As regular readers will have noticed, the blog looks quite a bit different today! That’s because I’m running a marketing experiment with a new, more basic looking blog design.
One of the great things about the Internet is that you can easily see, very quickly if a design change is encouraging people to use the site / blog differently. For example, I will be able to see if there are changes in things like; the number of pages the ‘average’ person views, how long they spend on each page, how many times a page is shared, etc.
I’m really curious if making the blog’s design more basic, will help readers to focus on the actual content; which is what the blog’s all about, after all. Let’s see!
One of the benefits of running this blog, using the Headway wordpress theme (affiliate link) is that I can quickly make changes like these myself, usually in seconds. As effective marketing is all about testing and measuring, the ability to make changes so quickly, and then adapt based on the feedback, is massively valuable. Equally, if it’s quickly apparent that the new design needs changing, this can also be done in minutes. That’s great peace of mind and allows for changes to be made with total confidence.
Sharing my results with you, as always
Because the vast majority of my readers have their own website or blog, I will let you know if the new, more basic look generates an improvement or drop in the blog’s statistics / analytics. This way, we can learn from my experiment together. I’m guessing it’s going to take a week or so, before I see any relevant data. Rest assured that as soon as I do, I will pass the findings on to you.
What (if anything) do you think about the new, basic look? Also, which blogs do you read most often and do you think the design of that blog influences how you read it? Please take a moment to share your thoughts.
Photo credit: Striatic
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I must say I like it. We have been trying to make our website more “clean” .. and looking into setting up a Blog in the new year. It would be interesting to see if this “clean” look is what people want these days.
Hello Jayne. It will certainly be interesting to see what people prefer. Thanks for the feedback and watch this space!
Hi Jim,
I really like the openness with which you experiment.
Personally, I like ‘clean’ blogs that reflect their own unique brand – but not too minimal. Minimal tends to start looking generic, and then gets lost in the “sea of sameness”.
I do miss the picture of you – open, friendly, trustworthy, reliable.
Best to you, Jim
Thanks for the feedback Robin.
Interestingly, there has not been a pic of me on the homepage for a couple of months! I replaced my pic with a photo of my eyes.
When I took the pic off the header, I put one on my about page, which is still there.
Yes, that picture of your eyes is what I meant. You can tell a lot from a person’s eyes. It seemed to go well as part of your unique look. Just an opinion, Jim.
Best, Robin
Hi Jim – confession time… When this page came up, I thought your header wasn’t loading! Oops
I like the new layout although heathen that I am, I thought it was pretty clean before!
The blogs I visit tend to be varied in design.
In terms of how design affects my reading, I tend to skip past blogs that just present excerpts on their front page. And of course sites full of adverts and white font on black background don’t draw me back.
Other than this, I don’t mind about design and actually welcome the differences between blogs because it gives me a feel for the bloggers personality.
The relevance of content and good navigation helps to push away any design elements I don’t like.
Hello Reeta. I think there will be a differing of opinion, which is why I think the analytics will be interesting.
Good navigation is REALLY important. I’m always looking to improve that.
Thanks for the feedback!
I much prefer this design to be honest. I see it as clear and easy on my eyes.
Thanks Karl. Looks like there’s already a division of opinion on the new look. Interesting.
I like the new design alot better but think that as it’s your blog, you need to be on the homepage. You’re kind of the product, Jim.
Just my 2c worth
I think you may well be right Debbie. I have a pic on the about page, but might put one in the sidebar if it’s an issue.
Thanks for the feedback.
Jim,
I like the new more “lean” look.
As you know I changed the look of my blog not long ago, after two years of having the same look. It needed a change.
But as you know I didnt do it for marketing reasons. So it always interests me to see how the changes you make, and the results you get. Which as others above have said is very generous of you to share with the world.
PS Happy New Year mate
Thanks for the feedback Darren.
I like to share whatever I find with people. That way, they can learn from my experiences as well as their own. I prefer the new look of your blog, by the way. Some nice photos too.
I have never really visited Your blog, however I must say that I have been reading your emails for over 1 yr now & must also admit that Your site does look simple but sometimes this is the best option..
Many factor takes up in making a site useful..
So keeping in mind that more than HALF of online veiwers these days are those not have never before been online.. making things simple for them will always give big results!
