r3fresh

Blogging.

Blogging should not be motivated by money or pressure from others, but it should be motivated by your want to write. Today I received a email comment from a fellow blogger telling me that I would be taken off their list of blogs because I wasn’t making daily posts. Now I have nothing against this blogger and I actually enjoy their blog, but to tell me that I’m no longer on there “read” list is confusing and frustrating.

My life currently balances school, work, and a social life. I’ve never meant for r3fresh to be anything more than a blog that gets a few new posts a week. If you want a blog that gets updated daily hourly go to a site where it’s there job to post (ie Engadget, TechCrunch). Blogging is not my job, it’s something I enjoy doing for myself and others. If you can remember one thing from this post remember that you are the creator and others should influence you, but not to the point of hating to write.

5 Tips for Choosing a WordPress Theme

If you haven’t noticed I’ve updated my blog theme. I decided to make the change because of the problems I’ve encountered with my previous theme, Unwakeable. During my search for a new theme I have compiled a short list of tips for picking the perfect theme.

1. Don’t go overboard with the “sweet” effects. My first theme for this blog was pretty bad when it came to effects. It had the ability to change the color of the blog by clicking a button in the corner. What I didn’t take into account was that this cool feature created a thirty second load time for my blog. Just remember that site aesthetics are for pulling people in, but if you want people to come back you need to have a content-filled, quick-loading website.
2. Having a problem with a theme? Ask for help. Did you find a great theme that compliments your writing, but the comment system poorly formats text. What about a theme that has a sidebar bug? Don’t worry, if you need help fixing a bug, you’re not the only one. Find the creator of the theme and shoot’em an email. On my previous theme it required a logo. The creator of the theme had sent me an email with a step-by-step tutorial.
3. Leave the cutting edge web technologies to the professionals. There is no need to weigh down your site with new web technologies especially when the technologies slow or even cripple the viewing of your blog. Readers will come back more often when they know they can come back and read a few articles without conflict.
4. Keep it simple. If your theme looks like something the MySpace designers threw together, I would start looking for another theme and fast. Find a theme that’s easy to read and keeps the reader focused. Red on black is not something I will come back to and read again.
5. Ask longtime friends/readers their opinion. Before releasing your theme to everyone, ask some of your close (Internet or not) friends. They can give you advice on what to change before you get 100x that when you release it to the public.

My theme Pixkit, is what I’ve been looking for in a WordPress theme. It’s clean, quick, and there isn’t anything that will distract you while reading. My theme is a bit on the simple side, but that doesn’t mean yours does too. Pick what you like and go with it.

A Literal Refresh

I have finally updated refresh to a new theme, PixKit. The previous theme (based on K2) proved to be difficult to work with, so I decided to choose a brand new theme. At the moment, the site is going under some changes (ie fixing links, changing info) so bare with me.Nothing has been deleted from r3fresh its just been moved. If you’re looking for the “contact” or “links” pages just click the “TopBarNavi” button at the top of the page for a slick drop down menu.

If you encouter any problems during your visit at r3fresh, I would love to know. Email me at mail at r3fresh dot com. Thanks!