Happy Weekend, my wonderful readers! And if you are visiting the site for the first time, you too, are truly wonderful because you made the decision to check out my site and see what it’s all about.
I ended going with web designer/developer Heather Jones of Viva La Violet. I found her through the StudioPress blog. She has an amazing and extensive portfolio. I found the designs to be clean, eye-catching and unique.
She incorporated the suggested edits as needed and was a pleasure to work with. I would highly recommend her services if you are looking to undergo a new design for your blog. She is extremely talented and definitely worth the price in my opinion.
However, if you have a more limited budget, she has a few WordPress themes that you can check out here.
As part of the launch of the new blog design, Heather has been kind enough to give away one of her themes, which is the Shimmer theme! It’s a new year and if you are in need of a new look for your blog, enter in the giveaway below. It’s free and anyone can enter. 🙂
UPDATE: If you like what you see here and are considering a new design for your own site or blog, please mention my name as a referral.
Image Courtesy of Viva La Violette
Well I was going to tell you that I love it anyway, but for five entries, I’ll double tell you 😉
I do love the look of it but I do notice that the site gets confused when this comment box is scrolled up nearly level to your hanging “WORK WITH ME”. If I’m typing and start to edit something while it’s scrolled further up the screen, it refuses to select text because it’s confused about whether I’m clicking on the text box or in it.
Also the commentluv is cranky.
Glad you like it and thanks so much for entering and the feedback. I will let my designer know next week.
Congrats Karen the new blog design looks great. Nice and clean looking. 🙂 I wish you all the success this year.
Mr.CBB
Thanks Mr CBB! I wish you the same as well. 🙂
Congrats on the new design. Overall it looks good! I like the new tilted circle logo.
Now for the nitpickery: I don’t care for the hanging “work with me”, it looks like a bug (is it a bug?). There’s lots of room on your title bar for it, especially since you could collapse a few options (does disclosure really need to be a top-level option, or could you put it under advertise here or contact?)
Speaking of disclosure, how does the last line jive with all the rest? “That content, advertising space or post may not always be identified as paid or sponsored content. […] This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.”
On your homepage, you have a box that shows the latest three blog posts, but overlaps with “work with me” (again, is that a bug?). Then below that are your other recent posts — I find that actually de-emphasizes your most recent posts: it’s easier to find and click on your 4th most recent post than your most recent ones. And they’re in a box with just a random image and no lead-in excerpt. That goes double on mobile — on my BB your slider box doesn’t appear at all so your most recent post appears to be “the future of investing” rather than this one (it displays fine on Android). Also, that box is split into 4 uneven quadrants on the right for 3 posts, which looks weird. I’d suggest you just ditch the box and use the plain previews as for the ones below it.
There’s a search bar on the right but I can’t actually get it to accept input [update: you have to click below the midline, centring your mouse on the box somehow isn’t in the box]
You seem really, really, REALLY interested in my email address. There’s a pop-up and it’s in the side-bar and it’s the first thing on the homepage.
Windows + Firefox (plus quick check on Android & BB mobile devices).
WORK WITH ME is meant to be there. I thought it would be easy for people to find if they are looking for a staff writer/ghost writer.
I was thinking the same thing about disclosure and how it could probably be in the footer or somewhere else. To be honest, I think I just grabbed it off some website awhile ago and haven’t updated it since. I should create a better one.
I noticed with the slider box, the titles got cut off when the site was viewed on smaller screens ( I too, have a BB. It’s nice to know another pf blogger who has one! I thought I was the only one!) The decision was to omit on the smaller screens, but still have it on larger screens. However, now that you mention it, it probably makes more sense just to ditch the box.
And yes, I am really interested in your email address. Have you subscribed yet? 😛
Thanks so much for the detailed comments. I really appreciate it. I will bring these back to my designer.
Just to make sure we’re talking about the same thing when you say it’s meant to be there, right now “work with me” is hanging and overlapping the other content on Windows/FF. Should it be up in the menu bar like on the right? (which is actually how it looks on Android)
http://imgur.com/FDBUVMR
I love this! I need a site redesign so badly and I’m super jealous that you did it. I love the simplicity, the white space, and the colours. Looks great!
Thank you so much! Simple, yet eye catching was exactly what I was going for. I like your site design! You could probably keep it for a little while longer. Mine was in major need of a design overhaul. It was simple, but definitely not eye-catching.
It looks great! I’m not in need of a new theme, so I won’t bog down the contest. But congrats on the new site. It’s very appealing!