This is my 100th post since starting blogging at AnnaInternational, and how better to mark the occasion than by launching my brand new blog design and domain name: www.annainternationalblog.com? Whoop!
I’ve been wanting to make things look a little better and personalise my site for ages with an updated blog design, but the technical side of switching from hosted wordpress.com to self-hosted wordpress.org was really terrifying me, and I thought that I would never manage to do it by myself. However, luckily for me, I discovered Abby at Just A Girl and Her Blog, and her amazing book ‘Building a Framework: The Ultimate Blogging Handbook‘, which held my hand through every step of the process and meant I didn’t need to rely on Ste’s tech skills at all (well, maybe once!). If you are thinking of starting a blog yourself, read this book first, honestly, it will be money really well spent. Thank you so much Abby.
I also really love my new theme (for the non-bloggers amongst you, it is the template that dictates layout, styles, etc) by Lauren of Restored 316. It was so simple to install and to modify, and Lauren herself even helped me with my one query in super-quick time – thanks Lauren! For the bloggers among you – what do you think? Any tweaks I could make?
Most of all though, I’d like to thank my lovely friend Danielle of Pesky Varmint who designed my logo, which I am also using a variation of for my freelance copyediting. She turned some really rubbish ideas of mine into something cool, graphic and also professional enough to use for both purposes, and I really love it. She is simply a design genius. Thank you Danielle!
So, thanks over with – what do you think? I hope you find it easier to navigate around and find posts that interest you in the different categories, and you can now sign up to follow my blog by email (pretty please!), which means you’ll get every post (3 times a week) straight to your inbox if you don’t have a blog reader like Bloglovin (where my feed should switch to this new site shortly). If you’ve been following me on WordPress, please be sure to follow this new site instead, but all my social media is staying the same. I think there are still small tweaks to be made as I get used to working with the site, but I hope not to have any major problems!
Enjoy, and let me know what you think of my new blog design!
Hurray !!!! Congratulations!! It looks great (on my phone). How does it feel?
Brilliant – wish I’d done it earlier! 🙂 I can’t stop looking at it! x
LOVE the design!!! The tech stuff is always so intimidating. The layout is so pretty!
Thanks Hatton! I really like yours too – very colourful! Cute kid too! 🙂
Hi Anna! I love the new layout!! Don’t you just <3 Abby and her wonderful advice?! I've been mulling over changing my layout but haven't got the nerve to do it yet!! Great job! ~ Dianne
It has taken me months to get up the nerve – I was paranoid it would all disappear! Got a few tweaks to make to old posts now to make them fit better, but it has been so worth it so far! Just do it! 😉 With Abby’s help you will be fine! x