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The Massive Blog Update



Don’t ask me why I decided to create 8 different blogs in the last 9 years. The fact is, the blogs are there and have been given life and even longevity — long as many dogs sad to say (for the dogs). The strange part is, right after I wrote a piece about perhaps offing them with honors, the next day I decided to get ‘er done and do a massive update. This is good news for this blog. 

I have to admit, CBJ was one of those blogs I was considering old yellering, but the good news is I found the strength to spend an entire day and a half upgrading all of my Blogger blogs with a new theme. If anyone else knows about blogging, they know this is a massive deal, especially when you have numerous widgets and links to arrange. 

Instead of trying to describe all of this to you, let me show a picture of the old and new theme from Blogger (yes, Blogger.com, I’m still there). 

Now, let me show you the new updated version:

Now, let me show you below the featured story:

Now you can see the cool cards of each post below the main post. Before, there was only one unfolded page, you know, like blogs used to be; there could be multiple posts below the latest or only one post on the home page; this was an old, archaic theme on Blogger — the Simple theme I believe.

Blogger isn’t somewhere most people consider starting their blogs, the majority do this at WordPress, Wix, or maybe on Medium, Quora, or LinkedIn — there are many choices now. Nevertheless, Blogger did develop and offer two new themes for us to use the last few years; these themes make the blog more like a magazine with multiple cards or posts on the home page and then a single post on the ones you click. 

I used both of these relatively new themes before for two different blogs (one of each), but I still had 5 blogs with the old theme (and one I created for someone else). So, I had a lot of work to do switching over 6 blogs and then while I was at it revitalizing the other two (still some work to do with the music blog). 

I was planning on writing some articles on Medium, Voice, and HubPages and kind of forget about my blogs, but that’s not how God worked it out. I still had a content creation plan for all my blogs (sharing media items with comments or writing articles and sharing them on Medium), yet I couldn’t figure out what to do with CBJ. See, the articles I write here are the same type I write on Medium and these other sites — about writing, blogging, etc. So, there was a dilemma in some measure. Let me explain.

As I said before, the good news is I found a way in my mind to continue to write here on CBJ. See, I can’t just share videos on this site because I don’t really watch videos about blogging. This is supposed to be about my journey as a blogger. The last article I wrote about blogging was on Medium and it seemed fruitless to write on CBJ where I get very few views and interaction. Maybe this can change. 

What I figured out is CBJ must remain because it is a place I can write openly as a Christian writer online. This is the reason I started this blog in the first place because writing as a conservative Protestant Christian writer online is sometimes a frustrating and lonely experience. There aren’t many sites and people online who are openly these things, especially on big sites like Medium, HubPages, Voice, etc. 

Maybe I still won’t write here very often, yet it serves a purpose for my online writing strategy, and hopefully for others who might experience the same. I’ve learned over the years that I don’t have to be overtly Christian to the point of annoyance to make my point, to live a Christian walk. Connecting with people on these secular/liberal sites can help me influence them more subtly, considering they would likely never even click on a site like this. 

Still, I like to talk openly about my faith and how I’m affected by the online world as a writer and a blogger, thus CBJ will remain as a refuge for this purpose. The good news is, it has a new updated theme and works much better on mobile devices. Also, I’ve been learning more about SEO tactics like how to syndicate and not have duplicate content. Maybe making this an exclusive piece just available here on CBJ will help it show up in the search engines (unless you syndicate with a canonical link). Sharing on Medium automatically gives one of these links when importing, but the content of this isn’t suitable for the audience, so it doesn’t matter. 

It was a lot of tedious work to organize and arrange all the widgets and links, but it was a needed effort and I’m glad God gave me the strength to do it. Now, I don’t have to allow my blogs to go dormant and be wasted, they can still provide a service to my online writing strategy. This means CBJ will continue on without looking like it was abandoned long ago. This also means I can finally get back to writing, which was the purpose before all this blog-building stuff got in the way. 

Until next time, be blessed and comforted in Jesus Christ my friends, and keep on writing to share His love with those who don’t know it.  

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