Welcome to Write Right! I am so happy that I finally get to share this site with you. It’s taken a little over a month to get everything put in its place, and I know I still have some tweaking to do. I decided, though, that if I waited until the site was “perfect,” everyone would be waiting a very long time. At some point, I have to let go of perfection and just let things be.
Since today is a time to celebrate the new site, I hope you’ll put on your dance shoes and party hats and join the fun. If you comment on this post, you’ll be entered for a chance to win a personalized chibi. The rules are simple. You can comment as many times as you wish, but you’ll only be entered once. I know that might seem unfair, but I know some of you. I’m almost certain you’d comment one hundred times in hopes of increasing your odds. I have to be fair to the other commenters, so it’s one entry per person no matter how many times you comment.
The rules for the comments are simple, too. You have two choices:
- You can tell me what you like or dislike about the site. If you dislike something, please offer suggestions for correcting the problem. No one appreciates the “I don’t like this” comment without some sort of explanation for it.
- You can share a blog topic. Topics can be for the Write Right posts, such as when to put the question mark inside or outside the quotation mark, or they can be related to the writing life. For instance, I know that writing consistently or on demand sometimes is a concern.
Of course, you can allows try to impress me with a laugh-out-loud comment. I do enjoy a good laugh. I’m certain other readers will enjoy the hilarity, too.
As far as the entries go, the process is very scientific. Each person who comments will have his or her name written on a slip of paper. Those slips of paper will be placed in a hat or a bowl or some sort of container and shaken well. I’ll then close my eyes and reach my hand into the container and pull out a winner. Ta da!
Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. CST on Monday, March 12, 2012. The winner will be announced on Wednesday since a post already is scheduled for Tuesday. The personalized chibi will appear in a post the following week – probably the following Wednesday – and emailed to the winner.
Happy commenting and thank you for attending Write Right’s launch party.
I love what you’ve done with the site design, Erin! Super clean and organized layout – and the fact that you’ve been tweaking the CSS makes the success a bit sweeter, doesn’t it? It gives me the inspiration to spend some serious dev time improving the look of my own blog. 🙂
@jasonkonopinski Thanks! I do enjoy the minimalist/streamlined approach. I also like that I did vanquish the CSS – at least momentarily. Like I said previously, you’re welcome to look at the CSS I used for the image sprite. I think that was the most complex CSS I did. Everything else was tinkering with colors and image files. 🙂
LOVE this new site Erin! And you know how much I love the name:) I like the clean, crisp look, the font size (the previous font size on your old site was a real struggle for me to read, so bravo to you for that important change), I like the colour of the blue “subscribe” box, and I really like the header with the chibi and your signature. We’ll have to talk about how you tweaked the CSS, and the Genesis framework. Mine’s a headway theme right now, but I’ve been hearing awesome things about Genesis.Congratulations! Let the party begin! I’m sending cake and balloons and streamers and ponies:) Cheers! Kaarina
@KDillabough We can certainly talk about it! I’m still learning as I go, but the learning process has made me much more brave to mess with code elsewhere – mostly the e-letter.
The font is great, isn’t it? It’s actually the default, but it’s perfect because it’s the same font that I use for my logo.
Thanks for helping to make the party a success!
Congratulations @Erin F. What a HUGE day for you and “writefully” so!! Clearly, you have put a great deal of thought, passion and creativity into this website project. I love how clean, user friendly and interactive it feels. Your “Erin Chibby” and your “signature” give the site a very personal touch and yet you have managed to maintain a professional look as well. You should be very proud of yourself.
I have NO criticisms because, it really DOES look awesome.
As far as potential blog posts, since I am a word nerd, maybe doing one on word games like crossword puzzles, scrabble, words with friends, etc
Enjoy your GRAND OPENING today! You deserve MUCH success ErinMFeldman
xoxo
Claudia
@SocialMediaDDS Thank you, Claudia! The site really does merge the professional and the creative, which is good since that’s what I hope to encourage other people to do. 🙂 How I did that, I don’t know. A lot of practice maybe.
Word games? I’ll have to think of something suitable. *puts on thinking cap*
So far..I can only find things I like about the site and nothing I dislike. Pretty and clean layout, love the cute header. Congrats on the launch Erin. I’m an early visitor it looks like so only drinking coffee, haven’t started on the hard stuff yet but I bet the party will get rocking closer to the evening hours 🙂
For any first-time visitors, Erin is a a great person to follow and read online; via her experiences, victories and struggles, it helps me to reflect on what I’m doing in my own business and life. She’s a very open person in her blogs and unlike a lot of the bloggers, doesn’t only try to paint a rosy picture.
