This morning has been quite techy in the PBF household.
Guess who now officially has DROP DOWN menus!?!?
So, so excited about this new addition to the blog. 
New pages that made their PBF debut today include:
- Press
- Revamped Work It Out Page
- Daily Workout Log
- Workouts (Sorted by cardio, circuit and strength workouts)
- Workout Playlists
- Revamped Favs Page
- Travel
- Orlando & Florida Travel
Phew! I’ve been working on these pages for a couple of weeks now and had the fantastic assistance of Tim Parkin (tparkin@gmail.com) to help implement the drop down menus. If you need any techy or blog-related help, I highly recommend him.
Lunch
I shockingly worked through my typical snack time without even realizing it this morning. A hoppin’ to-do list will do that to ya, I guess.
Needless to say, my stomach was majorly grumbling at lunchtime!
I refueled with a lettuceless salad.
In the mix:
- Broccoli slaw
- Carrots
- Zucchini
- Morningstar Farms Asian veggie patty
- Light Asian sesame dressing
Kashi TLC pita crisps rounded out the meal.
Website Must Haves
After implementing the drop down menus on my blog late this morning, I started thinking about website must-haves. To me every nearly every website (blog, business, news, etc.) should have the following:
- Clean design (I can’t stand cluttered sites.)
- An “About” page (I like to learn more about the person behind the site, the company history or the business itself.)
- Contact information
- Pictures or graphics (A website of straight text is overwhelming and not stimulating to the eyes.)
Question of the Afternoon
- What feature do you think is a “must have” for every website?
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Kashi TLC pita crips!?!? Where did you ever find such a thing?? I must find those!
I think good photography is a huge thing for me. But definitely also a clean design – I don’t like when it’s too cluttered.
I love when websites are clean and crisp. In the same font (or at least similar), not too many flashy graphics, etc. For me, when I am looking at a site, if it is over stimulating, I am less likely to visit it as often as I would like.
Yay! So fun! I just like when sites aren’t “cluttered.” They need to be easy to navigate,
I think quality About pages are a must have for a blog because it allows you to learn about the person behind the screen 🙂
Love the new drop down menus 🙂 I love when a blog has pictures and race reviews (for running blogs).
Can you teach us how to do the drop down menu?? Thanks
i didn’t do it myself. i had tim (the guy whose email address i provided in the above post) do the coding for the menus for me. i just made the pages myself.
As far as design goes, a blog must have a clean design and lots of white space. I love the use of categories (but not too many!) and easy navigation (I love links that take you backwards and forwards through posts). It’s essential for reading posts back to back.
I think that an About page is important…I love reading about other people!
I definitely put a lot of thought into what I want in my website since I switched over to a new blog this weekend! I definitely appreciate clean, well-organized websites with a few well-placed vivid graphics. I don’t like anything too busy or crazy but I like to see a little bit of personality in the home page of a blog!
I also really like easy navigation. I hate clicking through a blog then not being able to get back to the “home” page!
White space!
As a designer and developer of training content I’d say this is the MOST important thing to me. To much of anything is BAD! (and sometimes it’s hard for me to take my own advice!)
Every site needs concise and easy to use navigation. And an author with a great personality!:)
I like social networking icons on blogs so things are easy to share. I’m glad you have them 🙂
Yup totally agree. I like a recipes page for food blogs as it’s an easy way to see recipes in one place.
I noticed them this morning & they look great!!
My blog definitely needs some help, I actually want to do a total make over to it…just need to find the right person to do the job. 🙂
Love the new look with the menus! I would have to agree with all of your website must-haves…especially the about page. I like the About page to learn about the person(s) writing and why I should care about their site.
Oh, your salad looks awesomely delicious!
Blog’s need to have the person’s NAME somewhere. It’s amazing how many blog’s don’t share their own name so you don’t know what to call them if you are giving them a shoutout or they are a giveaway winner.
YESSSSSSSSS! Agreed.
I like having contact info that is easy to find and easy navigation (something that I need to work on with my own blog!)
I also like simple designs — too much going on is too much!
I’m doing all my coding myself and those drop downs are little stinkers! Now if I could just figure out how to change the color! lol WordPress=my nemesis
I love the new drop down menu’s! It makes your site so professional! 🙂 I like simple websites, that aren’t too complicated to follow.
I LOVE lettuceless salads!!
