Back to Blogging After a Break – Check Out What’s New

Table of Contents My Blogging BreakStarting New Blog FeaturesActive interactions and discussions with BuddyPress and bbPress1- Connections2- Making…
Woman happy with new feautres

Whoa! It’s been about a month I’ve been away! I cannot believe that I took such a long break from blogging. I am sure neither can you, but I am glad to be back. 🙂

I hope you all are doing great and are in the best of your health and spirits. You have been in my heart and thoughts all the time.

Honestly, I have missed you all and I confess that I did want to resume blogging hardly midway during my summer break. I had to do a lot of self-convincing to hold myself back!

There is always a lot to do in blogging. I know I have missed a lot, but it is never too late, because you can re-start anytime, and there is always scope for lots of work and progress.

My mantra is to be positive. I always look ahead – the past is only there to teach us lessons, and you should never let it bog you down or make you sad.

You experience real happiness by being in the present moment and in your positive attitude about the future.

Instead of the missed opportunities, I see great scope and possibilities.

Optimism is not an option but a compulsory quality to have in life for success, growth, and to bring happiness into your life.

Before I start blabbering about what’s new on the blog and brief you about my fresh blogging plans, I know you want to know all that I did in my break. This holiday surely recharged me!

So, here’s a short account of my blogging break. 🙂

My Blogging Break

I took the break for myself and my family, and I’m happy that I did 🙂

Among the things I did was going on a short vacation to a hill station with my family and met my cousins.

I realized what good your family and relationships can do to your life. Being with them makes you feel good and you cherish those moments for a long time.

Apart from the real world socializing and traveling, I indulged in one of my love of life, which is cooking!

Oh yes, I love to cook! In fact, my children were the ones anxiously looking forward to my break for this reason. They didn’t spare me and wanted me to cook something new every second day! 🙂

But blogging did not completely leave my mind, and while cooking too, I had thoughts of starting a cooking section on Aha!NOW!

The thought – “Why not have travel and food categories too on the blog?” kept buzzing like a bee in my mind. Well, I’d love to know what you think of the idea. 🙂

During my blogging break, I also attended the wedding of a relative’s son. For those who are not aware, the Indian weddings are a long affair and the various celebration events can keep you busy for many days.

Whew! I had to take my time to rest after such a hectic break, which even though kept me away from blogging, but kept me busy otherwise.

It was in the first week of this month that I actually started working on the blog along with my husband, Vinay.

We decided to make some changes and bring on some new features. I’d like you to know them all.

New blog features

Starting New Blog Features

Aha!NOW is blessed with a great blog community. I am grateful to all the visitors, readers, and commentators for creating such an active and engaging environment.

It’s no secret that the interactions and discussions are the key features of Aha!NOW that perhaps makes it a little different from other blogs.

We decided to work on our strengths and develop it further. We looked for a few options to enhance the interactions and discussions on the blog, and settled on two of them.

Active interactions and discussions with BuddyPress and bbPress

Since the WordPress theme we use at Aha!NOW is BuddyPress and bbPress ready, it did not take much thought to incorporate them on the blog.

But it did take time trying out the various features, making dummy friends, for which we had to keep the blog on maintenance mode for a few days.

By enabling BuddyPress and bbPress, we now have four cool features to increase and improve the Aha!NOW blog community engagements.

1- Connections

Until now, you could only interact with other community members through comments on the blog posts.

Now, you can connect with rest of the Aha!NOW community members in a more better and direct way.

You can know who the other members are on the member’s page, what they’re doing in the activity stream, and whether they’re online too in the sidebar widget.

You can also check out their profiles, learn more about them, and decide if you’d like to connect with them and want them to be your friends.

2- Making Friends

There are great chances that you’ll find more like-minded friends on Aha!NOW. The reason is simple – you all are here because of common interests, and that is the biggest bond-creating factor in friendship.

You can send the other community members a friendship request. If they approve it, then you can add them to your friends list and even make a group of friends, or be part of many groups of community members.

To increase your interactions with friends and within the groups, you can message them publicly or privately.

3- Messaging

You can always update your status, just like Facebook, which will go out to all the community members directly from your profile.

If you happen to view the profile of another community member, you can always write on their wall to convey your thoughts.

However, you can also send them a private message, for their eyes only.

You can comment on the messages, like them, delete them, and even spam them to report to the admin if they are bothering you.

The admins and moderators will make sure that you’re not troubled and have a pleasant experience on Aha!NOW.

4- Forums

Having taken care of the interactions, it’s the turn of discussions to take a new and advanced form.

You know that I always wanted to create a platform on Aha!NOW where people can share their problems, seek solutions, and help each other.

I find the forums as the perfect alternative to the “Share Your Problems & Solutions” (SYPS) posts. I’ve created a forum for each category on Aha!NOW and would be open to suggestions to create more if required.

I preferred a central discussion area so everybody benefits from all the discussions. All forums are open and public as of now, except a few that are created by the admins.

A Few More Blog Changes

There are a few changes that might not be very obvious but I hope they will be welcomed by the Aha!NOW blog community.

Commenting System

The other biggest change we made was replacing the CommentLuv commenting system with the Jetpack commenting system.

I can see a few raised eyebrows, frowns, quizzed, surprised and all kinds of looks on the faces of my blogging friends!

You might like to readAre Blog Comments Really Required

Don’t get me wrong – CommentLuv commenting system is great and I still recommend it, especially for the newbie bloggers – to adopt it in their initial blogging days.

I am going to try out the new commenting system to see the results, or else would be back with CommentLuv of course. 🙂

My reasons to remove CommentLuv were its increasing disuse by commentators and never-ending broken links. More so, this step was highly recommended by Harsh in his recent interview.

You can even read about it in his post about how to moderate comments.

I did my best to mend and sort the broken links, but I wanted a commenting system that would bring more comfort and convenience at this stage of blogging.

I surveyed and found that most WordPress users opt either for the native WordPress or Jetpack commenting system.

The edge Jetpack has is that it allows social logins, which I’m sure will help many of my non-blogging audience.

I am sure that all bloggers are aware of Google’s recent changes in linking policy and the emphasis on co-citation and co-occurrence. You never know that Google might take the Russian road and decide to make a linkless web.

In any case, the link love that you receive from the Aha!NOW forum profile page and from within the blog posts will be of much higher value.

I think you would succeed more in taking people back to your blog by actively participating in the community activities including forums, than just by leaving the post links in the comments.

Thumps up badge

Achievement System

I always wanted to give back to my community and reward them. That’s why I chose an achievement and badging system.

Now, the registered community members will get points and earn badges for their activities on the blog, interactions with the community, and discussions on the forums.

