SORRY FOLKS BUT I CAN’T ALLOW COMMENTS HERE I can’t allow comments here because I want this place to be an organised, brief (yeah, sure!) collection of hints and tips for students of Alex Jeffreys. I recognise that many of you have incredible talents - talents that I do not have. But I’m sure that I have knowledge that I can offer too. We all can. I will add to this list of topics AND within the topics over time to help you all - so CHECK BACK regularly. Forewarning: You may not like some of what you will read here... THIS TOPIC - Designing Your Blogsite: Have a look at my blogsite. Pretty plain huh? Just how I like it. Words sell folks. Fancy pictures, links to non-related things, gizmos and anything else that doesn't help you or your visitors are just distractions. COLOURS: It is a well-known FACT that black font on a white background is the EASIEST to read. Sure you can have all sorts of different colours on all sorts of different coloured backgrounds BUT... ... it is FACT that black font on a white background is the EASIEST! Understand? Have you ever tried to read a yellow font on a white background or a white font on a black background? Not easy huh? Some folks, in their quest to make their sites so different to other sites just go WAY OVERBOARD. Have you ever seen what I call a Hippie site? That's a site that uses EVERY colour of the rainbow. Euuuwww! Yuk! Don't do it. You will come across as a psychedelic junkie on speed. Is that what sort of image you want to portray? Let your words and your personality be your defining feature. CAPITAL LETTERS: AND WHAT ABOUT THIS? HUH? ISN'T THIS NICE? DOESN'T IT LOOK GOOD? I DON'T THINK SO. I HAVE A GUY THAT SENDS ME EMAILS LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME AND I DON'T CARE WHAT HE IS SAYING BECAUSE THIS SORT OF THING REALLY JARS MY EYEBALLS. SO I TRASH HIS EMAILS WITHOUT EVEN READING THEM. BESIDES, THIS IS CYBER-SHOUTING! Use CAPITAL letters sparingly. FANCY FONTS: Also, do not use fancy fonts. Newspapers use simple fonts. If you write in some handwriting style script then all you are doing, in my opinion, is being cute. It is just TOO damn hard to read. OTHER GIMMICKS, GIZMOS, PICTURES AND FANCY JUNK: If it's not telling or selling or gathering information for you then... ... GET RID OF IT! Yes, I was shouting. Why waste prime cyber real estate (space) with crap and junk. Who cares? Oh... you do, huh? get over it. Read the first line above AGAIN! The only person who will like this sh*t is YOU! MAKING YOUR VISITORS JUMP THROUGH HOOPS: Let me ask you something... Take any subject you can think of - do you like simple or really, really complicated? Simple huh? Then WHY oh WHY would you make people jump through all sorts of verification codes or security codes on just a simple blog? If you have something confidential or sensitive to protect then use a password or code or something by all means but... ... those almost impossible security codes that are on some sites that you have to study hard to read are a barrier to everybody who comes to your blog. Get rid of them too. Oh, don't want to? OK. Sit there and post comments to yourself. Coz you are the only one who will keep coming back I won't. I'll visit twice and then that is it! Harsh, huh? Let me explain... ... like so many others I just don't have the time to fart around with this stuff. I have been to these sites and taken 15 minutes to compose a really nice post. I hit the publish button and... ... "you must enter the security code!" Duh! I do it again (remember, these things are humongously difficult to read) and ... "you must enter the security code!" Double bloody duh! Next thing you know your post has been lost. How many times has that happened to YOU? Get rid of that junk! Anyway, that's about it. Rant over! Whew! What did you think of that? Regards Gary Simpson PS: If you liked this topic then please tell others about it or LINK to it. You can always leave a comment, if you so wish, at the "HINTS & TIPS" page on my main blog page. MORE INFORMATION MAY BE ADDED HERE AT MY DISCRETION…