It’s going to take a bit:
No, it will not be a discussion site. I don’t let anybody discuss anything at sites I own.
[well, except for me & Stu, obviously]
cute drunk kitty holding down the fort
so cute
Looking forward to it.
Okay, I’ve started populating it, but it has been a very long time since I’ve used Wordpress.
Anybody got Wordpress themes they can recommend? Other tips?
I need categories listed prominently in the sidebar, at the very least. In case some people only want to read public pensions items, etc.
- Create categories in the control panel. You’ll have to repurpose the default one that’s there.
- give each post at least one category.
- go into widgets. There you can drag and drop stuff into the right or left sidebar, including the list of categories.
tips?
- large fonts > small fonts.
- Use something sans-serif.
- dark text on light, not gray on medium.
- Don’t use italics in the post titles.
- maybe it’s just me, but the ‘continue reading’ link to be in line with the last of the text in the article, not a line jump and then unaligned.
- bonus points for lack of images. Images are to draw the eye to something you want noticed. They get overused because they ‘evoke emotion’ but online all they do is distract from what you want the visitor to read.
Pretty much all of that is what you’ll see on busy informational sites. Here (and other forums), reddit, etc.
Also, links in the post seem to work, but links in the front page summary are removed. Eh, I just noticed it is all, doesn’t really mean anything.
FWIW, I had a large informational website that used all of the above - no pictures and very few images. It sold stuff like crazy. numerous times per year I’d get emails from consumers raving about how they loved my site. I’d also get custom emails from web designers with lists of all the things I was doing wrong with the design :).
Thanks for the tips – I totally agree on the design principles, and I’d rather have a theme/template that already has such things built in.
I’m not expecting much in the way of pictures, because that’s not what I’m trying to do, in general.
Coincidentally, I just took our intern through this template stuff today. If it helps, wordpress has sort of four options:
- straight up themes. download and install, not much customization available.
- themes with capability of some modification; some themes add minor customization ability.
- frameworks (often installed as a plugin instead of a theme). Come with a basic theme, but also comes with extensive customization ability that extends wordpress.
- child themes for frameworks. they’re themes, but have to be overlaid ontop of a specific framework.
You probably want 1 or 2. I mention this because when you go looking for wordpress themes, things can get overwhelming pretty fast and the lines are a bit blurry.
1 Like
Okay, I’ve picked a barebones theme for right now, and I’ve been trying to see if I can find somebody to pay to set up something nicer.
But I like the “clean” look.
Are there any financial goals or plans for this? I feel like there should be.
Psssst private message me 
Testing:
Oh duh I forgot to set the image.
harrumph
test 3
Okay, I think I have figured it out.
So it’s been about a month since my last post.
I’ve got 844 posts so far. I figured out how to stick Amazon ads on the individual posts…but sometimes the choices are a bit odd.
What I’m seeing at the bottom…
Um.
Woot! 2^10 posts!
doing a promo –
Go to YouTube and like my video… I’m trying to see if I can get the most likes…
Link to the youtube channel:
Link to the blog:
https://www.actuarial.news/
Meep, you need corporate sponsorship. You’ve got enough connections, make some calls to some consultants. Or go poke the marketing folks at your employer. You’re traffic is 100% targetted actuarial, that’s valuable for people looking to talk to actuaries. Or a call or two to a recruiter.
I think you should also throw up a ‘recent posts’ and ‘related posts’ or categories widget on the site. Get people clicking around a bit, instead of the linear scroll that’s there now.