Thanks, Jay. My provider doesn't provide support. After fumbling around for a bit, though, I was at least able to change the background color and size of the menu item font to make it easier to read.

That's great to hear... if anything, our challenges are our best teachers :-)

Thanks!

Unfortunately I already tried that. It does not work with my theme. I need to change the font color of the menu items.

Thanks. No, there are not. I'm thinking I might need to change something in the code, but I'm not sure what.

That might work. I've had to do that before. I just set up a test site with the same theme and started digging in there to adjust colors, margins etc. Once I had it the way I wanted I applied those changes to my main site.

Having said that, it's strange that it happened in the first place.

Yes, it is strange. Is there a technical term for that framing thing around the content of my blog? At the moment I've been having trouble finding an answer on Google because I don't know what exactly to Google haha.

If I had to guess (and unfortunately it's just a guess) I'd say background. I can't remember the Chrome Extension (not near my computer) that I use but it's a color picker that'll give you the hex code you're looking for. I'd then open up your editor and use ctrl+F (Find) and plug in the hex code and see if those number turn up in the code. If they do you just be able to change them.

Copy and paste a backup of the entire code into a text editor first though so if anything goes wrong you can re-paste the original code back into the WP editor.

Thank you. Unfortunately I don't quite understand this explanation. I found some forums about removing the frame/border on Wordpress pages and pasted the code into my CSS, but it didn't change anything. I also found an article that gives instructions for changing the content width via layout, but there's no option for doing that on my version of wordpress.

Hey Kate, sorry... I get lost in my own head sometimes and assume I'm making sense, lol.

So the Chrome extension I use is called Colorzilla and in the screenshot I've attached you'll see the information it gives me.

When I hover over the dark grey area it gives me the RGB colors and more importantly the hex code which is #444340. When you start digging through your code, that's the number you're looking for.

You can then go into your Wordpress backoffice and go to Appearance > Theme Editor which gives you access to your theme style.css file. It sounds like you're already familiar with making changes here.


What I'd do is copy and paste all of this code into a text file just in case something gets messed up you have a backup.

If you go into your CSS code and hit [CTRL + F] it'll bring up a search box and you can search for the hex numbers 444340 to see if they exist in your CSS. It should show up under the body, once I had the number I could identify it in your site elements (screenshot attached).

Once you find it in your CSS, you should be able to change the code to any color you want. Just do a Google search for hex code color picker and there should be few that pop up so you can choose the exact shade you want.

Or, install Colorzilla and hover of another part of your site that has the color you want and grab the hex code from that.

Hopefully that helps :-)

Thank you! That was a very clear explanation. My problem, though, is not with the color. Rather it's the fact that the width on the border is so wide in comparison to the content which is rather narrow. This problem only exists for the blog posts, not for the main page. So I would like to change the border width.

One thing you might find is that you can't just change the margins on one element without making the corresponding adjustment to the others. If your content body is 700px and you want it to be 800px, you would have to change the other elements. For example, if your content body is 700px and your border is 300px you may have to change the content body to 800px and also the border to 200px. I had a similar issue like that adjusting my header sizes with Genesis themes and that's what I had to do.

Makes sense, thanks!

Thank you. I actually agree except when you go to read a blog post, the white space in the middle is even more narrow and it looks weird.

Not sure if this will fix the blog section but it looks like the social media links on the left are “crowding” the page because it’s putting two sets of links. Maybe that’s why the white section narrows. Not 💯% on that though.

Thanks! Yeah, that social media link issue has been there for a long time and even though I'd like to fix that too, it's not affecting the white section because the white section is a more recent issue.

Yes, thanks.

OK,
I installed your theme on my test site.

Log into your site dashboard and navigate to Appearance > Customize.
Once there, click on Colors and change the Background Color to white.

Publish and test it out.

Thank you! That did change the color, but the issue is that I don't want it to have a frame at all.

Did you ever get this resolved? If not I can look into it further.

No, I haven't. Honestly, starting to give up, nothing I've tried works and messing around with code isn't my strong suit. But if you find something, I'd appreciate it if you could share.

