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

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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

Comments

  4. 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

    Reply

  6. 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.

    Reply

  9. 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! 🙂

    Reply

  10. 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. 🙂

    Reply

  11. 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!

    Reply

  12. 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. 🙂

    Reply

  13. 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.

    Reply

  15. 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

    Reply

  16. 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. 🙂

    Reply

  17. 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.

    Reply

  19. 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

    Reply

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