Tag Archives: blog

New Theme

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Well it’s about time!

(p.s. if you are reading this in a feed reader or via the email subscriptions, please take a moment to vist the site and let me know what you think of the new theme)

I have been wanting to give Random Sarah a face lift for some time, so I finally did!

I know many of you liked my old theme. But the good news is that you can download it for your own blog if you like!

The new theme keeps a lot of what I liked from my old theme (still Helvetica, my favorite font) But now the blog is my favorite color green! (You might remember that was the color of my wall in my old room in NYC, so I’ve been missing the color)

This new theme has a few fun extra features that I will be tweaking over the new few days, so please excuse me if something don’t look right just yet. If you scroll down you will find a section just for videos. (Not everything is playing correctly just yet, because they are not all formatted correctly) There is also a section at the bottom called “talking points”. This pulls up the posts from my archives that have the most comments. (I thought it was a really interesting way to highlight old content)

The theme also has a special tabbed module in the sidebar showing most popular posts, most recent posts, and recent comments.

The theme is originally supposed to be used as a magazine theme. It has other “magazine like” features. One in particular is a featured posts module at the top. (which I have not yet decided if I want to use) although it might be helpful in highlighting content from my blog, while still incorporating content from my tumblr.

I’m hoping that Random Sarah will be a place that shows everything that I am up to online. I will incorporating more content from my tumblr, and there is also flickr content in the sidebar. I also think this new theme will help me get back to providing some of the random content I used to post on this blog. It is a personal blog after all.

I would really LOVE your feedback on this theme, so let me know what you think!

Blog redesign

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Hey guys, it sure has been a while since I blogged here on radomsarah.com!

I have been settling into a new city and  a new job, not to mention helping crush cancer!

It sure has been a crazy few months, but I do really miss blogging. I never really stopped blogging, I have kept up a constant stream of content on my tumblr.

What I blog on tumblr is a lot like the kind of content that I used to post on Random Sarah. Random things that I find around the web that interest me. Over time I started to blog in a more focused way and tumblr became my outlet for all of the random stuff I found. But Random Sarah is where my twitter profile (and almost all of the other social sites I use) point too. When people are trying to find out more about me, they are dorected to a site that I don’t think currently reflects my level of activity on the web.

That being said I have decided that it’s time for a re-design of Random Sarah! I would really want this to be my home online, I want it to accurately reflect my activity online. I don’t want you to come to randomsarah.com and not see a post for a few weeks and think I dropped off the face of the earth!

As you can see, there doesn’t really seem to be any consistent design element, or branding across all of these sites that I use.

I am not 100% sure how I want this to look, of course I have ideas of my own, but I would really like to work with a designer on this.

If you would like to be considered for the project, or you know someone who has experience with wordpress and tumblr, please leave it in the comments. Or you can always shoot me an email at sarah.k.cooley@gmail.com

P2 for WordPress

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
6

I use WordPress for this blog because I like the flexibility of it. I consider WordPress a blogging powerhouse! It can do anything you want it to do. So when I saw the P2 theme for WordPress, I was a little surprised.

I came across the theme through a post on Matt Mullenweg‘s Blog.

A group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Featuring: Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments. Live tag suggestion based on previously used tags. A show/hide feature for comments, to keep things tidy. Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. Super-handy keyboard shortcuts. Helvetica Neue for you modern font lovers. And more to come…

The theme would remind anyone of twitter, so I wondered what the benefits of having a blog like this would be? I see how it would be very easy as an internal blog for a company or group. Matt said on his blog:

It completely transformed how Automattic works internally and I think is one of the most valuable things we’ve adopted in the past year. I’m on the road a lot, and sometimes my only connection is checking the mobile-optimized P2 on my iPhone.

But how would this theme play out on a public facing blog? What would be some good uses for it?

I think it would be interesting to see these features as a part of a regular wordpress blog. For example if I wanted to host this kind of a conversation on my blog, but I still wanted to have traditional blog posts, you could select P2 as a post type. I think that would be really interesting.

I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this, and get a look at some cool ways that this theme is being used.

Good People Day 2009

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
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Last year Gary Vaynerchuk declared April 3rd Good People Day! This year he said that you had to write a blog post or make a video to talk about Good People. Seeing that today is my 1 year anniversary of randomsarah.com, and that I started this blog with a Good People Day video last year, I thought it was only fitting to do a post this year to talk about all the GREAT people that I have met over the past year.

