As I approach 17 years of blogging, I have given my blog header and indexes a refresh and tinkered with a few other elements such as adding a subscription form on the right hand column of the web view. Today I will reflect on these updates and how I am considering my blog might develop.
First, let me emphasise that I am not working towards a stylish, monetised blog. I am quite happy to be an amateur blog without advertising that is a great source of recipes, reflections and reviews that are as eclectic and meandering as I desire. My blog has always been run without much in the way of costs and technical know-how. I would love to overhaul the whole blog and fix old embarrassingly bad photos but I don't have time to check the 2,489 posts to date. It feels like being King Canute to be constantly challenged by the ever changing tide of technology. But I will tinker when I can.
Header
My old blog header was created 10 years ago and looked a bit tired. I have wanted to refresh the photos for a while. These things take time. When I am looking for green photos, there are plenty of great photos with lots of green but also other colours. Likewise there are plenty of not-so-great photos with all green. Finding the perfect photo is tricky. I am glad I have finally got this new photo even though it is still not perfect. It is much lighter but is it too light? When I look back at the photos I used for the previous header, it took a while to get it right. I have a feeling there might be some tweaking ahead. For now at least it is updated!
My new header in 2024:
Indexes
The distance between 'blog' and 'website' has narrowed over the last decade or two. Many websites have more dynamic pages including blogs. Many blogs have more static pages and more sophisticated navigation since I started blogging. Some days I wonder whether to just call my blog a website. One thing the web does well is navigation. For me that means the search bar and indexes.
My recipe index introductory collage 2024:
My recipe index introductory collage 2014
I was really pleased to finally give some attention to the Recipe Index. I added photos about 10 years ago. Like my header they were looking tired. The index is just one page. It is really really long! Almost 2000 recipes. (After two years of blogging in 2009 I recorded over 400 recipes.) I use my indexes a lot. It would be great to have a photo for every recipe but not realistic the way I use it. I like to be able to run my eye down a list without lots of clicks to new pages, and I want to be able to search for a word on that index. Probably not best practice these days. It works for me.
Working out the new recipe index categories was challenging. For example, did I divide soups up by ingredient, colours, textures, nationality, seasons or add-ins such as grains
and nuts? Then where did I put a wintery chunky creamy white cauliflower and potato soup? Lots of hard decisions. Occasionally I allocated recipes to more than one category. Generally I try to avoid doing this because the index is so long. The difficulty of trying to allocate recipes to just one category is a great argument for many pages of a recipe index which makes it easier to have recipes in lots of categories. It would be nice for such moment.
Here is a list of new elements I have added on my indexes lately:
- The top photo collages in my Recipe Index have been updated (see above now and then comparison photos).
- I have updated the photos at the start of each section in the Recipe Index
- I have added more categories within each section because the lists are getting too long making it harder to peruse.
- The top photo collage in my Favourites index has been updated. This is an index that I update regularly as favourites come and go.
- Added a list of sections at the top of Reflections and Reviews index.
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In doing all this work, I have been doing the more of work my blog needs: updating links, headings and typos to make it more user-friendly. It has also helped me to review the development of my blog. Here are a few things I noticed:
- Many of my recipes have been posted in the first 7 years of my blogging. This is not surprising given that of the 2489 posts, 1366 (54%) of posts were written up to 2013 and I am estimating that I have written less recipes since 2013. See above graph of Numbers of blog posts by year.
- The phases my blog has been through (including gluten free food, vegan food, doughnuts, history of food, Indian curries, Mexican food, healthy baking) many of which were given an intense focus followed by a more lowkey interest.
- A change in bread baking. All but one of my yeasted breads were made before I started sourdough baking in 2014
- I am making a lot less desserts, jams and sweet baking these days.
- My photography improved from 2014. Prior to this it was darker, less sharp and less colour. I attribute this to my cameras being more sophisticated since then but also that I made more of an effort to get photos in Foodgawker after finally getting my first photo accepted in September 2013.
- I want to revisit so many of the amazing recipes on my blog! So much to cook and so little time!
