The New House of Mark Blog
Hi there! The new House of Mark blog is now LIVE!!! I've really missed ya! It's been quite a while since my last post. But, all for good reasons. Here is what's been going on and why I've been so quiet around here.
Around this time last year, I gave blogging a try on my website and realized shortly after that I love everything about it and that's exactly what I want to continue doing. But, I was confused. I wasn't sure how I was going to divide up the brand (between the products and the blog). I did not want to create different business entities for each category. I took a few months off to really think about where I want to be headed and where I saw myself and House of Mark in the next few years. After much thought and brainstorming, I realized that blogging/vlogging/Youtube is where my heart is. So, I decided that I wanted all the sections to be under the same House of Mark umbrella but still separate from each other.
Don't get me wrong, I love the creative side of House of Mark, creating and designing handmade decors. I'm still doing that alongside the blog. But, I came to the conclusion that I will no longer be selling products on this platform. I transferred the products portion of House of Mark back to Etsy (link in the footer area below) and this website will only be for blogging purposes.
When I finally came to this decision, I immediately began working on the redesign of the website. Yup, that's where I have been hiding all this time, behind my laptop and working my butt off with the redesign. I have to say I'm really proud of myself; I did it all myself. In the middle of all the website renovation, I learned so much and shocked myself along the way too when I found myself coding all of a sudden. What?! Like how did that even happen? Thanks Google! HA! So, after many cups of coffee to get me through and many many sleepless nights, I finally completed the redesign a couple of weeks ago and I gotta say I'm super happy about the final look. No, wait, I'm stoked!! So, here it is! The final product!
I hope you guys like it as much as I do. I'm so excited to start this venture of my life. I feel like this is truly my calling. The teacher in me wants to share and inform my readers/subscribers/friends of all the things that I know, my latest findings and experiences. I hope you can join me on this fun and crazy ride!
Here is a quick breakdown of the blog:
Navigation
The navigation is broken down into categories. And, under most of the categories, you'll find a sub-category. For example, under the "Beauty" category, there is "Skin", "Makeup", and "Hair". You'll see the sub-categories when you hover over the main category, in this case, "Beauty". When you choose the sub-category, it will take you to all the posts within that category in a grid-like form. Click on the post you're interested in, then voila, you're in that blog post with a helpful sidebar on the right.
Sidebar
Within each blog post, there's that sidebar on the right. It's the same sidebar on every blog post page. There, you'll find a little about me, social links, search bar, archives for older posts, the latest posts, and so on.
Blog Posts and Comments
After each blog post, there's the social share buttons, tags and categories information on that post, as well as the newly improved comments section, which is powered by Disqus. To leave a comment, you will first need to log in using a Disqus, Facebook, Twitter, or Google account, or create a new Disqus name. It's so simple and easy to use.
Videos
The videos link in the navigation bar will redirect you to my Youtube channel. Any blog posts including a video, you'll also find it in my YouTube channel.
That's pretty much everything in a nutshell. It's very user friendly, I think. This is phase one of the big changes of the website renovation and I'm certain there will be more additions along the way as the blog gets more and more content. But, I'm really happy how far its come so far after working on it for months!
I really hope you guys love the site! If you have any questions about the site or anything at all, please let me know or comment below!
xo,
