Comments on: Make Sure Your Blog Design Communicates Your Voice – Wife Advice Revisited

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:11:01 +0000

Excellent post and some points I am writing down to remember as I go through my next redesign. It is one of those things that i have to remember that the find tuning is a continual process. I don’t want things to look different to the reader on every visit – but I also can’t allow the site to become stagnant and ignore changes that would really help.

By: Sangeeta Sinha

Sangeeta Sinha — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:34:58 +0000

Darren, very interesting article with some very valuable points. Even the website looks good.

By: Lance

Lance — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 01:26:07 +0000

Hey, glad you revisited this. I surfed into wifeadvice after it was first reviewed, skimmed a few posts, and promptly forgot about it. The logo and site design was a bit off putting and didn’t get me engaged.

On a whim, I surfed back into it after the re-design and found it much more appealing. Content is basically the same, but the design really invited me into it and set the tone for the reader experience. My writing partner and I even participated in one of their contests.

For my dating advice blog, honeyandlance.com, I’d love to do a logo and site re-design, but I don’t think that’ll happen until we get some cash saved up.

Keep up the good work.

By: Free site promotion

Free site promotion — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:28:21 +0000

Recently I also redesigned my blog. Changes must be done. Unless readers may get bored. It is nice the new design and also nice post. Thank you

By: Kelly

Kelly — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 13:32:37 +0000

Wow, Nancy, that’s dramatic!

When your site came up for review I wondered how you’d be able to take so much critique and turn it around to your advantage.

Now it’s playful, it’s positive, it drive subscriptions right away, yet with all the goofiness the color scheme is still fairly traditional (in a timeless sort of way). Wonderful!

Good luck with it!

Regards,

Kelly

P.S. It must be a heck of a marriage because you could have bitten each others’ heads off during the redesign–like a cyber-home remodelling!

By: CatherineL

CatherineL — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 12:39:45 +0000

Thanks for sharing this. I love the changes you made. The pics you used in the original site were funny but the color makes it stand out much more.

My site is so plain but I’m having a redesign, so these tips have come at a great time.

By: Ruchir Chawdhry

Ruchir Chawdhry — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 11:53:31 +0000

Yeah, your design should always match your voice, personality and the topic of your site. If your blog has a vibrant voice and personality to it, a minimalistic theme will kind of look out of place…

By: Madame Monet

Madame Monet — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 09:54:38 +0000

I wasn’t one of the people who commented before. I subscribed for a short time and found some of these things you mention here were bothering me, so I unsubscribed. Reading this post today, I have resubscribed immediately. I didn’t really realize it before, but these exact things you mention here were what sort of turned me off to the site before. I think renaming it “Funny marriage stores” gives it a much more POSITIVE feel. I like that.

Madame Monet
Writing, Painting, Music, and Wine
winewriter.wordpress.com

By: Welcome to Paradise

Welcome to Paradise — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:51:30 +0000

I had visited the site WifeAdvice.com. The design looked quite crude. The changes in design that they have made recently is quite good.

Best of luck to WifeAdvice.com.

By: Lee

Lee — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:06:07 +0000

Wow – I’m just going through this process on a friend’s blog and this article has really helped my focus.

By: Tom Beaton

Tom Beaton — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:51:04 +0000

Great to have people come back and show how they have taken the advice and worked on it. I am sure you are pleased with the results and so you should be.

By: The Cubicle Guy

The Cubicle Guy — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 03:21:18 +0000

Finding the tone of your blog is hardest thing. Currently, I’m struggling with the issue as well. Not sure, if I should keep it simple and in a reporting style with satire such as dooce, or if it should be more of a report a problem suggest a solution type of thing.

For what it’s worth the new design looks real nice, but the top of the new blog, is a little busy. For that area ad blindness kicks in fast.

Also since you now agree that impression is everything, have your developer take a look at the post footers using IE. FireFox only development will leave you with some messed borders. Opera handles it ok.

Issues like that are common when using padding in CSS and XHTML. FireFox and IE handle padidng differently.

Nice concept. The Donkey is just the least bit demeaning. But to set a brand, it would be fine. If he doesn’t care, go for it.

Don’t mind the honest input.

By: tracy ho

tracy ho — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 02:56:51 +0000

Great to read that,
thanks,

Tracy ho
wisdomgettingloaded

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:46:40 +0000

Great advice. One of the most challenging things for me as a Blogger is the design aspect. I love to write but I’m lacking in the design arena. I’m getting much better but have often thought about hiring a designer to do a customized logo that matches my voice and writing style.

I definitely believe I have my own, unique voice for my particular niche so now more than ever, I want my blog’s design to match it.

By: Muilkorfje

Muilkorfje — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:06:14 +0000

I have a feeling I’m going to be the only here who thinks this, but apart from the logo (which is brilliant btw), the change from a 3-column to a 2-column layout, and the better tagline, I don’t like the redesign. I’m sorry. The older layout was more common but more classy and a lot calmer. This one is a bit tacky and busy.

By: IndependentKitten

IndependentKitten — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:30:13 +0000

Very good post. I love the writing style. I also thought people were very harsh on your site. I got it the first time. I must say, I do love the new design. I was thinking of this today. It just seems my blog needs a redesign.

By: Amanda - The Mom Crowd

Amanda - The Mom Crowd — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:52:19 +0000

What a timely post! I am currently going through the redesign process this weekend. Thanks for the insight into your thought process!

By: The How-To Geek

The How-To Geek — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:54:12 +0000

You may want to have your web developer look into this, when I’m browsing from my home internet connection I still see the old site.

Here’s the output from a dig command:

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.wifeadvice.com. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
http://www.wifeadvice.com. 3035 IN CNAME ghs.google.com.
ghs.google.com. 603886 IN CNAME ghs.l.google.com.
ghs.l.google.com. 296 IN A 66.249.81.121

;; Query time: 20 msec
;; SERVER: 208.67.222.222#53(208.67.222.222)
;; WHEN: Fri Feb 15 14:49:06 2008
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 97

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:31:01 +0000

Wow! Your redesign was so amazing that I just subscribed to the blog. When I saw it during its first appearance on problogger, I remember thinking it was kind of dumb, but when I saw it again today, the content somehow seemed better – I can’t explain it. Thanks for the great design tips and the great blog.

By: Meredith Hamilton

Meredith Hamilton — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 18:49:23 +0000

This is a great idea – I would love to see other follow-ups on Community Consulting blog projects!