Design Review: Freelance Switch
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Freelance Switch is the blog that everyone wants to have. In just 6 months, Collis and his team have taken it from 0 to 15,000 subscribers. It began by giving advice to freelancers, but has quickly developed into a job board, a forum, a book, and more. It has become a one-stop shop for freelancers.
And what’s more? It has a stunning design! So naturally when it was redesigned this week, the candidate for the weekly blog review was obvious (Though it has added to that Year of the Redesign feeling!).
What Has Been Done Well?
- It’s still Freelance Switch. No doubt about it, there may be a new design but this is still Freelance Switch. Blog branding is one thing to talk about, but few blogs pull it off so well. The unique character designs, color scheme and design style were all distinctly memorable. The new design retains all of these traits.
- Navigation. The original design was clearly made for a blog, but FSW developed into much more than that. Whilst the original theme held up with the navigation additions for a while, it just wasn’t made for them. The new design is much more comfortable to navigate.
- RSS. The RSS counter is not a Feedburner-branded button! I always loved seeing this text effect on another site of Collis’, NorthxEast. The one flaw on NxE was that it didn’t look like an RSS counter. FSW maintains a nearby RSS icon though. Perfect.
- Best of Freelance Switch. When ProBlogger redesigned, I commented on the “Best of ProBlogger” AJAX links being one of the best parts of the design. It has a slight glitch though, where if the page is loading slowly, all 4 lists will be shown together for a few seconds. FSW don’t seem to have this problem, so well done guys.
What Could Be Changed?
- Trackbacks. The trackbacks are separate from the comments which is great, but they are positioned right after the article. This will earn them a few more clicks I’m sure, but do they really deserve precedence over the comments?
- Sidebar clutter. The sidebar is well spaced out, the headers and icons look great, and I love the link effect, but there is a lot in there. There’s nothing particularly wrong about it, but perhaps a more minimalist design could be considered?
- Categories. The category system has virtually disappeared. The only way to get at it now seems to be to click the “Visit the Archives” link in the sidebar then scroll down. Each post is followed by a large meta area now, which could easily include the post category (At the very least, it would help those of us looking to flick through the Freelance Freedom cartoons!).
- The site banner and post headlines. These are just 2 little nitpicks I found. The “Freelance Switch” banner isn’t clickable, and the post headlines on the home page have no rollover effect. It feels a little static considering the rest of the design.
All in all, I love this redesign. Unquestionably, Freelance Switch has kept its identity and this was not a redesign for the sake of it. The new design is more of a fresh look on the old design, whilst it patches up the flaws. What more could you want from it?
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About the Author
Michael Martin
Michael Martin is the founder of Pro Blog Design. He works as a freelance web designer, loves WordPress, and has an unhealthy addiction to smilies.
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Whoa! I’ve been gone a few days, out of state.
1. That is one cool design. When did they do the redesign? I like it better than the old one. I like the “Best of” box too, though I’ve seen something like that before it was on ProBlogger (not sure where though). I like that sort of thing, and it’s got to get people to view your old posts.
2. How the heck did they get 15000 subscribers in only six months (and how did you get over 300 in two months for that matter)? Webmaster-Source has been an active blog for four-five months now, and I’ve hit the 60 subscibers mark.
3. I’m linking to you in BlogBuzz again (one I publish the next edition). You keep up with all of these great posts, and I’m ending up linking to half of them. :D
That is a nice design – and blog.
I think they have another subscriber…
Thanks for the heads up!
“How the heck did they get 15000 subscribers in only six months”
They either were very lucky or very devoted, my guess is a combination of both :D. Of course they just picked one hella great niche which isn’t overused throughout the entire net yet ;).
Loving the new desgin, there’s a little minor details though like the sidebar ends with 2 border bottoms (what the :P).
Spacing between the entries, I find it hard to tell whether the date and comments belong to the entry above or entry below. If you look at the top you’ll figure out but when I scrolled down quite fast to get the header out of sight it was a bit confusing since the spacing above and below it is about as big.
Asides from that I got no real remarks, looking great :).
Redwall – I’d say it was a mixture of luck and skill. There was luck in that they came across an untapped niche that turned out to be wildly more popular than anyone could have predicted, but there was also skill in that they wrote really fantastic articles, and even 6 months later, the pace isn’t slowing.
