One of the quickest, most simple ways to clean up your Blogger layout is to get rid of that ugly blue navbar at the top. It matches almost no one’s design and isn’t terribly functional. Here are two options for fixing that eyesore…
1. If you use the navbar on a regular basis, you can change the color. Click into the layout tab and then look for the little navbar edit link at the top. Choose a color that matches your design. I like to make it transparent, so it goes with everything.
2. If you never use it, then you can remove the navbar all together. Click into the HTML editor under Template and paste the following code right above the variable definitions:
#navbar-iframe { display: none !important;}
Easy peasy!
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Here’s the video from our clowns masquerading as nuns routine!
This was, hands down, the most fun show I’ve ever been a part of. Sometimes we a book show and after a week of rehearsals, I just want to go home after we perform and pass out. This was actually my plan for Squared Circle too – we performed at midnight, in the middle of the show, and I was going to head home right after. But as soon as I arrived at the venue that night I knew that was not going to happen.
Suqared Circle revue is a locally produced circus wrestling show. Last year the religious zealots won and took over hosting this year’s match. Rev. Allister Killfun’s son booked all the entertainment, including a troupe of flying nuns, The Sisters Weird. Little did he know, he was actually booking a gang of circus freaks more commonly known as The Weird Sisters Circus (that would be us, for any of you newcomers).
We began our routine in black and white habits performing to a beautiful song by Bach and halfway through, ripped off our nun gear to reveal clown noses and circus stripes and then rocked out to “Crazy Train” until Allister Jr. came to chase us off the stage.We ran circles around him in the ring and then head banged while he lay on the ground, defeated. It was SO MUCH FUN!
After we performed I parked myself in the crowd to watch a crazy caveman, brobots, a giant baby, drunken clowns, religious zealots, werewolves, and a one-legged wrestler named POGO battle for The Bible Belt. It was impressive and hilarious and completely bananas!
Today Elizabeth from Delightfully Tacky is here to talk about one of the negative parts of blogging – haters. You get enough readers and inevitably, generally for no reason at all, you’ll end up with someone leaving nasty comments. It’s unfortunate and sad that anyone would leave a rude comment, but it happens, so here’s Elizabeth with some ideas on how to handle it.
1. Determine if they’re just crazy trolls who have nothing of value to say, or if they actually have a good point and maybe just said it in a really mean or rude way.
2. Figure out the healthiest way for you (YOU, not another blogger. Everyone is different in how they can handle/deal with these comments) to deal with mean comments. Maybe you have a policy where you just immediately delete them and don’t acknowledge them at all. Maybe you moderate all your comments before they get published. Maybe you just leave them up. Decide how you feel it’s most healthy for you to deal with them.
3. It’s YOUR blog. You don’t have to allow mean comments if you don’t want to. If people tell you that “you can’t take the heat,” just ignore them. It’s a deeply personal decision. I personally decide on a case by case basis whether or not to delete a mean comment. If it’s just totally ridiculous and pointless, or if it’s attacking another commenter, or just plain offensive, I’ll probably delete it. If they’re (rudely) trying to point out something or start a discussion, I might reply. Sometimes people just miss-read or didn’t understand what I was saying, and it’s easy enough to correct their misunderstanding
4. Don’t internalize mean commenters’ statements. Just because someone tells you something, that doesn’t make it true. I’ve had people tell me I’m ugly, I’m boring, my photos are awful, I’m codependent now that I’m married, etc etc. But those things aren’t true, and believing and internalizing them will only cripple my ability to be who I truly am.
5. RE: #4 – recognize that those people don’t know you. The opinions about you which matter are the opinions of those closest to you, which probably won’t end up being your blog commenters. The opinions that matter most to me are those of my best friends, my family, my husband. If they were to make a criticism about me, I would take it seriously because they know me through and through. By and large, blog readers only get a very small snippet of your life and who you are.