Subscriptions
When blogger stopped the default subscriptions in
May 2021 had 1506 on list, including some that were pending verification. It has taken me until this month to set up a new subscription service through Follow.it. Subscription will mean emails of each new blog post. It is my way of amending for my aversion to regularly updating social media accounts. I have pondered sending an email to the previous 1506 subscribers to invite them to use the new service but it is hard to wade through all the followers who want to sell me commercial opportunities to find those who just enjoyed reading my blog post!
If you would like to sign up to receiving new blog posts by email, you can subscribe by either adding your email to the subscription form in the right hand column of the blog or in the form at https://follow.it/green-gourmet-giraffe. See form on my blog in the bottom right hand corner of the above screenshot.
I am sure I have had requests for subscriptions but can't find the emails. Apologies to anyone whose email I lost in one of life's maelstroms. Thanks to K for finally prompting me at a time when I have the space to do it.
New: My Monthly Chronicles posts
I started this blog with the intention of just focusing on posting recipes. Before long I was also writing posts that rambled on about other foodie stuff and then just any old stuff that took my fancy. I have written monthly posts about cooking, eating and food purchases in my kitchen since May 2012. These posts are great for catching up on stuff I don't have the time or the interest in writing up in more detail.
It has become more and more obvious that I don't have time to write in detail about the rest of my life outside the kitchen, mostly cafe meals and travel, but also including other random interests. I have been inspired by Sammie's monthly Taking Stock posts at The Annoyed Thyroid. So in April I did my first My Monthly Chronicles post. Of course, I will still write longer posts when I can, just as I do with the In My Kitchen content.
Coming up with a name was difficult. Here are a few of the ideas I considered:
- Eating out, excursions, eclectic thoughts and everything else I have not had time to post in more detail
- Outside my kitchen
- Out and about
- My month in a nutshell
- Teacup chronicles
- Monthly digest
- Eclectic detritus
Comments
I continue to have difficulties with commenting on Blogger when comments are embedded in the post (see below screenshot). This has been frustrating because I enjoy connecting with other bloggers. I used to be able to comment with my blog account so my comments had my avatar and a link to my blog. Now I have to comment as anonymous. I try to add my name and url so people know who it is. It has even got to the stage where when I comment on my own blog it makes me do this as anonymous. This is so frustrating.
More to do
There is always more to do. I wish I had more time for cross-linking posts, updating broken links, proof reading and updating photos in some favourite posts. I do what I can when I can. I churned out a lot of travel posts in February and March this year and I know they would benefit from more proof reading. But whenever I read old posts I see needs for updating. There are formatting issues in some of my older posts. Some formatting is due to my inexperience and some is due to blogger changing the formatting that had worked when I originally posted. It would be great to fix them but it is a big job.
I would like to spent more time reviewing and updating the Reflections and Reviews Index. It has had a lot less attention than the Recipe Index. Originally I intended to only post recipes and this was just a little sideline to the core of the blog. It has grown unwieldy. Many categories and lists have been created organically and could do with some strategic thinking.
Some of the projects I have in mind are to collate Christmas menus over the years and to have a full list of all the craft projects I have done. My drafts folder is always full of good intentions. I would also love to be able to access more information from my statistics. It used to be easier to extract information from statistics packages to look at user search terms and what sites send users to my blog. These statistics packages keep changing and it is hard to keep up. Speaking of constant change, sometimes I wonder how long Blogger will continue. I hope it is used enough to continue to be of value to Google.
Meanwhile although blogging has changed a lot in 17 years, my blog continues to be of great value to me. It is a great record of my years, mainly the food and travel, that I am able to refer to today. I often look up recipes I have made or places I have visited. Hence my interest in keeping the indexes updated. I make recipes from my blog regularly and Sylvia also uses it for her favourite recipes. My notes can be quite helpful too. Occasionally I look it up to show Sylvia that I have been to a cafe or that she has been involved in some activity. I wish I had more time for the blog, commenting with other bloggers and replying to comments. It has to be enough to be grateful for what I have managed to do and that I am still blogging after all these years. Amazingly I am still here and hope to continue to be for a while yet.
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