You can maximize your points earning potential by contributing your knowledge and experience, as well as by increasing your participation in the community activities.

I’m in the process of creating and finalizing the rules for this system, but for now, I’d suggest you try out all the new features of the blog to start earning points.

I’m planning the incentives and awards for the achievers.

Besides the badges, I’m thinking of providing an opportunity to feature the top achievers as guest bloggers on Aha!NOW and have some free giveaways to the Aha!NOW community members.

Look out for the newsletter where I’ll inform you about the final achievement and award point system.

If you aren’t yet a subscriber, you can join now by subscribing to the newsletter to keep in touch with the latest developments at the blog.

[wysija_form id=”3″]

Besides, I am also shifting the blogging schedule from the earlier Tuesday and Friday posts, to posting on Monday and Thursday now – so stay tuned for the next post on Monday!

Your Feedback as a Community Member

So, what do you think? I know there would be mixed feelings and thoughts; I’d honestly like to know them all.

My intention is to give the best to my blog community, which I know, consists of bloggers and non-bloggers too.

Though the changes I’ve made are going to stay for some time, considerable enough to bring out results for a comprehensive analysis, I’ll keep the option open to revert to the old system.

I always like to make changes in life as well as on the blog. This is a new experiment and its final status will depend on YOU – my awesome Aha!NOW blog community.

I feel that the new activities and forums can also increase the participation of my non-blogging friends and help them integrate with the greatly active blogging community.

I want you to try out all the features and let me know the ones you like and the ones you don’t. Also, suggest the changes and improvements I should make.

Please read this post with all the detailed information on how to go about using the new features.

Blogging is all about CED (Content + Engagement + Discussions). This is our effort to make Aha!NOW an enhanCED blog.

Have a ball and enjoy your new experience on Aha!NOW. We’re still in the process of rolling out some of the changes, so please bear with us if you have any inconvenience – but do report them to us.

Share Your Thoughts

What do you think about the new blog features and the changes on Aha!NOW?

Join the discussions on this topic in the forum, or create a new topic in the blogging forum to share your thoughts and experiences. Or, contribute your awesome comments as you do normally in the comment box at the end of the post.

Either way, I’d love to hear from you.

Take care and be blessed. 🙂

Photo Credits: FreeDigitalPhotos

Don’t forget to rate the post and give your vote! Thanks. 🙂

111 comments
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  1. Wow Harleena it looks like I joined right after the upgrade. 😀

    I’m glad you took time off for your family and for yourself. It’s easy to get so involved in writing and blogging that we forget that ‘rest’ plays a major part in our success. You set an excellent example for us in more ways than one.

    It was good to see how far your blog has come and I know it wasn’t always easy for you and your husband. But the evidence is in the way you support each other’s vision and dreams.

    I know this community will only get better. Thanks for letting me be a part of it.

  2. There were many changes you made. I’m totally surprised how easily you converted your blog into a community. It keeps me motivated to use blog not just a online diary, even it instructs me to work how to make a blog into a community.

  3. Well, the only part I can actually comment on at this juncture is where you took a break away from blogging. I think I talked to either you or Bren Lee on G+ about this, since both of you took short breaks.

    I took one on purpose last year when I just had to get away for a week, but I actually stayed away from all social media during that week. It was tougher than I imagined it would be but it also reminded me of how much I love being online. Sometimes we need that.

    Glad you came back, even if I’m way behind on all my reading and commenting. Now I have some time to read some of your posts and not have to worry about lots of people commenting after me. 🙂

  4. Welcome Back Harleena,
    Your article has proven useful to me. It’s very informative and you are obviously very knowledgeable in this area. You have opened my eyes to varying views on this topic with interesting and solid content.

  5. Welcome Back Harleena,
    I like the new thoughts which you share with us and thee changes really seems interesting. Connecting with other member looking good and helpful.
    Taking break in any type of work is always helpful as it help us in getting new ideas.

  6. Hello Harleena and Welcome Back,

    I to took a vacation in July and did NOT take my computer along and you know what? I Survived LOL It also taught me a few things 🙂 Like time for family is so important, I am happy you took the time off as well.

    I also like what are doing with your Blog A FORUM How Cool is that??

    Thanks for sharing..Chery :))

    P.S.I landed on your blog Via Kingged

  7. Great article, indeed ! Yes, it is really true if you start blogging once, then it becomes difficult for you to stay away from doing blogging, but it is also important to give time to your dear ones.

  8. Great that you took a break and spent time with your family. Its always good to take breaks from daily schedule because it refreshes you.

    Nice to read your upgrades on community, forum and the blog. 🙂

    Honestly speaking, I checked the community today only and its nice. Good work!

  9. I would just say the Welcome Back Harleena mam!!

    It’s nice to see you again active in this blogosphere. I hope you enjoyed this Blogging break very well and hope you have come along with so many planning and experiment.

    According to the new things mentioned in this article, you are going to do a very hard work and your Blog is going to grow effectively within very less time. I am looking forward to get some mesmerizing articles and tips and tricks from you.

    Thanks for this lovely & constructional post. I got this informative article on kingged.com

  10. Ohhh I clearly remember Harsh said you don’t need CommentLUV anymore and what problems occur because of this plugin and I think you made a great decision by removing this plugin.

    About forum, what I don’t like is the way content is written, as you can see there’s CAPS LOCK and is hard to read, it should be normal letters in my opinion.

    Welcome back!

    1. Bundle of nice information is shared here. Quite useful for newbies like us…Thanks

  11. Hi Harleena,

    Glad to know you are back 😀
    Honestly, I several times visited your blog to see the latest post, but I don’t find it, I think you still enjoy your break and it looks like you have a nice holiday though 🙂

    Yes, I can see you are no longer using CommentLuv. I wish you luck in using the new commenting system and can share the results with us.

    Welcome back Harleena and I hope I can learn a lot from you 🙂

    Nanda

  12. Welcome back to blogging Harleena, you have been missed. I hope you had a good rest in the midst of the various activities and celebrations.
    And mine, those are quite some changes

  13. Hi Harleena,

    Welcome back dear, you were really missed!!

    Glad you enjoyed your vacation with your family and had a relaxing time which has clearly stimulated the creative ideas you brought to your blog.

    I have to say I love the changes you made and I got so excited by the addition of the forums. I can’t wait to see how all this unfolds in a month time or so especially with the CommentLuv.

    I loved the idea of adding a Travel and Cooking Section to your blog. I love cooking myself and I would be very interested in it and I like Angela’s idea of having a YouTube channel showing your recipes. That would be awesome.

    Still I have to have a look around to accommodate and understand all the changes you made. You sure have a creative mind.

