There’s a New Lorraine Ball
There is a new Lorraine Ball. Ok, so there is not really a new Lorraine Ball, but there is a new lorraineball.com. I’ve owned the domain for years and it’s had several different forms in that time. It started out as a blog about the local business community. It was also a place where I wrote about things that interested me. At that time, there was no blog on the Roundpeg website.
When we moved to the WordPress platform, it was natural to move my business content there. As I got comfortable with my voice, I added what I would classify as editorial and opinion content. The more fun, art-related and cultural content found their way into Smaller Indiana or Facebook or Twitter (And now Pinterest, too). As that happened, there wasn’t really a unique purpose for lorraineball.com. It didn’t make sense to have redundant copy, since that actually hurts our SEO, so I changed the format to an HTML site which served as an expanded “one sheet” or landing page for my public speaking business. Designed by one of our interns, Heather, it looked great, but it wasn’t very productive. As Roundpeg had become more well known, searches for me as a speaker came to this site.
So I was back to the same question. What should I do with lorraineball.com?
Everything else by Lorraine Ball
As I thought about the changes at Roundpeg, the solution came into focus. Today, Roundpeg is more then just me. I have a talented team who can work on projects independently. While it is fun to be involved, many projects go smoother when I get out of the way. Each member of the Roundpeg writes blog posts, lending their distinct voices and style to the blog. The result? I don’t have to write as often, and the blog is about more then me. We had already separated the @Roundpeg and @LorraineBall Twitter accounts, so it seemed to make sense to create a blog to support my personal Twitter account.
As the business has matured, I have more time do to other things I enjoy. So the blog, which is built with the Personal Portfolio theme from Elegant Themes, is going to be about everything else. It is about all the things that interest me, which have no relationship to business–my favorite photographs, restaurant reviews and comments.
I am just getting started, and I am excited about where it will go from here. So if you’re curious, check it out, leave a comment, share a picture of your own.
Another new face
One of the challenges of owning a web design company is the temptation to redesign my personal blog every time I find a cool new template I want t try. I have resisted the urge to update for a few months now, but when I saw the Nexus theme from Elegant Themes, I knew this was something I needed to try.
The huge gallery really shows off my photos and challenges me to keep improving the quality of my photographs. I love all the information which is accessible from the home page by tabbing through the categories.
This design served me well for many years, but finally it was time for a new design. The beauty of working in WordPress, was the ability to put a new skin on the site, without losing any of the content.
Hello Divi
After experimenting with a different themes over the years, both in Roundpeg, and on my blog, I landed on Divi. It brought together all the elements I loved about the Elegant themes designs, with big boxes to showcase my pictures.
the sections are more prominent, and I can show off the best in each category. The top is reserved for the latest images so you can always see what’s new, but the bottom half is for the my favorites.
And since i often have a new favorite, I can change the bottom images out frequently.
