A new design for Blogging Tips - Suggestions & feedback welcome
By now most of you will have no doubt noticed that Blogging Tips has a new design. I thought I would give you a little info about the new design and my reasons behind some of the changes on the site. 
Goodbye Super Kevin
The first thing a lot of you will notice is that our cartoon mascot has been removed from the site. Sergio from SOS Factory did a fantastic job with the logo 5 months ago however it no longer represented the image I wanted for Blogging Tips. Also, with close to 20 full time authors at Blogging Tips I didn’t think it made sense to have one author in the logo.
Don’t worry though, the mascot will not be going to waste. I am thinking about launching a personal blog in the next few months and I’ll probably use the mascot somewhere on that blog. Internet recycling at it’s best!
Let’s go back to the beginning…
I had been thinking about changing the design here for quite a while but it was only about 2 or 3 weeks ago I started doing a bit of research for the change. Some of the design companies I looked at have designed some fantastic sites however the price ranged from $1,5000 to $3,000 and since Blogging Tips is only starting to make money I decided to modify a wordpress template myself and get a professional design sometime in the future when the site is self sufficient.
I checked out a few templates however I kept going back to the Revolution Theme from Brian Gardner. Brian has did some exclusive designs for top blogs such as The Blog Herald and Daily Blog Tips. I contacted Brian last Thursday to ask some questions and considered getting an exclusive design but after seeing how well others have modified the theme I decided to go with the Revolution Theme.
I have seen a few reviews of the revolution theme online and the biggest criticism is that it’s a lot to pay for a non-exclusive theme. I can understand that point of view however I am personally extremely pleased with my purchase. Brian was extremely helpful before and after I paid for the template and the theme is very easy to modify due to commentating throughout the theme.
Template Modifications & Wordpress Plugins
After an hour or so I was starting to shape the theme the way I wanted it to be. I considered having a dedicated front page (a la ProBlogger) but I decided to keep the main content on the home page. I also decided to keep the red and white colour scheme which I was previously using too.
After a few days I believe I have modified the template enough so that it isn’t too similar to other blogs which use the Revolution Theme. The only obvious hint is the top navbar. I may change that in the future but I actually quite like the basic navigation bar that the original theme uses.
Notable changes :
- I have added the excellent Homepage Excerpts WordPress Plugin from Daily Blog Tips. This keeps all of the posts on the home page intact but uses excerpts for archive pages so that post content is not duplicated on the blog.
- I added the What Others Are Saying WordPress Plugin from Stuff By Sarah. The plugin allows me to display the latest posts from other blogging related blogs and sites on the web. I think this is something readers will find useful.
- The comment section is now a lot easier on the eye in my opinion. Comments now also show the name of the commentator and their website ie. Kevin from bloggingtips.com etc. This is just a small addition to the comment area but it’s significant as many commentators were using their blog name as their own name. There is now no reason to do this so we should all now be on first name terms
I also considered using the Brian’s Threaded Comments plugin however I found that the comments.php file supplied with the plugin was clashing with something in the Revolution Theme. I may still add the plugin in the future however the comments file supplied with the plugin is pretty messy and has very little commentating so I will need to spend a few hours messing around with it one day if I am to get it working.
The new logo
The logo was the last piece in the puzzle. I wanted something professional, clean and bold. For this task I contacted David Airey. David is not only a fantastic graphic designer, he also runs a great graphics blog as well so who better for the job!
The logo was completed in less than two days with David providing a photoshop file with 3 different fonts and 2 different color schemes.
Below is the red version of the new logo :
All in all I am very pleased with the final product.
Advertising
Some of you may have also noticed that there are not many advertisements on the blog just now. The main reason for this is because I would like to hear suggestions from readers as to where they think the best place ads should go.
Note :
- I will be selling 10 text links and placing them at the top of the sidebar. My initial thought was to reduce the price of these text links to $50 a month each. What do you think?
- Previously, there were ads at the top right hand of every blog post however I would actually prefer to keep all posts here ad free. Where else do you think I could/should have an ad area? I don’t want to clutter the site up but I also want to give sponsors value for money. Suggestions would be very welcome.
Summary
All in all I am very pleased with the new look of the site. It is not 100% perfect but in my opinion it’s definately an improvement. If you have any suggestions or feedback on the new theme I would love to hear it.
Finally I would like to say thank you to the following people :
- Sergio from SOS Factory - Thanks for letting me know the site was messed up in IE6.
- Brian Gardner. Your help and support with the Revolution Theme was much appreciated.
- Daniel from Daily Blog Tips. Your excerpt plugin was exactly what I was looking for.
- Sarah from Stuff By Sarah. Thanks for resolving the error I had with the What Others Are Saying WordPress Plugin.
- David Airey. Thanks for your tips and support today via Skype. Much appreciated.
Guillermo | October 4th, 2007 at 10:55 pm #
It reminds me to the ProBlogger template. But our new design is also really cool… Congrats!
