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11:00 am
February 16, 2012
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Dollar D
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I'm a web developer by day and I've got this insane notion that I should design my own theme.
The problem is that I am a web developer NOT a web designer so I have practically no sense of style.
I'd like to solicit feedback from the community on both:
- The current design. I know it's not the best but what I could I be doing better?
- Any "must have" widgets or other things that I'm missing
Thanks in advance!
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11:09 am
February 16, 2012
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Invest It Wisely
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Dollar D said:
I'm a web developer by day and I've got this insane notion that I should design my own theme.
The problem is that I am a web developer NOT a web designer so I have practically no sense of style.
I'd like to solicit feedback from the community on both:
- The current design. I know it's not the best but what I could I be doing better?
- Any "must have" widgets or other things that I'm missing
Thanks in advance!
Eh, I'm in the same shoes as you. I have an eye for what looks good, but designing something from scratch is another thing entirely. The good thing is that if you get some feedback from a designer, they can help you build something that will look really nice.
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11:11 am
February 16, 2012
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Invest It Wisely
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Current one doesn't look so bad at all. I would maybe show a couple of full posts, change the top to an actual logo (you can outsource this) and maybe with a bit more width. Did you try with two sidebars? How did it look?
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11:41 am
February 16, 2012
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Dollar D
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| Member | posts 27 |
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Thanks for the feedback.
My next tweak will definitely be to show the full first post, and excerpt after that. I've also started getting decent comments on most of my posts so I want to put a comment count somewhere on the post, near the title.
My layout now is 960px wide but I might divide up the sidebar into two sidebars and see how it goes. Right now i dont have a whole lot to put on them but im sure I could fill them up if I tried.
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11:55 am
February 16, 2012
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John @ Married with Debt
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I actually like your layout a lot and would resist the urge to do much. You could make a new logo in MS Paint for free (that's what I did :)
I don't think you are missing anything either. As you develop resources, you can add them to the horizontal title bar.
You have recent posts, subscription options and categories: readers don't need much more than that. I believe the more options you give people, the more likely they are to get frustrated and leave.
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12:17 pm
February 16, 2012
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Modest Money
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I think the header is where you can make the most improvement. For a low price you can outsource to get a good header or logo designed. Beyond that it looks pretty good. A more simplistic approach often works better. You'll also want to fill up the top navigation bar, but I assume you are waiting for more blog content before you do that.
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12:30 pm
February 16, 2012
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Dollar D
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Thanks guys.
Yeah, I definitely need to improve that "first impression" and a good logo would definitely help.
Im thinking for the top nav, i'd have some category pages but what else could i put there?
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3:14 pm
February 16, 2012
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jaicatalano
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Well my specialty is in design and if I can speak frankly I would say that the logo has NOTHING to do with your website…
If I were you I would find a design that compliments your site. Sites that have logos that stand out for me are
financialsamurai.com, moneyprinciple.com, dividendninja.com. I only designed 1 of the 3…
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4:11 pm
February 16, 2012
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Edward Antrobus
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jaicatalano said:
Well my specialty is in design and if I can speak frankly I would say that the logo has NOTHING to do with your website…
My logo wouldn't seem to have anything to do with my website, but it does in a way. My logo is a rubber chicken, my blog has my name, and I like rubber chickens. :)
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4:43 pm
February 16, 2012
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sooverthis
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I would swap out "recent posts" in the sidebar for "popular posts." People can see your recent posts by scrolling down, so it might be better to point them toward older posts that might have gotten more traffic. (I realize that a new site may not benefit from this just yet, but it will come.)
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5:32 am
February 17, 2012
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jana
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I agree with Andrea that you should swap out the recent posts for popular posts. I'm not a fan of seeing ads that big on the side bar, nor am I fan of seeing them that far up on the side bar so I would suggest moving it (though I'm sure others will disagree with me). I also suggest adding a blogroll and eventually, as you build up content, an archives menu.
If you would like help with the logo/header, please feel free to contact me. I'm starting to get into that and I need the practice!
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10:13 am
February 17, 2012
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Dollar D
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| Member | posts 27 |
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@jai You're definitely right. I was going for a peaceful forest path or something similar but I need to think more about my branding
@sooverdebt – that's a great idea. I'll put that in when I get some more content
@jana – I was hoping to get one above the fold as google reports those do a lot better than ones further down. Monetization is an on-going process so maybe i'll just move that down for the time being. I'll have to take you up on your logo/header offer :)
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