New Design At Blogging Tips
It’s just over a year since Blogging Tips last got a redesign. Whilst I did like the previous theme, I thought it was time to move the site forward with a fresh look. The new theme has the familar Blogging Tips black, red and white color scheme however it is a much tider looking design.
So for those of you reading this via RSS, here is a comparison of the old theme and the new :
Old Design
* If any of you are fans of the old them theme then please drop by and visit Blog Themes Club where you can purchase the theme directly for only $19.
New Design
Made by Guerrilla
Our new theme was designed by Mike Smith from Made by Guerrilla. Mike contacted me a week or so about a redesign of Blogging Tips as a way of promoting brand awareness of his new brand (a relaunch of his existing site Blog Theme Machine).
I had sent some emails about a redesign of Blogging Tips to a few designers over the last few months but nothing had come to fruition. Mike showed me his previous work and I was very impressed so we agreed to move forward with a redesign for the blog.
The header is much more professional looking though the logo has been reduced slightly to allow a 468×60 banner to be integrated. I had originally wanted to integrate a larger 728×90 banner in though this was removed from the final design as it pushed the main content area too far down the page.
The information shown on the sidebar of the new design is more or less as before. We have added a popular articles dropdown list and we have also utilized Sarahs ‘What Others Are Saying‘ plugin to show the latest posts from other great blogging related blogs.
The comment area now allows threaded comments, something which I unfortunately never had in the previous design. I’m sure you will all find that useful 
All in all, the same information is being displayed on the site however I believe it’s easier to navigate and easier on the eye too.
Mike was an absolute joy to work with. He’s a fantastic designer who knows CSS inside out and I would recommend anyone who is looking for a unique design for their blog to shoot Mike an email at Made by Guerrilla.
Anyone who uses the coupon code “BLOGGINGTIPS” during the month of July will receive 20% off their blog design.
You can read more about my experience with Mike here.
What Say You?
I hope you all love the new design. I appreciate that change isn’t always welcome but I’m sure anyone who has hesistations about the new theme will grow to love it over time.
As always, I’d love to hear your opinions on it. Praise wanted, constructive criticism more tham welcome but please leave the trash talk at home
Thanks,
Kevin
Written by Kevin Muldoon from Blog Themes ClubPosted on July 3rd, 2009 and filed under Site News
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28 Responses to “New Design At Blogging Tips”
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As a regular visitor to the site, I’m not sure about the new design – sorry! It’s certainly cleaner and loads much faster (or maybe that’s FF 3.5!) but those 3D ‘corner’ bits totally spoil it for me – completely unnecessary and feel kinda ‘clunky’. I’ll still visit regularly cos there’s always great content here but I don’t think I’ll enjoy the experience so much. That’s my two-penneth, for what it’s worth.
No need to apologise. I think it’s very important that regular readers like the theme too.
I’m willing to make some changes if necessary. Infact, the design was actually changed quite a bit over the last few days due to feedback from staff (who got a preview).
I’ve created a thread in the forums for suggestions and feedback regarding the new design. I’m out all day tomorrow but if you leave a suggestion about what you would like changed then I can do a quick edit via photoshop and display it in the forum.
Then everyone can give their opinion on the suggested change and we can perhaps change the main design accordingly
One thing I might remove is the drop down menu. Not sure if it’s really needed. What do you think?
The new blog layout rocks! Love the 3D look, and love the super-fast load time. Kevin, in your opinion, how often should graphics be swapped out? Quarterly? Yearly?
Again- awesome job with the new look! As always, keep up the great content.
There is a problem with the dropdown menu going under the authorinfo box in ff and safari not sure about other browsers not had chance to test for you. i dont mind the new design it is more up to date and feels fresh
Oops. Forgot to increase the length of the excerpt, that should resolve it (an author requested that, cant remember who at the moment)
Definitely nice and clean design, however the 3D edges in the header are a bit too much, hopefully if you can change that it will enhance the overall design.
It certainly is a pain on the eye and the thing is that is not just the header but continues going down through the sidebar too.
I agree with Paul that the new theme loads significantly faster than the old theme.
Sorry paul, it’s not because of FF 3.5, I’m using IE
The 3d Headers are one of my favorite parts. The new theme looks great and its’ very exciting.
The coolest thing is how it looks like an office building, now THAT’s some ‘way cool idea. Neat!
Hi
Nice great web design keep it up
Regards
Salman
http://www.tips4blogging.co.cc
I usually read your feed and do not visit the site much. I like the change. Very nicely done.
wow.. i was surprised with the change, but i like the new theme very much..
Good stuff, I really like it.
Thanks for the feedvack guys.
Keith – thanks for bringing up the problem regarding comment status links via email. We are aware of this problem and another problem with the comment area though we should have them resolved within the next few days
better than the old one but always ugly sorry:)
Trolls everywhere!
I think your new design looks good.
Nice new face, but it similar with this site,
http://www.inspiredm.com/
BloggingTips was done first
Congratulations, the new design rocks!
I like the black on the drop down list.
Alain – “better than the old one but always ugly sorry:)” – can you expand on this?
Wallace – I don’t think it’s like that site at all! Again, can you expand?
The new theme for Blogging Tips is much better and I love it especially the color combination of shades of red and gray.
it’s okay, Kevin.
the new theme is better than the first and second one a few years ago, clean and elegant,
your site can jump to the next level indeed.
I am glad to see all of the positive comments on the site here. It’s a pleasure to see that the design I’ve created came out so great and that the readers here are supportive of it.
I mentioned to Kevin previously about this but wanted to make an official comment about it as well:
Anyone who uses the coupon code “BLOGGINGTIPS” during the month of July will receive 20% off their blog design.
It’s very refreshing to see the changes – very crisp and clean. I especially like the new 3D look and the use of dark to emphasize the logo. Great stuff!!!
I like the new look. It’s always great when a site gets a face lift.
Kevin, I like the new design & especially the 3d bars. It puts more emphasis on the content by making it seem like it is coming out of the screen.