6. Think about the ratio of uplifting to rude comments. Chances are, your comments are probably 99% uplifting and positive and 1% rude, mean, and critical. If you look at it that way, the most likely scenario is that someone just doesn’t “get” you, or they’re just having a terrible day and have decided to take it out on you randomly. We focus so much on mean comments because they take us so much by surprise, but go back and look through all the beautiful, positive comments you get– that’s what matters.
7. Haters gonna hate. I don’t get it either, but there are some people out there who just want to spread hate. Their mean comments say more about their unhappiness and jealousy than they do about you and your blog.
Thank you Elizabeth for sharing your advice!
Have any of you had the pleasure of someone leaving a rude comment on your blog? How did you deal with it – just delete and ignore or try and reason with them?
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What a weekend! I performed at a circus wrestling show on Friday which I’m so excited to share photos from! Saturday I had lunch with my family to celebrate my grandpa turning 90 (and people laugh when I say I’m gonna live to be 100) and then hustled back to Detroit to teach a workshop on aerial drops. Then we had another show Sunday. So, tonight I treated my family to my famous eggplant parm and rewarded myself with three slices of pie for three shows in one week :)
Sarah wrotes ‘let’s not pretend it’s always easy’ over on Roots of She (seriously…read it) >>>
Kyla talks about getting your blog love back >>>
A psychopath is better than no path >>>
Kathleen wrote about her meditation practice >>>
What should you put in a freelance contract? >>>
Sabrina wrote “why is it suddenly cool to hate on skinny girls?” (via Olivine’s Charm School) >>>
Check out the “tiny library” in Sarah’s post…how cool! >>>
27 ways to be an (even) better person from Alex Franzen >>>
Today Elycia is here to talk about collaborating with other bloggers. She and Chantilly recently held a live craft event and have been shooting a bunch of entertaining and helpful vlogs on blogging. Here are a few tips on putting together a blogger collaboration…
1. Make sure you know the person who you are collaborating with
This may sound a little odd because in the blog world we all kind of feel like we “know” each other from reading each other’s blogs. What I mean is really get to know the person. Before you get into any kind of collaboration it is a good idea to talk to the other blogger in person, through email or over Skype to get to know what they are really like and to see if you feel that this is someone you could work with. The bloggers I have ended up collaborating with (Kaylah & Chantilly) are gals that I became friends with first and then the collaborations came later. I didn’t go into the friendship thinking about collaborating with them, but since we all love blogging I guess it was bound to happen, and I’m glad it did!
2. Make sure the collaboration is a good fit for both of you
Collaborations are the most fun when both people are equally into the project and equally dedicated. Make sure that whatever it is you are collaborating on makes sense for both of your blogs. Chantilly and I both love talking about blog topics and vlogging so vlogs about blog topics is a really good collaboration for us. Kaylah and I love getting dressed up and taking outfit photos so collaborating on outfit posts is super fun for us. Another collaboration that I think is great is Amy and Chantilly’s Thread Share. Both of those ladies are thrift superstars so it is really fun to see them collaborate on this project. Collaborations can be so amazing when you are working with the right people on the right things!
3. Be realistic/flexible with time frames & responsibilities
Luckily Kaylah and Chantilly are awesome (see tip #1 on getting to know people), so we have never run into any issues collaborating. I think it is important to be realistic about how often you will collaborate and who will do what so no one gets stressed out or feels pressured. When you are collaborating it is also important to remember that the other person has their own set of priorities and responsibilities and be understanding if something needs to be pushed back or postponed. I value my friendships with these girls more than the projects we are working on so it is easy for me to be understanding…and I hope easy for them too when my sorry butt is a little slow to finish something!
Getting to work on these little collaboration projects with other bloggers that I love is the best thing ever. If you are interested in collaborating with another blogger start by building some relationships within the blogging community. Whether or not a collaboration comes out of it you will be so happy that you did, I promise!
Thank you so much Elycia!
Today’s challenge is a little less about collaborating and more about connecting with someone outside of their blog. Why not reach out to a blogger you feel would make a great friend. You know, that person whose posts make you think “Dude, let’s hang out!”
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