Soooooooo . . . I finally got my ass in gear and revamped my blog design. I know, it was a long time coming. I’d been putting it off for months. Truth be told, had I not given myself that kick in the ass I probably wouldn’t be getting around to it for another 6 months or so.
Pretty freakin’ sad.
I just hate this design shit. But I have to say, I’m actually pretty damn pleased with how it turned out. It’s plain, for sure, but it’s clean and crisp. Simple. And somewhat “earthy.” Not “earthy” in a damn dirty hippy sort of way, but in a “brown and rustic so it’s earthy, dammit” kinda way.
Because it’s brown.
And rustic.
Dammit.
Oh, and lot’s ‘O white space too. They say you gotta have that. Or your visitors will bounce.
But what the fuck do “they” know anyway? Well, we’ll get to that in a few . . .
The Obvious
First, I want to point out a few new things about my site. For one, I’ve got a brand new theme template (as if you didn’t notice). I went with Genesis (non-affiliate link).
Just like everyone and their mother.
I’d read that it was simpler than Thesis. Better for technophobes like me.
Sold!
But I didn’t like any of the designs. They just didn’t have the right feel to me. And they didn’t match my design “aesthetic,” if a non-artsy fella like me is allowed such.
Unfortunately, I don’t know any code/css/html/whatchamafuck, so I was screwed. I wanted the Genesis framework, but I needed a way to customize it without having to know all that programming crap.
And holy shit! I found something!
It’s called Dynamik (non-affiliate link, again). It’s essentially a child theme for Genesis. It has a ton of options for customizing just about everything you could ever want. And you don’t need to know a lick of code.
Ahh yeeaahh . . . right up my alley. Now pardon me while I rant for a second . . .
Do we really have to label every fucking link as affiliate or non-affiliate? It’s the stupidest shit and it drives me crazy. I don’t give a flying fuck if a link is affiliated or not. But it pisses me off every time I have to read that goddamn disclaimer. And I feel like a turd for putting it up there myself.
Ok, now that I got that out of my system . . .
So this Dynamik thing is just plain fucking cool. It’s scary as hell because you essentially start with a blank slate. It doesn’t really have a design that you can tweak. You just start from scratch and build what you want.
If you’re terrible at design, like me, that’s some frightening shit.
But I got over it and just started experimenting. I knew it was going to take a couple days so I did a “practice run” on another site I own (but don’t use). I did my dabbling over there and when I had something I liked I copied it to my site here. That way it wouldn’t be under construction for 2 freakin’ days.
And now I’m officially in love with Dynamik. It was just so simple. With so many options. Here, have a looksie . . .
Another change was made to my social connect buttons. I’ve put them front and center in the hopes more people will click on them. Check ‘em out. When you hover over them they turn different colors.
It’s so cool!
I’m like a goddamn child with those things! I just like moving my mouse back and forth over them and watching them change.
Yeah, it’s the simple things that make me smile.
Give it a try. And while you’re up there, be sure to click on a couple of ‘em and connect with me. It’ll be fun!
I’ve also made a more prominent subscriber box. I’m not a huge fan of it, with the big-ass arrow and all, but it was the only one I could find that matched my color scheme.
So I went with it.
Hopefully it’s not too obnoxious. I may clip that top arrow (I already clipped its bottom-dwelling twin), but I’ll leave it for a while to see if it makes a difference in subscriptions.
Also, I changed up my social share widget. I never liked the floating box to the side. Those things just annoy me, but it came highly recommended so I used it despite my gut feelings.
But enough of that shit.
I’ve removed it and added the less obtrusive buttons you see now. I may not get as many shares as before, since they’re so out of the way, but I never really got that many shares in the first place so no biggie. I’m just happy no longer seeing those goddamn bubbles floating down the side of the screen as I read. I seriously hate that shit!
Finally, I took advantage of Genesis’ easy to use author widget to add the bio box in the sidebar. I wasn’t going to put any text there, but it looked silly so I just whipped something up on the fly. I didn’t want the usual “Hi, I’m so and so. I’m boring,” thing so I wrote that cheesy shit instead.
Sometimes I like it; sometimes I think it’s totally lame.
It depends on how much I’ve had to drink.
But fuck it, I’ll leave it up for a while and gauge the response.
And now, about that bounce rate thingy . . .
I Got ‘Dem Bounce Rate Blues
So, as mentioned above, apparently you need lots of white space to keep people reading. A cluttered, hard to see blog makes for a high bounce rate. So they say.
Well, take a look at this shit . . .
What the fuck? Seriously!
Admittedly, my previous bounce rate was on the low end. But really?
I’d been averaging around 2% for most of my blog’s life, and now this? How’d that happen?
I can see only two reasons for this:
- Since I didn’t post for over a week, folks would just stop by, see nothing new, and bounce. But I don’t believe that. The math doesn’t add up. Or . . .
- Everything “they” ever taught us about blogging is wrong. Not just wrong, but ass-backwards. This seems a bit more plausible. And it makes sense . . . my old all black design was different. Unique. Intriguing. It may have been hard to read, but it nevertheless invited exploration. Convinced people to stick around for a bit.
And now?
Now my site looks like all the rest. Just another “clean and white” blog. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Well shit.
I happen to like the design so it’s here to stay for a while. Bounce rate and all.
Oh, and the “Fuck yeah” in the first screenshot? That’s because it’s the first time I ever hit Unique Visitors in the 3 digits. I know I’m small time, but that was a huge deal to me. I’ve been waiting almost 6 months for that.
Which brings me to my next post.
I’ll have been blogging for 6 months, come this Wednesday. So my next post will be another screenshot-fest of Google Analytics and shit. I know I know, two posts in a row about blogging . . . it’s a bit much. Well, it is what it is. I’ll get back on topic next week.
So Tell Me . . .
What do you think? Do you like the new design?
It’s ok, you can be honest. Brutally honest. Just give me the hard truth and don’t worry about sparing my feelings. I can take it.
What do you like? What would you change? Why do you think my bounce rate skyrocketed? Is an all white theme really better than an all black one? And most important of all . . . is my bio box lame?
Let me know!
Cheers!
The post New Theme: Whatcha Think? And What’s With the Damn Bounce Rate? appeared first on A Call to Action.