inspired by many beautiful blogs i wanted to make some changes to the template of mine. it's now wider and has a cleaner touch to it. post header and footer are "stylishly" tweaked, also the sidebar has been swept off of messy follower gadgets. RSS, facebook (haha i even created a facebook page because everybody and their dog already has it), twitter and Bloglovin' are now bundled in my chic handmade social media icons </proudly pats herself on the back>.
to keep the sidebar tidy, i've put the pages into a menu on the page header. the favicon is now the little hummingbird.
helpful posts are still on the sidebar, as well as the archives and re-organized labels. my blogroll is down at the bottom of the page, there you can also find an incoming list/wish list and of course my fishies, which are always hungry.
you may have noticed that the "mark" and "copy" function of certain text passages via right-click is not available anymore, i had to disable it to prevent and counteract content theft. this is also the reason why i had to set the RSS feeds to "short". my dear blogger friend Zuzu's Petals from Everyday Beauty has made a fantastic tutorial to show you how you can easily imply this to your blog.
another approach to protect my copyright is to watermark my photos. since i usually write very photo-heavy posts and also didn't retouch and edit my images with a program capable of watermarking, i was just too lazy to do it with every single photograph. recent and older incidences of copyright infringement have won my lazy butt over, though. i also post less frequently now, so in the end there are not too many pictures need to be edited. now i've already uploaded a ton of pics for various drafts, so the next 10 posts or so will still be non-watermarked as before. but in the future, i plan to mark my images with this stamp:
what do you think? is it too irritating? is it distinct enough? do you have any suggestions on the template? i'd be happy to hear your feedback!
Hello Keto :)
ReplyDeleteI have been a reader of yours since you pretty much started blogging and I find myself coming back and searching for your opinion on items that you have reviewed in the past. I enjoy your thorough no-bullshit reviews and your detailed, colour precise photos.
I admit that I am using Google Reader to go through and scour through 99% of the blogs I am following, and I find it very annoying when bloggers switch to Short RSS feeds, and 9 times out of 10 I just stop following altogether, not out of spite (not most of the time anyway :p ) but usually in time.
However, the content of your blog is so good and I enjoy it so much, that I will gladly click on each and every post of yours and be led to your page.
thanks so much for your support, Néphèle! i know it's really annoying to browse through all the new posts and then suddenly comes a short feed. even though i don't use a rss reader as main medium, i have one for some non-blogspot blogs and it already annoys me if i meet a short feed then.
Deletei hope i can find a way to go back to full feed length.
Hi! I have to save I love your blog! The style and the template is looking great. One question. How do you have it so neat designed and customized and your still on blogger? I have a blogspot and mine sucks compared to yours. Any tips? Thanks!
ReplyDeletethank you Tamara! i just used one of the light templates, without borders for the side column. then set the backgrounds to transparent and the rest is playing with colours, fonts and finally padding and margins in the html.
Deletei just checked your blog, i think it will look like you wanted if you set the width a bit higher ;)
DeleteThanks so much. I am going to take your suggestions, and fix it maybe tomorrow. I really should edit a new photo header to make it more unique. I love your blog layout and you did an awesome job!
Deleteyou're welcome! have fun playing with the layout of your blog!
Deletei love the new updates, and i think your watermark is quite pretty. I don't mind it at all! It is annoying when blogs are shortened in RSS feeds, but i completely understand the need for it and agree. Plus i follow you on bloglovin anyways! I think you are making smart decisions to protect your work, and I fully support it!
ReplyDeletethank you bronzerbunny! i really don't feel comfortable setting the feeds to short. i hope i can find a way to both protect my content and have full feeds in the future!
DeleteI must say that i find this watermark a little distracting, a smaller one in the edge would suffice.
ReplyDeletehmmm, as a fellow blogger I wouldn´t recommend only using the watermark in the corner as it can easily be cropped or painted over. This wouldn´t protect your pictures in any way if someone set their mind on stealing.
DeleteI´d personally prefer you used the big one in the center and this one only (maybe make it a little bis less opaque?). I think 2 watermarks are a bit too much and I can only speak for myself but I´d get lazy using both for a long time.
In the end it´s your choice^^
Love the other edits!
@miss_independent: yes, like Connü said, i want to place a faint watermark on the product since this can't be easily cropped out of the picture if someone wants to reuse it. i think i will make it a lot smaller, though ;)
Delete@Connü: thank you! i'm d'accord with you, i think i will only use the one in the corner but to layer it onto the product area and make it smaller and less opaque.
Sounds like the perfect solution :3
DeleteShort RSS Feeds are just annoying, because I only read them on my mobile phone and have to spent my surf capacity for a second loading ... I just dont read them anymore.
ReplyDeletei'm really sorry about the RSS change, i understand you and also find short feeds really annoying although i rarely use a reader to go through the blogs i'm following. however until i can't find a way to both protect my content and have full RSS feed length, i can't force anyone to stick with me. best wishes.