    Thanks Harleena for the update about your blog and so glad you are back and energized. Have a great week ahead.

    Be Blessed,

    Neamat

  14. Harleena is back people 🙂 . Welcome back…

    From the look of your writing, it truly shows that you enjoyed your off days from blogging.

    You really did some positive changes here at your blog that i am sure will benefit you in the near future.

    Running a forum is quite fun and give rooms for more conversion and interaction. I too run a forum so i know how it goes. so bravo and welcome to the forum world 🙂

    For your cooking section, That would be a brilliant idea. Now your blog will look more like a magazine and more rooms for more topics 🙂

    To be honest with you, i prefer the native wordpress comment system because even people using a slow connection, will find it easy to comment.
    It took me like 2.5mins before my comment could be submitted with your new commenting system and that’s kinda look arhhhh…

    It’s great you remove the commentluv because it increases brokenlink and we all know that.

    Nice update Harlenna. Do have a lovely day 😉

  15. Awesome post,
    I am kind of new to your blog, but the blog has some seriously nice stuff that I found very interesting as well as informative.
    Keep up the good work!

  16. Welcome back!

    Love this quote! “”Instead of the missed opportunities, I see great scope and possibilities””

    Perfect.

    I agree w/ cooking/baking! Such Therapy.

    Btw, I can’t keep up with Comment Luv and all that stuff. I’ll need to check that out.

  17. Hello Madam Harleena,

    I don’t know whether I might in sending to you your welcome message or not but all in all, there is nothing wrong in welcoming you back once more. Hahaha!

    wow! I hold my grudge against for not inviting me to the wedding. I always see Indian weddings through Indian movies and it will be a beautiful to experience one myself. Hahaha!

    With you now back and with those great you intend to implement on your blog, I totally do second you.

  18. Hi Harleena,

    Welcome back.:)

    I hope you have enjoyed with your family in the summer break.

    I have noticed some changes in the post of your blog. You have chosen different color for the subheadings in this post. It look good.;)

    Though I haven’t tried this commenting system but still people who love to read your posts will never deny to come at your blog.

    CommenLuv attracts visitors but it can’t buy the loyalty.
    You provide amazing information to your readers and they can’t stop visiting at your blog.

    I wish you to get positive results with all the changes.

    Have an amazing work session after holidays.:)

    ~Ravi

  19. Harleena,

    Welcome back dear friend! Glad to see you rocking and can’t wait to read more of your writings.

    You know, you have been missed big time!

    Hope you have a great one and take care ya!

  20. Hi,

    The best thing you brought to the table was the forum and the opportunity to interact with the fellow bloggers.

    Your holiday was superb, Indian weddings, please tell me about it. It is more of a huge grand function where one has liberty to do anything as per wish, and where everything is getting attention except the marriage couples.

    Sometimes, all you need to do is improve by upgrading. Loved it. Welcome back! Anyway, I found your post on Kingged.

  21. Hi, Harleena! 🙂 It’s nice to see you online again. Welcome back to the internet world! 🙂

    You indeed had a long vacation, and hope you did enjoy your month of ignoring emails and distractions. Haha 🙂

    Well, Sunday is right. Since you have a long vacation, I’m pretty sure that you are now much more energized to do your online activities. On the other hand, I envy you. I do also want a long vacation, but I think this time would not be best for me.

    I will surely look forward to your new changes and improvement. Much excited! 🙂

    Thanks for this post! Have a wonderful day ahead. 🙂

    -Pauleen
    P.S. I’ve found this blog post shared on Kingged.com and leave the same message there.

  22. Hi Harleena,
    You are welcome back! We miss you, and hope you had a good vacation! I expect you to be fully recharged since you chose to not even read your mail during the period 🙂
    Now that you are back from break, it would be cool looking forward to all the changes. I am keen to learn of the cook blogging you would will introduce 😀
    Really, I am looking forward to the “New and Improved” Aha!NOW!
    You are welcome back!

    I upvoted this post in kingged where it was shared for Internet marketers.

  23. Hi Harleena,

    Welcome back! Nice Article written after a long break. It’s totally different than others. It’ll help a lot to do more new things with my blogs. Thanks for sharing nice article.

  24. Wow Harleena, you have been busy. I don’t know how you fit a vacation in with all the work you’ve done on your blog.

    You have definitely taken engagement to a new level. I wish you a lot of success.

    I will be very interested to see how the comments section works. So I’ll be stopping by to keep up.

    Glad you were able to spend time with your family. That’s what’s important. I just did a camping trip with my extended family over 4th of July.

    LeslieZ

  25. Best of luck with all of your changes. The forums seem so be over what I am capable of joining but this post gave me some valuable info regarding commentluv. I have been having trouble with it, but am afarid if I change I will lose all of my old comments. I will follow the link and make my decision from there! Thanks for the tips!

  26. Hello Harleena,

    I’m so glad to see you back! My cousin have attended an Indian wedding last month and she was saying how beautiful everything was! I wish I can bear witness to one myself! I can’t wait to see the photographs. Also interested in what you have cooked up over your vacation!

    Great to see great improvements here at Aha!NOW! I’m really excited. More power to your site!

  27. Welcome back Harleena,

    Wow, congratulations on your new forum. You never cease to improve your platform and that’s really commendable.

    Even though I don’t feel ready myself to get rid of Commentluv any time soon, I can see how someone who has that many comments would reconsider because of broken links has you’re mentioning here.

    Of course, CommetnLuv is also a way to give back, so that’s why I really like it too. I don’t think that in your case, it will make a difference, but as you said you can always get back to it.

    Glad to see you back Harleena and I hope you’re all well rested.

  28. Hi Harleena,

    Nice to see you again. It seems you enjoyed a lot. It was indeed a long break. I think we bloggers need such breaks to rejuvenate ourselves and increase productivity. We indeed missed you. Now that you are back, the blogging community will buzz with activity once again.
    All the best.

  29. Hi,
    Guess I came late to the welcome party… Lol, it’s good to take a break once in a while, it does not only give us me with our loved ones, it gives a chance to see things from another perspective, it’s just like when soldiers retreat during war, the get to restrategize and plan about their next attack which you have done perfectly well with Aha-now.

  30. Harleena! I’m so glad you’re back and better than ever, I see!

    Glad to hear you have a fab break away. Trust me, we did miss you, ok I missed you and your words of inspiration more than ever on FB!

    Woohoo to the Jetpack Comments. I’ve been wanting to do that with my other blog myself. I know a lot frown on it but for me, it’s much better. So kudos for you doing it!

    Now for a silly question, how do I sign up for the forum? I think it’s truly a fab idea and I hope others find the value in it as well!

    Again, glad to see you back. You were definitely missed!

