As you may remember, I ran a survey Nov/Dec last year and I have been brainstorming with my hubby about what I can do to make Book Chick City better in 2010. There have been a few changes and lots of tweaking to the blog after mulling over all your suggestions and lots of new ideas too.
CHANGES
Blog Speed & Aesthetics
I'm not sure if you have noticed but most of the widgets have gone, the images that really didn't need to be in my sidebar have gone and all other bits and bobs that were unnecessary and made the site slow or cluttered have been thrown into the virtual bin.
The only aspect I haven't touched is my banner. I know it's large and I know it takes a little while to download, but I've tried to reduce it without compromising the quality of the image but without success. The changes I made to reduce the pixels diminished the quality to such a degree that I just couldn't do it - pink haired chick became purple haired chick and everything looked grainy. So I've kept it at its original size.
I do hope though, that even with not changing the banner, you have noticed a significant increase in download speed. I have an internet speed of 2MB and it downloads much quicker for me. But let me know if you have noticed a difference in the comments below.
Contests/Giveaways
Since the beginning of November last year, I have stopped asking people who enter my contests to become a follower of my blog/twitter. I feel that this isn't really the way I want to gain readers and would prefer that you followed, subscribed etc because you wanted to.
New Blogs on the Block
As of the end of January I will be ending this feature on my blog. I only intended it to be a short term feature of about 3-4 months and I have already done this and yet I have enough requests for the year and they are still coming. So, although NBOTB won't be here on Book Chick City, I decided to hand it over to another blogger and that is Larissa from Larissa's Life. She has a super fun blog and is really enthusiastic. NBOTB will be a great addition to her site. My last NBOTB will be Sat 30th Jan and Larissa's first will be Sat 6th Feb, so please make sure you stop by!
On My Wishlist
Due to the changes above, I have decided to move On My Wishlist from Wednesday to Saturday. I did put a feeler out on twitter and facebook and the general consensus was that Saturday suited most people. The last Wednesday OMW will be 27th Jan and the first Saturday OMW is 6th Feb.
Navigation Bar
Over the next day or two I will have changed a couple buttons on my navi-bar. There will be a 'Features' button, which lists all the regular features you will find on BCC and an 'Events' button, which lists by month any interviews and guest posts etc. I thought this would look a lot tidier that a long list in the sidebar. I'm also thinking of adding a blogroll too but I haven't decided on that one yet.
Okay, so that's all the changes out of the way, now for the news..
NEWS
There will be a few new features coming on BCC over the coming weeks. The first I am super excited about as I haven't seen it anywhere in blogosphere so I think it's a fresh new take on the author guest post.
Where Stories Are Made
This feature will be posted every Thursday and includes a different author each week. Basically the author will take us on a tour of where they write, whether it be an office, coffee shop or park and show us in pictures. They will also tell us about their daily writing routine and rituals and how they get the words from their imagination to the processor (or to paper).
When I sent the emails out I thought I may get a few interested authors but the response has been fantastic and they all seem to love the idea. I have some wonderful writers lined up for you and will be posting a schedule in the next day or two, so stay tuned!
From Page to Screen & Let's Talk Movies!
These are fairly similar in that they both include movies, but From Page to Screen I will review a book and the movie adaptation, so two reviews in one! Let's Talk Movies will just be a review of a movie. It may be an old classic, a newly released DVD or a new theatre release. Whatever takes my fancy really.
Both of these features will be posted on Tuesdays once a month and will be in the horror / science fiction / fantasy genre.
I also have something else up my sleeve but I will reveal that at a later date.
I hope you like my changes and new features. Let me know what you think!
London Time
19 comments:
You've been a busy little Book Chick! I have to hand it to you...you do not rest on your laurels. I know I haven't been commenting much lately, mostly just because the genre of books you've gravitated towards is not my thing. But I still enjoy your features. You are doing so well!!!
I can confirm that your blog is now downloading really quickly. So well done on all your hard work.
