Comments on: Weekly Wrap-up: Why Redesign A Blog?

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 11:09:33 +0000

lol – I’m taking that as a big compliment then! Thanks.

By: pablopabla

pablopabla — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:26:38 +0000

Wuahahahaha! I’ve been following your posts so much that I didn’t realise it’s been less than 30 posts in total. This says much about the quality of the posts as they are absorbing. Keep it up Michael!

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:59:21 +0000

Redwall – I agree. I don’t like the ashops very much either.

pablopabla – Good. The content should definitely be the most important thing.

What you’ve said about the sidebar being for new readers makes a lot of sense. Regular readers have already seen all that it has to offer.

I’ll think about what you said on expanding the number of popular posts. I’m just a little wary of doing that at the minute because we still have less than 30 posts total. xD

By: pablopabla

pablopabla — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:21:50 +0000

Your site looks good enough to me

Frankly, the first thing I look for when I surf in (I subscribe to your feed) is the contents and as far as drawing my attention is concerned, you’ve got me. I don’t really look at the sidebar – maybe because my mind tells me there’s “nothing new” considering I visit your site regularly. I didn’t even notice the “recommended reads” until I saw you mentioning about it in this post.

I guess sidebars are targetted towards newer readers of this blog. You might want to consider increasing the number of popular posts to 8 or 10 so that this would generate more interest amongst your newer readers.

By: redwall_hp

redwall_hp — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 02:15:02 +0000

I agree with Ankesh. It would be a good idea to have a page with more of the books. I’d also advise against using an Amazon aStore. Users seem to leave pretty quick when they visit them. I’m going to get rid of the one on Webmaster-Source, once I get around to it.

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 22:02:52 +0000

Hi Ankesh – I’m glad you like the design. As for Crazyegg, I haven’t used it on this site yet, but I have on others, and it’s a fantastic tool. It’s at its most useful when you’re comparing 2 ways of showing the same thing, e.g. a certain link at the top of the sidebar one week, and then under the banner the next. It’s a really good way of viewing the differences.

And thanks for the idea – You’re probably right about that! I think I’ll try it out with a normal blog page. (As opposed to one of the Amazon shops)

By: Ankesh Kothari

Ankesh Kothari — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:32:14 +0000

Idea: Under the book picture in the “Recommended Reads” section in your third column – you may want to add a link to “More recommended books” – a page which lists all the books together.

By: Ankesh Kothari

Ankesh Kothari — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:25:49 +0000

Thanks Michael for teaching us about design. You know I’m not a big fan of 3 column blogs. But yours looks very good.

Great idea about replacing Adsense with rotating pictures of books.

Next step: re-design the footer.

I would love to know if you use a tool like crazyegg.com – and do you make changes after going through the results they show…

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:28:57 +0000

You could well be right Sly. Any ideas for what to add though?

I’m trying to be very careful with the sidebar. Only necessary things are being added. I might add the little Feedburner subscriber count next week at least.

By: Sly from Slyvisions.com

Sly from Slyvisions.com — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:19:45 +0000

The sidebar looks nice. Although there does seem to be some things missing. I’m not exactly sure what, but you I think you can put more content on the sidebar.