Blog Templates: I'm Going Back to Blogger Dark Dots

I've decided. When I get home from work tonight, I'm going back to the original blogger template I had when I started the blog: The old dark dots.



I really liked the look of the template, and if truth be told, it's really not a lot different than the template I have now, except that my current template has some nice pictures on it. If you look at the sidebar, it's organized the same way. The text, the bullets, the headings, they're all the same, really.

I've decided to go back to Blogger's Dark Dots for several reasons:

1. I've had some complaints that my template takes too long to load because of the background image in dial up. I never considered this. It has been suggested to me that I'm not winning as many battles in Blog Explosion Battle of the Blogs because nobody gets to see my blog before the 20 seconds is up. Actually, I think that problem is more related to Blogger server slowness than anything else, but I think it's also a legitimate complaint for some.

2. While I really love the design of my new template, I think it takes away from the content of my posts. I originally started blogging because I thought I had some things to say. I think pretty pictures distract from that, and I would like to focus more on my content without the peer pressure that comes with trying to compete with other well-designed blogs.

3. Michelle from Jazz Coffee says that thirty years from now, the orginial blogger templates will be viewed as vintage and classic, so after the current fads of cartoon character blogs fade, everyone will want one of the originals. I think this makes sense. So why not just stay with an original all along?

4. Shelly from the Dramedy of Life thinks my blog is hard to read because of the white text on black. Personally, I don't see it. I think my font is quite easy to read, but I use IE7. In truth, Firefox thins out my font a little, so depending on Shelly's screen resolution and browser, it may indeed be very difficult to read. I hadn't considered this. With my current template, I don't have the option of changing the background color. If I did, it would really destroy the look of the blog, and I don't have the heart to go to Stephanie and ask for a redesign. It would take weeks to work out new color schemes and blend them with the photos--we would probably have to change photos and the header graphic and the background to make it all work right with a different color font.

5. Most importantly, the new graphical look isn't helping expand my readership base. I was getting just as many hits if not more with my original look supplied by Blogger. When I was in Alaska, when I started this blog, I was receiving about 550 hits a day. I switched my counter to ClustrMaps when I got back from Alaska, so those initial hits aren't reflected in my current tally; but I was getting emails from climbers at Everest Base Camp because of the info I had posted regarded Denali. It's funny...I was getting more hits from Nepal than I was from Columbus.

So all in all, tomorrow, I'll be switching back to Blogger's Dark Dots. I hope none of you will be disappointed by the decision, but I think in the long run, it's for the best.

Oh, and Stephanie...

April Fool.

Thanks for reading.

April Fool, Blogger Templates, practical jokes, Battle of the Blogs, Stephanie Davies, Humor