Pardon the Stray Electrons…

I’m playing some more with my CSS — toying with the idea of rewriting my theme from scratch, as it’s sort of cobbled together at the moment, and I’m sure it could be more efficient. Things may be changing in appearance somewhat over the next week or so. I’m working on the comments section first, so please excuse the minor variations in style while I find something friendly and aesthetic.

Starting a blog? Mind your layout.

Chatty DM has concluded his series on starting your own RPG blog with Part 5: Then What?, in which he discusses what might happen after you’ve set up and begun writing.  As with the rest of the series, it’s good advice.

Since he’s soliciting further input, I thought I’d throw in my two cents’ worth on the topic of blog layout.  Since my recent move to self-hosting, I’ve been working on defining my own layout.  While my theme still needs a bit of work, I figure the information might prove useful to others — and naturally I have opinions on what makes a good layout.

I’ll assume that you’ve already decided upon a host, whether it’s the free but limited service through Blogger, WordPress.com, or similar sites or paid web hosting through a provider.  (I wrote an earlier advice post that might help if you’re still looking for web hosting.)

The first thing you should do is choose a theme.  This is a set of files that determines the layout of your blog.  Free hosts will typically offer a number of themes to choose between.  If you’re on a paid host, you’ll have to look for one yourself, but there will be a lot more options to choose from.  Google is a good place to start.  (The link will search for WordPress themes.  If you’ve chosen other software, alter the search as necessary.)

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