What's Up Doc?

Optimist Gord

In my last post I informed you that we were rebranding the "Put Your Club Online with Blogger" website because much of the content is no longer correct.  I have been working with the new administration panel in Blogger and am happy to report that many of the tasks are the same as before, but the look and feel of the new admin panel is radically different.

Much of the change was driven to redesign the admin panel interface to make it easier to navigate and use.  In fact, it feels like it works faster. The developers at Blogger have even added a few new features including a "mobile" template that presents your blog or website in a form factor designed for smart phones like the iPhone.



While I have not had time to discover and test all the new and modified features, I am happy to report that the admin panel redesign has had no affect on any blogs or websites deployed before this major change.  If fact, if you haven't tried to access the admin panel in the recent past, you will not have noticed any changes.

Enough about the new admin panel.  I really wanted to report on some of the changes that we have completed:

• The old theme has been scrapped and replaced with a brighter, more lively theme.  Now I won't fall asleep proof-reading my posts.
• We increased the width of site from 800 to 1000 pixels.  Now the column for article posts is wider and there will be less scrolling to read the content.  This change will also permit me to use graphics that are slightly larger.
• We created a new branded logo that comprises four color interwoven rectangle shapes that represent the interconnectivity of modern social networks.  As we shift our content to discussing social networks and social media, we thought it appropriately represents our new direction.
• We modified our URL so now we are resolving putyourclubonline.blogspot.com.
• We prepared a new 320 pixel width banner graphic that can be used in conjunction with RSS feed widgets for other blogs and websites. 

Some of the work that we have left to complete includes:

• Reviewing the older lesson articles to see if there is any generic content that can be revised and released.
• Revising the navigation to better deliver the content based on the online service or software application that we write an article about.
• We want to develop a short blogroll of useful online resources that can extend our knowledge about Blogger.  Now that we have taken our old content offline, we need to quickly make some references available to our readers.
• Creating a feedburner feed for the site.

One of the firm convictions that I have is that our site will only contain reviews of online services and software applications that we use or have actually tested. I believe that we must "eat our own dog food" before we recommend a solution to you. So as we move forward we will be building a "test" solution that models a typical service club.  In most cases, I will also integrate the same technology into "Put Your Club Online".  So what does this mean for the future?

Well, our short range plan is to produce a concise series of articles on creating a simple website and blog using Blogger.  This will replace the online lessons that we had posted before.  The more intricate information will be added to a "Guide" that will be made available in PDF and possibly eBook format.  In addition to Blogger, we want to also cover how to create a Facebook presence and integrate that with your website/blog.  Integrating other online services like Twitter, YouTube, Box.net, SlideShare, and Flickr/Picasa will be added as well.

As you can see, we have a rather large journey ahead and I hope that you will enjoy our travels.

Until next time ...

YIO - Optimist Gord