Kashi pita chips are the BOMB! Especially with Laughing Cow cheese! Have you tried the zesty salsa version? They are even better. I love how a single serving is so fililng. You are tempted to devour the whole box!!!
no! the salsa ones sound fantastic!
Wahoo on the new menus!!
I agree, a clean design and pictures are a must.
Plus, I love when you get a feel of who the blogger is through their writing. Personal touches are great~!
Julie I always love your plates — where are they from?? So colorful! 🙂
Agree, must have is an “About” page! Always fun to learn a bit more about the gal behind the blog!
they’re fiesta dishes. 🙂 they were my grandma’s.
Love the drop-down menus! Especially to easily get to the crockpot recipes, haha!!
I agree with all of your page must haves! IAbout pages are usually where I go first.. I like to learn about the author.. and I also love pictures so I can put a face to what I am reading 🙂
I like those drop down pages! Nice job, Julie 🙂
I love lettuceless salads! The best part is the toppings anyways!
I would definitely say a must have would be an About page (so many sites don’t have one, which is so odd to me), as well as graphics and a clean design..
Ooh very pretty drop down menus! Looking good Julie! 🙂
Website must haves: mobile friendly design!
I’ve become very iPhone dependent and get sad when I can’t view a webpage because it’s not compatible with my phone’s browser. These days I think that is SUPER DUPER important!
Lauren how could I forget about this! My main blog that I’m revamping is mobile friendly, I found a great plugin…with SO many people using their phones and iPads/tablet pc’s to browse it’s essential to have this enabled. makes it easier for the readers to read on the go!
I agree with you on a what a site should have! Also, I think that it should be easy to navigate and easy to find things.
how are those kashi chips!?! I feel like kashi is very hit or miss. I agree about the non-clutter blogs; we’ve trying to update our blog layout for months and it’s quite the process and frustrating that it doesn’t happen with the snap of your fingers!
I agree with all of your website must-haves. I think most important to me is for a website (or at least personal blogs, which make up 99% of what I follow) to have a distinct ‘about me’ page. I often find myself on new-to-me blogs that have been going for months or years, so a nice, succinct about me page is a great way to get a general gist of a person to see if I would be interested in following them regularly. SO important in my book.
I love the new drop down menus and the new additions to the site, Julie! Everything looks really, really nice.
I think easy to navigate and aesthetically pleasing are both so important. Also, a site that is super slow or takes a long time to load is just not good in my opinion!
I’ve been reading your blog since about last Christmas but have never commented! I’ve actually been reading blogs regularly for the last 5 years and have just taken the leap to start my own-I’ve definitely been taking notes about what I like and what I don’t. Trying to figure it all out, and might move from blogger before I get in too deep to easily transfer…but just wanted to say that I appreciate all the little blogging tips and posts-definitely helpful!
CLEAN DESIGN – CRUCIAL! As a blog reader I have to say that if a blog has an off-putting design (not wide enough, bad font etc.), I close the window, without even checking if the content would be worth reading. Besides the ones that you’ve mentioned, I also consider tags/categories to be very very helpful, as well as recipe page (if we’re talking about a foodie blog, of course). Something that drives me insane is if a blogger heavily links to the older posts (with pics included) before actually getting into the content of the post itself.
Awesome job on your new drop down features. I love the workout section. I’m going to try some of your treadmill workouts! I agree with you on a clean design, pictures, and about page. I also like simple and to the point blog posts.
The Drop Downs are great! I totally agree with you on the About page. That is always the first thing I look at to help me decide if I want to become a regular reader of a site.
I love FAQ pages and easy navigation. I hate websites that play music!
LOVE the new dropdown menus! They make the site so much more user friendly. 🙂 For me, a must-have for every good site would be organization. Especially with blogs. I like being able to easily reach previous posts that I liked.
Good photography, for sure! And interactive posts–topics/questions to draw in readers. All things that PBF definitely has! 🙂
Congrats on the new edition! 🙂
lots of pictures! (good quality doesn’t hurt either!) Love the drop down!
Love the new drop down menus! 😀
I love websites that have lots of pictures, and interesting content as well! 😀
love the new updates 🙂 I think a clean/clear pages are a must on a blog!
thats awesome love the drop down menus!
I agree with having a good About page; when I first find a new blog,that is the first place I go to find out who the person is, if I will be able to relate to her, and what her writing style is like. I also love when bloggers have a blogroll because I am always on the search for new blogs to stalk 🙂
Love it! 🙂
Thanks for the web-site must have portion. Being new to the blogging-world, I find that info super helpful!