Keep up Your GREAT work!
Thank You
PS.. Happy New Years 2010
You make a VERY good point! Almost half this blog’s subscribers read it via email. I’m actually the same as you, in that I tend to read my regular blogs via email.
Best wishes for 2010 to you too sir!
I like the new format. Simple is better. I used to think my site had to look like Amazon.com, but U have changed my mind in the past couple of years. Anxious to see the results from your experiment.
Hello my friend!
I have always been a fan of less-is-more but the key is whether or not that approach is preferred by the readers.
I will catch you up on the stats when we speak next!
Nice and clean – much preferred to blogs that are over-cluttered. If you are able to make the right column a bit less wide, and put that extra space on the main (left) column, that might be a slight improvement – I think the the right column takes up a bit too much space, proportionally. But that’s minor.
Thanks for the feedback Steve. The right hand sidebar is that width, in order to keep the main content area the best width for reading. Too wide and the text’s too hard to read and it’s proven to put people off. All the very best sir.
Hi Jim,
I read your email blog posts too, its an advantage to someone travelling a lot like me, but I do like to come through to your blog to see the replies!
I like the cleaness of your blog generally anyway, and I did like you on every page. I’ve recently discussed using photos as one’s twitter avatar with a friend who was mortified when I told him I was thinking of changing mine – he said that it had become so familiar, and the red shirt I wear makes my tweets light up in a crowd on tweetdeck. A familiar face is a really useful tool, so it would be interesting to see if your stats back that up. Would it be visible in stats? I don’t know.
I quite like the readability of the left hand column, the text size might be a little less than before, but the balance of text size (which I don’t alter on my browser by the way) and column width is good. I wonder why you chose to switch to two columns from three.. will be interesting to see what you find out!
Thanks for the feedback Su. The blog’s been 2 columns for months now – but as you read via the newsletter, you would probably not have noticed. This change was all about clarity. (hopefully)
Hey Jim,
Yes I do like the new clean shaven look – but as someone else said, its missing the picture of you here …. even maybe a small one – I do think its a loss.
Michelle
The pic’s on it’s way!
There’s a pic on the ‘about’ page, but maybe that’s not enough; especially as the blog’s names after me.
Thanks for the feedback Michelle.
Looks crisp and clean Jim – but I agree with Debbie too – it would be nice to see the ‘Jim’ in Jim’s Marketing Blog on the front page.
There’s a pattern emerging here, regarding the need for a picture.
Thanks for the comment Olwen.
Hi Jim,
I like the new look. But i’m a usability specialist and a minimalist, so I would! I agree with some of the other people commenting that your picture somewhere up front would be great.
So what do you think of Headway? I’ve been thinking of getting it. What was easy to do on your own with it? What did you/would you need to get “technical” help with?
Hello Susan.
The only reason I was able to do those changes over the Christmas holidays, is because the Blog runs on Headway.
I know nothing about HTML or CSS, but you don;t need to with Headway. It’s pretty-much customisable via drag-n-drop. I have not had to touch the code once.
Here’s a quick review of what I think about Headway. I wrote it on another blog (which I also built using Headway) http://www.theideasblog.com/2009/10/04/making-headway-at-last/
Hope that helps.
First time at your sight, but as I looked around it is real nice and easy to use sight… not sure what you had going on before, but it looks like people enjoy the new look. I must admit I enjoy some of your postings
Without a screenshot of what it used to look like, it is hard to compare — though I do recall your blog used to be very cluttered, and like others, I like the simplicity. More white space = cleaner layout and improved user experience.
Hello Ari. Thanks for the feedback.
You did fix the one thing about the old site that really annoyed me. As a photographer, when I see an image of someone, on a technical level, I expect their eyes to be in focus. Your old image was either blown up from a smaller size or softened and every time I arrived at your blog, I noticed your fuzzy eyes looking at me. It was a somewhat negative first impression. Many times I thought, is that on purpose? Is there some reason I don’t understand why it looks like that?
The new header isn’t distracting at all.
Thanks Marvin. I never actually noticed that issue with the blurred eyes. Thanks for pointing it out though, as looking at the image again, it does look less clear than it should have. The current pic is me, warts and all. However, at least it’s clear