DeleteIt's a shame you have to make the changes but i understand why you have to do them. As for the watermark -- it works on the photo of the kaleidoscope where you've got a fairly large blank area. At its current size, I don't think the watermark will work all the time.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I absolutely agree with your description of a "cleaner" look. I've already enjoyed that about your site, even more so now. I can't be the only one that gets "blind" after reading white text on black (like the nonblonde's -- LOVE her blog but find it terribly uncomfortable to read). I can't see the photos after I read the text for all the "ghosts" that exist in my vision for the next sixty seconds. Thank goodness it's not too common. Sorry, got off on a mini-rant. Love your blog, you've made it look even more classy, looking forward to your future posts and I'll be happy to click to read them.
hi Pia, thanks so much for your support! i remember that i had a dark background and light text as well, when i just started out. but since more and more reader pointed out to me that it can be hard to read and i wanted a lighter, more puristic appearance, i switched to light backgrounds ;) with The Non-Blonde: i love her blog, it's one of the very few with dark background that i still follow. her opinion is so relevant to me that i will still read no matter what ;P
Deleteas for the watermark: it's a brush that i can change in size, opacity and colour as i wish. i will adjust it to the size of the products and will most probably go smaller in the future :)
My one thought. I think the hummingbird stamp isn't unique enough to mark the post without the words of your blog link along with it. At first when I scrolled downward, I literally though that was some sort of new make up item that had copied LMDB packaging before I got a full look and saw the LMDB lettering. People who aren't familiar with brands may get confused about the stamp, thinking it is part of the product.
ReplyDeleteHi Anda Bri! your note is right on the point. i also find that the hummingbird alone, although it's the exact one derived from my painting, is not too unique and significant. could also be some arty stamp. i will folllow your advice and use the one derived from my blog title + hummingbird that i had in the corner for the example pic to use as main watermark. i'll surely go without colour, a bit less opaque and a lot smaller :)
DeleteI think its very nice and clean apparence to the blog, I like it, it´s easy to read it´s very chic and as I said clean, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeletethank you Silvia! i'm happy that you like the new layout!
DeleteHi, as I have said before I really enjoy your posts!
ReplyDeleteI do find the larger hummingbird, while pretty, quite distracting, but I understand you've to protect your work! All the other changes are great!
thanks for your opinion, Baby in a Corner! i also noticed that the hummingbird alone, although it's derived from my header painting, is not unique enough and in this case, much too big. plus, it seems like it's part of the product packaging :P
Deletei will go for the smaller one with my blog title and the hummingbird as my signature watermark in the future, making it un-coloured, less opaque and smaller. i hope it won't be distracting then!
I love the watermark at the bottom right corner, but the one right in the middle, I think it's a bit too big? Love your blog and will continue to support.
ReplyDeleteHi Coco! thanks a lot for your feedback! i will use the corner stamp with my blog title and the hummingbird as signature watermark. i will make it smaller, un-coloured and less opaque, but it somewhat needs to be placed on the product to prevent people simply cropping it out when they want to re-use my picture.
DeleteI think the watermark looks nice, although less opaque might be better. Also, I think you should include the URL address. If anyone's going to steal your picture and broadcast them futher, at least then they'll also promote your blog and bring genuine reades (who then would know where to report about the stolen images).
ReplyDeleteHi Lenita, your feedback is highly appreciated! i also thought about using my full URL, but it looked so ugly ;) so i just derived a stamp from my blog header painting and hope for the best. i will ditch the hummingbird-only stamp and will mainly use the watermark with my blog name.
DeleteYour watermaking is lovely! And I love the new design, I told you that already :) Great job!
ReplyDeletethank you so much!
DeleteI love the watermark! It's artistic, efficient yet not distracting.
ReplyDeletethank you Joanne! i'll switch to a smaller and less opaque version of the one in the corner, though since i got some feedback that it looks like part of the packaging ;)
DeleteWow how did you make that watermark? Are you using a special program?
ReplyDeleteI wanted to have one for ages but never found a program that reall worked =(
yes, i used Pixelmator for Mac. it's supposed to be a knock-off of photoshop, more stylish but with less functions. it's a lot cheaper than PS, though!
Deletei extracted the watermark from my header painting to use it as a brush.
I like the new look overall. It is clean and pleasing to the eye. Like Néphèle, the short RSS feed isn't my favourite as I often browse blogs on my smart phone. I agree with the comments suggesting the hummingbird watermark be less opaque; I'd like to add that it may be less distracting if it were smaller. I appreciate you haven't eliminated the right-click function as I often open tabs so I can read an archived post later. I hope my initial thoughts are helpful. :)
ReplyDeletethank you! i have just posted a spontaneous favourites with new and watermarked pics. what do you think? is the watermark on there ok?
Deletei found out that if you subscribe to email-feeds, you still get full length. maybe RSS readers should switch to mail feed? but on the other side, then i wouldn't need to shorten the RSS feeds at all if someone who really wants to steal content can simply subscribe to email-feeds to get full access. i might switch back to full feed. need to look further into this topic.
Hi there!
ReplyDeleteI recommend you to add the bottom text to a smaller, a little less opaque hummingbird. This way, the hummingbird alone won't confuse anyone thinking that this was a cute LE... AND -- the bigger plus -- you'll have a two in one watermark and can easily skip the pretty, but quite useless watermark outside the product.
hi Alexens, thank you for your suggestions! i just posted a favourites post with watermarked photos, do you find the watermark ok there?
DeleteI actually love your new layout, I did notice that it's much wider and cleaner. I do come back here every time you have a new post, I just don't comment as much...lol. as for the stamp/watermark, I really like it. It's distinct enough but not annoying at all.
ReplyDeleteHollie, thanks so much for your support! i really appreciate it!
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