Tag: wordpress

Blogroll

Posted in Uncategorized, writingTagged , , , , , , 36 Comments

“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” – Jane Goodall

Last week I put a call out to all you fabulous people so we could create a blogroll (like Ally Bean used to do). Here are the results in rough chronological order (by the age of the blog, not the blogger… 🙂 ). I hope this helps make new connections or re-ignite old ones. Please introduce yourselves and let bloggers know that Wynne Leon sent you.

P.S. – I’ve done my best to include all the details accurately. If I’ve made a mistake, let me know in the comments and I’ll correct it. Also, if you aren’t on this list and would like to be, please drop your blog name, URL, year blog was founded, and blog description in the comments below.

2006 – Fred – Abba’s Art
Description: Wandering among Nature’s vast wilderness wonders and majestic mountain cathedrals enhances my “Love to live…” and “Live to love …” My infinitesimal smallness before my Abba’s immeasurable grandeur humbles me knowing I am forever loved beyond measure.

2007 – DM – I also live on a farm 
Description: I write about living on a little acreage in the Midwest. I also have a 2nd blog – Heart To Heart that is more personal and is where I process life 

2009 – Mark Petruska – Mark My Words
Description: An (unpaid, dang it) ambassador of All Things Wisconsin nowadays.

2009 – Dr. Gerald Stein at Dr. Gerald Stein
Description: I hope to help all of us think and learn, myself included.

2010 – Clay – Making the Days Count
Description: Start May 2010 after a horrendous school year when I was fortunate enough not to be on the evaluation cycle. My cheese had been moved and I spent the better part of the first semester figuring out what I was teaching and recovered on the downside of the school year’s arc. After the year ended, I decided if I wanted to teach writing, I needed to know how to write. So, began blogging / writing about how I make the days count.

Four years later, the administration had the bright idea that I could teach science and unfortunately I WAS ON the evaluation cycle! The same thing happened – lousy first part and recovery at the end. Every year (and day) I get a little better than the day before.

Always, learning, always growing, making the days count.

2010 – Darlene – Darlene Foster
Description: For writers, readers, travelers, dreamers, friends, and friends I haven’t met yet.  I believe everyone has a right to dream, and with hard work and imagination, can make their dreams come true. 

2010 – Deb – Closer To The Edge
Description: My tag is “Journeys Through the 2nd Half of LIfe” and I think that’s pretty appropriate to what I most often write about- a new home in CO, my family and changes associated with aging.

2011 – Lauren – baydreamerwrites.com
Description: The name came from where I live in the Bay Area and from the fun fact that I’m a dreamer and always will be. My little corner is for sharing my poetry, stories, photos, reviews on books I’ve read, and my book updates. Most importantly, I hope my readers will take away something special during their visit that prompts them to return. Maybe they’ll find a poem, a phrase, or a story that resonates that they can call their own. 

2012 – Brad – Writing to Freedom
Description: Themes around inspiration, poetry, and photography.

2012 – Nancy Ruegg – From the Inside Out
Description: A place where we celebrate inner impressions from God, and aspire after outer expressions that bring delight to him–changing for the better “from the inside out!”

2013 – Dale – A Dalectable Life
Description: Doing my best to keep it on the bright side

2013 – Esther – Esther Chilton
Description: Fun challenges and inspiration for writers

2014 – E.A. Wickham – Bleuwater
Description: What began in 2014 as financial advice focused on women turned into a parenting blog. Now as an empty nester I highlight daily life — then took a turn to highlight my photography after taking photography classes in 2025. 

2014 – Sharon – Just call me Sharon
Description: I tell stories and use it as my personal free therapy; it’s cheaper than going to my therapist.

2016 – Dom – Covelli’s Take   
Description: I only came back to blogging two months ago after 10 years, In fact, it was one of my daughters who suggested i come back to it. I woffle on about everyday issues, usually from a Gen-x angle, not grumpy though! I like to keep it light-hearted.

2016 – Rose – Of All the Things I’ve Ever Dreamed
Description: Started in 2016 to combat the terrible negativity in my country and families caused by the rage of politics. I wanted to share a different voice – one filled with hopes for a better, more creative, inventive, equal future. And I want this now more than ever for my grandbabies. My blog contains a random variety of stories about: what makes my life awesome, family, travels, air shows, motorcycle rides, books, happiness and good work, math, science, nature, learning, state parks, maps, and opinions on topics that hit my heart and home….

