I spent the whole weekend doing a little make over to my websites including blogjer.com. You know, it’s been a while since I had last changed the header, which was taken from one Windows Vista Wallpaper that I had cut and put wording on it. There you go my logo. When it was first put up, I didn’t even know that it will lasted almost a year even though it looks quite dull. I have little talent on graphic. Haha.

Slight change on the looks
As you notice I have a new header, but still,  it looks old fashioned. No web 2.0 styles. I know I can get the web 2.0 banner elsewhere on the net, but the free version has similar traits, reflection at the bottom of it. Do you like this?

What else? I removed the background image and changed the background colour to give a simpler and whitey looks. I gave my RSS form a new look (a little), so it will stand out from the rest of the contents.

I use Paint.net and Snag It most of the time to modify or create a simple logo such as above. I don’t have Adobe Photoshop, and furthermore I feel Photoshop is far too advance for me. I had once hired a local designer to design the header, it costs me RM40. It’s quite fancy, but once I’ve known (not yet mastered) on how to use Paint.net and Snag It, I create all designs by myself.

New theme? Not now, but perhaps in future? I still love this type of theme, with each sidebar on the right and left sides of the main section. Maybe after Amit of labnol change his blog’s theme, only then I’ll follow his step. He is my idol, hehe.

Sometimes, having a good looking website will cost us elsewhere, such as the loading time. I won’t trade good looks for the sake of performance, hence I’m tweeking here and there, remove this and that to make sure this blog loads faster. I had disabled a few resource hungry plugins (I think) and the trick seems to work. Did you notice it?

Change web hosting?
NetKL seems to have a couple of little glitches recently. I noticed that this blog was inaccessible this morning and last few weeks. Upon checking on other blogs residing on similar server using MyIPNeighbours.com (thanks to catzer ), they all have similar fate (i didn’t go through all). But I’m not gonna do it soon, coz I had just paid another 1 year extension to my current package. As long as it is not too often, I can still tolerate it.

I just bought a custom semi-dedicated hosting package from a local web hosting for my article directories which is space and bandwidth hungry, so I may migrate this blog there when I feel it is convenient to do so. Previously I have to keep ‘repair’ing and ‘optimize’ing the MySQL database repetitively due to the limitation of the package. Otherwise the whole website is down. Now the problem is gone, but I need to fork out more money. So in case if you had encountered similar issue, it could be that your database has grown bigger than what your package can support.

More ads?
If you monetize your blog or website, you may want to have this optimized frequently. You’re not necessarily change ads, but trying on different format or location might provide a more decent earning. Who knows?? My Nuffnang started to provide a few bucks, but I have yet to get any special ads so far.

And don’t forget make over your self to be a better blogger internally and externally!!