Total Followers 132,503
Hello everybody! We’re finally back with our contest results – I am apologising it took so long, but wasn’t easy to gather all results from Facebook, Twitter, comments – decide which prizes get each winner and finally putting that all together and contacting all our kind sponsors. Holiday season also didn’t help to get job done faster..:)
Huh, okay, but to move on – finally results are announced and you can check if you’re one of the winners in the list by reading further. Don’t worry we are contacting everybody even if we didn’t get your email – expect for Twitter private messages or Facebook message so we can be sure you receive your prize as supposed.
About contest generally – I really enjoyed your suggestions, tips, complains about design and overall support. We are and we will listen to our readers even more and if you have any more tips or you just want to chat with me directly, please check our Twitter profile @1stwebdesigner. I am responding there directly now, promising to be more active – just updating what I and our 1WD team are up to, what we are updating, sharing new ideas and yes – if you have any question to me, ask there, I will always respond to help out.
OK, now I am answering to actual complains officially and I am happy to tell we fixed several issues already:
As you may notice, we changed current logo to temporary one to let everybody know it will change real soon. How we will do that? Idea is to launch a new contest ( probably after 1–2 weeks) where we will ask to our own readers to design new logo for 1stwebdesigner. Of course winner will get very nice prize as 300$ + iPod, which should be motivating.
Even in case we don’t get any good submissions, we will hire professional logo designer who will design logo anyway, but I am really hoping on our designer audience – I am sure you can come up with some great ideas and see your own designed on 1stwebdesigner daily!
We listened and agreed, Twitter stream was way too long so we decreased update count from 15 to 10. You may also notice we took off also our Partners and Ads section to clean up our sidebar.
There were a lot of complains, that it takes too long to scroll down to comment section and we changed featured images from 570x300px to 150x150px images which saves space greatly now. Now also related post should be really RELATED because we implemented custom code which searches related posts after first 2 tags or we select them manually – before we used WordPress default results and they weren’t really appropriate, because usually WP filters posts just by date.
Such problems we have also with default WordPress search – we’re searching for solution there too.
Sliding effect seemed to distract a lot of readers and they reported that in comments as well, so we removed sliding effect and just implemented customized Sharebar plugin, no more sliding – no more distractions from article content!
Spacing also has been added when Sharing bar is appearing in comment section – it should be ok on all screens now.
Even before membership release there were complains about prizing and how useful it will be so we decided not just add usual membership, we are thinking now more about our own products like handy plugins, WordPress themes, ebooks – maybe nifty software. Membership sites seems to be more than enough in design community already, we don’t want to be yet another design blog. Soon we’ll announce our future plans and change announcements!
About other announcements now you can also use www.1wd.co address so if you’re visiting site directly, now it should be less pain to visit our website, we are currently working on implementing our own URL shortener now!
Well, and talking about article structure and regularity – we have hired 2 more fulltime writers and one more SEO/Social Marking person, we got also first PSD TO HTML tutorial from Ahmad, and yes – I hope you enjoy regular Photoshop Web Layout tutorials from Michael Burns. We have also one more surprise – soon you will see the 1st art directed post here and we will cover also some design news, review some cool new sites/services so you don’t need to visit many other sources to be aware of what’s happening in design world.
Currently I am negotiating with proofreader, I hope we’ll get one real soon so finally no-one would complain about bad language, because many of our writers, including me aren’t native English-speaking and for readers from USA and UK some article quality may seem too low – we will solve this problem real soon!
You should also feel how our article quality is increasing, we’re spending a lot more time into article idea research and actual writing process – spending quality time there and trying to avoid from general list posts :) There will be occasional resource articles, but not so much as before, we are mixing everything together – list posts, educational tutorials, tips/tricks articles and some well researched case studies.
We’re working hard, but we still need your feedback, we want to create functional site, we have a team to work on new features – help us, share your idea here in Twitter, in comments or join our Facebook group and post updates there!
Okay, enough waiting - let’s start with winners announcements! You asked for it, here it is – congratulations to all winners, I think every loyal reader who left nice feedback got prize – thank you all for such a huge activity and good wishes!
Those who shared just their twitter accounts or Facebook pages, make sure to contact me dainis [at] 1stwebdesigner.com – I will write you on Twitter,Facebook directly, but I need your responses!
Congratulations to all the winners, I really hope you enjoyed this contest as much as I did!
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Dainis Graveris is 23 years old blogger and designer, founder of 1stWebDesigner, now more silently managing everything behind the scenes. He usually hangs out in Twitter tweeting design related links and chatting with people. If you have any questions or feedback that's the best place to start! Cheers!
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011 11:44
Thanks very much. I’m very pleased. I am still waiting for a response from KreativeThemes till now.
I didn’t get contacted by them yet. Waiting for ur reply. Thanks.
Keep up with the good work. Thanks :-)
Saturday, February 12th, 2011 18:22
The word “complains” throughout this article should be complaints.
Saturday, February 12th, 2011 18:54
“Complaint” is a noun of “Complain”.
Complaint is mostly used to show grievance or resentment; and Complain express dissatisfaction or annoyance about a state of affairs or an event. So, I guess Complain is fine in this article !
Thursday, January 27th, 2011 13:57
This is funny I got the mail from eleven2 for hosting but was not knowing I won this prize from 1stwebdesigner.com, Thank you Dainis :)
Friday, January 28th, 2011 19:43
Nikunj – not a bad feeling right? ;D Hah, I just suggest to visit 1WD more often then..:) Congratz..enjoy your prize :)
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 13:03
I was one of the winners of KreativeThemes, first time in my life that I won a digital giveaway and I’m very excited waiting to be contacted by the Kreative Themes Team.
