug-in is a wonderful idea to keep a conversation on the forefront of people’s minds. Thanks, Jon for adding that too!

  12. March 23rd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
    shaz said

    hi Liz, this is the second time that I read this series and I really like it! I love the concept and your advice and write-ups. I actually send you an email a couple days ago about it, I would like to get involved if you would allow me. thanks, shaz. :)

  13. March 23rd, 2007 at 9:47 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Shaz!
    I’m delighted that you’re enjoying it. I’m having a gas doing it too. It involves two of my most favorite things — people and how people interact with the pring/visual they try to read. :)

    I’d love to talk with you about it.

  14. March 23rd, 2007 at 10:20 pm
    shaz said

    great! i just emailed you my idea. :)

  15. March 24th, 2007 at 8:46 am
    Wayne Hicks said

    This is my first time reading through the various BAD, SOB and ABOVE THE FOLD concepts that you have created. I like very much what you are doing in support of other bloggers … including the work that you’ve done here with Brainprint. I am a new blogger so I hope to be back often learning from you and what you are sharing here.

    peace, Villager

  16. March 24th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Wayne!
    Welcome! Thank you for noticing what I’m doing. I think the world of bloggers who spend so much time getting great information and their hearts out there to share with all of us. They deserve support and credit ever step of the way. :)

  17. March 26th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
    Troy Shanahan said

    Wow, just to let everyone know, this little communication blackout occurred because I just spent the last 48 hours on aircraft and in terminals getting back home. I’m now back home, and hopefully this’ll give me a little more time.

    Jonathan – Thanks for the advice… I’ll see about the plugin, I’ve tried several, but my host has a thing against outgoing connections because of security issues and Ddos attacks. If I find one that’s compatible I’ll definitely look at keeping it.

    Thanks for all the further advice people, this helps heaps. I’ll get around to implementing all of these after I get around my jetlag.

    Liz – hope to keep talking to you… I also look forward to open Mic night, although I suspect it’ll be Wednesday morning for me… stupid time difference.

  18. March 26th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Troy,
    Anytime you’re around, it’s a cool thing. Thanks for being a part of this. :)

  19. May 1st, 2007 at 10:28 am
    Above the Fold: DaveOlson.com.ca - Liz Strauss at Successful Blog - Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once. said

    [...] Above the Fold: BRAINPRINT — bytecomics.com/blog/ Above the Fold: 11 Things Right about Escape from Cubicle Nation Above the Fold: [...]

  20. June 20th, 2007 at 3:38 am
    Xin said

    Hi Liz,

    You’ve done a great job customizing that blog template. We are looking for our template to be custmized too. Can you please contact me to discuss it?

    We’d like to customize the newly released copyblogger template.

    Xin

  21. June 20th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
    ME Strauss said

    Hi Xin!
    Sure thing! :)

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