On 9/15/2020, I merged my Woodturning Website and Blog onto the same WordPress Blog platform.

• If you go to www.carlford.us it now takes you to the new Home page for my Website on my blog.
• If you go to www.carlford.us/blog it takes you to my most recent blog posts like it has been doing for the last 7 years.

Why?

I merged my website and blog for the following big reasons:

1. All my stuff is now in one place that can be searched via the “Search” box on the left. Better user experience.

   For example if you want info on the Sorby Spiraling and Texturing Tool then enter “texture tool” in the search box and hit enter.

2. Better support for smart phones, tablets, etc.

   Things look better on small screens. The left side bar is automatically hidden. Images auto scale down in size, etc. Better user experience.

3. To shut down the hackers.

   I was having problems with hackers breaking into my old website to add X rated material, etc. My new website and blog is implemented via WordPress. WordPress stores things in a database that is more difficult to hack. WordPress is also really easy to update to the latest version with the latest anti spam and hacking stuff.

4. I realized that I could easily use the “Pages” feature in WordPress to merge my Website and Blog.

   I now understand how WordPress works a lot better now, than I did back in 2014 when I moved my blog to WordPress.

Blog Changes & Improvements

I made the following changes to my existing blog pages and posts.

1. I moved things around on main menu bar at the top of the blog page to make room to add my old website stuff.

   Most of the old blog stuff is now under a new “Blog” pull down menu on the main menu bar. See photo at right.

2. I cleaned up the category and tags that each post is assigned too. Currently there are 118 posts.
3. I added “Continue reading –>” links to all of my posts. This makes things load faster.

   Each post now shows a short summary of the blog entry followed by a “Continue reading –>” link. The rest of the post loads when you click on the link.

4. I have done everything I can to speed up the blog. Removed unneeded plugins. Cached pages, etc.

Website Changes & Improvements

Here is how I merged my old Website with my existing blog.

1. Everything on my old website was moved to my new website.
2. All of the handouts are now linked to via posts on my blog.

   The blog posts have a short summary and photo. Then they link to the handout PDF files.

3. All of the handouts are now under a new “Carl’s Handouts – Demos, Jigs, Tools” page on my blog.

   Everything in one place with thumbnail photos to make it easier to find what you want.

4. I made small improvements on my new calendar and contact pages.
5. The really big change here is that all my old website and blog stuff is now in one place that can be searched via the blog “Search” box.

Web Addresses

Here is all you really need to know. Like I said above:

• If you go to www.carlford.us it now takes you to the new Home page for my Website on my blog.
• If you go to www.carlford.us/blog it takes you to my most recent blog posts like it has been doing for the last 7 years.