2016 – Brian – Writing From the Heart with Brian
Description: I tell stories and share what’s going on in my life. I usually try to bring a little bit of relatable humor to my blog. Life is hard enough. We all need a laugh or an understanding smile once in a while.

2017 – Cristiana – Crisbie Coach
Description: Started in 2017 as a blog for self-development. Now it has evolved towards the improvement of well-being starting from what one eat.

2017 – Rhonda – Pollyanna’s Path
Description: Since 2017, I’ve been writing essays about life, parenthood, grandparenthood, and sharing my thoughts and ideas on what’s going on out there in these wild times as an elder GenX woman in America today. And, as an avid music lover, I almost always include a tune at the end of my blog posts that suits the mood I’m channeling through my writing.

2017 – Khadija – She Knows All
Description: I am still becoming. And I decided to write about it while it happens.

2018 – Todd Fulginiti – Five O’Clock Shadow
Description: A blog that began when I quit my previous career and found time to start writing again. Besides observations and stories about Life, I feature several columns like Old Man Rants (comedy), Who’s On Your Hero List? (interview), RebEarth (sustainable living), Music and more.  

2018 – Erin (Esoterica) – Existential Ergonomics
Description: A warm, candid space for stories of chronic illness, infertility, love, resilience, and growing braver in the messy middle.

2018 – Ab – My Life with T
Description: About 2 dads raising an amazing 11-year-old boy with FASD.

2018 – Tamara – Tamara Kulish – Helping you move through life!
Description: I started out in 2013 with “On Becoming a Lemonade Maker” but switched in 2018 to my current site under my name. If anyone remembers my old blog name and lost me, hey, hey, here I am!

My original purpose for blogging was to sell my book; I had read advice that an author needed to create a platform to gather an audience in order to make sales. That plan didn’t work out the way I had hoped, so instead I decided to just dedicate my blog to writing posts that each contain a helpful and doable life lesson for healing, for growth and for becoming a better version of ourselves. This is the place I like to share thoughts and lessons that seem important to me during this time we’re going through together.

I welcome new people and your comments to my blog. I hope to be able to share some nice, helpful tidbits with you!

2019 – Michelle – Boomer Eco Crusader  
Description: Helping you live your best life with practical tips on decluttering, simplifying, and living sustainably.

2018 – Mary – Awakening Wonders
Description: In May of 2018, I started “Awakening Wonders” as a hobby to awaken your senses to the simple wonders all around us. I share my heartfelt discoveries.  

2019 – Dana – Mindful Caravan
Description: I write about the joys and challenges of pursuing peace, love, and faith in self-care.

2019 – Pete – Pete Springer
Description: Passionate Teacher and Future Children’s Author

2020 – Gwen – Gwen Thinks
Description: Reflections on everything, According to me. I always look for the story, and try to understand how things relate to one another. I write about my past and present life, travel adventures, music adventures, contemplations, humor, and whatever else pops into my head.

2020 – Ganga – Special Mom’s Blog
Description: My name is Ganga and I have a 29 year old severely autistic son! I started blogging six years ago to do something for myself! It has really transformed me and given me so much confidence! The blog has a mixture of so many things and just not special
needs!

2021 – Outrageous Monk – Virtuous Improvement
Description: Exploring life, creativity, and finding extraordinary moments in the everyday hustle.

2022 – Vicki – Victoria Ponders
Description: I love writing about wellness, authorship, writing for wellness and inspirational stories.

2023 – Edward Ortiz – Thoughts about leadership, history, and more
Description: A lifelong learner who loves to share what I’m learning along the way.v

2024 – Hazel – Seven Sisters Love
Description: Sharing my personal and professional life from the Philippines

2025 – Rosie Meadow – RMMeadow
Description: Meadow seeds today, flowers and maple trees tomorrow. The focus is on dropping seeds in the life garden.

2025 – Bruce – Swan Song Apocalypse
Description: Life, Movies, Shows, Sports, Stuff

(featured photo is from Pexels)

If my work has encouraged, inspired, or helped you try something new, consider supporting it with a small “cup of coffee” donation. Your support helps me keep creating conversations, stories, and resources that cheer people on as they do brave, meaningful work.

