I really appreciate your input on my last post. I figure it’s nice to have a discussion with all of you instead of just focusing on my boring life all the time. Isn’t it better to know that I really appreciate your thoughts as my reader? Although, according to this rhetoric class, to be a good writer I have to think of my audience as a work of fiction since it is not the same as a speaker, whose audience is present, which is a whole other discussion/rant which I will be sure to get to sometimes this semester. But right now I’m going to assume that you really DO exist and ask for your input, lol.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while and it does seem difficult to advertise your blog and keep the idea true to what a blog should be. Yes, it is a form of self expression, which I would never want to sacrifice, but it is also a website, which is meant for public viewing. I’ve been struggling with trying to find the perfect balance of both. Sometimes it seems the only thing I really can do to advertise outside the blog ring that I am constantly trying to expand is to join all those free web directory sites and hope for the best. But that really is a passive way of promoting yourself. That and give my url to all my friends. But when it’s a site that is meant to reach people world wide, limiting it to your friends also seems like you’re wasting your potential.

So, I don’t know anymore, those are my thoughts on the matter, and I’ll continue to ponder this as I put off my homework, all semester long. I would still love to hear any thoughts you have on the matter, and what you’ve done to promote your site and show your visitors you appreciate them, and I have another question for you. I just love questions, lol.

How often do you think it’s necessary to change your layout?

I’ve been struggling with this for a while, because I REALLY love this layout I have. The color scheme, the style, the endless hours I put in trying to come up with the perfect design that would complement the name and the girl, I just LOVE this layout. Every time I open the page to see that flashing circuits, I just feel so darn proud, lol. But come March I would have used this layout for a year. Is that too long? I don’t want to change it, but do you get bored with a site if they don’t spice things up visually every once in a while? Is active posting and commenting on the visitor’s sites enough? I don’t want to lose visitors because I’m too proud of my design, so if you really think a new layout every so often is necessary, I suppose I should get to work.

Any thoughts?

And also, my comments are pure evil. I realize this now. I have deactivated every plugin associated with comments, and still it is deleting some mid post. I’m sorry. I give up, and I’m asking for help. If you have any idea why this is happening, please let me know. And if it is happening to you, what browser are you using? If the problem is isolated to firefox or internet explorer, maybe I’m looking in the wrong place. :/