Gary Vaynerchuk, I would not be writing this post if it wasn’t for you. You were the first person who told me to trust in my community when you pushed me to raise money for the Thunder Cruise and you have been very supportive ever since. So thank you for starting good people day, and for being a great person yourself.

I wanted to focus on people that have really helped me feel more comfortable in this space, and who have given me a great chance to grow.

Matt Knell. You were the first person to ever come up to me, already knowing who I was, at a Mashable event back last summer. It was one of the most flattering moments EVER. Since then you have become a great friend and provided me with some great advice over the past year. You have never stopped believing in me and pushing me to be the best person I can be.

Rob Blatt. You have always believed in What’s it all About from the very beginning. Thank you for taking a chance on me and helping me produce and edit the show. You have been a lifesaver. And Amber (I know you don’t want me to use your last name) you have been wonderful over these last few months, you are a great writer and you inspire me to be a better blogger every day.

Tim Kress-Spatz you believed in What’s it all About, and decided to help me with the show by bringing the show into the Ambush TV family and I could not be more thankful to you. You are a great entrprenuer and you inspire me.

Jonathan Dingman, simply @dingman to most people. Jonathan you have taught me so many things, from how to love Google, to understanding SEO, and the art of kicking a** and taking names with WordPress. You are a great friend and an even better WordPress developer!

Who can describe Brett Petersel, Oz Sultan, Micheal Gruen, and Nater Kane. You four have made this entry into the New York Tech Community one of the best experiences of my life. It’s been a crazy ride, but I am ready for another year.

Chris Brogan… there are no words for how awesome you are. I can only aspire to be a fraction of your awesomeness, but it’s something I work toward every day! Thank you for your words of encouragement every time we see each other.

Jeff Pulver, I have to thank you for always believing in me, and for giving me all the opportunities that you have to succeed. Thank you for believing that I am a rock star, and lifting my spirits every time I see you.

Whitney Hess, you are an amazing woman. People just couldn’t wait for us to meet each other and we clicked the second that we did. I am proud to call you my friend and I am thankful for all the great advice you have given me.

Walt Ribeiro, YOU ARE AWESOME! When you first met me, you came up to me and said “oh my god, it’s Random Sarah!” Like I was the best person on earth!  You are a great musician and a wonderful friend. You are a true rock star!

Finally Cali Lewis, you were my person for Good People Day last year, but you need to be on this list again. I wanted to thank you for all the great help, advice and feedback you have given me over this past year. Thank you for inspiring me to start doing online video and for continuing to be a great mentor.

And to all of my friends and family who knew me before I was blogging, and before I was on twitter, and who were reading my blog daily when no one else was…you guys are what keeps me going every day! Thank you for being so supportive.

It’s been a great year!

Posted on by Sarah Cooley
4

Some of you might know that yesterday was the official one year anniversary of randomsarah.com. WOW, a year! Sometimes it seems like way less than that, but it also seems like so much has happened that it can’t possibly just be a year.

I have met SOOO many great people and had the opportunity to be a part of such a great community. I am so thankful.

Over the last few days I have known that this anniversary was coming up and I have had some time to reflect on why I got into this space in the beginning. I was looking through my archives from last April which was my first month of writing randomsarah.com.

My writing has changed a lot, my style on video has changed a lot, and the content that I choose to put out has certainly changed. But I think it has changed for the better.

I am very happy with where this blog has come in a year. I have learned a lot about community, blogging, video blogging, podcasting, wordpress, SEO, and so much more.

I have been feeling that my current obsession with tumblr has taken away from my blogging here, but I am making efforts to change that. I signed up for ProBlogger‘s 31 days to a better blog challenge, which will start on April 6th and I will try my best to post EVERY DAY. In addition to that, I also am participating in Video Blogging Week, which will take place from April 5th-11th and will be one new video a day.

Last night I attended an event at New Work City for Runway Project called Resume 2.0. Whitney Hess was speaking about picking your one liner that describes what you do. It made me realize that I am doing so many things, how can I condense them into one line?

I talked to Whitney after the event and she helped me remember why I got into this space in the first place, I started this because I wanted to do online video. I was watching a ton of podcasts and I knew that video podcasting and online video was something I wanted to do.

So I am going to work more on focusing my efforts toward my end goal. I thank you all for contributing to this blog over the last year and supporting me. You have been the BEST Community I could ever ask for! Thank you all for continuing to inspire me to be better.