  31. Hi Harleena, welcome back!

    I wondered how your time away was going. It sounds like you enjoyed yourself and actually relaxed. You really DID stay away from it all. Good for you!

    I love the changes and the community you are building. I do miss CommentLuv though I have to admit 🙁 I understand you may go back to it. Nothing wrong with testing new things here and there, right?
    Great to see you back Harleena and enjoy the weekend!

  32. Hello Harleena,

    Its long time! I missed you a lot in previous days. Happy to see you again with updated blog. You have added so many new features to your blog. Its really helpful for your readers. I wish for your success in future.

    ~Diana Hardy

  33. Hi Harleena,

    Welcome back!

    Good to know that you enjoyed your short-vacation away from the blog. Though, no surprise that you still sometimes ended up thinking about your blog. 🙂

    I love the idea of having a ‘travel & food’ section as I believe in variety. If the idea feels right to you then start the category!

    Wishing you lots of luck & Happy weekend!

  34. Hello Harleena,

    Nice to see you back in Blogging World. I am eagerly waiting to read your upcoming post. Hope your break from blogging make you more energetic & vigor.

    Have a nice day 🙂

  35. Hi Harleena,

    I am to say welcome back to you after such a long break, I visited a-while back and was greeted with the under maintenance message.

    I knew ’twas all for some great and positive changes like the ones you ‘ve just implemented. Honestly, I will pick disqus, lyfre, and Google+ over jetpack.

    But its good you’re only trying out the jetpack commenting platform, hopefully we’re gonna see more great changes as time progresses.

    You also did awesomely with your forum section, this means we’re in for some great learning the coming days.

    Do have a strong and healthy week Mam.

  36. Hey Harleena,

    Well, welcome back is right and I’m so glad you had that time off although it sounds like you thought about us a lot. We are SO touched! I know that family is so important to you and spending it with them celebrating being together but you’ve made a lot of friends online too. Just knowing you were off enjoying yourself although you were missed was worth it.

    Wow, you’ve got some changes going on here. Okay, I’m not the best person to give advice about a travel or cooking section since I’m not a big traveler and I don’t really cook. Yeah, it’s sad but true. I’m sure though that you have plenty of people who will be eager about these both.

    The forum sounds interesting but I’ll probably hold off for now. Way too much on my plate to end up in there doing things that aren’t being productive for me. But I do love to meet people and chat as you know.

    As for the commenting system, I can’t fault you for wanting to test things out. I just have one thing to add that SO many people get wrong. CommentLuv is NOT a commenting system. It’s just a plugin to help you get more people to your blog and reward them with link love. It has nothing to do with the system where people actually comment.

    Good luck with the changes and hope everything goes for you as planned. Enjoy your weekend and I guess next week you’ll be jumping back in full force. Have a good one.

    ~Adrienne

  37. Congratulations, Harleena, on all you have achieved with your blog – and you break!

  38. Hey mate :).
    I’m so happy to be here today you know. Its been quite a long time since i visited last though, i tried visiting you few days ago but was told that the blog was under maintenance, now i understood why.

    To be candid, I’m so much impressed with all the changes you’ve made here especially the forum/community. This will indeed take the interactions here to the next level:).

    I think incorporating food and recipe to the blog will not be a bad idea once you can handle it which I’m sure you can.

    Finally, I’m loving the Jetpack commenting platform and if at the end of the day you recommended it, i might as well try it on my blog.

    Welcome back Harleena and my regards to your family.

  39. Hi Harleena,

    Summers in India are very hot in some regions and a break during the summer is much needed. So nice to see you after a blogging break. 🙂 and nice to hear that you are to start a cooking section. Sorry, I cannot cook much but my fiance loves cooking and she cooks a lot while helping me with blogging too. So, I can tell her to follow your blog now for new cooking recipes.

    And happy to hear that you have started a forum and best of luck to you wishing you success with it. BTW, changing the commenting system brought a freshness to the blog and I really like this.

    Wishing you a great day.

    Mainak.

    1. Hi Mainak,

      This summer was very hot and I’m glad I took a break.

      I’m sure your fiance is already a good cook if she loves cooking, but yes she can learn more when I start the cooking section on the blog.

      I did start the forum and am still working on it to improve it. I’m glad you like the new commenting system, though I’m going to soon replace it with another commenting system to experiment what works better.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  40. HI Harleena

    Welcome back!! Sounds like you had an amazing, fully packed, vacation. Congrats on your relative’s son’s wedding! Indian weddings are so much fun 🙂 And glad you were able to re-connect with cooking 🙂 Cooking and I have a bit of a love / hate relationship… I always have good intentions, but the food (especially Indian) never really comes out right… Would love it if you were to blog about some recipes to try 🙂

    What fabulous new changes to your blog. I love the idea of having forums, what a great way to connect with others. Thanks for offering so many social building avenues to the community!!

    Take care!
    – Monisha

    1. Hi Monisha.

      Thanks for the welcome!

      Yes, the vacations were great and even the wedding was enjoyable! I enjoyed the surplus time I got with cooking too.

      I’d love to help you with the Indian cooking from as much I know, if and when I start the cooking section on the blog.

      Thanks for being a part of the community. I’m still working on improving the new community features including the forums. I’m sure that once all is done, it would be a great experience for you and every other member of the community.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  41. always nice to take a break, even for themselves. I’m about to get my own blog to drive and still have plenty I have to say, but welcome back’m looking to see what you find on

  42. Hi Harleena,

    It feels glad that you are back now. We all missed you a lot.

    The blog’s now looking more awesome and professional now.

    Thanks,
    Sayantan

  43. I am glad that you enjoyed your break Harleena. Interesting changes you are making. We shall see how they work out. I don’t know if it is possible, but is there any way to make the forum prettier hehe.

    I am interested to see how this achievement system works. It is a very cool idea and I hope it works out. I look forward to the upcoming weeks.

    -Sebastian

    1. Hi Sebastian,

      The new features on the blog are still in its trying and testing phase, and I’m working on to improve them and provide a better community experience.

      Thanks for pointing out that short coming in the forums and hopefully will sort that out in the coming days.

      This is the first time I’m trying out the achievement system so I too am anxious to know if it will work or not. I’ll keep my fingers crossed. 😉

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  44. Hi Harleena, welcome back! Your blog was dearly missed. You have such a wonderful community here and I’ve met some interesting bloggers and genuine people! I’m not sure what the new stuff is such as jetpack. Looking at the comments now I see it’s similar to disqus. Your changes sound fantastic. I love the idea of a cooking section here at AhaNow.

    1. Hi Lisa,

      Thanks for the welcome! I’m glad to be back among you all. I too love the community and its members; this blog wouldn’t be where it is without it!

