More blog news

I promised when I started this blog that I wouldn't blog about blogging and now I am doing it twice in one week!  Nevertheless, I have some "Emm in London" news and need some feedback and so it has to be this way!

Layout
I have been wanting to switch to a three-column layout for a while and have finally rolled out my new layout. I tried to keep as much to my old theme as possible because I liked it. It's not perfect, but this layout is wider and it gives me more space and freedom in my sidebars. I couldn't use footer bars in my old layout and that is definitely a plus in this layout. The picture in the header is my own, which is much better than using a template but I think I might need to work on the header a little bit.

Importantly, this layout allows me to use the "more" tag. That means that if I have a very picture-heavy post, then I can write an excerpt and put the rest of the post behind a tag for people who have slow Internet connections or are on dial up.  Would that appeal to anyone?  I know Mike suggested once that I start a photo blog but to be honest, this kind of is my photo blog and the purpose of starting the blog was primarily to upload my photos and give a bit of a story behind them.  So I know I have some serious blogger friends out there - let me know your thoughts on "more" tags!

I am still trying to get the layout looking decent.  Please let me know any problems with my use of yellow or any problems with loading times or pictures not loading!

Followers
If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that Blogger and I are no longer BFFs.  I follow a lot of blogs but in my defence, most of those blogs are photo blogs and I like to sit in bed and scroll through them on Google Reader and comment on the ones that catch my eye.  Well, with the recent following-debacle that I posted about two days ago, I realised that I was now following all of those blogs on an "anonymous" basis.  That means that if I was following you - you wouldn't know about it and most of us have noticed that our "following" numbers are right down.

Having been in the blogging game for 8 years now (been on Livejournal since 2001) I know how important it is to spread the love and "anonymous" just doesn't do that.  It looks like you need to click on every single blog you are following, edit the settings and after about 5 clicks, you can follow them publicly again. 

Thankfully, I found a bit of a work around:  I added all of those blogs to a category on Google Reader and then imported that entire category by clicking "add" in Blogger Home and selecting "import from Google Reader" and then "follow publicly".  What a mission but now I am spreading the love again and you should see me following you again!

I don't like the new "following" widget but  my whole layout looks funny to me right now so I am sure I'll get used to it all.

I'm sure I had something more to say.  Oh well... maybe that was it.  Going to central London tomorrow for movies and dinner with friends.  Hopefully I'll have something interesting to post about.  28 days until we go to South Africa!