Welcome To The All New ALU
Fanatics, I’m back!!! I know it’s only been a week but it seems like forever. I’ve been dying to share the new site with you. I hope the small changes I’ve made will be helpful and make your ALU viewing experience more pleasurable. Here’s what’s new…
- The Gallery – This is the biggest and most exciting part of the new site. I now have a gallery to house all my swatch photos. Just click the menu bar link above to check it out.
- The gallery is divided into 2 main sections, Nail Polish by Color and Nail Polish Color Comparisons but I’m just getting started and will add additional sections as it expands.
- I went with the color grouping method after taking some informal polls on Facebook and Twitter. It was a pretty tight race between Brand & Color but in the end I felt Color would be more useful. If you want to see swatches from a specific brand, select that Label from the tabbed box (right).
- The thumbnail image on each color album is of the most recent upload to that gallery. Every time I update a gallery, I will update the thumbnail so you’ll know there’s new content.
- You can comment on each image so if you have a question, leave it there.
- As you can imagine, grouping polishes into color families is not an easy task so if you have suggestions or feel a color is incorrectly categorized, let me know.
- Gallery Navigation – Hover your mouse over the side of the open image and directional arrows will appear to help you navigate the gallery.
- New Comment Structure – One of the major issues I had with Blogger was replying to comments. It was such a pain to try and reply to everyone at the bottom of each post. The new structure allows me to reply individually to each of you AND allows you to reply to other Fanatics. Fun, right?
- Easier Navigation – I’ll be the first to admit, my sidebars were getting pretty cluttered. Thanks to the tabbed box (right) my Top Posts (most viewed), your Recent Comments and my post Labels (categories) are easier to read.
Overall, I feel the site looks cleaner and it should run smoother. I didn’t want to make a drastic change, just minor improvements. I’m still getting the hang of this new blogging software (WordPress) and I have a TON of photos to upload but I’m definitely pleased with how things turned out. I hope you are too.
I’ve already uploaded 300+ photos to the Gallery and I’m working my way through my files one brand at a time. So head on over and take a peek and let me know what you think.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
Looks fabulous! And it definitely seems to load much faster. I can’t imagine how many photos you have to upload, though!
Thanks Meredith!! I don’t want to think about how many there are, ha! I’ll just keep uploding til I’m done.
Congrats! And welcome back! The site looks great!
Thank you, it’s great to be back. I was a nervous wreck the past week. Whew, stress over.
Michelle, it looks GREAT, and I hope you’re happy with WordPress.
xoxo
*jen
Me too! I was really nervous about the switch because I’m so not techie but I’m really happy with the results.
It looks great! I’m so excited to start working my way through the gallery. I’m sure I’ll have lots of new lemmings!
That could be dangerous for your wallet!
This looks great! I was for organization by brand, but I have to admit the galleries look so pretty organized by color like that. Plus the arrows that show up on the images make flipping through each album so easy!
Yeah, I really debated which way to go. I just figured it would be easier to look at old posts categorized by brand then to try and search out like every Blue polish pic. If I have sufficient space after adding all the pics by color, I may do a by Brand category as well. It’s just very time consuming as I can’t cross-reference images and have them appear in two categories at once.
I really love the new setup. I’m glad you didn’t completely revamp the whole aesthetics of your site but it is definately user friendly. I love love LOVE the gallery, now i can see everything all at once instead of searching for swatches that way. I really missed your CND monday. Have you thought at all about having some swatches by brand? It’s probably a lot to ask but i just wanted your thoughts!-Poshmommi
I was hoping the site would be functional in time for CND Monday but that just wasn’t possible. I’ll be back on track next week though.
yikes. I just read your reply above about organization by brand. Sorry
No worries. It’s something I’m considering for the future but for now I want to focus on color.
Yay! Congrats on the new and improved ALU. I love the gallery…makes looking up colors so easy and fun
Yay, I’m glad you like it. I’ve been having fun going through my old pics as I upload them. It’s reminding me of some great forgotten polishes
That always happens when I go through my stash! Ooooh I like that polish…oooh I forgot I had that one…ooh that’s a nice color, etc., etc.!
Congrats to your new platform, wordpress rocks! =) I’m really excited to check out the gallery, such a great idea!
I can’t believe I waited this long to make the switch. I was being such a baby about it.
LOVE the gallery section! such a great idea
welcome back!!
Thanks! It’s great to be back. I missed being able to blog.
The site looks great! I’m excited to check out the gallery – what a feat to accomplish, congrats!
Thanks hon!! I’m so glad you like it.
This is awesome! I was hoping that there would be a swatch by color section. Thanks for all your hard work!
Great job! Beautiful site! Just about to take a look @ the gallery. Will you be watching Glee tonight? Oh, and I currently have a blog, but have no idea how to get it started. Any tips?
I love how quickly the pages load, and the new features are great too! My only complaint (and a very, very minor one at that) would be that the main font of the body is different, and Arial isn’t my favorite font. But I’m a bit obsessive compulsive over these things, anyway lol.
Thanks for the great work!
I agree, the font wasn’t my choice and it’s something I plan to change.
The gallery is MAGNIFICENT. Now I’m totally considering switching to wordpress for all of your improvements. I love the drop down list. I love the idea of replying to each commenter. And I repeat, the gallery is MAGNIFICENT. Just one possible suggestion, not a big deal, would it be possible to roll over the thumbnails in the gallery to see what polish it is I’m looking for?
Aww, I’m so glad you like the changes. I don’t know if it’s possible to change the thumbnails so that the polish names appears. I’m still learning the platform. If I can find a way to make the change, I will. It’s definitely preferable to showing the number of comments
Amazing idea! Thanks so much for putting it all together in one place. I wanted to order nail polish online but was dreading the process of hunting down swatches from all over; now with this it should be way easier (at least from ALU~).
Keep the swatches coming! <3
I’m going to be an uploading fool so be on the look out for more pics. So glad you like it.
Congrats on the new platform! It looks great.
Thanks, so glad you like it. Not huge changes but important ones (to me).
Oh … my … god … i LOVE the new site. Super fast and smooth and the gallery – let me just tell you what a treat that is. I frequently search your site when I’m trying to remember “that” color or get inspiration for something new. And when I’m buying polish online and I’m curious what a color looks like on the nail, you guessed, ALU to the rescue (because you’ve swatched SOOOO many), and now with the gallery, it’s so convenient. I love it!
Thanks!
I LOVE all of the changes you’ve made! Welcome back
I HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! sorry to yell, Miss M, but it’s true. I haven’t explored the changes yet but I’m sure to like them. Welcome back!
Duffi you’re so sweet, thank you!! I missed you all too. I’ll be back on schedule starting tomorrow. No more big breaks for me.
Love the new site! Your blog is one of my favorites!
Love the gallery too. Would you consider linking the pictures in the gallery to the specific blog post about the polish? That way we can read you reviews about a particular color and know how many coats etc.
I’m so glad you like the changes I made. If was techie enough to do that, believe me, I would. I thought about that but I didn’t code the gallery so I can’t make that kind of change. Just like I tried to see if I could make it so you see the polish name when you hover over the picture but I can’t. Though I know the designer of the gallery is working on upgrades for the future so I hope that’s one of them. I know it’s not as convenient but in the meantime, you can always search for that specific color using the search box. I wish there was an easier way.