New Things Happening At 1stwebdesigner Website
Dainis Graveris
Hello there everybody! This will be kind of community post, where I will tell again my intentions with website and things like that to keep ball rolling.
Maybe (no, really!) you noticed 1stwebdesigner site has got completely new look! I was working for a while to that design, tried many different color schemes, did a lot of testing, talked with my friends about best solutions and finally came out with this version.
I promised new look some time ago actually, but it is really hard to keep up with regular and big posts, a lot of social networking and in meanwhile creating new design. I hope you noticed posts are becoming much more frequent and hopefully article quality is just becoming better and better!
There are also few questions which must be answered here:
Why I am not creating freebies and tutorials frequently?
Honest answer is – such tutorial and freebie creation takes a lot more time then usual list posts, but if I want to try deliver new content daily I need to keep up with not so creative, but more resource type posts.
But don’t worry I am really not planning my site to be one of the bunch similar list article site featuring same things over and over again. You’ll see more tutorials and freebies in next few months I promise!
Why there are more advertisements on site?
Yes, that’s true I’ve added more BuySellAds banners on the site thinking about advertising in non intrusive way. I am starting to be full-time blogger, but to continue I must get something back too. And one more thing – I am hoping to get new sponsors so I can hire and actually pay to guest writers to really cover much more wider field and I’ll get more time then creating new tutorials, working on freebies and actually put more value in blog at all!
As you may know now I only can offer exposure (and it’s pretty good now ~360,000 monthly uniques) , full credits and friendship if you choose to write here, though I really want to pay guest writers, so yes, my plan is to get that money from advertisements.
Actually if you are designer/blogger yourself I will be more than happy to get contacted with you, maybe we can arrange interview or you could write something here in future? Really in our days it’s all about networking and to get known over the blogosphere you must really put some big effort!
Feel free to e-mail me to dainis@1stwebdesigner.com , add to Gtalk to chat directly or tweet me about your purposes, suggestions, I just love to find new friends sharing same niche!
About New Design
In short – with this design I wanted to show people, I am really serious about this blog, previous design was horrible, funny but I didn’t find time to recreate it for a long time more focusing on social networks and actual articles.
I was looking for new theme and found the best fit to be Justin Tadlock’s Hybrid new theme with is fully customizable with really good support for a very low price.
Now this site is getting nice comment reply function, which I really love and will use regularly to reply to your beautiful comments!
I must say sorry, I wasn’t replying everybody, I really appreciate your comments and good words, will try to change that from now on!
And by the way my author comments will be now a lot better observable, they are now light blue, while other user comments are simply gray.
Now on the right top sidebar you have these two buttons, I decided to take of all Stumbleupon, Digg buttons, because they really don’t matter. The most important thing is RSS regular subscribers and Twitter is really good for community.
Now RSS button is a bit bigger and more observable, hopefully it will encourage more people to subscribe to feed and follow on Twitter. I will watch how these buttons work and then add counters too, now I took off them.
Also now you can check Archives page too, to gain access to little bit older articles, I am planning to add more popular stories with little images on footer in future, but I need to still figure out how to do it in good way. Yes, I am still thinking how to create footer area much more usable.
Finally I wanted to mention soon 1stwebdesigner will be 1 year old and I will reveal this year timeline then and soon I will start e-mail newsletter, which will be sent to e-mail subscribers telling what I am doing, planning to do so You really can know what’s happening behind the scenes and hopefully take part of it.
Today I am also celebrating my 21′th birthday and I worked to this design until 3 AM, so I am considering this as present to myself and you all, who enjoys this blog and want to see it growing!!
Please inform me about what you’re enjoying and what seems to be missing in this design! I will really appreciate every opinion and comment!
Cheers!!
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extreme smile makeover
Posted 192 days ago 50I love reading top blog list to be inspired. I also love to contact them for guest posting and finding out if I can help them in any way.I just have a few top blog that i read, if not I will spend the build of my day reading and not implementing. There are too many things to read out there.I also love reading some top post to learn not things and improve in my knowledge.Thanks for sharing.
Johnson Koh
Posted 912 days ago 41There are really some new stuffs that I like here :D Good content organization and beautiful colors combination. Also that huge first letter in every beginning of excerpt is cool!
.-= Johnson Koh´s last blog ..We are ONE Year Old =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 42Thank you, Johnson!:)
I hope new design will do ok at least for next 6 months or so:)
Website Designing Company
Posted 916 days ago 40Good work Dainis, keep going with the wonderful design works and the helpful tutorials, Wish you all the best, God Bless !! :)
.-= Website Designing Company´s last blog ..Veda Informatics among the Best SMO Firms in India =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 46I will, thank you! :))
Frank Stallone
Posted 916 days ago 39Great re-skinning of the site! Suggestion for the Google Ads, maybe put them inline after the second paragraph of the article? That actually may be harder than it seems but I tend to reach for my zap plugins bookmarklet if I see google adsense at the top of an article (nothing against you =)
Happy belated 21st birthday and perhaps one day I will try and work with you writing for this site!! Congratulations on the success of this site your time and commitment will and is paying off!
