New Design And New Features On ShoeMoney.com
First off if the blog looks totally jacked up hold down shift and hit f5 (refresh)
So mid last week I went to unique blog designs (followed from john chow’s page) and I was really impressed. I have not seen such great designs since Chris (not Matt) Pearson used to do blog designs (does he do it anymore?). So I filled out there contact form and said I was looking to keep the same look and feel of my blog but polish it up a bit and said I thought we could find something that was mutually beneficial. Within like 1 hour Nate from unique blog designs contacted me and I told him I was really happy with my blog but I wanted to add in some new features like my friends latest posts and newest listings for sale from the marketplace and also readers favorite posts on my blog. I dont think I gave him much more then that to work with.
I swear to god at like a few hours later he sent me this back. I was really impressed and I said lets go with it.
Now keep in mind like they are designers and half the stuff that needed to be implemented was custom plugins I was going to have to write myself. So on sunday he sent it over and it was a little wide and other stuff that needed to be tweaked plus i still needed to write the code for the plugins so I started on it.
Here is some changes and new features of the blog. Most of these are things I have wanted to do for the last year but just never got around to it. I am very excited to bust them out finally.
Top Commentors - This will stay the same EXCEPT it will now be on all pages instead of just the front page. I am going to be playing with the formating with this over the next few days.
Favorite Posts - These are the most read + commented posts in the last 2 years on this site.
Friends Posts - I have always thought blogrolls were kind of lame. Its just a linkfest right? I always wanted to instead show the latest post on my friends blog and link to it instead of just there site. I think its much more telling to see “How to rank in Google in 8 days” MUCH MORE then a link that says “Andy Beal” amirite?
Marketplace Listings - This shows the newest 5 listings in the marketplace. The marketplace page is now getting 3x more traffic then the main page of my blog =(. Well I guess that is a good thing ;). I think I might just go ahead and link directly to the page and below put a small (view all listings). (sugestion by jensense). I eventually might make my own classified section but I am not sure if that is a service that is really needed yet. I was thinking a flat listing fee of 10$ per item with maybe like a 1$ bump or something… Not a huge priority.
Latest Radio Shows - It never fails whenever I post a radio show I get emails about where the other ones can be found. I thought I would post the links from the feed in the footer (still tweaking this).
Latest q&a
the Question and Answer posts seem to have been a pretty big hit lately so I figure posting the latest ones would be cool. I will give it a test and see how it goes.
Other stuff in the footer I’m going to put something else in the footer… not quite sure what yet.
I have to say I really really love the new design. Its something I want to use. I love the marketplace listings (I do most of my commerce from those listings) and I really love the friend roll.
So what do you think?
It looks great, definitely keeping up with the latest trends in blog themes. Good job listening to your readers’ feedback from the original launch too; at first some things didn’t look good but now you’ve fixed them and it looks great
This is a really clean design and I like the feature to post your friends latest blog posts. I use an asp blogging system and wonder how hard it would be to port it to forest blog?
I love the new design as well. Very inspiring.
Very nice design!!
Looks great. Do they handle smaller clients??
Hi Robert,
My name is Matthew Blancarte and I represent . We have a range of design options for both small and big blogs. Come check us out or send me an email if you have any questions!
Thanks for the compliment.
Great job on this deisgn and also John’s Matthew. I am sure landing a couple of high profile bloggers like these two guys will be great for business:)
I love the John Chow design.
I will definitely call you up when I am in need of a design.
V
The Marketplace is a great feature. Its saved me so much time.
I have to say, thats’ quite impressive. What a lil’ bit of bevel and shading can do to a design…. hey unique blog designs will you spruce up my site design?
I really like the new design. I like that it didn’t dramatically change the site yet gave it a sleek new look.
Ohhhh noo you use the evil Web 2.0 reflection on the logo!!!!
Heh, just kidding.
Seriously, the theme is nice, they definitely do some great work.
I like it a lot. It has the same look and feel as the old site, but has its key points laid out.
Love the new digs!!
Makes me wish that I could afford their services
Guess I’ll just have to stick with my generic theme a bit longer.
Or learn how to code one yourself;)
Actually I’m in the process of doing that!
