Welcome to Jillian Approved!: Don’t Worry, You’re in the Right Place
Hey everybody! Welcome to my new site. Go ahead, have a look around… I’m in no hurry.
…
You done?
Good! Took you long enough.
I’m kidding. :-p
So I have finally moved away from Blogger ( my old URL: http://loquaciouslyverbose.blogspot.com) to what you see here: my very NEW home on the web (NEW URL: www.jillianapproved.com)! Awesome, right? I think so. I’ll admit it’s quite intoxicating to own a piece of Internet Real Estate, but that may be because I’m a first time buyer. Whatever. I’m excited and my head is seriously swimming. For real. I almost feel drunk without having had any alcohol (boo!). But anyway, the move wasn’t something I was able to do alone. I needed help… lots of help. And I’ll be honest, trying to work on WP after having only known Blogger is a huge change. The buttons are different (I confuse easily), and I don’t think the WP platform is as intuitive as Blogger. It helps to know your shit, or in my case, people who know their shit and allow you to bug them with a million questions. And so, before I do anymore yapping about me, I’d like to say thank you to 2 wonderful people for helping me.
The first person getting a big THANK YOU! is Carl from Carl Discovers the World. Oh…my…God. This guy is awesome. When the idea of moving to my own site was kicked around, Carl was very encouraging. “Why not?” he asked, “You could do it.” I was skeptical at first because the only HTML I knew was “<b>” and I had never heard of CSS. But Carl offered his help… a lot of his help… and his time. It was Carl (currently residing in Spain, by the way) who stayed up past his bedtime and walked me through setting up a local server that would allow me to test different WP themes without worrying about them being “live”. And if any of you ever get the pleasure of helping me, you’ll find I ask a million questions… at the same time. Yup, I am not the easiest person to offer assistance to. I always have a question and a scenario and an example and another follow-up question to my first one. Through it all, Carl managed to remain a good sport. For that, he will always have my eternal thanks.
The theme you’re looking at was designed by Ceejay (Carl’s Partner) with the coding done by Carl himself. It actually comes in 3 colors: green, blue, and red. Because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, Ceejay was nice enough to just incorporate my header into my own very special design of the theme. Hooray! Once this was done, Carl stoically withstood my requests for more tweaking and fixing. He also worked on the theme until it looked good in Internet Explorer (c’mon guys, you should really be using Firefox). And when I finally obtained hosting, Carl helped me set up my server, download WP, and walked me through using FTP. He also answered more questions, gave more of his time, and coded and re-coded parts of the theme I wanted to change. If you’re using Firefox (like you should be) or Safari, you should also see my favicon. Guess who set that up?
So yeah… anytime I say “we” worked on something, take that with a grain of salt.
The second person I’d like to thank is .45 from .45 Caliber Headspace. I sent a ton of WP questions his way and he was nice enough to send back some extremely helpful answers. Several times after I decided sleep could wait, I would send him questions during the wee hours of the morning. .45 knows his shit. He suggested some plugins, answered several questions about coding, and really really helped me out. I’m pretty sure I violated the “Shoutbox” protocol, but he never mentioned it. So .45, thanks so much for your help and willingness to put up with my all questions. And I know it seems like I haven’t touched the book I bought on XHTML and CSS, but I have! I’m on like chapter 6 or something. I think. But seriously… THANKS!
About the site:
- Feel free to check out the blog pages. They’re not there for nothin’!
- Please please update your links/blogroll. The URL is www.jillianapproved.com If you have recently linked to me, it would be awesome if you changed that link to the current URL. I know you peeps are busy, so whenever is better than never. Ha!
- New name, same blog. Only now with more direction (hopefully)
- This blog is still DO-FOLLOW. I love that people take the time to comment, this is my way of saying “thanks!”
- There are still some things I’d like to add to this blog, so be on the lookout for tweaks here and there.
- And…uhh… please let me know if anything looks weird. LOL…. I’ll be sure to tell Carl!!!
Thanks for stopping by and WELCOME!!! Woot!
Was there more to say? Probably, but if it wasn’t mentioned this time, I’ll get to it next time!
52 Responses for "Welcome to Jillian Approved!: Don’t Worry, You’re in the Right Place"
oooh I like the design. now i’m going back to read this post.
Gee, thanks for the gushing platitudes. I really didn’t think I did that much but its great to hear some being appreciative, thank you.
And welcome to the world of self-hosting! You won’t regret the move from blogspot, yeah yeah, I know, blogspot was great and started you off, but you’ve quickly made a name for yourself and you’re ready to start building your Jillian brand, good luck.
Yay for no more blogger!! This is sooo very exciting.
Welcome!! Have updated my blogroll and can’t wait to read more from ya!