.-= Frank Stallone´s last blog ..Major Facelift =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 43Frank, I’ll consider options yeah, but I don’t know how to do it easily on all of the posts..
And thanks, would be great to have you contributing sometimes here too :)
trendscout
Posted 920 days ago 38Congratulation! It’s a good design, a great work. It’s easy to read and serious. I like it.
.-= trendscout´s last blog ..Halb-Finale bei Sommermädchen 2009 =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 45Thank you! Happy you like it – but yes, language is not my strongest place here.
Janko
Posted 921 days ago 37I really like the new design, good work Dainis. Regarding content, I agree that original content is more appreciated and I hope that roundups are just a necessary phase of your blog.
Happy birthday and keep up the good work!
.-= Janko´s last blog ..Reinventing a Drop Down with CSS and jQuery =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 44Thanks for the support, Janko!
I am hoping on the same, but truth is – everybody is doing roundups because they work..tutorials is only alternative I think while blog is not so popular!
Impulse Design
Posted 922 days ago 36Sweet new design I love it,especially the grainy gradient behind sweet touch.
Web Design Northampton
Posted 922 days ago 35I hope everything works out for you dude, the new design looks great and I’m sure that if you keep putting in as much effort and posting daily it will pay off.
.-= Web Design Northampton´s last blog ..Why Choose Website Design Northampton? =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 48thanks, I hope so! Web design is also my passion, so in any way effort is paying off :)
Orca
Posted 923 days ago 32Nice Redesign… the old one was ok but due to the number of categories you had it oversplit a bit.
When I have re-sized my browser to a 1024×768 window your design is too wide to fit in without scrolling…
I agree with the other chappy – I dont see the need to do web roundups, I have a dozen in my RSS Reader that I skim read but never visit often, where as when you do your unique posts, I at least visited your site and read it (which is what you want)
Best of luck to you chappy :-)
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 47Orca I don’t know I resized it,but it looked okay for me.
But still truth is – those roundups work a lot better than unique posts..and in starting phase serious blog cannot live with such roundups.
Still in future..site will grow and it will do just better and better with article titles too.
Alonso Uribe
Posted 924 days ago 31OMG, very very good.. good website.
good bye..
.-= Alonso Uribe´s last blog ..Solución Parse Error: syntax error, unexpected $end =-.
Nastia
Posted 924 days ago 26Happy Birthday :)
Want to say thank you for you blog. I don’t read it every day, but I find it very useful. And I think you achieved a lot for just one year. Great job. Ones more – congratulations!
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 29Thanks, Nastia:)
It’s okay, I think there isn’t what to do every day still, but I am working hard to change that! I always appreciate kind words!:)
Nastia
Posted 923 days ago 33Actually I think it’s good that you don’t post everyday. And there are 2 reasons why do I think so:
1) If you do it ones or more a day you lose quality of your post. It’s difficult to observe Internet for useful information and find something new everyday.
2) People read a lot of sites (RSS or tweets or others sibscribtions) everyday, and I think the less you write the more probability that your posts will be read.
It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t write everyday. If posts are interesting, visitors will read it anyway.
But from the other side – if I missed something and I look through my RSS and see a lot of information, I understand that I won’t read it, because I just don’t have time, and finaly I delete it all without reading. But if I see some of it, I read it.
May be it’s just me, I affraid of huge values of information ;))
Dainis Graveris
Posted 900 days ago 49Nastia – I am not planning myself doing more posts, I am hoping on guest writers. Of course, it’s very hard to keep quality writing very often.
About second point I don’t agree since you forget about search engine traffic and rapidly growing competition. And search engine traffic is also very significant.
Still people who are interested in topic will be interested in receiving quality articles regularly – at least they will know where to search that information if they read at least title :)
It’s not just you – I cannot keep up with information overload every day either..
Alice MCAlbert
Posted 924 days ago 25Happy birthday to you!
.-= Alice MCAlbert´s last blog ..Transformers Revenge of the Fallen 03 =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 28Hey! Sweet – thank you!
Andy Walpole
Posted 924 days ago 24Why do you feel the need to publish a new article daily?
It’s a hell of a workload even writing the lists that you do. They really do take up serious time.
.-= Andy Walpole´s last blog ..Checking your backlinks with Majestic SEO =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 27I just want my readers come to this site daily, that is my goal – and you may now how serious competition is in our days, it’s very hard to stand out..
