Hello, and a very warm greeting to you!  I am here.  LOL  My health issues needed some attention, so, I am working at it – for all I am worth!  I am too young for this!  LOL
I have something of interest happen that I want to share with you all.  I am a member of FanExtra.  FanExtra is a resource for web, and other design, with articles, awesome tutorials and cool downloads, both free and premium.  Check out my rendition of a recent “Flying Pig Photo-Manipulation” tutorial they featured:

  Tom, the owner, has a keen sense of what works.  His ‘brand’ has grown to include PSD.Fan Extra and the newest, Blogs.Fan Extra.  One of the long-standing features of FanExtra has been “30-Minute Redesign.”  Whilst kicking off the new Blogs.Fan Extra, Tom did a redesign of this blog – suruha-freeespirit.  I was so honored to have him choose my blog!  What do I know about web design!?  LOL  I would be honored, too, to have you all take a look at Tom’s redesign article at the Blogs.Fan Extra.

Tom’s analysis and subsequent suggestions are a godsend for me!  I admit, I was confused about how to lay out my blog – the sidebar, the widgets, and, oh yeah, the articles.  I tend to forget they are the key function of any blog.  What was too much?  What were my weaknesses and my strengths?  I hadn’t a clue!  I would see something on another blog and like it, then, I would try to apply it to mine.  The results didn’t necessarily jive with the rest of the blog.  But, I thought it was neat and kept it.

  I’ve tried a lot of things since I started my blog a few years ago.  I think most of us do this!  One trial was a music player.  I added one not long after starting my blog.  Then, I visited other blogs with music players and, my goodness!  They were not always so cool, after all!  Not to me, anyway.  Say, I am perusing your blog. I’ve clicked over via a link or typed in your URL.  As I begin to look at all the pretties, BAM!  Depending on your player’s volume settings and my own pc’s volume settings, I would be assaulted by a loud, obnoxious sound, which, eventually, I would recognize as music – a song!  LOL  Music, I love!  But, not just any music and not just any old time!  And, honestly, one’s music choices have very little to do with whether or not I liked the content.  There are times, in fact, where the content was passed over by me just to escape from the music!  Have you ever done that, closed a page because you couldn’t find the music player to mute it?  LOL

I don’t know about others, but, when I started blogging, it was to be ‘about me, by me, for me’.  Ultimately, however, as I started receiving comments from the folks that read my posts, I began realizing how much impact a post can have – or not – on others.  What Tom showed me is that the content is the point.  The rest, the widgets and blinkies and cutsie things are fun, but really, totally unnecessary, usually distracting, in fact!  We so want to have people enjoy our blogs, but, yet, more often than not, we smother our pages with other folks’ blog links!  Go figure!  Hey, I am all for supporting my friends and the folks whose work I adore.  I like to share my good finds with others, as well.  But, first, and the most important thing, we have to get folks to want to read our blogs before we can share with them, eh?  We can’t speak out for, or against, something if no one is listening, now, can we?  This redesign sure opened my eyes.  

As a bonus, Tom sends the redesign’s .PSD file, to help me start!  It’s all FREE!

MightyDeals.com

I subscribed while there was a special going on through Mighty Deals.  It just so happens that there is a similar offer going on right now!  Instead of the annual rate of $69.00, for a short time, you can get the same deal for $29.00!  Check it out at Mighty Deals.  Don’t lollygag!
A great big THANK YOU to Tom at Blog.Fan Extra! 
Su