Anatomy of a Blog Post

A lot has changed around here recently! I wanted to take this opportunity to give you a tour of my blog and tell you about its new look. I also want to acquaint you with features that you may not know about. I plan on adding a few more things, like social media links, but for the most part my blog should look like this from now on. Ignore all of the little toolbar symbols. I see those since I am the admin :)

This is my new logo! It was created by Dale Cody with input from me. I really love it! I changed the colors of the borders and links to go with the new logo. I also used PicMonkey to create a new star background.

Here's a regular blog post. You'll notice that I recently moved from white-on-black to black-on-white. I did this to improve readability after listening to readers' comments. When it comes to links, un-clicked links are now dark purple and clicked links are light purple.

If you click the 'About Me' tab under the banner it will take you to a page with a picture of me, a short bio, and links to my Ravelry, Craftsy, and Etsy. It also shows my contact email: illuminatecrochet@gmail.com.

Under the 'Media and Press' tab you'll find a list of places that my blog and patterns have been featured. This list isn't complete since it can be rather hard to track how far things have traveled, but I do my best to keep it up.

Now let's look at the sidebar on the right. You can sign up for email notifications with the 'Illuminate Your Inbox' tool. You can subscribe via RSS feed using the subscriber buttons below that. If your feed isn't represented you can always copy a link to my blog and add it to your reader's database.

Here's a newer feature: ads. The ads will rotate and look different all the time. I added a small ad because I spend hours a week running this blog. Since crochet design is my career, I deserve to get paid for the time I spend and the information I provide. This decision was heavily influenced by a wonderful interview between Marly Bird and Tamara Kelly of Moogly.

Further down the sidebar you can find my Craftsy widget. You can hover over the pictures and scroll down to see more patterns. Click on any pattern for more information. 

Next you have a list of popular posts that readers enjoy. This list will also change over time. In the sidebar un-clicked links are white and clicked links are purple.

I am listed as an associate professional with CGOA. I have a CGOA banner on my blog because I adore CGOA and the camaraderie it encourages between crocheters of all ability levels. Membership includes a subscription to Crochet! Magazine. 

The blog archive contains all of the blog posts I've ever written. 

Finally, you see the 'Sparks' section. Each of these sparks is a tag to posts on that topic. If you're looking for something moderately specific like a color or a shape, this is the place to look.

So, them's the haps! If you have any questions about the new changes please let me know in the comments. How do you like the new look?