Monday, September 5th, 2011 05:50
I also have one . I am vert pleased about it . Thanks you everybody.
Monday, January 24th, 2011 15:42
Hi!
Finaly I’v got my prize :)
I’v contacted Templatic Team and they was very helpful.
Thank you very much agin 1WD and Templatic.
Friday, January 21st, 2011 15:08
Any news from Templatic team? I’m still waiting…
Friday, January 21st, 2011 06:15
Well, I also didn’t got any Mail from azigos… 5 Year Subscription seems to be a good Gift.
Friday, January 28th, 2011 20:49
@Shrikrishna how do you hope to receive your prize if you don’t include email anywhere? I wrote to you on Facebook without response. Even on comment section..you didn’t add email, please add it and I will be able to contact sponsors then!
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 12:06
Well, I replied to your message on facebook (on the same day when I received) but neither got any response from azigos nor from you…
I don’t want any Gifts now (Free Offers are not good for development)… You took away my long patience but I will never left readership of your site.
Thanks for the reply,
:) SMILEs
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011 13:02
@Shrikrishna I just checked all my message history..searching you by name and couldn’t find that response. I really take this seriously and feel bad about you not receiving your prize.
I never received your message and really tried to find your email, glad you finally included it in your comment, contacting Azigos right away..:)
Thursday, January 20th, 2011 22:27
Glad to hear that and nice coincidence with your birthday, somebody there up knew this was coming :)
Thursday, January 20th, 2011 22:26
Sent them email already, will check tomorrow again with them if everything is okay from their side.
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 10:45
I thank. Very much I am pleased. I am waiting for a response from KreativeThemes.
Adam
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 20:05
Just filled your contact form…
Did you get my email ad?
Still waiting for your reply….
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 14:48
No, I didn’t get contacted by them yet. I’m still waiting. Thanks for your replay.
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 09:44
I sent your email to sponsor few days ago, didn’t you get contacted by them already?
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 05:05
I have emailed to the above mentioned address and also mentioned @1stideas.
But still got no response…
Monday, January 17th, 2011 13:05
Just sent you the email….
Waiting for my gift!
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WPThemeInfo
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 11:16
congratulation to the winners,
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 14:23
Many contestants chose the same prizes so we need to improvise :) But still i hope you’ll enjoy your prize, sent you email already :)
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 14:22
Thank you, Sergei – sent your email to CodeMyConcept already, wait for their email now!
Oh, glad to hear that – lately we’re working extremely hard to change our previous looks,vision and well attitude as well :) Cheers!
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 14:21
Congratulations, will contact you how to get a prize real soon!
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 14:19
Thank you Ari, got your email – need to gather 2 more for Eleven2 winners, hold on there a little longer :)
Yes, I just hate to repeat the same things, so we are figuring out where we start – I guess with ebook, which never gets old and then maybe think of cool software creation – need your tips though, not so easy to think of service people really need.
Heh, stay updated for contest – working on it now :) Cheers – definitely hope so!
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 15:06
Hah, funny story, never thought somebody will find our site because of some kind of blah template :D But I am glad it happened so – well deserved prize now :)
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 16:34
Hehe, congratulations!
Yes, well..we have starting to build pretty good and organized team, our programmer is great and we are able to change quickly – we need your critiques and suggestions more than ever!
Ahh..about logo – i designed it like 2 years ago, in new design it looked so dull and unprofessional so I wanted to get attention and let everybody know – there is no way back even if now kind of previous branding is ruined. But what a hell – it’s all for good and you know it!
You’re more than invited to join in that contest so keep updated :)
Abdelhadi Touil
Sunday, January 16th, 2011 09:41
I’m still waiting for your mail :)
Rean John Uehara
Saturday, January 15th, 2011 18:46
Hi,
If I am not mistaken we had your e-mail based on your previous comment, the gmail. If you still didn’t receive any e-mail regarding this please feel free to send your e-mail here: http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/contact-us/ so that we will know.
Thanks! :)
Sumon Seleem
Saturday, January 15th, 2011 14:00
Hi,
Thanks for such a nice giveaway… And all the best to 1WD.
Cool! I’ve won a Templatic Premium Theme Single Use License.
But haven’t got any notifications or email yet about how to claim my prize.
Waiting…
Marc Davison
Friday, January 14th, 2011 17:11
This is the best early birthday gift I could have ever received. Thanks for offering the contest, and always offering great content.
Cheers.
Dainis Graveris
Friday, January 14th, 2011 14:12
Hello Sarah – fixed and I wrote you to Twitter, cannot get your email, please use our contact box so we can deliver you the prize :) And congratulations!
Zach Mau
Friday, January 14th, 2011 03:54
Couldn’t be happier. I’m surprised at how fast you have been able to make so many great improvements! I’m actually the most surprised with the logo change, that takes guts! The logo design contest sounds like a great idea and I can’t wait to get started.
Rômulo Aguiar Figueiredo
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 13:43
;O I won!!! It was not what I chose, but ok!!! Thank you so much!
pablolarah
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 13:17
Woaw! Great!
David Mejias
Thursday, January 13th, 2011 12:23
Oo I won!! THANKS A LOT!
David Mejias
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 14:46
There is my facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100000834018015