Weekly Wrap-up: Why Redesign A Blog?
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Image by Ctd 2005 It began with ProBlogger. It became “newsworthy” with John Chow. It has been peppered with countless other blogs along the way. Redesigning seems to be all the rage this Summmer, but why redesign your blog?
The obvious reason is of course to simply make your blog better. When you first create a design it seems great, but over time you notice the cracks in the wall. Eventually the number of cracks builds up to a point where a redesign seems the logical choice. This certainly seems to have been the case with the fantastic ProBlogger redesign, and to this end, Simple Thoughts have put together a list of 9 Redesign Ideas.
However, this isn’t the only reason. Among Ben Cook’s 5 Reasons For A Blog Redesign he has hit the nail on the head in one respect. Ben lists “Buzz” and “Linkbait” as his first two reasons for a redesign, and this is undoubtedly true in the case of John Chow.
What better way could Nate Whitehill have hyped up the release of his new design agency, than by offering a free design to a famous blogger? Of course, John then took full advantage of the offer and pumped up his blog into a real money maker. Win-win situation for all.
A blog redesign can hold a lot of advantages for a business, but it isn’t limited to rich corporations. Charlene has written up a nice set of steps for a blog makeover that anyone could do. The important thing is that you redesign your blog for the right reasons.
There are many reasons to redesign your blog. As Yaro Starak’s latest video says, blog design matters, but it isn’t the most important aspect. He’s right, to a point.
What’s Happening With Pro Blog Design?
With this blog being under 3 weeks old now, it seems a little too early for a redesign. With that said, I was pleased to find it turning up in a few CSS galleries this week. There are still quite a few things to be sorted out though.
Thanks to a comment from Skellie, the recent posts section of the sidebar has been replaced by a popular posts section, and thanks to a comment from David Airey, the comments have been redone to make reading them a little easier. Furthermore, I’m choosing you. The Google Adsense banner is gone, and has been replaced with some recommendations of my favorite books, and some links to products that might help you learn a little more online. They’re still affiliate links, but they’re a lot more useful for those who want them, and a lot less obtrusive for those who don’t!
Let’s not stop there. What other changes would you like to see made?
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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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Weekly Wrap-up: War on Clutter
19th August 2007
Both new styles (Problogger+John Chow) have the Nascar car look: stuffed with ads. I don’t know if the first impression should be ads, if visiting a site. Looks like ads are more important than the content to them.
We mark ad mails as spam, but they allow to appear them on the frontpage? Where are the goods of this? Both socalled top bloggers won’t plaster their car or home with ads, why they do so with their online presence?
I think, this is a bad sign and role model for starting bloggers.
Great job Michael, those small changes have really lifted the site. Kudos on deciding to remove AdSense for now — it’s a brave move for any blogger but really enhances the atmosphere of the blog. Those recommended reads panel looks good and should be useful to your readers :)
milo – I know what you mean. The John Chow redesign is certainly advert-centric. (I’m not sure I like the new header at all tbh. It’s just too cluttered. If I’d never read the blog before, it would probably be enough to turn me off… :( )
But the ProBlogger one isn’t so bad. I know the ads are prominent in the sidebar, but Darren removed the big adsense banner that used to be between the post and the comments, and the little banner that used to be in the content. Those were big improvements for me. :)
Skellie – Thanks, and thanks again for the advice. You were dead right. :D
Hey, I suggested the “popular posts” instead of the recent posts, too!
I like the “recommended reads” spot with the random book. That was a cool idea. Personally, I prefer to recommend books to people in round-ups like this:
http://www.webmaster-source.com/2007/07/09/7-books-for-beginning-webmasters/
Thanks for highlighting my blog redesign post. Tweaking or redesigning your blog does not have to be an overwhelming task.
Sorry Matt! I should have mentioned you as well! A few people actually mentioned it (And a few people also mentioned the comments). It’s just that Skellie and David were the ones that triggered me to finally fix the problems. That’s why I mentioned them. xD
And I like how you’ve grouped together similar books with that post. It’s a great idea, that I might have to try sometime. :D (And this time, I’ll remember where the idea came from. ;) )
Char – No problem. Your tips were a fantastic example of how breaking a redesign into manageable steps can prevent it from being the arduous task it might otherwise appear to be.
“Sorry Matt! I should have mentioned you as well! A few people actually mentioned it (And a few people also mentioned the comments). It’s just that Skellie and David were the ones that triggered me to finally fix the problems. That’s why I mentioned them. xD” No problem, just thought I’d draw attention to myself. :D
I did the book-roundup after reading a post on Problogger.net about it. If you think about it, it’s a good idea. You’re filling a post with Amazon links to good books, and you’re going to have some good keywords in the post. Eventually people are going to start coming in from the search engines, and click on your Amazon links. We may not all make as much money as Darren Rowse or John Chow, but it’s possible to get a few $$$s out of it.
That’s true. I’ve read him suggesting that before as well. And once they load Amazon, the referral works for up to 24 hours, which is pretty cool. :)
Personally, I’m hoping that someone clicks my link to look at a book, then goes on to buy a nice expensive widescreen TV. ;)
Or a nice expensive $3000 laptop, a widescreen TV, and a couple iPods? :D
lol – I wouldn’t say no to that! :lol:
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.
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. :)
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…
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.
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)
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.
Your site looks good enough to me :D
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.
Redwall – I agree. I don’t like the ashops very much either. :(
pablopabla – Good. The content should definitely be the most important thing. :D
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
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!
lol – I’m taking that as a big compliment then! Thanks. :D
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!
This really answered my problem, thank you!
An impressive share, I simply given this onto a colleague who was doing a little bit similar analysis on this. He in fact purchased me breakfast because I discovered it for him.. smile.