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Blogging Resources and Advice

by | Building a Blog

Starting Your Blog

In updating my Blog Resource Page, all the information written moved here. It is still current and helpful, but things I recommend and why need revision. This post has more explanation of the why and wherefore for using certain choices than I think is best for a no-frills resource list.

If you are new to blogging, sort through the following advice for timesavers and tips.

Free Themes

I recommend the default WordPress themes to start out with, unless you are sure you know what you want. There are free child themes available for them. Between the choices that all have the name “Twentysomething” ( series starting with ten, you should be able to find a theme that suits your blogging needs.

History of the default themes

The Swift theme was one that I used on this site for awhile and warmed up to it.

Update I had to change the Swift theme to the PageLines since the hackers kept getting into the Swift theme, which shows that security is a big deal in choosing a theme.

I have always liked the typography of PageLines, though I did miss the bright colors of Swift. Plus, I don’t think there should be a free theme that only gets updated to work well, forcing you to buy the premium version. That is something to watch out for, although it is much less likely to happen now. Not a problem with the bigger theme developers who have a reputation to stake.

I did a test-drive of the default free themes on this site before deciding to use Divi.

 

Paid Themes

I use Elegant themes (Divi) in my garden sites, and one of the earlier ones on TrueGrit, a religion blog.

I switched from experimenting with their new themes to using mainly their pride production: the Divi theme.
It has pros and cons. Although as time goes on the improvements are wiping out the negative opinions.

Pros

Divi is highly customizable and can do about anything you want it to.

It is responsive (extremely important, now).

Easy to work with.

Cons

The main thing I don’t like is one of the things I also do like: the pagebuilder.

The pagebuilder uses shortcode components that helps you build a page the way you want it. Making landing pages, etc is simple. But if you change from the Divi to another theme like the WordPress default, all the pages which you built show only the shortcode blocks .

This is highly inconvenient, to be locked into one theme.

Solution?

A plugin that helps to sort out the shortcodes coding on the site, or changes made by the ET developers to make all of the shortcode reside within a plugin that remains no matter what theme is chosen.

 

Looking For A Theme

  • Find features you need.
  • Pleasing layout and typography for readability.
  • Responsiveness now tops the list of needed features.
  • Support might be important for you, and regular updating certainly will be.

Now Using Fourteen Sixteen Theme

 

Further Update: WordPress made the good looking magazine theme for 2014 and I switched to it.  I am very happy with so many of its features that I imagine staying with it for quite awhile.

Further, Further Update: I kept updating until the twentysixteen theme. It doesn’t have the customizing plugins, nor is it easy to change the look. I love it for its functionality, though.

It is a good beginning theme. However I will say that for a complex site like my Garden site, the Divi pro theme from Elegant Themes is better suited to what I ask from WordPress.

  1. It supports a large number of post formats
  2. Good looking with cool feature image looks
  3. Showcases content well
  4. Safe and well updated
  5. Plugins made to provide extended control

Plugins

  • Color plugin for the fourteen theme
  • Fourteen extended plugin for the fourteen theme
  • Editorial Calendar is truly useful for anyone. I just started using one for my garden site and wished I had discovered it years ago.
  • SEO is super important and I like Yoast’s plugin the best.
  • There are several good social sharing helps, right now I use Shareaholic, which includes related posts.  I used  YARPP for years, and that worked well,  too -especially with new improvements it has now.
  • Akismet to deal with Spam. Bruteprotect to deter hackers. These are in the Jetpack. Yes, I use it.

There is controversy about the Jetpack, but I used enough of its features to make it worthwhile. It disturbs me to know that some feel it bloats and greatly increases loadtime for the site.

I switched back to YARPP after Shareaholic made changes that I really didn’t like. I no longer recommend it and deleted the plugin from all my sites.

I wrote about some of my favorite plugins, here.

Disclosure: I use affiliate links for some of the resources. This in no way influences the opinions I post. Everything written is transparent and based on my experience.