For the past few months I have been contemplating whether or not ChrisBlogging needs a new design. Well, if you are reading this you can see that I took the leap. Simply put, the old theme was getting stale. It was not unique, and it limited what I could say and do to a certain extent.
If you are interested in a new theme for your blog, I suggest Blue Wave Solutions out of San Diego, California. They may not be well known within the blogosphere for blog designs, but trust me when I say that they know what they are doing. Not only does Blue Wave offer top notch designs, but their customer service is high class. We have worked together a few times, and this will not be the last.
As you will notice, the design is pretty much a complete change from the old one. I added two “blocks” at the top of the blog so that I could offer further information on my freelance writing course as well as my writing services. To go along with this, you will also notice that the sidebar is completely redesigned with a more modern, cleaner look.
Thanks again to everybody who has helped ChrisBlogging come this far. I am closing in on my goal of 400 RSS subscribers, and I hope that the new theme will help me to reach this mark soon enough. If you the get the chance, spread the word. With a new design I have the freedom to add more features, and a better overall reader experience.
Over the past few weeks I have been asked several times why I never moved forward with making my “new design” live. While I have mentioned a few of the issues in past posts, I wanted to get into more depth as to help everybody else avoid the problems that I had to deal with.
First things first, let’s take a close look at why I decided to keep the current design for the time being.
1. The new design was not compatible with Internet Explorer. Although a lot of people are switching to Firefox, this is not the case across the board. Obviously, if you cannot view the blog properly with IE, it is a huge problem.
2. The search button and RSS button were not working as they should. While this is probably a simple fix, for somebody like myself with no technical skills, it would have taken quite some time.
3. Perhaps most importantly, it was not widget compatible. During my initial consultation with the designer this was the detail that I stressed the most. For me, it is essential to be able to drag widgets and quickly add information to the sidebar when necessary.
Why didn’t you tell your designer what you needed? Well, this exactly what I did after noticing the problems the day that I made the site live. The designer was accommodating at first, and even left a comment on a post stating:
“we’re the designers for Chris’ new website design and we’re working on the new design edits for IE issues. We’ll have them all complete tomorrow afternoon/evening.”
Thinking that everything would be fixed within a day at the most, I was not worried. Well, after a week or so of no contact, it was obvious that the designer decided to move on without taking care of the changes. Even when I would hear from him stating that the problems would get fixed, there would be several days of nothing to follow.
In my opinion, I made two mistakes during the hiring of this designer:
1. I paid for the entire job upfront. This was understandable because as a freelancer, I know that getting payment upfront is a good idea with new clients. But with that being said, sending 50 percent would have been a better idea.
2. I never asked for past work samples or references. Simply put, this is a huge mistake. When a new client approaches me they always ask for samples, and I am more than happy to provide them. This way, they can get an idea of my style and expertise. It is amazing that I didn’t do this, but sometimes a lapse in judgment occurs even when you are trying to avoid mistakes.
So what next? For now, I am going to stick with the current design. It may be one that others are using, but at the same time the blog is growing steadily. Last month was my biggest in terms of traffic and income, and RSS readership is nearing 100. With that being said, at the start of the new year I will be paying for a new design once again. The next time around I will follow my own advice so that I do not end up spending money with nothing to show for it!
As you may have seen, I switched ChrisBlogging to the new design this morning. Well, several unexpected issues occurred. They included some Internet Explorer compatibility issues, and some problems with the sidebar. At this time, I am working with the designer to figure things out.
In the meantime, I wanted to go back to my original theme. Even though I like the new design, the whole point of this blog is to teach freelance writing, not to look good. So until the new design is 100 percent correct, I’ll stick with this one. Simply put, I don’t want to do anything that will compromise the information that I supply!
Thanks to everybody for their patience. For now, let’s get back to talking about freelance writing!
If you are reading this post, you are doing so while looking at the new design of ChrisBlogging. What do you think? Even though it took a while to get the new theme up and running, I am quite happy with the final result. I really wanted to add an updated look and feel, and in my opinion this was accomplished quite nicely.
You will notice that this design is nothing like the old one. Just a few of the major additions include a 728 x 90 banner, as well as six 125 x125 buttons. If you read other blogs, which I am sure you do, you have probably seen similar set-ups.
Additionally, you will also notice that I have added a search box and the ability to subscribe to ChrisBlogging via email. Both of these tools should definitely help readers. If you don’t use an RSS reader, taking advantage of an email subscription is a great way to stay up to date with all my posts.
All in all, I am happy to finally be working with the new design. It is my hopes that this will make for a better experience for me, as well as all my readers.
If you have any opinion or question on the design, be sure to leave a comment or send me an email. Of course, Stumbling this post and/or subscribing to my feed are also greatly appreciated!
As you may or may not know, the design of this blog is not unique. In fact, I have come across several other bloggers who use a similar design, if not identical. While I did not have a problem with this at first, as the blog has grown so has my desire to see how far it can go. And the only way to take things to the next level is to get a custom design.
Of course, like always, I am going to have to do some heavy research before deciding on what the new blog should look like, as well as the designer I should hire. With that being said, I have some solid ideas on where to start.
I have a couple of goals that I am hoping the redesign can accomplish. First off, I want ChrisBlogging to look different than everything else that is out there. Not in a hard to navigate, complicated way, but in a unique way that readers will remember. In other words, I want the design to fit in with the future branding of this blog.
Additionally, I want to add more space for links, featured sites, and sponsors. But at the same time, I do not want to clutter the site and take away from the content.
Do any of you guys or gals have experience designing WordPress blogs? If so, please send me an email with your ideas for a redesign. Since I love to help out my readers, hiring one of you to do the work would be ideal!
As I have openly admitted, I do not know much about web site design. In fact, that is why I am using a free theme for this blog. While I am happy with the way that ChrisBlogging looks, I would not mind paying for a custom design in the near future.
Over the past couple of years I have hired several web designers. But with that being said, I have not been overwhelmed with any of them. Maybe I have been unlucky, or maybe I am not asking the right questions.
So how do you hire a web designer? If any readers work in this capacity I would love to hear what you need to know before you take on work with a client.
Here are the three questions that I usually ask before hiring a web designer. There is a good chance that there are other inquiries that I should probably add to this list.
1. Just like most, I always ask how much money I will be charged. This is never too big of a problem because I do not have any issue paying a bit more if high quality is sure to follow.
2. Can I see some samples? Before I hire a web designer I always like to study some past work. As a freelance writer I am used to sending out samples, and figure that web designers probably feel the same way.
3. What is the process for making changes after the first draft? Even though it would be nice to get exactly what I want the first time around, this very rarely happens.
These three questions have done alright for me in the past. But with that being said, I really want to get this hire right. A new layout for this blog could really help in the near future.