I poked around a bit more but I don't see an easy option. You could edit the theme files but that can be dangerous. Sorry.

All good, thanks anyway!

Thanks!

Thanks, appreciate it! As far as Pinterest goes, I've heard the same thing about boards but that and tribes is where all my success has come from. You just have to find the right boards where there are lots of active members. I schedule 20-30 pins a day on Tailwind and I think just the sheer visibility and frequency has attracted views and follows. When I first started I didn't have many of my own pins so I just shared others', but now I try to share at least 4 of my own pins each day. Writing good descriptions for pins is also important for search engines. At this point virtually all of my blog traffic comes from Pinterest. Which is good because I still haven't had any luck with SEO!

Thanks Kate. I went back to your post from last year about Pinterest and see that you were inspired by Pete's podcast. I've been listening to his podcast for quite a while as well and have emailed back and forth with him about Pinterest last Sept.

He recommended Kate at simplepinmedia's site but also said he was working on his own Pinterest course (which may be the 7-day course I signed up to on his blog after following the link from your post).

95% of my traffic is SEO but I don't like relying on a single traffic source like that. I'm always worried I'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be gone. Pinterest has always interested me because it's evergreen (similar to search engines).

I spent a lot of time on Twitter but for the most part it's been a waste of time because your posts disappear into the waste bin of Twitter history within an hour of posting.

I just haven't been able to wrap my head around Pinterest for some reason. How many hours a day would you say is reasonable to get where you are now with Pinterest?

Also, when you say you share 4 of your own pins per day, is that 4 individual pieces of content you write yourself?

Thanks again,
Jay

Thanks for your response, Jay! Yes, most of my info about Pinterest has come through Pete as well as free articles I've found online (and, appropriately, on Pinterest). I spent a few hours a day at first but now I just spend about 30 min to an hour a day on it.

Yes, when I share 4 pins a day, they would be pins that I make for 4 separate blog posts. Obviously this wasn't a viable option when I first started my blog but now I have a lot of posts to choose from. Some pinning experts say that you should make at least 5 separate pins for each post, but honestly that sounds exhausting to me and I don't want to spam my followers. It annoys me when I see a bunch of images for the same post all at once. So what I'll do is make 1 pin for that post, see how it performs, and then make a second pin a week or two later and start sharing it. I suppose if you belong to lots of group boards you could send out multiple pins for the same post at once but it would take a lot of careful planning to make sure you're not spamming.

Oh... I see. So one blog post can have multiple pins. I always thought 1 post = 1 pin so when I heard of people doing 10 pins a day for example, I thought they were writing (or hiring someone to write) 10 blog posts a day.

Thank you. I watched the video and it was very well-done, but unfortunately it did not help with my issue.

Hi Kate
Strange Marion's video explains how to use the drop-down menu so that post of yours would go under in this case Natural Products

So if I understand you have a main menu called Natural Products and have created a post which you want under that main menu.

To do so you go to appearance the menu

When that is open it will look like this image of mine shown below
to get that post under your menu heading Natural products you click on posts on the left side click view all if you can't find it straight away tick the box then click add menu

This will bring that post right at the bottom all you do then is click that post and drag it to where you want it which would be under Natural products but not directly underneath but slightly to the right which becomes a sub item.

If you look at the image at the top one I have the main menu called Life Management For You and under that is a post called making changes to a better life.

This should be the same for you where it will show Natural Products then under that is the name of your post.

The same can be done with all the other posts you did click post find the one you want then add menu and again drag it under the Natural Products


Please let me know if that is what you are seeking

Thank you! I actually finally figured it out. I changed my menu heading, Natural Products, to a Category (instead of a Page, Post, or Custom Link). Now when I click on it, I get a page listing all the posts under that category as opposed to just a blank page or a non-clickable link which is what I was getting before. I appreciate all your help.

You are welcome Kate and glad you got it figured out well done.
Wishing you well going forward and now you can just keep creating you great content and now you know what to do as well.
Awesome to hear.

Andre