It’s been just over a month since I worked with the guys at Unique Blog Designs to launch this blog. I abandoned my old domain and started Ted.me fresh with no traffic and no inbound links. Nate Whitehill has been helping me periodically over the past month to tweak the blog and fix stuff when I break it (which I have done a couple of times). I can’t say enough good things about Nate and crew. If you are considering a redesign of your blog call these guys at 1.870.619.4550. I am a customer, I have no interest or ownership in UBD, I just like working with them.
More Traffic
I have been very impressed by the increase in traffic I have seen since I made the switch. Even though this domain is completely new I had a 8x increase in visitors and a 3x increase in pageviews from October to November. It’s still a pretty small number, but it’s a number I can start building on.
More Comments
Many of my posts on my old blog had no comments at all. This new blog enjoys a relatively steady stream of comments independent of the post topic. I enjoy the interaction and spend more time responding to people who leave comments.
Why is This Blog Performing Better?
The Design
The new design is appealing, clean, fun and user friendly. The comments flow nicely, links are easy to see and the font is big enough for virtually anyone to read. I am getting a bunch of people sending me emails about the design of the blog itself.
Design is the single biggest flaw I see in so many blogs. People have blogs that are just plain ugly. UGLY UGLY UGLY. If your blog looks like crap it is an instant turn off for me (and advertisers if you care about making money). If you don’t have the skills to create a good looking blog yourself buy a template or hire the guys at UBD to help you out. Don’t underestimate the importance of good design. It is the difference between an iPod and a Zune.
The Platform
I really enjoyed using Tumblr, but WordPress is where it is at. WordPress is easy to use and ridiculously extensible. I have installed a ton of plugins to make my life easier and my blog more user friendly. I have now used Tumblr, Blogger, TypePad, Moveable Type and WordPress for various projects. WordPress is hands down my favorite. If you are on one of these other platforms (except Tumblr) you can export all your blog posts and comments into a .txt file and import them into WordPress without losing any data. Do it, you will thank me.
The Content
Tumblr didn’t really lend itself to longer form content. I did a lot of mobile posts that were nothing more than a picture. Now I find myself writing less posts with more meat since the switch to WordPress. I put more effort into my posts and my readers spend more time on my site in turn. The whole cereal thing didn’t seem to hurt traffic either.
I completely agree man, design is a huge thing now that blogs are a dime a dozen! Glad to see ted.me is working for you (wish I could get a hold of trick.me but the owner hasn’t responded to my inquiries.)
That being said, the comment fields didn’t clear for me when I entered text so the text I entered went over top of them, looks rather jumbled, hit me up on twitter if you need more info or a screen cap. (FF3 on Mac OS X)
So very, very true! An eye-pleasing, easily navigable blog design is crucial to retaining traffic.
@Patrick Jarrett:
Hmmm. Can you send me a screen shot. My email is ted@izea.com.
Sure, just sent it.
I love the new blog design, and the little details like calling the comment area tongue lashings.
I think the small details are what makes the difference. The little personality you put behind the design.
I like my blog design, and having been given the opportunity for a re-design by being and Insider, I’m really not sure what to do.
It’s gonna take many hours of thought.
Ted, your blog is fabulous – it’s exciting to visit you 🙂 UBD is GREAT!!!
The only downside for me was finding your RSS button – it’s very subtle so I missed it last time I looked.
Now, I’ll never miss another post!
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