Erin, I hope you grow some awesome relationships from this blog and I look forward to reading more.
@Jacob Yount Thank you for such a kind and wonderful compliment!
I’m looking forward to meeting new people, too, via this blog.
I can’t believe you managed to write a post all a bout @ginidietrich without even mentioning her name. Well done! I” know some of you.” Indeed!
@Sean McGinnis @ginidietrich Well, I was actually thinking of @MSchecter and @mikevardy. They were starting to squabble on Twitter the other day when I mentioned a free chibi was up for grabs. 😉
Hey Erin! Congratulations on the new site! You’ve done a lot of work here. I like that you will combine drawing and writing! Maybe it’s just me but I had to look up “chibi”.
I use that same scientific process in my draws too!
All the best!
Lori
@Lori No, it’s not just you. Other people aren’t familiar with chibis, either, which is why today’s chibi had a sign proclaiming he was one. 🙂
I think @Shonali is to blame for the merging of writing and drawing. She reminded me that my drawings impact my written communications. She’s right, of course.
Looks great, Erin! Congrats!
@KenMueller Thanks, Ken! I hope you’re enjoying your birthday.
Hey!!!! congratulations sis, awesome job with the site. I was looking for some sort of hidden easter egg, but I love the chibi bear girl doin her party thang so that works for me. Keep up the good work and if you need any more testing let me know, and will be happy to lend myself for sacrifice.
@frozndragon I may need some help figuring out the slider and share icons so that they play nicely on smartphones…
A hidden easter egg? You must have me mistaken with another Erin.
Thanks! I shall keep up the good work.
New site looks great! Enjoy it.
@TheJackB Thanks, Jack! As @DannyBrown would say, “Awesome comment!” 😉
Erin! The site looks fabulous. Love it. Very clean and well-organized and pretty. It’s already a pleasure to visit.
Oh… I should also say that it also looks great on the iPhone except for one little thing: without the margin, the share icons overlap some of the text. (You can get the same effect by making your browser very narrow.) Otherwise, it is fabulously formatted for a small device…
I can’t wait to see what’s to come here…
@yuvizalkow Hmm. I wondered about the share icons. I’ll have to play with the margins again. I thought I had the icons flush with the margin of the site, but maybe it’s the text that’s flush with the icons. I’ll have to experiment again. Did you have issues with the slider? @MSchechter mentioned it’s not working correctly on the iPhone. I’m going to have to look into that when I get home this evening. I’m not sure how much control I have over the thing.
I’m glad you like the look. Thank you for the compliments about it! I know I like visiting this site much more than visiting my old one. This one is more me – quirky and serious all at the same time. 🙂
I’ll give you one of each. Something I like and something I dislike. I really like that the individual posts have the prevalent subscribe form, but the home page doesn’t. While that may not be a “best practice” I think it’s a smart one. As for my dislike. I greatly dislike anyone else’s chances of winning my chibi.
As for the topic, It’s entirely a selfish request, but I’d love a starting point for getting over my chimp grammar. I pick up little things here and there, but I don’t really know where to go to try and truly get my act together.
@MSchechter I debated having the subscribe option on the home page for a long time. I decided I preferred to focus on other things on the home page. Besides, the RSS icon is in the header if someone is desperate to subscribe.
Haha! We’ll see if you win the chibi. Who knew you were such a competitive person?
A starting point for the grammar? I love the Little Brown Handbook. It still is my go-to resource when I have to review the rules.
@Erin F. Thanks for the direction on fixing the chimp grammar! I am utterly competitive. @mikevardy doesn’t know just how much time I spend checking stats on who drives more traffic and whose how packed is your mac episode gets more listens 🙂
@MSchechter @mikevardy Have you heard of Christoph Niemann? He was talking about how he could obsess over the shade of magenta. He has an excellent talk on Vimeo.
Love the site and all the new goodies!! Especially love your signature in red ink!!! Kudos!! 🙂
@bullishink Yep, I wanted the power of the red pen to be front and center. 😉
I like the clean, minimalist feel of the new site. It’s very uncluttered and has a nice crispness to it.
@DustBunnyMafia Thanks! I like the minimalist look, too. 🙂
Hey @Erin F. AWESOME job! I already emailed you to tell you this 🙂 Really love the new look …
My only feedback would be that the abstract to the post on the home page is a bit too light grey – I had to really look to see it but other than that I LOVE the minimalist look, the big pictures and OH DO I WANT A CHIBI! The use of your own images is something I LOVE more than words could ever describe 🙂 Keep rocking!
@Ameena Falchetto Thanks for the feedback! The thoughts about the fonts are exactly the sort of things I need to know. Hmm. Now that I read your comment again, I think you’re referring to the subscribe text and not the text within the slider. I was going to say I had corrected the text, but I guess I haven’t. I’ll go work on that now.