Looks solid. I like the new digs. Very easy on the eyes AND it looks great in Firefox (seriously, who still uses Internet Explorer).
@ Carl- Pfft! My husband read this entry and was like, “Umm, it looks like Carl did most of the work.” I had to inform him that asking questions was work, too! But yeah… you DID do all the work. THANKS!
@ fragileheart- Aww, awesome! Thanks so much!!!
@ TOPolk- See, I’m liking what I hear. I wasn’t sure what colors I wanted to go with, but I think red was a good choice! Glad you found me!
Looks great!!
Congratulations on the revamped blog! It looks great!
Jillian, I LOVE it! It looks fabulous, m’dear!
I love the new look!
Wow! I’m glad I saw the name Jillian in your Entrecard Avatar or I may not have known where I was.
I think it looks fabulous! And I love the colors. Very bold and sleek.
@ Mrs. R- Woot! Thanks! I can’t wait to see where things go. Provided they are going anywhere!
@ Lisa- Thank you…. !!! Now I can get back to business as usual. I’ve let everything go: Entrecard, blog reading, TV watching… etc. etc.
@ DeadRooster- Awesome! Thanks! Jillian is EXCITED!
@ castocreations- LOL… is that how you found me? I tried to let everyone know through all the social networking sites. But since I’m so bad at using them, I’m sure they were like: “Jillian who?” Anyways, thanks for stopping by!!!
It is wonderful to own a piece of Internet Real Estate…but WP and CSS are hard. Very. Very. Difficult.
I am glad you have a “CARL” to help you…..(I have a Carl, but her name is Leslie)
Good luck figuring every thing out. I am still learning. (two years later!)
xxopo
Looks FABULOUS.
ps…I just updated / changed your linkage in my blogroll!
If you could see and hear me, you’d know I was catcalling and making lude gestures at your blog. Great job! And, glad I could help.
Feels good, don’t it? And, if you break things all the time, like I just did with comments, you can always roll back from your host’s backups. Hooray!
You are absolutely amazing my dear…oh, and so is CARL! LOL! Congrats on the move!! Looks fabulous!!!
BTW, what is that “Meta” thing-y at the bottom? Do I need to know about this?? TELL ME!!!
@ .45- Yes, it feels awesome! Haha @ catcalls. The blog is feelin’ it! Yup, your help is very much appreciated!
@ Random- You went to gravatar!!! LOL. Awesome. Yeah, I tell Carl he’s great all the time, but he’s all modest. The “Meta” thing is just for me to log into the site. I mean people can register if they want, but you don’t need to in order to comment. I have it set so anyone can drop a comment. Thanks for dropping by!
Congrats! I purchased my domain many moons ago, but have no idea what to do next. You’re a few steps ahead of me!
I will follow you in a boat, tho I cannot swim okay???I have a Wordpress account.. Still have not launched it yet!
Still trying to figure it out! LOL!!
Love ya chick!!!
Single.
I updated my blogroll. Happy, now? LOL
way to go girl..I am impressed…
I love it Jillian, go team Jillian!
Now do mine for me! NOW.
Done it yet?
It looks great! Congrats. I know it was a lot of work but I think in the long run you will be so happy owning your own little piece of the net! I have updated my Blog Roll.
@ Single- You are TOO sweet! Tone it down!
Get that blog launched!
@ Frank- Actually I AM happy. Was my begging THAT obvious? Hahaha. You have to realize I’m starting all over again! I gotta get linked when I can
But thanks, though… you know I appreciate it!
@ Robert- Cool! My work is done. But, seriously… thanks!
@ Claire- LOL @ Team Jillian. I wish! I just need to stay on Carl’s good side! And let’s hope he doesn’t read this :-O
@ beeker- Thanks! And yeah, I am very much excited. Now I just need to think of stuff to post. And you’re awesome for updating you blogroll, MUCH appreciated!
OMG.. this looks freakin’ awesome! You all did a great job!
I didn’t get my email script till just now, and I headed right over to take a look see.
Maybe one of these days I’ll be brave enough to try the big move… maybe.
Way to go!!!
Well, if you hadn’t been on your knees…LOL Just kidding
Heck, I was happy to change the link on my blogroll. I will even tell Shelly you changed to a new location 
Congratulations on your first domain.
Good move in migrating from Blogger.com to a hosted WP account - I’ll have to amend my blogroll now so that it shows up your new domain.
By the way, I love the new design although for some reason, your post titles seem to overlap the opening post text. Teething errors more than anything, I am sure of it.
I’ve also been updating, both on MySpace and my web site. I just had enough of light grey text fusing badly with a white backbround and how the links showed up as if they were bold text.
Oh and I also ditched most of my sidebar plugins to increase site loading time. So where it says on your blogroll that “I haz Entrecard”, ditch it because I most certainly don’tz haz it no moar.
