2009-05-23

Changes at Cromely's World

Regular visitors will notice some significant changes here at Cromely's World.

After several months of searching, I found a new template for my blog. It's a Three Column verison of the Rounders Template. I got it from Compender.Com

I started my search because I wanted a third column for advertising and related widgets. My old template was nice, but stuff was getting shoved further and further down the side bar.

With the new layout, my favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr tool, Twitter updates, etc., are on the left. Entrecard, CMF Ads, Adgitize, Powell's, and Blog Catalog are on the right. Generally, the Right column is for advertising, while the left column is for supplementary content.

I'm fairly new to CMF Ads and I'm brand new to Adgitize. I'm still wrapping my head around how the systems work, and the best way to learn and understand them, is to use them.

I don't plan to generate significant revenue here, but it would be nice to figure out how to, in case I ever need to.

I'm reasonably happy with the new template and layout. It's not perfect, though. I think it looks a little crowded right now. And I had trouble with link colors. For some reason, I couldn't set the link color in the lower sidebar to be a different color than the link color in the main text. The orange I'm using is the most readable link color for both the light yellow background in this box and the blue back ground in the side bar. I may need to mess with that a bit more. I'm afraid I might actually have to learn some code.

But for now, it works. If I waited for it to be perfect, it would never be done. And I'd rather have it in the wild where I can study and tweak it, than keep it in the garage getting dusty with revisions.

So...what do you think?

8 comments:

Daisy said...

I think it looks great! That feeling you have of it looking a little crowded, that's how I felt when I first moved to a 3-column design. Yours looks really clean and good.

Kathy said...

Looks good. The orange is OK on the sidebar. And I'm surprised I can read the light on dark background there. I usually have some problems with it. But it's fine. Good job!

Casey said...

Hey,
If you're looking for some tips with Adgitize, check out my blog. I've been doing an experiment with Adgitize and I'm sure it would help you out.

onlinewriter said...

i've been looking for three-column templates for my blogspot but never found any.lucky you to have found this.it sure looks organized.

Bourbon Girl said...

Looks good. Nice transition between the too, not super drastic. Good job!

along2481 said...

its areally nice blog for looking acromly.......!

Kate Burton said...

I think it looks great, I'm so with you. I changed my template last week and am spending the weekend trying to tweak it. Good luck!

Dave said...

Thanks to Casey for the Adgitize experiment. I'm new there, too and so far, fairly pleased with the results.

Cromely, thanks for your Entrecard comment on my site at . It was an excellent description of the challenges they are having moving to paid ads. I appreciate your perspectives.

In the spirit of sharing tips with others, I'd like to offer up something I am developing to help Entrecard members tee up easy-to-drop sits that have their drop card "Above the Fold." It is on my page at . Feel free to link to it as an easy way to drop and suggest more true "above the fold" blogs.

Thanks for the Three Column Rounders template. I use rounders at my other blog, and look forward to adding a column!

Thanks,

Dave