HeaRty’s Haven, WordPress and a New Site Design

As we start the month of May, I’m officially launching the new HeaRty’s Haven.  May is my birth month.  I decided to finally have a revamp of this site after almost 2 years of existence.

Why did I start the site?  I actually had my 1st site way back 1998.  That was because I took the web master course in California & I needed to have a website to apply what I learned during the course.  I made the site with the use of just notepad (hard-core HTML coding).  I closed it down after a couple of years and stopped blogging.

Year 2008, I decided to have my own blog again via a free webhost, blogger.  I used the site to share all my thoughts & experiences in life.  It became a tool for me to relieve the stress from work.  Basically, a living proof that I still have work-life balance.

I’ve met a lot of people especially last year in the online world.  Learned that a lot of people are actually making a living by just blogging alone.  I don’t earn anything from HeaRty’s Haven but it would really be such a treat to at least learn how to.  I’ve attended seminars like ‘Make Money 2.0‘ that gives us tips on how to make money online.  It’s not as easy as it looks and I think it will take years for me to learn the secret.  Anyhow, I have that thought in mind when I made this change here at HeaRty’s Haven.

I also wanted change.  I love my old design but we have to change it every now and then or else, people will get tired of it.  I wanted HeaRty’s Haven to look like a professional site, not too personal.  As I have been writing a lot of informative posts and I believe having a better template can make a reader’s life easier when navigating the site.

Aside from the reasons mentioned above, I also wanted to organize my posts better.  Tags are not supported by Blogger and it really was a pain in the ass sticking with just labels.  Since I’m learning new things everyday, it will take just a short time for me to expand the topics that I discuss in my blog.

The big change is my move from blogger to wordpress.  I had to seek help from my ever-reliable sweet boyfriend, Nick, to do the migration for me as I totally had no idea how to do it.  When that was done, I put on my learning hat and started playing around with the wordpress features.  I spent the whole night yesterday plus the whole day today finishing the design.

It is such a blessing that I was able to win JaypeeOnline’s contest last December.  I do not have to pay for the template that I’m using right now coz it was one of the prizes I won that time.  Tweaking the template though to suit my personal taste is such an effort-extensive task hehehe!  I’m happy with the end result.

Please let me know what you think of the new design.  Your comments & suggestions are most welcome.  Do keep on visiting HeaRty’s Haven.  Always looking forward to your comments 😀