Blogging Experiment 2.0
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Blogging Experiment 2.0! For all you RSS readers out there, the site’s been redesigned! We’ve kept much of the same look and feel while expanding the functionality. The search function finally works again, the recent posts and most commented posts are now featured more prominently to help introduce the site’s core content to first time visitors. The subscribe options have been given a bit more emphasis and hopefully draw the eye a bit more. This has pushed the content down the page somewhat but it’s still well above the fold and will always remain so.
I looked around for a different picture to use over there on the right but I discovered that while my wife photographs beautifully with amazing consistency, I don’t. So, as you can see, we’ve stuck with perhaps the only good picture of my ugly mug that exists hehe.
Another area of great change is at the bottom of the page. While the footer section is still the home of the most recent comments, it also now features a list of our Top Commentators. I’ve been looking for a way to reward those of you that are most active on this site and have decided this is the best way to do that. I’ll be writing and publishing a comment policy for this site but until then, let’s stick with the rule of thumb that if you’re commenting for the links, your comment won’t stick around long.
Yet another difference is the addition of a few ads in the right hand column. There are currently only three but that number might increase as direct advertising increases on this site. I’ll have more details on that in the coming days as well.
Last but not least, I’d like to thank StudioJMC for donating the web design work to make this new theme happen. In the interest of full disclosure, the company is owned and operated by my father. If you’re needing any type of webdesign work done, he’s tops in my book.
Well, I think that pretty much covers it. Take a look around, let me know what you think and if you see any glitches or problems.
With all these blog redesigns, I’m not sure how much longer I can resist doing my own! Love your new design by the way.
I know right? I simply couldn’t hold out any longer. Glad you like the new theme. I’m really happy with how it turned out. Plus, the search works again!!!
I like. It’s more original than the first edition, and because I know how good your dad is at design, I’m not surprised by how good it looks. Thumbs up.
LOL how much does your dad charge?
@ Steven, to be honest, I have no idea lol. I’ll see if I can get him over here to answer that question for us.
@ Donna, glad you like it! I wanted something that was my own but I also couldn’t give up my beloved blue and orange color scheme.
Anyone have any suggestions for improvement?
I know it is not what you want to hear but I liked the old design 😮
Looks really cool if a fair bit more serious than the last one?
I think you need a subscribe link under your post, and maybe some social media buttons – get people when they are most likely to be warmed up to your content
I also prefer your own name in the attribution rather than “posted by this blog”
Liked the new look better than the free theme.
Congratulations!!
Chris, good call on both suggestions! Thanks for the input, I’ll never please everyone all the time right? There are definitely some things left to tweak but I’m hoping this will set me apart from everyone else using BloggingPro’s theme.
Ooh, much improved. I like the style of the comments especially.
Nice look. I have a 2 column layout myself, and was debating whether to put sponsors up above both columns, or just at the top of the right column.
Excellent blog re-design! I love the wide 2 column look. Does it come in green? 😉
Give your father and studioJMC my best, he did an amazing job.
Great theme, definitely a huge step up from the original. I especially love the header, it looks very professional. Everyone is doing a new theme nowadays and with each one I see I get more tempted to redoing mine.
Nate Whitehall is your dad? No offense but this theme looks A LOT like the new John Chow theme.
Hmtk, no offense taken, the theme is definitely influenced by John’s design. I’d been looking for something that would emphasize some of my core content better and had actually been discussing just moving the blue section from the footer to the header. I’d say over all, this theme is essentially a merging of Problogger’s new design, JohnChow’s new design, and the old BloggingPro theme I was using before with a bit of my old man’s design cue’s added in. I have no qualms admitting that we tried to pull all the best elements together from as many good designs as we could find.
Great eye catching design, Ben. Same good articles. Don’t change the style of that.
As the designer, I appreciate the comments.
I don’t usually go public with my rates but, since the question came up, the blog themes I’ve worked on have ranged from $900 for matching a blog to an existing website to $3000+ for a site like this where it’s basically starting from scratch and working with the client to establish the design. The “+” comes in when I also create additional graphics, logos, etc. for the blog.
I personally like the redesign, I know myself that I won’t be doing one any time soon. Still slapping my fingers away from that section of my blog… I want build up my brand first and then evolve with the community wishes…
I think you have kept the best aspects and strengthened some of the weak points. The overall effect is more professional and [this will sound weird] solid. There is something about using white that either makes as site look clean and calming OR empty and ethereal. Your changes have given more substance and made it easier to find things.
PS – Is it possible to add the ‘Sub Header Bar’ functionality to all blogs or is it theme dependent. My navigation still leaves something to be desired in my books.
Great design. Well done. And the redesign is never enough, we need to keep up with the feel and look of the moment 😉 i am coming with a new design as well.
Good job, i really do like this design.
Hi Ben, new reader and semi-copycat here 😉 I run a small graphic design practice so I’m trying to get refferals to that by getting traffic to my sites via an entry on the MDW and starting a blog about making money blogging/other “regular” online activity (for us geeks).
Anyway, just wanted to say you set a good example, at least for this wannabe, and I use a mac – there is something wrong with the Feed graphic up top for me in both FireFox and Safari. In both browsers, that Feed stock images goes past the bounds of the header section. I have a MacBook and an iMac, and same issue on both machines.
Just thought you should know, if any other mac users haven’t told u yet.
Hass,
The problem with the subscribe graphic is a “known issue.” There’s also a couple others, but you’ll have to find them yourself. Both Ben and I are on Macs but we didn’t notice the problem because it doesn’t affect Safari 3 (very nice update BTW) and the latest version of FireFox, I check Safari and Firefox on the Mac and Explorer 6/7 and Firefox on PC. Guess I have to add Safari 2 to the list.
I still have my Mac SE set up in my office so I don’t like it when people design sites that break on a Macs and I hate it even more when I do it. I”m going to be out of the office for a couple of weeks but this issue and a couple of other tweaks here are on the to-do list when I get back.
Just found this blog for the first time, so I can’t compare it with the old look. I think this look works great and look forward to coming back for more entries here.
This is the perfect design which I want, this is where usefull for me to redesign my website.
Such a great information and very useful for the blogger, You have insisted on the right problem and I think this is the right solution. Well done.
Very good chang. Cool work!
I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.