Pro Blog Design

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

1. 

   milo said:

   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.
2. 

   Skellie said:

   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 :)
3. 

   Michael Martin said:

   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
4. 

   redwall_hp said:

   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/
5. 

   Char said:

   Thanks for highlighting my blog redesign post. Tweaking or redesigning your blog does not have to be an overwhelming task.
6. 

   Michael Martin said:

   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. ;) )
7. 

   Michael Martin said:

   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.
8. 

   redwall_hp said:

   “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.
9. 

   Michael Martin said:

   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. ;)
10. 

    redwall_hp said:

    Or a nice expensive $3000 laptop, a widescreen TV, and a couple iPods? :D
11. 

    Michael Martin said:

    lol – I wouldn’t say no to that! :lol:
12. 

    Sly from Slyvisions.com said:

    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.
13. 

    Michael Martin said:

    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. :)
14. 

    Ankesh Kothari said:

    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…
15. 

    Ankesh Kothari said:

    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.
16. 

    Michael Martin said:

    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)
17. 

    redwall_hp said:

    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.
18. 

    pablopabla said:

    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.
19. 

    Michael Martin said:

    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
20. 

    pablopabla said:

    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!
21. 

    Michael Martin said:

    lol – I’m taking that as a big compliment then! Thanks. :D
22. 

    52tube said:

    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!
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