Brian Gardner | October 4th, 2007 at 11:02 pm #
Kevin, great job on the customization, looks great! Thanks for the links back to the site - definitely appreciate that. Hope the theme serves you well, and obviously shoot me a note if you have any q’s.
Brian Gardner | October 4th, 2007 at 11:04 pm #
One suggestion, and something I’ll change in my next release of the theme, is to make the comments section with a light gray background, just so it contrasts against the white background of the whole content area.
Kevin | October 4th, 2007 at 11:08 pm #
Guillermo - thanks
Brian - No problem. I might mess around with it tomorrow in my test blog and see what that looks like.
Keith Dsouza | October 4th, 2007 at 11:29 pm #
New design looks great and awesome.
Mani Karthik | October 5th, 2007 at 2:23 am #
It reminds me of Darren’s new design..Sleek, professional looking and highlighting the content more than anything else.
I prefer the old design to this one.
Jon Moss | October 5th, 2007 at 3:05 am #
Looks good - very impressed with Brian’s theme - just about to contact him now!
Cheers!
Alex | October 5th, 2007 at 3:27 am #
I like this design far better than the old one… it fully showcases the content and is very soft on the eye, well done!
Nice from Thailand | October 5th, 2007 at 3:34 am #
The new design is a lot better!
It a bit reminds me of wpdesigner and techcrunch, though
The red link list in the sidebar hurt my eyes a bit
the comment section is really cool too!
I think I’ll mod my comment section like this one
I always want to show the comment author’s url, what a coincidence hehe
Nice from Thailand | October 5th, 2007 at 3:40 am #
comment author’s name may be darker to suit the dark red
and I think “from” should be in different color.
Daniel | October 5th, 2007 at 4:46 am #
Kevin, love the new design.
As you probably know I like clean stuff, and now the blog is very clean, legible and organized.
I am glad the plugin is working fine as well!
Cheers
Dave Starr --- ROI Guy | October 5th, 2007 at 5:32 am #
YES! the demise of the super Kevin … sorry but those eyes were giving me nightmares. Seriously, the new look is much better. Figure this … if you are going to take advice from someone wouldn’t it be better to see a normal, human face to cement the person to person relationship rather than a cartoon character? Anyway, that’s what old guys like me with genuine “problogger” hairlines think…
Thanks for keepign the new look very uncluttered … I’ve been disappointed with several new blogs makeovers because the bloggers tried to cram in everything but the kitchen sink … maybe that too, but I can’t find it. A blog should have the current content and not all that much more.
Marko Novak | October 5th, 2007 at 5:32 am #
I think the logo with red background is nicer. You could also make sidebar wider and content font larger.
sofish | October 5th, 2007 at 6:00 am #
Kevin | October 5th, 2007 at 7:02 am #
Thanks for all the feedback guys
Nice - good point about changing the color of the word ‘from’ in the comment section. Ill do something about it.
Marko - Ill put up the red logo later and then screenprint it and show you guys so you can let me know what you think. I guess I could make the sidebar a little larger, particuarly considering I’m only using two columns.
JohnTP | October 5th, 2007 at 7:04 am #
Nice design but I liked the older one more especially with the cartoon mascot
Kevin | October 5th, 2007 at 7:29 am #
I have changed the header and logo to red so that you can all see the difference.
Heres a comparison of the two of them :
Which does everyone prefer? Should I use both and rotate them (something which I spoke about to David Airey about when we were talking about the logo)
Chris Coyier | October 5th, 2007 at 9:28 am #
Nice design! I like it clean.
I would save out those header images as GIFs instead of JPG’s. JPG is giving you some artifacting around the letters that GIF will avoid and likely be a smaller file as well. Also little quickie type ($1,5000)
Marko Novak | October 5th, 2007 at 12:03 pm #
Leave with as it is. Red is to aggressive.
Readers don’t like wide text. It’s harder to hit next line when your eyes go all the way to the right. So I suggest you widen the sidebar for 50px minimal and enlarge the font size.
Kevin | October 5th, 2007 at 12:11 pm #
I appreciate the feedback Marko. What do you think of it now?
Tibi Puiu | October 5th, 2007 at 12:22 pm #
The design is excellent. Nice job Kevin on the customization. It’s definitely a lot more professional and it better emphasizes the collective blog vibe.
Elaine Ramos | October 5th, 2007 at 12:50 pm #
I don’t know if its just me but it makes the blog more “expert-like”. Anyway, I love it
Zac Johnson | October 5th, 2007 at 2:38 pm #
I also like the new design. Be sure to put your super-blogger-man mascot to use on your new blog. It’s a killer design!
kher Cheng Guan | October 5th, 2007 at 2:46 pm #
Nothing fantastic, but appropriate for blog about blogging. Clean and more professional looking [sans cartoon mascot]. It looks like everyone is following each other these days,pushing all the trivial stuff down to the footer.