      Yes, Jetpack in a way looks like Disqus but it is different. Though I might be trying other commenting system too very soon.

      I’m glad you like the changes and the idea of a cooking section. I’ll let you know when that starts.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  45. Hi Harleena, Welcome back!

    You were dearly missed while you were gone. I thought of you nearly every day! Your warm friendship and excellent articles bring so much into the lives of so many.

    Congratulations on all of the big changes to your blog. Well done. I figured you’d just do a new theme but you shot for the stars! I am looking forward to checking it all out. I hadn’t heard of Buddy Press before but I love the ideas of forums.

    I will miss CommentLuv on your site. It does come with burdens, but I’ve been able to manage them better by being more picky about the links I will allow.

    I love, love, love the idea of you covering cooking topics. Indian food is so delicious and you would be a great teacher. Would you be doing videos (please)?

    No matter what you do, you will be successful, Harleena. Great to have you back! <3

    1. Hi Carolyn,

      Thanks for the warm welcome! I’m really touched by your kind words. You’re a true friend to have and thanks for all your loving and caring thoughts. 🙂

      I’ve implemented the changes and put on new features on the blog but still need to improvise on them to give a better community experience. I’ll let you know when that happens. I’m glad you like the ideas.

      I’m trying out Jetpack comments and after that I might switch over to the native WP commenting system. Just wanted to experiment these systems and see if they work any better.

      Wow, its great to know that you too like Indian food! I just love to cook but I don’t know if I’ll be a good teacher in that. Ah.. videos, well if I do start the cooking section, then probably I’ll have to do the videos. 😉

      Thanks for your wishes and for sharing your wonderful thoughts. I appreciate them very much. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  46. Hi Harleena,

    Welcome back! Can’t wait for the cooking section. I love Indian food, now if I could make it to taste as delicious as the dishes what I’ve sampled.:)

    Peace & blessings,
    Clara.

    1. Hi Clara,

      Thanks for the welcome and for visiting my blog after a long time!

      Wow, you too love Indian food! Seems like I do have an interested audience already. 🙂

      I’ll let you know when that section comes up. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  47. Harleena, welcome back! Sounds like your head is exploding with new ideas. Vacation — time away from the world — stimulates the creative juices, for sure. Sometimes it’s just as hard to shut off your brain! “Quiet up there, I’m suppose to be relaxing.” The Travel and Cooking section sounds like a good idea. I’d be especially interested to hear about some of your ethnic cooking.

    1. Hi Sheryl,

      Thanks for the welcome!

      Vacations are good as they give you time to think in open space and time. I thought this would be the best time to implement any changes as with the blogging on, it’s hard to take out time to even reply to all the comments.

      Glad you too like the idea of a food and travel section. I only know Indian cooking and would love to share my experiences and recipes with all. Will let you know when I start that segment.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  48. Hi Harleena,
    A red carpet welcome back to you! Yes, you were missed and I can relate to the ‘temptation’ of wanting to return to blogging before your scheduled time, but spending time with your family and socializing the way you explained I am sure was well worth it.

    Love the changes that you have made – will need to spend some more time checking them out and really absorb them in a way that would allow me to contribute in a more meaningful way. Love the idea of adding a cooking segment to your blog. Cheers! 🙂

    1. Hi Yvonne!

      I’m really touched by your heartily welcome, thank you very much. Yes, like an addicts compulsions, I had urges to come back to blogging for a short duration, but then the good times with my family got the better of me. 🙂

      I’m glad that you like the changes on the blog. I’m aware of some of the shortcomings and I’m working on to improve the community experience.

      It’s good to know that you too like the cooking segment idea. There’s no stopping now! 🙂

      Thanks for being a part of the community and for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate it very much. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  49. Hi Mam,

    How are you? Missed you lot and Great to see you back. Am also doing well. Glad you enjoyed the vacation. You have come up with a new look of blog. Really it’s very nice.

    1. Hi Nirmal,

      I’m good and I enjoyed my vacations. Thanks for the welcome and I’m glad you like the new look of the blog.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  50. Hi Harleena,

    Wow, big changes. Love the clean new look. Welcome back 😉

    I actually started a new blog 2 days ago. It was time for a big change for me, and I went with it. You’ll never go wrong following your intuitive nudges, for sure.

    Congrats on your new forum, commenting system and direction. You have such a tremendous community already, I’m sure this will just augment this community even more.

    Tweeting now…..thanks much for sharing.

    Ryan

    1. Hi Ryan,

      Thanks for the welcome and I’m glad you like the changes. 🙂

      Congratulations on your new blog! I know it’s a big thing and all my best wishes for its success.

      I’m still working on improvising the new community features and once ready I think it’ll greatly enhance the community experience.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  51. Hello Harleena,

    Welcome back! I really like the new ways that people can interact on your website. Especially a forum is a great idea to get engagement and discussion in your community. I will certainly actively participate in your forum and connect with your other readers.

    I will also make a member page :). I’m looking forward to reading your new articles on monday and tuesday!

    Warm regards,

    Bastiaan

    1. Hi Bastiaan,

      Thanks for the welcome!

      I’m glad you like the new changes. I’m enhancing the new community features and improving the forums too. I want to give the best community experience and I’m sure you’ll like it.

      I look forward to your participation. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  52. Aha-Transformation Here
    ********************************
    Wow.. Its fantastic .. Vacation and Amazing Transformation with loads of new features .. this is totally AWESOME .. Loved it .. specially including the forum ..its always powerful way to give the audience a chance to discuss and build a community. Thank You for this and the idea to add cooking and travel is fantastic ..coz they are always go hand in hand in our happy lifestyle.

    Wishing tons and success ahead with these new features and love to be here even more.

    You are Awesome.

    1. Hi Ajay,

      Glad you like the transformation. It’s all the at trying and testing stage presently and we’re still working on creating a better community experience.

      I’ll be soon adding up the food and travel section on the blog and you’re right that they complement each other and are an imminent part of our lifestyle.

      Thanks for the wishes and for sharing your thoughts. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  53. Hi Harleena,
    This is really amazed,, a month breaking from blogging is not an easy task for most bloggers and here you are today giving your testimony on how you enjoy your vacation, nonetheless, I know you are back for better again! Welcome back.