We could start a fundraiser for you. Maybe Shoe will let you put a jar on the counter of his blog. “Spare Change can Change a Lot”
Sure!!! Cause there aren’t enough people on the internet begging for money
I’ll just be content with what I got.
Much better than the old design.
the new design is really nice, i really like the friends’ posts at the top.
Make the logo clickable!
agreed - i’m always looking up there and the “home” is rather tiny :S
I would have never guessed that this was by the same guy that did John Chow’s new theme.
Nice new design, it has some gigaOm … I am not sure where, but thats the first thing that came to my mind when I first saw it.
It looks great but I don’t like the mouseover on the top navigation menu buttons though.
If you do decide to do your own marketplace $10 listing and $1 bump is a GREAT idea.
I hate having to wade through all the CRAP for sale at DP and other forums that allow free website for sale ads. So much JUNK!
What do you mean CRAP? you arent interested in cheap scraper sites to make you millions from adsense;)
Are you one that makes millions from adsense? Post a check on SM, I wanna see…
No, Ive never made a scraper, Im one of the few that actually think quality is more important than money plus Im not that ready to entrust my livelihood to robots yet.:D
I second the idea. Jeremy, I think a service like this IS needed. The majority of the sites for-sale are horrible over at DP. Sitepoint is ok but it needs some competition!
Well if cant affored nates designs, i used this guy - http://www.coopolio.com
Does similer sort of WP themes, and really fast
But yeah nice new design shoe.
Yeah some of the designs there are pretty cool.
Netondas would have done a better job. And yes, we work with the little guys too.
Good luck attracting new customers with that kind of snide remark… definitely makes me NOT want to work with your company.
Very true. no one wants to deal with someone that starts out with snottyness… Just a helpful observation from a small time webmaster.
Did I miss something? All the guy said was he could do a better job. Why start a design company if you think you’re not better than the competition? I say good job.
Thanks for backing yourself up there netondas :p
I’m not netondas. There’s nothing wrong with what he did. :p
Do I smell jealousy?
Congrats, Jay…I will never consider working with your company.
good one man, like web 2.0 feel to it (whatever that means)
Web 2.0 is just fresher/faster/quicker/newer/everything good!
A few things… Some of the comment links do not work correctly… More or less an annoyance they do not take you to the bottom to comment, they just go to the single post page. Add “#addcomment” to the links and it will take users right to the form.
Whats Your Take, Your Take, and Comment Here (all 3) are just pointed to the post.
yup one of the things on my list to do.
I like it a lot. I never knew about the marketplace. Thanks!
Likewise, I had never bothered to see the marketplace until it was shown on the new design.
Yeah, I agree. I’ve found a few new parts to the Shoemoney site since the new design launched.
The “Friend’s Posts” plugin is really cool as well. I must admit I’ve never clicked on any links in Shoemoney’s blogroll but have found some great blogs by clicking through the “Friends posts” section.
Great job on the design and extra features.
I love the new “Friends Posts” feature. I ditched my blogroll ages ago for the simple reason that it didn’t really add value to my readers and wanted to come up with something that was more useful. I’ve been trying to come up with a way to do that and I think your idea really works.
How have you done it? Is it one of your customised plugins?
Purple post titles?
At least he didnt pick pink
Gotta differentiate somehow from the blue I guess? hehe
and my browser twitches when I mouseover links
Thats a new feature I am testing called “the browser twitcher”
I like the refreshed look, definitely cleaner.
FYI, all the links to marketplace posts point ot the marketplace homepage.
Just noticed that when on a single post page (such as the one you are on when reading this comment:) ) that there are no buttons to move to the previous or next post. You need to go back to the index to get to the next post (unless I’m going blind).
Was this a design feature or just something that was overlooked?
Design is very nice… You can put in the footer some jokes or mottos or my link
Shoe, where did the search box go?
Sorry but I don’t like it.
Really? How come?
This one is very similar to the old design just slicker imho
directory dude… quick question, Have you noticed a decline in your paid directory since google now discourages buying links? Email me, i’m super curious about this…
What don’t you like about it? Back up your comment at least a lil bit
When I first saw it I didn’t like it that much, I didn’t like the two boxes above the main post area etc
But now that it’s finished and all done, it definitely looks better. Feels tidy and clean and the big logo in the footer is awesome and the radio show links! I haven’t listened to most of them. Awesome improvements.
hey. nice design. It’s crispy.
