Changes Have Arrived!

Posted April 18, 2020 by Sammie in Uncategorized, Updates / 32 Comments

My nerves are a little frayed, but we’ve done it, fellow bookwyrms. We’ve crested the mountain.

That means everything from here on out is easy, right. RIGHT? Pffft, you’re not very convincing.

The majority of the major layout changes have been made.

I hope. I’ve intended it to be that way, but eh, sometimes blogs have their own mind. Mine seems to break a lot, so I’d be surprised if this were really the end.

Upcoming Changes

  • Domain transfer. The Writerly Way will officially become The Bookwyrm’s Den next week. I have a blog tour on Monday, and I didn’t want to mess up their graphic at this point. Once the transfer is done, though, I should have a reroute, so it should still be easy enough to find the new site, even if you type in the old one!
  • Updating some pages. This has been overdue, but I definitely need to update some of the pages here, not just because they look old (because they are), but to better fit this new layout.
  • Working on new formats. The whole point of a new theme is to play with all the different things you can do, right? So you may notice the old formats of some of my posts (particularly memes) change slightly. I’ve loved this theme for a while now, because it looks so much nicer and easier on the eyes (to me, at least), so I want to really take advantage of that going forward.
  • Ideally, feedback from YOU. If there’s a change you don’t like or something that’s not working for you, let me know! The layout is really for you all, since you’re the ones interacting with it. If you’re having trouble with something, it’s not going to hurt my feelings if you point it out. Actually, I’d prefer you do! You can message me @srbetler on Twitter.

Credit where credit is due …

I know you’re not supposed to give away the secret in the secret sauce, but you know what? Oh well. I’m going to do it anyway. Especially if it might help someone in the future.

So many thanks to Ashley @ Nosegraze, as the creator of the Ultimate Book Blogger plugin and also the theme TweakMe v2. She has a bunch of other really handy bookish offerings, but those are the two that I’m using, and boy, what a time saver. I’ve been using the UBB for a little while now, and it’s fantastic. Why wasn’t I using it before? I don’t even know! The theme is new, though, and it was so super easy and neat and organized, and gosh I think it makes things so much easier to read (and easier for me to personalize and edit). Hopefully, you feel the same!

As for the new graphics, I couldn’t have done it without Freepik.com, which has a fantastic selection of images free for commercial use (although, I did buy premium, for a bigger selection of images). In particular, the artist for most of my blog images is zinsmute, who is obviously fabulous and wildly talented and I had no idea what I was going to do with this blog (other than the new name) until I stumbled across their images and just fell in love.

Finally, I couldn’t have done any of this without you, dear bookwyrms. You had such kind words to say, and it really helped take some pressure off me while I figured things out! Special thanks to Sara, Susan @ Novellives, and Leelynn @ SometimesLeelynnReads for listening to my meltdowns and struggles without throwing me off the nearest cliff. I appreciate it.

Stay Fierce, Sammie

32 responses to “Changes Have Arrived!”

  1. Brian Hawkins

    It looks great. I love Nosegraze. The Ultimate Book Blogger plugin really makes life easy and helps with SEO.

    I’m in the process of moving five-year-old book reviews from one of my old domains to my audiobook review site and it’s a ton of work. After five years, I’m basically re-writing the entire review after re-reading or listening to the books all over. So I know what you’re been going through but it’s totally worth it.
    Brian Hawkins recently posted…Crush It – Audiobook ReviewMy Profile

    Reply
    • Sammie

      Thanks so much! Oh man, five years?! That’s a lot to go through. Good luck getting it all moved over. It’s a harrowing task. xD

      Reply
  5. Bri Hotchkiss

    Changes look great! I’m actually revamping my site now as well, and I’ll change one thing and realize I need to change 10 more. Definitely a process when you’re doing it alone.

    Reply
    • Sammie

      Thanks so much! I spent an entire day doing that. Oh, look, this thing looks great! Hm, but I broke 10 things fixing that one. Yikes. xD I hope your revamping is going well!

      Reply
    • Sammie

      Aww thank you. <3 I couldn't have done it without your support. You can have a whole wing of the den, if you'd like. We'll make it all cozy-like and fill it with plenty of books.

      Reply
  10. Dini @ dinipandareads

    HOLY FREAKING WOW!!! WOWOWOW!!! WOW! SAMMIE!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH 😍😍😍😍😍 I’m not even exaggerating with the all caps and emojis because !!!! These changes are awesome! I LOVE the dragons! The graphics and the fonts are sooo adorable! The colour scheme is also giving me life 😍 Everything about this is just… *chefs kiss* Congratulations 😃
    Dini @ dinipandareads recently posted…Sundays in Bed With… #MyWeeklyWrapUpMy Profile

    Reply
    • Sammie

      THANK YOU. I’m so glad it turned out okay. I’m never doing that agaaaaain. Okay, well, probably eventually. But not for a very, very long time. At least I feel the website is very me now. 😀

      Reply
    • Sammie

      Thank you so much! I’m so glad it turned out all right. xD It’s such a nerve-wracking process, but phew does it feel good to almost be done!

      Reply

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