    1. Hi Adesanmi,

      I really enjoyed my break and it was good to be away from the Internet and blogging for sometime. I recommend others too to take breaks, shorter ones if they like.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

      1. I did tried your suggestion but it was a bit hard. I took a break of just 6 days but it was like 6 month! It’s not really easy I must say

  54. Welcome back Harleena!

    You were definitely missed, but I’m so glad you had this extensive quality time with your loved ones. Your changes are pretty exciting! Love the cooking/travel section idea and also the community. Personally, the points and badges idea doesn’t interest me at all, but I do know many people are into that sort of thing. You know, I have quite a few non-blogging followers and was mulling over the idea of switching to Jetpack comments, but, am still reluctant at this point. Will be interested to know your opinion, after you’ve used it for awhile. It’s late night here, so I’ll come back another time to explore more. The site looks great!

    1. Hi Debbie,

      Thank you for remembering me and I truly enjoyed my vacations.

      The changes made presently aren’t of the level I envisioned to be but I’ll be working on them and give you a better community experience.

      I’d soon start a cooking section as the things settle down, and I’m happy that this topic is in great demand as evident from the responses here.

      I’m just trying out the point and badge system, since it’s my first experience with them. I may or may not continue with them, and it all depends on the community feedback.

      I’m also experimenting Jetpack comments and might try out some other too before finalizing on one. I’ll surely let you know of my views and experiences.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  55. Ah so you took a break that kept you busy but then you come back with so many new changes to your blog 🙂 That’s amazing to hear.

    Glad to know that you enjoyed your vacation – especially the wedding and the visit to a hill station. Indian weddings are great for relaxation and to meet you family and extended family and the extended family lol; but then it will also keep you busy!

    Cooking – nice to know that you love cooking. I like to try new dishes few times a week. I look up the internet for new recipes but I hate the cleaning up bit 🙂 But I do consider cooking as a great break for my eyes, mind and body (from blogging).

    Wish you and your blog a great growth for the coming years, Harleena.

    1. Hi Jane,

      The actual break was for about a little more than 2 weeks – that is, without the Internet or any online work at all! And then we planned and worked on the blog at the fag end of the break.

      The vacations were great and the wedding too. I hope you too had a great time.

      Yes, I love to cook and definitely it serves as a good break from the daily blogging routine. 🙂

      Thanks for your wishes and sharing your thoughts. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  56. Welcome back!

    Oh, my word, Harleena – so many great changes. Just joined your community and am stoked about the future.

    I will come back to comment more tomorrow as it’s 12:35 am, and my eyes are burning, but I’m excited! 🙂

    Your site is awesome and I want to congratulate you!

    – Carol Amato

    1. Hi Carol,

      Thanks for the welcome!

      These are just a few changes and I’m glad you like them. I still need to work on these features and improvise them, especially the forums. You should’ve a better experience in the future.

      Thank you for the kind words and wishes, and for being a part of the community! I really appreciate it. Do have a great weekend ahead. 🙂

  57. Hi Harleena,

    My head is still spinning.

    So much Change. Love the Look of what is going on, but not sure I’ll be able to find everything! Think I need a Blogger Break if this is what it will do for you.

    So glad you enjoyed your family, I love to cook too, but since most of the family lives far away, don’t do much of it anymore. But I did cook a roast today, so will have some nice Sandwiches for my journey tomorrow. Not a happy trip, my younger sister is ill and we are all going to
    check on her.

    Will come back later, after my trip and explore!

    C.

    1. Hi Carolyn,

      It may appear to be a lot many changes, but it isn’t so. If you register yourself, you are already a part of the community, the interactions and discussions on the forums. And the other is the commenting system, which might see another change soon. 🙂

      Break is always good, it may act as an incubation period to give birth to new ideas.

      I hope your sister is well by now and your trip turned out to be good for you. It good to know that you too like cooking. If I ever start a cooking section, I’d love to learn something from you!

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  58. Hi Harleena,

    Welcome! I can see that you had a nice time with your family and friends. I can understand the value of such a time SO well…what a treasure we carry with us after we come back to routine. Such breaks are so rejuvenating and the result is before us! We missed you but I am so happy for you that you have been cooking for the family…shows one more aspect of your personality!

    I like your farsightedness in introducing such changes like providing a platform to like minded people to make friends, forums too would be fun and keeping the options open is another good idea. I have seen that most of the successful and meaningful blogs are removing comment luv though it is quite helpful for newbies to get new connections. Obviously you don’t need it!

    I would look forward to new categories with great interest and wish you all the best for that. Have a nice weekend…we are almost into the end of this week.

    1. Hi Balroop,

      Thanks for the welcome! Yes, I did have a nice time and enjoyed my vacations with my family. True, breaks are recharging but I too missed my blogging fraternity. 🙂

      I love to cook and my kids don’t lose one opportunity to get hold of me to get their food dishes desires fulfilled!

      The features that I’ve introduced on the blog are in their initial and testing stages and a lot needs to be done to make them publicly available.

      I love and still recommend CommentLuv, especially to the newbie bloggers. It certainly helps a lot to attract traffic and get the blog running.

      Thanks for the good wishes and for sharing your thoughts here. I really appreciate it. Do have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  59. Hi Harleena,

    So glad to get the email saying there was a new post. I have missed you. I will be trying out the community features and let you know how accessible they are using my screen reader. I didn’t used to care for jet pack because I couldn’t install it on my site. Now, that I notice how easy it is to change my identity depending on what site I am commenting about, I love it. I guess I should explain that.

    Since you have been gone, I took the plunge and started a blog that is much more personal in nature sharing my experiences as a blind entrepreneur. The first three posts have gotten great response. I did make the mistake of starting on blogger because I wasn’t sure people wanted to hear my story. But I am in the process of switching to word press. the new site will be theblindblogger.net I’m looking forward to your thoughts on it. Glad to have you back. Take care, Max

    1. Hi Maxwell,

      This reply comes a bit late but I had read your comment when it was posted. First of all, thank you for trying out the community features. I’m glad they worked out well with your screen reader, though there still needs a lot of improvements to be made on those features.

      Regarding jetpack, I’m just trying it out and I’m not sure if I’d keep it for always.

      It’s great that you started a personal and inspirational blog. I’m sure that is going to be interesting and help others immensely. Yes, you should have it on the WordPress and I wish you all the best for it.

      Thanks for sharing your thoughts and have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

    1. Hi Christy,

      Great to have you back on my blog as well! Intermittent breaks is the best way if possible as that doesn’t let the work suffer.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting here. Have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  60. Hi Harleena!

    Welcome back! These changes you have made are awesome. Your blog has become so BIG that it needed a change. I like the fact that forums are there, and have a good way to engage.

    I also think that it’s great that you are giving the opportunity to many nonbloggers. There are so many out there that need your information and have not yet set up a blog yet. Good idea! I think the readership will grow even more this way.

    The travel and cooking is another great idea! We all have to eat lol! Love getting new recipes and one of my passions is cooking. I always make time for that!