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

This is How I Blog Roll

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“Friendship is born when one person says to another, ‘What! You too?’” after all. ‘I assumed I was the only one.’”  – C.S. Lewis

Ten minutes into writing my post for last week’s podcast, I knew I was in trouble. I was writing about all the ways we share experience and knowledge on WordPress and had started a list of the fabulous bloggers I follow and their themes. What I quickly realized was that I could spend all day and still not be able to list all the wonderful blogs I follow. Plus my one-line summary may or may not match their goals or purpose. Does Mark blog about manifesting, mosquitoes or moving? Hmm… all three?

So I’m borrowing a page from Ally Bean and doing a blog roll. Ally was a wonderful connector of people is no longer but is no longer blogging on WordPress (The Spectacled Bean). But her words and impact remain.

In the comments for this post, please leave your blog name, URL, a one or two-line description, and the year you started your blog. Think of it as a dinner party and I’m really excited to introduce you to each other. Don’t even think about hiding in the corner – I will come find you. It’s a fun way to network in this inspiring and generous community. And when you go visit any blog on this list that is new to you, please just let them know that Wynne Leon sent you.

Next week, I’ll publish a final list. Thanks for coming to my dinner party!

(featured photo is from Pexels)

If my work has encouraged, inspired, or helped you try something new, consider supporting it with a small “cup of coffee” donation. Your support helps me keep creating conversations, stories, and resources that cheer people on as they do brave, meaningful work.

You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wynneleon/ and Instagram wynneleon

Please check out the The Life of Try podcast Where trying becomes the spark for personal growth, discovery, and re-invention!

The Things You Have to Do

Posted in podcastTagged , , , , , , , , 46 Comments

“Ability and necessity dwell in the same cabin.” – Dutch Proverb

I recently had some trouble in my kitchen. My refrigerator had leaked intermittently for a dozen years. The floorboard underneath it finally got soaked enough that the wheel on the front left side fell through it. I had to shimmy the refrigerator out, assess the damage, fix the floorboards, and order a new frig.

It was a pretty intense week trying to get all that done so that the floor was sturdy and level enough for a new refrigerator. But when it was all done, I had a good laugh. Because… I don’t like to clean my frig. And now I had a beautifully clean refrigerator.

It reminds me of another task people don’t often like to do — update their web site design. It’s what my co-host Vicki Atkinson and I talk about this week on the Sharing the Heart of the Matter podcast: Episode 90: Site Design and WordPress Themes.

I know, I can hear you groaning from here. In fact, I’m groaning right along with you even though this is a large part of what I’ve done professionally for 30 years. Even if you only publish a private blog for your family, making things findable is important!

So if you are thinking about changing up your site or even just wondering if you should, I think there are some good tactics to help make this manageable.

Vicki and I talk through some of the design considerations to be mindful of like navigation and search. And then we look at the sections to consider when picking a theme like the header, footer, and sidebar.

I talk through some of the problems I’ve heard people have encountered when switching themes in WordPress like content disappearing and inability to revert back. I offer some strategies for avoiding that flavor of disappointment and disaster.

There is a presentation that gives these elements and examples to download as a companion piece to this podcast. Here’s the thing – tackling site design isn’t always fun, but it’s better when we do it together with some good approaches and tactics.

I’m confident you’ll love the scenic and beautiful places we explore as we share the power of storytelling as told through well-designed sites.

We know you’ll love it!

Search (and subscribe!) for Sharing the Heart of the Matter on Apple, Amazon, Spotify or Pocket Casts OR Listen to it from your computer on Anchor: Episode 90: Site Design and WordPress Themes

HoTM Episode 90 transcript

AND subscribe to our YouTube channel to see a video clip of each story: @SharingtheHeartoftheMatter.

Links for this Episode:

The PDF presentation of the ideas and process presented in this podcast conversation.

Vicki’s book about resilience and love: Surviving Sue

My book about my beloved father: Finding My Father’s Faith

(featured photo from Pexels)

Categories

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“Life is full of surprises and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success. If you try to plan every step, you may miss those wonderful twists and turns. Just find your next adventure-do it well, enjoy it-and then, not now, think about what comes next.” – Condoleeza Rice

When I first started using WordPress, I wasn’t blogging as much as just using it as a place to store a series of posts I was doing on social media as a response to the ugliness of the 2016 election cycle. I put all those posts in a category called antidotetomeanness and didn’t put any thought into categories overall.