Luis Lopez
Posted 924 days ago 23I really love it man, is really clean awesome and well design, i can see chat you told me about working on the design blog, it really worth it, and this new look is more elegant.
I see you are going really far if you keep working in this blog, you have grown a lot, thanks to the excellent content and with the new design it’ll be better.
Congrats!!
.-= Luis Lopez´s last blog ..30 Excellent Logo Design Galleries For Your Inspiration =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 30Thanks, Luis! I am so delighted to hear such words, didn’t know how people will take new design, though it is definitely better than previous.
I really hope your words will become true in future!
Mirko
Posted 924 days ago 13Congrats on the new design Dainis, loving it! Good luck on going pro with blogging too.
.-= Mirko´s last blog ..24 useful free vectors =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 21Trying my best as always – I am glad there are people who really appreciate my efforts! Thanks, man!
Bunnygotblog
Posted 924 days ago 12LOL – love the blue and green combination and it is very eye appealing and clean.
Great job ; D
You do wonderful work.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 20I appreciate your words! thank you a lot!:)
Bunnygotblog
Posted 924 days ago 11Happy Birthday!!!
Thumper ‘s is the 3rd.
I cant want to see the new design.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 19Thanks! Cheers!
David
Posted 924 days ago 10It’s like reincarnation; a serious improvement over the old site. Thanks for the continued pursuit of designer ideas!
.-= David´s last blog ..Saratoga Springs’ Special Tour =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 18Yes, actually I hoped to achieve exactly that feeling to show my serious plans and give much more professional design!
Thank you too for staying with us!
Zach Krasner
Posted 924 days ago 9Great redesign!
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 17thank you a lot!:)
Dicky
Posted 924 days ago 8Hey, you have a very nice design. I like the dark blue color design:)
by the way, happy birthday to you!
.-= Dicky´s last blog ..40 Really Useful Photoshop Text Effect Tutorials =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 16I played a lot with that colors until decided to leave these ones :) Was pretty hard decision:)
Thanks, cheers!:)
Danny
Posted 924 days ago 7You really rock….this site is very helpful for all the designer.
Thanks for posting all your goody.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 15wow, thanks man! Sure, will do even more in future!
Max Stanworth
Posted 924 days ago 6Dainis you put alot of effort in to this blog so i hope all the best to you.
.-= Max Stanworth´s last blog ..20 Free Hi-Res Yellow Grunge Concrete Textures =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 14Thank you, Max! It’s great to hear such words from you – I really respect you as designer.
phat_jay
Posted 925 days ago 4hey…sweeet design ;)
but! what about the top menu (home/about/contact/…) ???
It hangs over 10-12px to the left?!?!?
btw..sorry 4 my bad english :);)
PJ :):D
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 5oh, yeah – damn, thanks! at the end looks like didn’t place it correctly! will be fixing tomorrow! Sure!
Gerard McGarry
Posted 925 days ago 3Hi Dainis – I love the new header, it’s leaps ahead of the last one! As a long-time reader via StumbleUpon, can I say that the adblock just underneath the post titles is very distracting. I always find that particular placement takes away from the usability of the site by pushing the content out of the way.
On the subject of list posts versus tutorial posts, tutorials are always far more welcome. The resources are great, but offering more tutorials and techniques would create more worth on your blog. Resource posts are a dime a dozen, and I rarely find myself going back to them whereas I constantly revisit tutorials that have helped me out in the past.
.-= Gerard McGarry´s last blog ..An Atheist’s Approach to Death =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 924 days ago 22Thank you, Gerard!
I understand you about that Adsense placement, but it is really the one, who brings most of money to this site for now, in future I could think of someway replacing it though.
I got your point, I return sometimes to useful resource posts, but really yes, tutorials bring much more value to people and I am hoping to get more guest writers, so I can spend time creating quality tutorials for you to enjoy! In very close future!
Gerard McGarry
Posted 923 days ago 34I might be able to help there – I have a WordPress plugin that I developed a while back for our site, http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk. If you use the syntax to break up your posts, the plugin positions the advert in the break.
Drop me a line and I’ll send you a copy of it to try out. I never released it, but if it works OK for you, I might make it available to the public.
.-= Gerard McGarry´s last blog ..An Atheist’s Approach to Death =-.
Bariski
Posted 925 days ago 1This is really awesome. Splendid work done buddy. Btw happy birthday bioy, may you also get those things in your life which you don’t even deserve. Keep rocking.
.-= Bariski´s last blog ..July 2009 Archive =-.
Dainis Graveris
Posted 925 days ago 2Thank you!! I really feel so happy today, so much good words and things happening I never believed will happen!
Splendid greeting!