Our New Theme and a Contest for 2008!
Posted on January 3, 2008 by
Adie 
Blogging, Competitions, General 
21 Comments
The new theme is finally Live!
Its taken over two months partially due to technical issues as I wanted some Bespoke coding done which we still had to postpone due the complexity. I am happy with the overall usability and functionality of the new look NetBusinessBlog.
I started looking into a new theme for the blog the day I took over here at NBB. I was busy with other things until I finally went to a few business forums to ask for pricing etc…
I actually had a theme built which didn’t suit the style I was looking for and just as I was about too go elswhere I was approached by RealityHosting asking if they could design and build the new theme. After looking at their previous work I was happy to go ahead.
David Saraiva of RealityHosting has been excellent and very thorough throughout this project. I am very happy with the customer service I have received and level of satisfaction.
The new spec allows more space for advertising and other features like Competition / Guest Posts highlighting. One main flaw with standard Blogs is the fact new and old visitors miss out on fantastic older content. My main idea was to get this to the front page where visitors could view out great content easily. I have ended up with a nice admin functionality that allows me to adjust the “Top Articles” section when I want, allowing forgotten about content to be seen again as this benefits everyone which was my initial goal.
This will eventually be automated to choose our older content on the fly daily. At the moment I choose and update them manually.
Our Latest Article will stay on our homepage for one day and then be rotated around and see again in the Top Articles section which is great. This can also beneift Advertisers getting their Reviews etc seen again and again and not lost within the Archives that nobody ever bothers to trall through…
So our Competition / Contest is Live! NetBusinessBlog January Contest check that out.
Our Advertising has been set at Great Rates so why not get in now before they start to creep up again! I would like to apologise for any of you who saw us down a lot over the last few weeks, I don’t want to get in to the issues I had with HostGator but we did eventually work out what was going on.
That’s it I hope you all like the new theme and I look forward to giving you more great content in 2008!
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It looks nice! Simple, but effective. I’m actually in the process of editing my new theme too, I’m exited for that as well.
looks great….like the simple and clean look
Pardon my cynicism, but I think it’s absolutely awful; Compared to the previous theme.
You cannot please everyone, shame you didn’t leave a URL?
I think it looks pretty good. A bit ‘light’ in color, but over all a nice clean theme with good graphics.
I’m thinking the same as you - a bit light and I need to get a new logo. I see it as work in progress.
It’s very grey but I think I prefer it to the old design. It looks far more professional.
- Martin Reed
I like all the blogger specific features, such as the prominent ad spots, the rss feed bullet, the guest post block, and the footer block.
Im not crazy about the greyish hue.
Thank you all for your constructive criticism, I need it as I’m sure I will change some things soon.
Nice clean design, looks great. I am needing a few designs doing so I may check Reality out.
It looks good, but a bit of a grey overload though. I like the design, just not so much the color combination
Yep, overall the design is very nice but I tend to agree with the others, it looks a bit washed out.
Justin,
fbappdevelopers.com
Looks great..may I ask how much you spent for the new design?
Congratulations on the new theme.
Interesting that a portion of the content ‘menu area’ is below the copy on the post pages. I was motivated to scroll and to look at/skim articles by category, top commentors , etc. And as a returning visitor, I’m prompted to keep looking around, which is awesome. Want to see a screen shot of an analytics comparison 6 months from now.
Thank you, I have worked at getting as much usability and functionality out the new design for its visitors.
I’m glad its working as it should allowing access to more content from the homepage which is accessed more than any other page withing the blog.
I’m sure I will do a case study looking at the Analytics in a few months especially the bounce rate which is high at the moment.
Thanks again!
I think the design looks very professional and I actually do like the light design. I find that the posts are easier to read. I do however feel that it is a shame to have the top posts placed in the bottom of the site but I can see why as you need the advertizing space.
Maybe “search” and “subscription” boxes could give room to some top posts instead?
I think the review blog thing should be straightened a little. It just seems rotated a bit too much. And the feedburner count thing looks lost to me. Id put it with the email subscribe thing maybe. I like it though.
Hey Adie,
I’m following your blog for a while. Good content here budd.
I like the layout from the design stand point. A bit light as few comments above but overall this guys did a good job.
What I don’t like and you should consider of adding it into the sidebar is your “Articles by category” part where you add all of the actual categories from your blog.
So when you add a lot of content+ comments people need to scroll all over to the bottom of the blog to see it. And that’s not good from the accessibility stand point.
I wish you all the best with it thought.
Take care,
Hrvoje
I think the review blog thing should be straightened a little. It just seems rotated a bit too much. And the feedburner count thing looks lost to me. Id put it with the email subscribe thing maybe. I like it though.
Nice, clean, clear design. I’m looking ideas for my website. Light grey and light green it looks very good.
A professional blog designed especially for you and with the items you want can never be beaten, I recently redid my theme as well and WOW it changes everything, amazing. It looks good.