And hehe – Thanks. I’ve no objection to that! ;)
Brian – lol – I’m sure they’ll be glad about that then. :D
Slevi – I hadn’t noticed that about the sidebar, but the dates etc. look grand to me. They seperate the excerpts very well. :)
Separate them well indeed, but standard is usually to find days on top and digg stuff and such on bottom. Guess it’s just not being used to seeing it like that :P, after a couple of visits it’ll probably come naturally to recognize to what the dates belong.
You should’ve seen it in the first days after relaunching in IE/XP or IE/Mac….
They need to make their logo clickable. It’s a standard convention to make the logo a link pointing to the home page.
I notice that some sites grow faster, especially Job related and Money-making related, they tend to have more viewers / subscribers / visitors.
Milo – Compatibility issues? Glad they’re sorted now. :)
Redwall – Agreed.
Goldfries – There are definitely advantages to being in certain niches, but only for so long. Eventually there are so many sites in a niche that it becomes over crowded and much harder to fit into.
Yup. I’m seeing too many Make Money Online niche. :) Ahh, people & $$$.
If I were doing a simplicity review of the site I’d suggest they make the About, Contact and Advertise links bigger. At the moment they’re absolutely hiding. They’d probably actually do much better along the top bar.
One thing I notice with big sites is that sometimes they forget that not everyone knows who they are and what they’re about yet! :-P
How is that feed count done? Anyone know?
Hey guys!!
Thanks for the review, some really good feedback. I have a list of changes that I’m meant to make (including making the site not break in IE6 .. gah!) and I’ve added some of your suggestions to the list:
– Post Categories in Footer
– Make Site Banner Clickable
– Rollover on Headlines
– More space between entries
– Make about/contact/advertise slightly more prominent
With the trackbacks thing, actually I debated about that for quite a while, it feels prominent in the position they are in now, but if you move them to below the comments, it interrupts the flow between the comment stream and the “Add a Comment” box at the bottom. I suppose I could move it to after “Add a Comment” maybe. I’ll think on it more, I was actually trying to make them as unobtrusive as possible as I sometimes question the utility of showing trackbacks (though certainly it’s good to get them!)
Anyhow appreciate all the thoughtful comments, especially on such a well designed site like problog!
Hooray!
Collis
Skellie – That’s true. They’re well out of the way from regular visitors, but given the importance of the About page in particular, a little more prominence couldn’t hurt. :)
Deaf Musician – I’m not sure either, but I’ll find out. ;)
Collis – Thanks for stopping by and hearing out the comments. :)
The trackbacks aren’t a pressing issue, but perhaps when you have more time, you could experiment with both above and below? (Below the “Add Comment” section). See what feels best? (It may also place more emphasis on your related posts and ads section, because there would be less link in that area)
Collis, you have a great point there. I’ve been wanting to separate my trackbacks and comments, but I have the same problem you do. I don’t want to place them between the comments and comment form, but I don’t want them to be between the comments and the “Related Posts” box. To separate the trackbacks, I may have to do some serious re-arranging.
it is good that it has a good navigation because navigation is always vital in a web design because you don’t want your readers to get lost in your site.
I highly appreciate this help.
I really appreciate the kindness
Substantially, the article is really the best on this laudable topic.
I concur with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your future updates.
Just saying thank you will not just be enough, for the wonderful lucidity in your writing.
I will instantly grab your rss feed to stay abreast of any udates.
Gratifying work and much success in your business endeavors.
It is great to have the opportunity to read a good quality article with useful information on topics that plenty are interested on. The point that the data stated are all first hand on actual experiences even help more. Go on doing what you do as we enjoy reading your work.
nice site… can you post a article about backlinks?
I think its really cool if you can do that on your page! And I think I would also want to. Thanks for the suggestion.
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It’s random act of kindness week, have you done yours?
I will instantly grab your RSS feed to stay abreast of any updates.
Hi,
I’ve seen your design and beside the “Leave a comment +” I see you have some social icons for fb, tw and rss. Can you please tell me which plugin do you use to accomplish that?
I want it form my site. Thanks in advance and look forward to hear from you.
Tyson