Crispy? I was personally thinking its more bubbily.
How many shoes can I fill up with shoe money? I would imagine only a few.
Peace
Douglas
looks good man I like that changes! much slicker looking design.
Looks great. Same feel as the old, but much more, um… shiny and new looking? Kind of like a car that’s had a great detailing done to it.
I’m not diggin’ the new design man - sorry. I think the old one was far better.
Livin in web 1.0 eh!?
I absolutely love it too!! Instantly did!! The only thing I DONT like is the “popular posts” section… they’re not so much the shoemoney reader’s favorite posts as they are posts that businessweek sent thousands of interested people to?!
They look fairly accurate for now I just imagine/forsee problems if it’s dynamic don’t you??
[...] What you see above is the finished product. You can read more about the design here. [...]
The friends latest posts is a very cool idea, you are right, much better than a simple blogroll!
Agreed - I’ll bet your friends like it better too :p Why can’t I be your friend?!
:( lol jokes but sitll?!
I think the redesign and new features are really a big step forward
Great design.
Very sleek and clean.
Love the new design especially the friends post and marketplace, though the top of the post section is broke but that could just be the browser/OS Im using
This is really nice. It is very much like the old look, but updated and more web 2.0 looking.
You have gloss and bad gradients, its web 2.0!
Yeah, that’s the mark allright
so are you not a web 2.0 fan?
Great new design! And I love the “Friends Post” Feature - gotta get that running on my blog, too…
oh! great new design. Keep it up man.
Just noticed something - make the Shoemoney logo at the top clickable!
Yes, very important for usability.
I would alter the blogrole into a list just to get some structure, it kind of sticks out too much right now.
There is a bug on the post view (not the front page, the page where you see comments). Up the top it says “have something to add whats your take”. It looks like the comment count variable isn’t working there as it should be something like “99 people have something to add whats your take”
I really like the new design. I like that you didn’t change it too much. Drastic changes can be tough, like the time my wife cut her hair short.
Two final comments. I love the latest radio shows box. Truly awesome Jeremy! I don’t like that you can’t see how many comments are in a thread. For some reason I like to know at a glance how mnay comments are in a particular thread.
You mean Chris Pearson… but I guess he can pass as a Matt.
I like it, one thing I would suggest fixing though is this damn tab issue. When I leave a comment I like to just press tab and enter and leave the comment, at the moment I have to use my mouse. I know its really stupid but the way things are at the moment by pressing tab and enter it leads me to the top logo and if I press enter it will lead me to the main index and going back will make my comment disappear which can be a biatch sometimes considering the fact that sometimes comments are long….
I dig this new design/layout, Shoe. Where you have placed links definitely encourages more page views because the content is more readily available. Awesomesauce, honestly.
Too bad you can’t DIGG it eh?! :p
what’s the deal? u both mutually beneficial? just a link in yr post? just curious
Very Nice! Clean design and I like the additional features at the top. The only item i would change is the purple headers.
like the new design. I found 1 issue
I use IE 6, when I clicked a link and came back, it’s color ( the underliine ) was white, I had to scroll over the text to know it was clickable.
love your site
Nice new layout maing… Suggestion for footer? Maybe try testing a slim marketplace listing/favorite friends post/etc as sometimes people need to see triggers or nav elements a few times and at different parts of the page….oy, who am I telling this too!?
Anyways, nice new look. :thumbsup :pimp
Looks alot like my blog.
Very nice - gonna dive in and look around!
New design look really nice
I luv this color
One word…..SWEET!
[...] who got a new blog theme [...]
A good designer can make a lot of difference congratulations to Nate. Maybe it is in the process, main logo on upper left hand is not clickable and navigation menu are not cursor friendly.
Vijay
You should have the number of comments posted next to the Comment link at the bottom, otherwise it looks like there are no comments.
Otherwise looking sweet.
The design looks pretty good. I see a few minor errors in IE 7 (like “Your email address” box is not large enough to display all the text. I like the color scheme though.
Forgot to add, what’s really the point of the marketplace anyway though? It looks like it’s just an RSS feed of digitalpoint’s forums. If that’s all it is, I would agree that you should charge for listings.