Sandy - hey you, it's nice to see you over here, and I'm glad you like the sound of my new features. Hopefully I will see you a bit more often - miss your sunny comments ;)
Becky - Yay! I was hoping you'd let me know. I'm so pleased what I did worked, thanks for stopping by and letting me know :)
Sounds like you've been busy! Change is good and I like what you've done
Looking good! Look forward to seeing your new features too.
As usual everything looks wonderful! And its all loading so quickly! Bravo!
hcmurdoch, Boof, Juju - thanks guys, I'm glad you like the changes and sound of new features :)
Good for you my dear...
I know it's hard to keep that spice in our blogs - especially when everyone seems to be doing the same thing...
I have gutted my entire blog and have taken a further step to take a one month hiatus from reviewing....
And it is so worth it...
I agree with you on the changes you have made and I will be here to support you in all your upcoming features...
Thanks for keeping the red hair chick - I like her alot.... Book Chick wouldn't be Book hick without her...
E.H>
It loads pretty quickly for me. I think widgets might have more to do with loading times than the size of your banner.
awesome!!!
everything looks alot cleaner :)
i love the page to screen feature, i was thinking of doing that myself but you beat me to it hehe...you probably see more movies than me anyway...
and you're right...i have a fast internet connection and i still noticed the difference...it was like instant well done :)
I think it's great! Don't touch the banner! Keep it the same size. It works.
Change is always good. It keeps things fresh.
Your web site loads fast for me but I coming to it from a T1 fiber line.
I agree with you on your contest change. I feel the same way.
Check your email, I've sent you something.
I love your Ideas and I really look forward to see what you have come up with =)
Thanks so much for trusting me with the "New Blogs on the Block" Feature! =)
Your blog loaded super fast, BCC. Good work!
I love the idea for Where Stories are Made. I can't wait to see what you have up your sleeve.
Excellent changes!
Hey, it's so fast !! when i open your blog. and Thanks for making that : )
coz some blogs that I visit everyday, almost take my 'whole' time just only to show their 'head bar'.
EH - thanks so much - i think I need the change for than anything otherwise I start feeling as though things are getting stale, as you say it's nice to keep things spicy! ;)
LC - I'm glad it's loading quicker for you. I think you are right the widgets were the problem, and when I looked at them none were really worth making my blog slow, so off they went! :)
Wings - I'm glad you like my cleaner look and my new features. I also think the blogosphere is big enough for the both of us, so if you wanted to do something similar to From Page to Screen then do it! :)
Melissa - I won't! hehe I love my bright and vibrant chickie dee! :)
Donna - I think keeping things fresh is good too. With the contests I basically just followed what others were doing when I started my blog but after a while I thought, why am I forcing people to follow just to enter a contest. So I stopped doing it. Since I stopped in Nov I still gained nearly 300 followers, which is amazing! :) Off to check my email...
Larissa - glad you like my ideas and I think you will do a fab job with NBOTB! :)
Lori - yay - I do like you saying 'super fast'! I'm so pleased as I know it did take a long time. I'm pleased you like the changes :)
Mariska - you're welcome and I hate that too when you go to a blog and it takes forever to download. I'm just glad my changes worked! :)
Thanks so much for commenting and letting me know what you think! :) x
You've been very busy and I have to say that you do download faster for me at work, which is my slower computer.
I love that you are making changes, though I'm sad to see the new blogger feature move. I probably won't keep up with it now since I can't add any more blogs to my reader...for my own sanity.
I like the addition of movie reviews and the comparisons between books and movies. Excellent.
The guest posts will be a nice additional feature.
I'm glad Larissa is taking the torch for the NBOTB feature! I enjoy getting to know new peeps.
I like the premise of Where Stories Are Made! Very original. Can't wait til that feature gets started!
Your blog is fabulous and you work hard to make it that way. Kudos to you!!
Your blog was already amazing but now it's even better! I still have a dial-up connection when I use the computer at home and it's very slow. The changes you made help the page load even faster for me. I agree about your header. Don't change it! It looks terrific and it's one that I adore! I look forward to the new additions you are working on too. They all sound great! :)
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