This past week, I was sort of swearing off the site in favor of some R&R. Of course, the workaholic in me came back out to play near the weekend. As a result, I relaunched the Java Basics Series. Now I’m looking to do a big revamp of the site over the next couple weeks. The idea is to polish my content and build my brand. Then I’ll start posting again.
Table of Contents
Java Basics Series Changes
While there were plenty of small changes, the biggest change came in the form of an update to the Java Basics Series. Images were revamped, post structure was adjusted, and readability was improved. I have to say that I’m a lot more satisfied with my work.
Images
About a week ago, Morgan and I were toying with images. I really wanted to go through and update all my images with text over top to sort of get away from the stock photo look. This past weekend we finally decided on a general theme for all the featured images. I’m very satisfied with the outcome because it’s clean and consistent. Of course, the new image theme is also easy to reproduce, so I can do it moving forward. In fact, the featured image for this post is the first sample.
Structure
In terms of structure, I decided to move the buttons to the bottom of each Java Basics Series article again in favor of a nice header image. This image is just another opportunity for me to show off the featured image, and I really like how it looks. My site is pretty text based, so this look makes my articles more palatable.
In addition, I changed the theme for the code blocks through the lessons. Again, I wanted something that stood out and broke up the content a bit more. Now the code blocks look like images which is a major plus.
Readability
As a final pass, I updated the readability of all of the articles in the Java Basics Series using Yoast’s readability feature. If you’re familiar with the feature, then I’ll just say that all of my articles in the series meet the green light for both readability and SEO. How cool is that?!
Song of the Week
This week I’ve been listening to quite a bit of Disney
music. That’s likely because Morgan and I are planning a trip down to Orlando over Thanksgiving break. As a result, I’ve been hunting down Disney playlists on YouTube. As much as I love the originals, I’m usually not capable of getting work done while listening to them. Instead, I opt for orchestral remixes. The following is one of my favorites from the past week:
If you can’t tell from the title, it’s A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes from Cinderella. This particular song is by the Philharmonic Disney Orchestra.
General Site Updates
Not much! Just the typical updates.
Latest Plugin Updates
- Updated OnePress Plus to version 1.2.7
- Updated SiteOrigin Widgets Bundle to version 1.9.9
Coming Soon to The Renegade Coder!
I expect more of the same to come out of the work this week. I’m hoping to refine the Data Structures series next week, then maybe do a pass of the updates the week after that. Finally, I’ll finish up with the blog. Maybe by October, I’ll be back to creating content. For now, I’m looking to improve what I already have.
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