P.S. Two WP plugins I swear by which you don’t have:
http://www.viper007bond.com/wordpress-plugins/quote-comment/
http://chip.cuccio.us/projects/contact-form-ii/
I also have an SEO Plugin called HeadSpace2 which .45 told me about and has been instrumental in increasing my search engine visibility. Another one I use (and if you decide to monetise with AdSense, you should get it as well) is AdSense Injection. This one manually inserts Google Adverts into your layout automatically.
http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/headspace2/
http://wordpress-plugins.biggnuts.com/adsense-injection/
@ Frank- Hahaha, you’re bad! And thanks for telling Shelly for me!!
@ Laura- Yups, I am really excited! Like I said earlier…lol… now I just need stuff to post. Thanks for stopping by!
@ Qelqoth- I have Headspace 2. LOL… .45 gave me the lowdown on that. I just didn’t tag this post with anything…because it’s just a few shoutouts. But I guess I really should just tag everything. I still haven’t tagged my archives properly, I did all of April and just a few posts for January. So I’ll do that today!
The post titles are overlapping the opening text? What browser are you using? I’m on FF, I’ve cleared my cache and everything looks fine. You should send me a screenshot. Cuz I’m not getting the problem over here :-/ You know of course now I have to bug you about that, right?
Anyways, I’ll check out those other 2 plugins! Thanks!
I think Carl would be happy to be in Team Jillian
Don’t forget to have your doodle ready! I am getting excited
Looks great
I’ll update your link.
Good luck in your new home!
You know how I originally found you? I think it was through Mimzi’s blog. lol And then I added you as a favorite to my Entrecard list.
I’m tagging you for a meme. Fun!!! =D
http://castocreationsjewelry.blogspot.com/2008/04/lemons-to-lemonade.html
Congratulations on your new home!
Lookin’ good, Jillian! May you be very happy in your new internet home!
I’ve been with wordpress since my inception and no complaints (except I don’t know how to get rid of the pre-comment, damn adding numbers box - it just won’t go away!).
@ Dawn- Thanks a lot! LOL.. if anything ever looks weird, let me know. I’ll beg Carl to fix it!!
@ monaco- Thanks! There are still a few boxes I need to unpack, you know… get settled in and stuff.
@ Keli- lol. I don’t mind adding the numbers… as long as the problems stay easy. I mean I don’t want to one day write this kickass comment, then have to solve a Calculus problem to post it. That would make me sad
Wooowww! I love the site! Sorry for the link love boo boo early this morning. Wasn’t thinking straight at 1am.
Wished I could migrate like you too but there’s too much in blogspot for me to just say goodbye to. Looking forward to many many MANY great posts from your site! *hugz
Bear in mind Jill, that I use Linux. I’ve tried it on Mozilla, FF, Nautlus, Galeon and Konqeror, all common browsers on the penguin. All the same response. It’s probably just me then.
WOW… looks cool mate… nice theme and colours… I will follow someday when I figure the details out… LOL
take care…
cheers mate…
Big Congrats on moving off of blogger and getting your own domain, have fun with it!
So you figured out I wouldn’t be a happy bunny if you didnt do one, good good!
You do not want to be on the ‘list’
LOVE IT!
Congrats on your new home
@ Qelqoth- I’m gonna respond to you anyway
I checked that browsershots site… and viewed the site in Linux (in the browsers you mentioned) and it looked good. The only 2 that were sucking nuts was IE 6 and IE 7. IE 8 looked good (shock!)
@ Arv- Thanks!!
@ JoLynn- Oh yeah, I am SO excited. Thanks for dropping by!
@ Claire- I am working on it! I promise. I would never want to NOT do your bidding
@ Monique- Thanks! And good to see you (as usual).
Yay for new blogs! Nice place, hon!
Cxx
Its like there is an evil Claire and a nice Claire! heh
Jillian, congratulations! It looks very nice! Very professional, even!
Although… I’m in IE7 right now, so I may not be experiencing the greatest pleasure out of it yet!! (When did IE8 come out? I just upgraded to 7!)
Next time, I’ll have to remember to try out Firefox before I come inside, and see if it looks any different!
Happy weekend, and happy blogging! And happy new job, too! My, you’ve been busy lately, huh?!
Toodles!
FIREFOX: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
IE 8: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/default.mspx
I HAVE been busy… sheesh. And to think I’m not even making money of this damn thing! Ahh well… I admit my priorities are a little screwy, but whatev.
Thanks for dropping by and you have a wonderful weekend as well!
I think you may be right!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! <—————————— Evil Laugh
wheww love the site impressive..
@ Robert- Thanks a lot! I wish I could say I did it all myself, but Carl deserves the credit. He continues to be awesome! Let’s hope I never piss him off!!!
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