Admin: OOPS…. and something new for you to consider.

Sorry about that folks. The web site is now back up and running. For those of you who were wondering what happened, I will tell you.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I am working on redesigning the look of the web site. I started with trying to update my existing theme, but have found that it limits my abilities too much, so I downloaded a series of new themes to experiment with, and if I liked one of those themes, I would reconfigure it to meet my needs. Unfortunately, one of the themes I activated turned the main portion of my web site (the blog) completely white. Additionally, it locked me out of my control console as well, requiring me to beg for some help on the WordPress forums. Now we’re back up and running!

However, this adventure into unnecessary headaches does have a positive ending (besides the web site coming back online). While waiting for a response to my call for help, I found a posting for a contest where the winner receives a completely new (and professional) theme. The contest is being provided to you by Ian Fernando. Like me, he recently decided to redo the appearance of his web site to create a more completed and professional feel. His new theme is called “Revolution,” which is quite fitting for the changes made. He went from a three-column design down to a two-column design. In the old design, the content was approximately 55% of the visible space in the left-hand column, with navigation and advertising consuming the other 45% in two columns on the right. His new design uses a two-column format, with the content taking up 65% of the visible space, and the navigation/ad section taking up the remaining 35% on the right. This provides a more “open” feel to the site while still maximizing his sidebar to provide additional information.

One other site he has listed in his contest is a “News” site, which to me, is more of a design that I have considered for my site. This theme consists of three columns of near equal width in a classic blue and white color scheme. As in a newspaper (or CNN’s web site), the news articles fall under separate categories, with the latest article being displayed in a teaser box for you to click on and read. In this style, for people who are only interested in a certain topic can check out the site and navigate to that article without having to scroll through a bunch of other articles which they are not interested in. Definitely a layout that I would considered for the retooling of this web site.

Well, that’s all folks. The site is back up and running. For those of you who run your own blogs that might be interested in the contests, please feel free to visit Ian’s site and read his rules for the contest. The contest ends on the 15th, so you only have two days left to participate. Thanks goes out to Ian for giving us this opportunity. As for the U.S. Common Sense site… I will try NOT to kill it again. OOPS!