Today in class, I organized my site so that it would be more user friendly. At first, I added “Project 1,” “Project 2,” “Project 3,” and so on to my menu, but then I decided to consolidate my menu options so that I just had an “About” page, which features an introduction to my blog and my online identity, a “Blog” page which is what you’re reading now, and a “Projects” menu that will drop down and allow you to click on the different projects we will be working on this semester to choose which one you would like to look at.

Why I did it:

I thought that by consolidating my posts into more specific categories rather than lots of small ones, I would eliminate clutter on my site and make it more user friendly. I also added categories to my posts so that users looking at my site will be able to quickly learn what each posts correlates to. Finally, I added tag words to go along with my posts, like “online identity,” “writing and digital media” and “Virginia Tech” to make my posts more search engine-friendly. I also added my online identity description to my about page because I felt like it would help site visitors understand who I am online.

Tonight, in lieu of going to class tomorrow, I watched a Linda tutorial video on how to customize my Word Press. I made some terrible mistakes along the way, and because I was unable to find my way out of things and I was really unhappy with how my site looked, I resorted to making a new blog. I still used the same theme- Sela- but I added a cool header and added my online identity photo as my logo. I also made two pages on my website, titled ‘about’ and ‘blog.’

Why I did it:

I got really frustrated working with my old website, so I decided to make a new one. I was trying to recycle an old Word Press that I used in a different class, and it just wasn’t working the way I wanted it to, but I really thought that was a sign that I should just start over. New class, new website! I choose Sela because I really liked it on my previous Word Press, and I thought it coordinated well with my online identity photo. By adding different pages, I also was able to make my blog interactive for site visitors.

Yesterday in my English 3844, I created a blog! Well, actually I didn’t create it, but I brought back an old WordPress blog I had from a class I took my freshman year. I deleted all the old, irrelevant posts and changed my theme from Adel, which I used in my last class, to Sela. I also incorporated my tag line, “on my grind” that appears in my online identity picture onto the header.

Why I did it: 

I decided to be resourceful and just update an existing blog rather than make an entire new one. I deleted the old posts from my professional writing class because I wanted to streamline the focus to be solely about this class. I also changed my theme because I wanted it to be a little cleaner and more mature and I feel like it will go better with my online identity picture.