I think you’ll have to fight @MSchechter and @mikevardy for the chibi. It’s a good thing I went the drawing route and not the “impress me” route, right? 😉
@Erin F. @Ameena Falchetto @mikevardy It’s mine. I win.
@MSchechter @Ameena Falchetto @mikevardy Ha! If you do win, people might complain that the contest is rigged.
@Ameena Falchetto Okay, I darkened the text found in the widgets. I think it does help the text to stand out more. 🙂
Gorgeous new site! I really love the clean layout & the pastels. Pastels! They soothe a writer’s soul. 😀
@dustyjournal I’m glad you like the site! The pastels are perfect, aren’t they? When I first started this design process, I had everything in black and white. I was advised to add some color, so I added a few accent colors.
Love the look of the new site, Erin! (Then again, I probably should.) 😉
As @yuvizalkow mentioned below, the Share icons do overlap on the iPhone, and i’ve never been a fan of that plugin. There’s one by Lockerz I like now that Jetpack acted all funny on me (hence my lateness to the party — Vardy.me got compromised today).
A “Start Here” page wouldn’t be a bad idea. I kinda dig those. Just my two cents.Congrats on the new site — I can’t wait to read more of it as it grows!
@mikevardy I suppose you do have to like it since we’re both using Genesis…
I’ll look into the Lockerz plugin. If it’ll work better than this one, I’m all for it. This one just seemed to have more functionality than some of the others I’ve seen.
A “Start Here” page? Do you have an example of one? If you have one on your site, I’m going to feel like a complete dunce. @yuvizalkow
@mikevardy See, now I do feel like a dunce. You have a “Start Here” page on your site.
Heya, @Erin F. ! Congratulations—it looks beautiful; nice and clean! I had the same floating share icons problem with my iPhone, and my comment from the mobile site didn’t post. I’m unfamiliar with setting up share buttons; wondering if the mobile version can float on the bottom? Subscribing now!! Happy Launch, Happy Monday!
@FenixGaudior Thank you!
I may just look into the Lockerz plugin that @mikevardy mentioned. I’m having some trouble with this particular plugin and haven’t seen anything about customizing it for mobile yet. I know I’ve sometimes had trouble using Livefyre via my smartphone. I often just wait until I’m at a computer before leaving a comment.
Look at all these comments! YOWZA!
Congrats on the new site, Erin! It looks really sharp. I especially like that you’ve found an organic way to incorporate your art. Very nice!
As for topics, I’d say a lesson on adverbs. Nobody ever knows anything about adverbs.
@WordsDoneWrite Thanks!
Has nobody heard of Elmore Leonard? I agree, though. A lesson in adverbs probably is in order.
Erin, I love the clean look of your new site! Congratulations. You’ll always be tweaking – so glad you shared it!
@lisabuben290 Thank you, Lisa!
Love the site! Love the look! Love the Chibis! (That is the plural of Chibi, is it not?)
Hmmm…topics….how ’bout prepositions, with which you should not end sentences, er, with. 😉
@SteveMarch Ha! Now that’s funny. I was eavesdropping on a conversation about prepositions and ending sentences with them the other day.
Thank you kindly! And, yes, “chibis” is the plural of chibi. 😉
Ha, I think I made it. Yes, I do want to know if the question mark is inside or outside the quotation marks; I’ve been putting them out………
I’ll come to any site a party is going on; it has a nice clean simple look, friendly in my opinion.
Since I’ve never done much more than hit a publish button I wouldn’t know what it is like to launch a new site; maybe when I grow up I will get to experience it.
Great job and good luck in your endeavor.
@bdorman264 Thanks, Bill! I do think this site is much friendlier than the old, clunky one.
You must have some experience with building a site; you have your blog/site. Of course, I was the “determined” individual as @frozndragon puts it who had to customize the thing…
Two hours left for the official party! Maybe I should think of an unofficial after party idea?
Here via @bdorman264 ‘s tweet. I love the look of the site. So clean and bright. Ummm….if only I could wave a magic wand and do that to my house! 😀 Kidding. I am looking forward to keeping in touch. Launching a site is a load of work – and Yay! Yeah! for you!
@Vidya Sury @bdorman264 Thank you and thanks for stopping by the place! I always enjoy meeting new people.
I wish I could’ve waved a magic wand over this site. It’s taken me about a month to get it to what you’re seeing now. I’d also like to wave a magic wand over some paperwork…Bibbity-bobbity-boo! Shoot, it didn’t work. I guess we’re both stuck with the hard labor of paperwork and of cleaning our houses.