Fun with Blogging 201!

I’m having a lot of fun with Blogging 201, which is a two-week WordPress course about developing your blog. I’ve been spending a lot of time hanging out in The Commons, which is the Blogging 201 area for chatting about all things blog-related.

Although my blog looks fairly similar to how it did before I started the Blogging 201 course, changes are going on behind the scenes. I have plans for scheduling a blog series: a succession of posts which all relate to a particular topic. As I sit here and type, my notebook is open beside me with plans for my blog series.

I have made a few changes to the design of Cultural Life. The sidebar is much tidier because I changed my blog archive to a dropdown menu, rather than listing all the months in my sidebar. The header menu is neater too: I cleaned it up by moving my blog disclaimer and my blog award policy to the dropdown menu, “About Cultural Life”.

And I added a page, The Best of Cultural Life, to my header menu. This is primarily aimed at new readers so they can see the types of posts featured on my blog, but even if you have been reading my blog for a while, you may enjoy a browse there! I’ll update it every few months.

Also, you may have noticed that the background is darker than it was, which makes my blog content stand out more. Unfortunately, every time I change the background, it automatically changes my post titles to green. I like the darker background, but I prefer black post titles.

Finally, as part of my strategy to increase my stats, I joined Pinterest! I am a Pinterest newbie and I’m still figuring out the best ways to use it, but I have heard that it’s good for blog publicity. Are you on Pinterest? If so, you can follow me by clicking the link below:

Have you made plans to develop your blog recently, such as signing up to a new social media network or writing a blog series? If you’re a fellow Blogging 201 participant, are you enjoying the course?