Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Behold – New Blog Design

August 21, 2009 | Personal

My regular readers probably arrived here and went – WHOAH. Yeah, the site looks different.

designchange

The biggest thing that motivated me to make a change was that I was getting really tired of the dark background. It made the site look crunched and lacking space.

I’ve also made another notable design decision: I’ve decided to make the homepage more of a traditional blog layout. Rather than the multi-column homepage, I will now have a single column of new posts with more content on the homepage itself. I think this will allow me the flexibility to have shorter, more current posts to the blog without the need to make it a “feature post” when it isn’t really worthy of the title. :)

I may make a few more changes to things. I may reintroduce the rotating photographs at the top of the site. I may play around with the logo some more (I’m definitely not a graphics artist).

Feel free to share your opinion in the comments. And if you notice something not working, let me know. I’ve tested the design in Firefox, IE7 and Safari and it seems to work just fine here. But, browsers will be browsers.

Enjoy your weekend.

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  • Love the new design David!!! Very fresh and clean, very easy on the eyes and makes a big difference when you're reading. I for one do prefer the new design :-)
  • Site looks AWESOME David. Extremely clean and pleasing to the eye. Definitely like the white background color better. Everything seems to be working too :)
  • carsonsl
    Hey David,

    I like the new design, but I have to say - I was really liked the darker colors with contrast. I don't think you have to worry too much about design at this point. Let us know if it effects the numbers. At least now you won't have the same look as that other guys blog - TF.
  • gregellison
    I really like the new design. You did a good work David. Greg Ellison
  • I like both designs. But this new one does seem a bit more, "friendly" or "clearer" if you can say that. It's certainly more along the lines of what many blogs looks like nowadays, which is both good and bad :)
  • Daring to be different here. I think I like the old a little better. With the dark background, all of your stuff really jumped off the page. However, I'm only here for the content baby!!
  • The best part for me is the header, as I like the logo and your banners!
    Congratulations!
  • Hi David.

    I really like this clean style too. Makes me want to move towards two columns myself. I have been a fan of three columns. But I really like your setup here. But hey that's why we come here to learn from you..

    Cheers.. Are
  • David,

    I like it. Although it is certainly different, it does lighten things up a bit and looks less crammed. Very light, yet cozy :)
  • remarkablogger
    Looks good, man. Lightens it up considerably.
  • Crisp, clean, totally awesome. I do like the slight contrast with the grey shadowed background. I think the green in the old header did a lot though. There's something missing without it perhaps?
  • Even though I'm more into minimalist-style blog design, I have to say I really like the new look. The dark background on the old design really was a downer, and the much brighter look this go-around is 100x better.

    There's a lot going on with your site, but it doesn't feel cluttered. Your designer did some great work :)
  • I think the new design looks clean and less cluttered. I like the new and improved version much better.
  • Only thing I would like to see at least is this new design - but with a dark background (on the sides) It seems a bit too white and open. With the background dark like the old site was it draws your attention into the middle main part where you want all eyes to be. I think a black background would compliment your black headings.

    I know you said you were keen on moving from the black background, so many try changing the colours around on the main header graphic. Where you have the white/grey gradient make that black and make the text white/lighter colour. It will help the users eyes knowing where the boundaries of the site are and direct their eyes downwards where you want it to go.

    Just my opinion of course ;) I really love the changes in the main parts of the site now so well done! I actually clicked on your blogger training links with this new design.
  • Really didnt have much difference except for the color scheme that went lighter..And still anyways the design looks pleasing to my eyes...
  • Yep - good re design and all working on Chrome. I much prefer the more conventional layout of the posts in a column on the home page, although I had got used to your old style.

    Overall, much more of a Web 2.0 feel.
  • Hey Dave,
    the new design looks great. Lots of white space to keep an overall clean look. I also like to 2 column layout. The old design was really nice as well, but if I had to choose, I'd stay with this one.
  • Nice dude... LOVE it!

    Very clean!

    -Ryan
  • kikocherman
    Really clean Dave -- don't know if it's much better, I actually liked the old design.
  • Keith Rowland
    The page layout is broken for me, I'll send you a screen shot of the layout I'm seeing as soon as I find a direct email address for you.
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