BJ | October 5th, 2007 at 6:16 pm #
I’ve been reading Bloggingtips for about a year now.. colour me stupid but it seems REALLY weird that the new design wasn’t done by the person who writes about design FOR the blog?? I really enjoy reading what the design guy has to say, I find his design work great.. and I’d have been more interested to see what he did with the design of the site…
… very strange.
jblanton | October 5th, 2007 at 8:46 pm #
Looking real nice. But what happened to Super Blogging Tips Guy?
Jennifer | October 5th, 2007 at 8:54 pm #
Let me know where the super hero goes. I liked him better. This is a very boring/bland design.
David Airey | October 6th, 2007 at 5:30 am #
Thanks for the mention, Kevin, and give me a shout if you want my opinion on anything.
Have a good weekend.
Monika | October 6th, 2007 at 9:55 am #
Kevin,
I really like this template much more than the old one. It is much more clean and modern and fits in with the trend.
Monika
Jon - FreelanceFolder | October 6th, 2007 at 10:25 am #
Good job, looks very clean (I love clean designs), looks more professional, although I kinda miss the cartoon hehe
The Revolution theme is killer, I use it on my blog, and it was a lot of fun to customize (and customize again, and again, and again). I like what you did with the comment section, looks good!
Marko Novak | October 6th, 2007 at 1:51 pm #
I think it looks much better now.
SarahG | October 6th, 2007 at 4:31 pm #
Cheers for the mention. Glad we got your plugin issues sorted out! Like the new design too
Elina | October 6th, 2007 at 9:03 pm #
I have to be honest and tell you that it’s a great idea to do away with the mascot thingy. I love the new look, it’s more professional and reflects the direction you are heading (Problogger)
Adnan | October 7th, 2007 at 3:31 am #
Hey Kevin - congrats on the changeover and loving the new theme. Looks very clean and professional.
Would be nice to have less “Recently Written” posts in the sidebar as they look messy. Also, have you considered using some different “bullet points” to spice things up a little like I have at Blogtrepreneur? Deron Sizemore recently made some great “Sizecons“, which would really add to the site if the right ones were created.
Just a though - the logo looks best as you have it now - good choice.
Adnan
Sumesh | October 7th, 2007 at 4:24 am #
I dare say I am being different, but I loved the old design. Being your creation adds to the originality.
This theme lacks any gloss of the previous theme(especially in header), but is not minimal enough to be called ‘clean and easy’. This theme looks like something is missing - maybe the whitespace, or web 2.0 graphics, or soft colors(right now, its all bold and dark).
Just my 2cents.
PS: On a sidenote, how do you show the pic of the author on every post? Is it using php if else condition? If so, maybe you’d make a post about it
Michael Martine | October 7th, 2007 at 8:36 am #
I know I’m a little late to this party, but this post somehow escaped my notice in my reader. I like it, generally, but three suggestions:
If you’re going to use a graphical header, consider making the text a bit more visually interesting (otherwise just use real text). Put an outline around the text, a gradient, or something.
The weirdly pinkish background color is kinda nasty. I think something with more gray, or black, or tan in the mix would be better.
The smilies in the comments are spaced out too far and take up too much room. They need to be tightened up.
Overall, I like this theme better for the same reasons you mentioned in your post.
Kevin | October 7th, 2007 at 8:43 am #
Adnan - I’m actually a fan of listing a lot of recent posts down the sidebar so that readers can easily jump to posts they miss. I’ll look into different bullet points in the future.
Sumesh - A few people prefer the old design but in general I would say more readers prefer the new one. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to please everyone
Michael - I’ll mess around with my test blog and try out some darker backgrounds. The current background colour was something I chose and then didn’t really look at again because I was working more on the actual site etc. I agree something darker would be better.
With regards to the logo, I actually wanted the head logo to remain very simple and bold. I didnt want to use gradients etc. With regards to the comments, thats powered by a plugin so I’ll have to look at the code to see where I change it (shouldn’t be a major hassle)
Patric Herber | October 7th, 2007 at 11:40 am #
Hey Kevin,
I’m liking the new design as well. Its kind of funny because I just realized you changed your theme on the same day I changed mine, is this coincidence or a clash of great minds
Anyways, great job and if you need any help give me a holler, I learned a good amount after coding on mine.
Patric
Dan | October 8th, 2007 at 7:28 am #
I guess you fancy the red links but I would go with another color. Otherwise, the page width is perfect.
Steven Snell | October 8th, 2007 at 12:36 pm #
Kevin,
I really like the new design. The clean look makes it easy to read.
Ianternet | October 9th, 2007 at 8:25 am #
brians news theme is great I have just updated mine today and I think it provides great exposure to my other posts
Kris Larson | October 9th, 2007 at 12:02 pm #
The new design looks great; it’s very professional. I like that it takes itself seriously now. But I’m looking forward to checking out the new blog; I’d be sad if we lost the superhero forever!