If you have ever been to my blog before, then you’ll notice a new look today (or last week actually, but today I’m plugging this shit officially). I have upgraded to a custom theme to display all of my wonderful posts in what I hope is a more beautiful and aesthetically pleasing layout.
Now I need to preface. This is just the start. I’m still working through it and fixing the bugs so let’s not have expectations as high as Mt. Everest. But so far, I’m happy. And isn’t that all that matters anyway?
So, how am I looking now? Better? Worse? You don’t give a fuck?
Cool.
So why the change since I am basically a brand-new blogger?
Well friends, your good ol’ pal Q-FI happens to be human after all. I know here in the FI community we are supposed to be strong, diligent and optimized purchasers, but Black Friday got me… hahaha.
Even though I’ve only been blogging for a little over two months now, I’ve been eyeing some upgrades that I wouldn’t mind employing on my site. The more you write, the more you start snooping around on other blogs and noticing what you like and dislike about how their site is set-up. Wow, that looks cool, or damn, those ads are so intrusive I can’t even figure out what is an advertisement and what the hell is supposed to be the blog?
As I looked more into what my options were, I played with some demos and finally narrowed down my decision as to what would be the right custom WordPress theme for me.
Yet there’s one caveat, it costs money. And if you’re like me, you don’t like spending money on things you don’t actually need. And do I really need a theme upgrade this early into blogging?
FUCK NO.
But it looks good… Might make me feel good… I have the money. So why not? Hahaha.
Don’t worry, cooler heads prevailed…. well… at first.
Then good ol’ Black Friday and Cyber Monday showed up all smiles and jolly, waving their pristinely wrapped hands in the air. “Hey Q-FI,” they hollered, “Why not come on over and join the party with us? Everyone is having such a good time over here taking beer bongs of hot chocolate and riding unicorns off into the sunset.”
So I decided, well, it can’t hurt to go over there and take a look. So, take a look I did.
And that original price on my desired theme was cut by 70%. HOLY SHIT. You know what happened next. I bought that crap like there was no tomorrow.
And yes, just because something is on sale does not mean you need it. But it is the holidays and I deserve this, right? Hahaha. How many times do we tell ourselves that?
Just a side note to those who are reading and might want to start a blog of their own someday. I would wait on buying the genesis package, or any other high-powered hosting platform before you know what you are doing a little bit. Stick with the free WordPress stuff and work your way up to the paid platforms until you really need it.
With my addictive personality I got all gung-ho and determined right from the start I was going to blog for at least three years (hahahaha… that’s how I roll baby, all in) before I had even written anything. Thinking I wanted to invest in myself – I’m saying that with air quotes here – so I bought the Genesis package for $60 bucks as people advertise on their sites with affiliate links.
Yep, they got me.
And nothing wrong with Genesis, I like it, but this is only a basic package and the open source theme (in my non-expert WordPress opinion) that isn’t necessarily the best format for a simple blog. You have to pay more money for a custom theme; hence, this is something you probably shouldn’t be wasting your time on before you have even started writing.
Also, a funny tidbit, after I had bought my hosting and the Genesis package, I had my computer programmer friend come over to show me the basics. The first thing he said is, “Why the fuck did you buy this shit? It is way too advanced for the stuff you are doing” – like bringing a backhoe to dig a small hole when you could’ve used a shovel instead.
So don’t get ahead of yourself and go overboard. Pace yourself. We’re running a marathon here.
Remember that your content is the most important, but… people are lying when they say they don’t give a shit about how their blog looks. It’s just like clothes or appearance, you want to put the best version of yourself out there for the world to see.
Anyway, enough rambling on that. I’ll be doing another blog update probably in about 6 months just talking about what I’ve learned so far in writing and posting. For those who care, keep a look out for it. For those that don’t give a shit about learning to blog – skip it.
I worked a 19-hour day yesterday, flying up to San Francisco and back so my mind is mushy jelly this morning.
That will be all until this Sunday.
Have a great rest of the week all!
-Q-FI
Leave a Reply