    I am so happy that you took time off to enjoy your family. I know how important that is to you. I’m sure they were so happy to have your full attention all that time. You know how I feel about taking time off. We need it. Coming back fresh and new is like a new journey.

    Many blessings,
    -Donna

    1. Hi Donna,

      Thanks for the welcome. Honestly, I don’t think my blog is very big, but yes its growing and I especially wanted to do something for its highly interactive and engaging community.

      I’m going to experiment with forums to see if its adapted by the masses, and as you say, they’re a good way to engage.

      I owe the growth of my blog to the bloggers but I’ve a non-blogger audience too and I was always wanting to do something for them, and the idea of social logins, enhanced interactions, and discussions struck me as something that needs to be tried out.

      I’m not looking only from the point of view of blogging, but also helping people in matters of relationships, life, and self-development. I think that needs a more interactive and engaging platform.

      Coming from you too, I think that now makes it the final push I needed to plunge into making food and travel also a part of the blog! It’s great to know that you too have a passion for cooking.

      I really had a great time with my family and enjoyed the vacations. Family always comes first for me. You’re right, the breaks are refreshing and I’m glad I took one.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting here, and also giving me a good dose of motivation! I really appreciate it. 🙂

  61. Hi Harleena,

    First off, WELCOME BACK!!! 😀

    Cooking section is a GREAT addition to your blog. You know I have been following the YouTube channel on Chris Pirillo and he has over 300,000 subscribers. His wife got pregnant and started her own COOKING channel on YouTube and so far she has like 5,000 subscribers which isn’t bad.

    You know you can actually start your own cooking channel and show us your recipes. I love Indian food, by the way. I love the Samosa the BEST. I would love to see that in your blog and/or channel.

    Um, never heard of BuddyPress and bbPress. But it sounds wonderful. Looking forward to using these in the future!

    Wow…when you said you’re going to change your blog after your vacation, you sure kept your promise. The FORUM is lovely to have!

    When I clicked this — You might like to read – Are Blog Comments Really Required — it says error. Anyway, I agree with you on that NEVER ENDING BROKEN LINKS. I sometimes wish I didn’t have to do this. To check 10-20 broken links might be okay. But when you have like 500 broken links, this is not okay. In fact this is just time consuming!

    I heard the best time to post is Monday, Wednesday, & Thursday. And so I’m glad you switched your posting schedule from MF to MTh.

    Um, I’m willing to try your new system. Nothing to lose. Except you will see which one works and which one that doesn’t work.

    Good luck to all of the changes!! I wish you the BEST in your blog my friend. Also wishing you a very COOL & HAPPY weekend.

    xoxo
    Angela

    1. P.S.

      Harleena, I’m seriously thinking about taking off the CommentLuv Premium. But I want to see yours first how it works. So you just installed Jetpack plugin to activate your comments. Is the thumbs up and thumbs down included in there now? It wasn’t like that before. Anyway, I get tired of checking the “broken links” as well. That’s why I’m thinking perhaps I should delete the CommentLuv Premium. What do you think?

      1. Angela, I’ll surely let you know about my experiences after removing CommentLuv. I think you should wait for sometime, at least a month or so before you think of taking any action.

        If you go to the CommentLuv settings, you may find an option near the end of the page to enable Jetpack comments while retaining the other useful features of CommentLuv. I don’t know if that option still exists, but it didn’t work for me, so I had to deactivate CommentLuv. And then I activated the Jetpack comments from Jetpack, which I already had on my WordPress blog.

        The rating and thumbs up and down feature is a part of the PollDaddy free plugin and not a part of Jetpack. I’m just trying out those features as part of the experiment.

        I think as our blogs are different in all aspects, so what works for me might not work for you. Having said that, I think I’ll be able to report you any major problems that I face them, if you wait on for sometime to take the action on your blog.

        I hope this helps. 🙂

    2. Hi Angela,

      Many thanks for the big welcome! I really appreciate it. 🙂

      It’s good to be back too and exchanging views and comments. Wait, I haven’t yet added the cooking section to my blog as it was just an idea that I thought to validate with everybody. To my surprise, I got positive response from others too just as from you.

      Wow, 300,000 subscribers for a cooking channel! I’ve to check that out now, and even 5000 is a great number by any standards.

      Aha.. my own cooking channel! Well, I’m not at all thinking about it because first I’ve to learn to make videos from your great tutorial. It’s good to know that you’ve tried Indian food and Samosa is something really very spicy, more so because it’s best to eat when served hot! You’ve really motivated me to put my plans to action and start a cooking section on Aha!NOW. Let’s see how and when it happens.

      BuddyPress and bbPress are WordPress plugins owned by the WordPress people, so they all gel together quite nicely. So while WordPress is for content, BuddyPress is good for social interactions among the community, and bbPress facilitates a forum for discussions.

      I checked the post link and its opening at my end, so probably that was a temporary problem you faced. Ya, broken links are a big headache, and it’s not only that. There were many other factors that led me to try other commenting systems, though as of today I haven’t uninstalled CommentLuv yet.

      I actually wanted to avoid Monday posts in order to be free on Sundays, but I decided to follow the popular posting schedule as the Friday posts generally are at a loss with the weekend coming just after it.

      That’s it, we should always try what works for ourselves. In this process, chances are great that you’ll find what you’re looking for.

      Thanks again for all your kinds words, wishes and support! It really matters to me. Thanks for dropping in and commenting here and have a great weekend yourself. 🙂

  62. Welcome back Harleena!

    I understand about taking a break. I’m taking a much needed vacation next month and can’t wait. I’m anxious to hike South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona and meditate on the mountain. However, I’ll stay present and enjoy my days. 🙂

    As far as the comments, go, whatever works for you and your community is best. And, you won’t know if something will work or not unless you test it out. I do love science!

    I look forward to future posts. Take care and have a great Friday and weekend!

    1. Hi Amandah,

      Thanks for the welcome! I know you greatly need and deserve a break after all the long and hard work period with your project. Wow, hiking and meditating sounds exciting and great! I wish and hope you enjoy and make the best of that time.

      Our thought wavelengths do match and this is what I thought before starting to make changes on the blog. I want to give the best and more to my community and I’m trying everything I could.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting here, I appreciate it. Do have a great weekend yourself. 🙂

  63. Welcome back Harleena!

    Yes, you were certainly missed but I know it felt great to be with the family and not think of work for a while? Although I’m sure it was a struggle not to take a peek at your social media or stats :). That is some will power you have my friend!

    And recharge your battery you surely did. I really love the new additions you and your husband made to Aha!Now.