Then when I started blogging in earnest, I still didn’t put much thought into categories and generally dumped them in a category called meditation, thinking that would cover almost any pondering on life.

Which is a little shame on me moment because I create information architectures for companies for a living – that is, I help them design the ways to store information that is structured, findable and meaningful for those who need to find it. Of course a lot of people, especially the younger generation, just use search to find things but if things are tagged appropriately we can also create effective navigation to guide people to things we think are most relevant.

But to be fair, I wasn’t sure what I was going to be writing about and wanted to be findable. Now that I have some experience under my belt, I wanted to put some thought into categories and maybe update my navigate to point to things I post about regularly – like my dad’s humor cards and the confidence series I’ve been working on.

I had a few questions:

  1. If I updated a post to change how it’s categorized would it email all my followers to notify them and create an email storm? The answer is thankfully, no.
  2. If I create a parent category like “archive” could I make a menu item for the navigation that would automatically include all the posts that I rearranged to be sub-topics?

Yes! When I created the parent topic, it had 0 posts in the top-level category but still if I navigate to the page for the category, it shows me all the posts that make up the subcategories and I can also add it to the navigation menu if I want to.

3. I wanted to create a menu header for my regularly used topics so that it provided a place for a drop-down menus of my two most common categories: humor and confidence. I ended up created a page for “topics” and then used that to anchor the sub-menu items for my categories:

Once I started to get comfortable with the answers, I had a lot of fun playing around with categories and how they can be useful. It’s opened a whole new level about how I can make things fun and findable on my home page.

Do you use categories? Do you plan them out or just add them as needed?

(featured photo from Pexels)

Data With a Grain of Salt

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“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” – Albert Einstein

Talking with some blogging friends the other day, the topic of blog views came up. We were discussing all the different reasons that view numbers could be less this year than last year: people’s attention spans getting shorter, maybe viewers read more when the pandemic shut down other activities and now they are reading less, etc..

I’m too new to blogging to have enough historical data of significance, but I’ve studied similar data in my professional life to know that numbers aren’t as concrete as we think. So I did some digging and thought I’d share the results of my research specific to WordPress.

First of all – what is a view?

According to the WordPress stats and insights page it is:

“The two main units of traffic measurement are views and visitors:

  • A view is counted when a visitor loads or reloads a page.
  • A visitor is counted when we see a user or browser for the first time in a selected time frame.

A visitor is an individual looking at your site. A visitor can view many different pages of your site or view the same page multiple times. Therefore, the views number is typically higher than the visitors number.”

With those definitions in mind. Here are some things that impact the numbers.

  • If a viewer reads your content in the body of email notification and never clicks on any links within the email, it doesn’t count as a view.
  • If a viewer reads and/or likes your content in the WordPress viewer but does not click through to the full post, it does not count as a view.

One of the blogs that I write for has changed in the last few months so that when posts are emailed out, they no longer have a “like” link at the bottom, just the “comment” link. However posts that come from my blog still have both “like” and “comment” links at the bottom. Some posts are emailed out with just the summary and then something like “click here to read the full post.” For people who are reading blog posts in email like I do, those three differences are going to impact the number of views.

There are some things that WordPress makes a point not to count as a view – search engines and views from anyone that has logged in and who has authoring permissions. Generally speaking, there are trying to report how many views of the content by readers as accurately as they can.

The technology is constantly changing so things like a change in the format of the notifications by email or even how well the WP Reader performs on a mobile device can impact things like view numbers. Numbers as reported within a week are probably pretty accurate in relation to each other because the functionality is consistent. There are likely seasonal differences with dips in summer and holidays. Year over year numbers, comparing the same month this year to the same month last year, is very interesting data but needs to taken with a grain of salt.

If a blog has a drop in views, it’s possible that it’s because the author(s) has alienated the viewers or our collective attention span has gone to seed. But since the trend over time for active bloggers is towards more followers and views, it also might be worth considering these technical factors as well.

For those of you who are interested in more information on the many way people read blog posts from two incredibly talented writers and experienced bloggers, both Ashley and Claudette have covered the topics in depth and by survey here:

Ashley Peterson’s post on How Do You Read Blog Posts? on her Mental Health @ Home blog.

Claudette Labriola’s survey results of How Do You Read Blogs on her Writer of Words, Etc blog

(featured photo from Pexels)