    I think adding a travel/cooking section would be a great idea! I would love to try some of your recipes :). And I think the interactive system you have in place is awesome! I would love to steal that idea one of these days…but first things first I have to grow :). I will definitely sign up for that!

    I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when you mentioned the raising of the eye-brows. I’ll admit, I did that LOL! You have to do what’s best for your blog so it’s always good to try other things to make sure you’re not missing out on anything.

    I personally like the idea of nonbloggers being able to comment on our posts…you have me thinking there.

    Wow Harleena, you certainly have some great things in store for your readers and members and I wish you all the best with it my friend as I will be both :)!

    Hope you’re having a great day back!

    1. Hi Corina,

      Yes indeed, it was great and nice to be with family, vacationing and enjoying life. Though I did miss blogging and you all dear friends. You’re right and I confess that I did check on the site stats for some time, mostly during my early part of the vacation, but then gradually I came to terms with the situation. However, I managed to be away from the social media to a great extent, and that was an achievement for me!

      A break really does you good. We’re back at work with renewed energy and multiplied passion. I’m glad you like the new additions and changes on the blog, though we’re still fine tuning and trying to make the new changes problem-free.

      Hey, this is another great vote for the travel and food section on Aha!NOW. Now, I really need to get serious about it. 😉

      It’s no secret that I’ve used the WordPress plugins BuddyPress and bbPress, so you too can go ahead and implement them whenever you feel the time is ripe. I’ll be there to help you, if you ever need it.

      Ah.. CommentLuv is such a sensitive topic for many bloggers and few think that blogging isn’t possible without it and they become overly dependent on the link-love seeking visitors. We decided that we’re not going to depend on any thing other than content and community.

      You’re right, it’s each one to own in case of what works or not and we’ve to try and decide for ourseleves. To think of, non-bloggers is a greater share of web surfers, and you gain a lot even if you get a petty share out of it.

      Thank you for the kind and supporting words and welcome, I really appreciate it. Thanks for stopping by and commenting here. 🙂

  64. Welcome back Harleena!

    I’m glad that you enjoyed your vacation! It sounds like you had a lot of fun! It’s always nice to take a nice break. I really missed you! Glad to see you back! The changes you are making sound really nice. Really looking forward to them.

    1. Hi Maketta,

      Thanks for the welcome! Yes, I did have a great time during my vacations and it was a break worth taking.

      I’m glad to be back and back to my blogging business (not literally!) :). A life without changes becomes boring, and I feel so is the case with blogging and blogs. I’d love to have you as a part of the renewed blog.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting here. I appreciate it. 🙂

  65. Wow what a new blog. I had been waiting for this. Hello maam,

    I placed that line before hello because I really wanted to show how nice the new blog is – a new network of great bloggers. The members log in makes it a premium site and the Forum will surely add a dimension to solving people’s problems. All the best for this wonderful change. Commentluv was never my priority and I don’t think anyone of the respected members of this community will have any issues with the removal because a section that gives so much extra hard work for you would surely distract productivity.

    One thing is that middle section which is yellow colored is not fitting within the dimension and looks quite odd on pc. I am sending you the screenshot on FB and lets see if its an issue only with me or it really needs an workout.

    1. Hi Swadhin,

      Thank you so much for appreciating the new blog and changes. You just made my day!

      I want to make Aha!NOW a platform to help others and seek help too, and forums are a great tool for that purpose. I know not everybody likes forums, so I’ve the other alternatives like grouping and messaging for those people. I just want to try out and see what works.

      I had asked my community members more than half a year back in my annual readership survey if removal of CommentLuv would in anyway be a deterrent for them to visit my blog – the response was an overwhelming no. So, I decided to go ahead and give more convenience and value to my community members.

      Thanks for reporting the display problems – this is what I expect from the well-wishers of my blog. I guess that was some cache and scripting errors and its been taken care of. Thanks for taking all the trouble to notify the problem, I really appreciate it.

      Thanks for dropping in and commenting here. Have a great weekend ahead! 🙂

  66. Welcome back Harleena. We have been missing you a lot 😉

    Now you are back with new things. It’s interesting to see how these unfold – first the removal of commentluv. Don’t you think with this Jetpack commenting, you still have to deal with broken links? I thought disqus or social media (FB or Google plus) are clean ways not to have to worry about broken links.

    BTW, this is just a quick note to say welcome back !

    1. Hi Enstine,

      Thanks for welcoming me. I’ve also missed blogging and all my blogging friends. It’s good to be back. 🙂

      My husband and I decided to be a bit adventurous and so we are just trying out various things. Some might work and some not, but we won’t know until we try them out.

      I’ve not yet uninstalled CommentLuv, so I haven’t completely written it off yet. I don’t know if I’ll have to deal with broken links with Jetpack commenting too, and have no idea how the social logins will fare. I’m sure I’ll get to know the results within a month or so.

      Thanks again for stopping by and commenting here, even if there’s no CommentLuv here. 😉 I really appreciate it!

  67. Welcome back Harleena.

    I thought you were never going to come back. The world of blogging missed you. Hope you had a nice time. I can see a couple of changes on your blog, looks like you have removed commentluv! I know what you mean about Indian weddings, they are elaborate but is good fun. Love weddings. Welcome back.

    1. Hi Shalu,

      Thanks for the welcome. It’s hard for me to part from blogging, so don’t worry I’m not going anywhere. 🙂

      I missed everybody and I’m trying to get back into the old rhythm, which will take some time. Yes, there are some changes, and CommentLuv is temporarily gone while I test out a few other commenting systems.

      The wedding was fun and so was the vacation. Thanks again for the warm welcome and for dropping by to comment here. I really appreciate it. 🙂

  68. Yay!! Super glad that you’re back!!

    Seems like you had a great time off, even if you did think about your blog from time to time. Also, I just want to say that I would absolutely LOVE a cooking and travel section. Those are two of my loves (with the third being wine ;)).

    I’m excited for the changes! I like that your blog is growing and that you are positive about the future possibilities. Your energy is contagious!! Thanks!

    1. Hi Jennifer,

      Thanks for the warm welcome. I’m glad to get in touch with you again. 🙂

      Yes, I had a great time as well as a hectic schedule, but it was all worth it. The blog did remain in my mind initially, but then I got used to its absence.

      Wow, it’s great to know that you’d love a travel and food section here at Aha!NOW. I really didn’t expect such a response and it was just a thought in my mind that I shared in the post. I’ve no idea about wines, so probably you can occasionally write guest posts about them! Lol.

      I’m glad you like the changes, though I’m still working on them along with my husband. Like failure is not an option, not being positive is not an option too. I hope for the best and get on with the task in hand.

      Your kind words and support is all I need. Thank you for dropping by and commenting here. I appreciate it. 🙂

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