Welcome to the newly redesigned ProBlogger!
If you’re a regular reader of ProBlogger the changes to the site will be pretty obvious, but I wanted to take a few moments to describe some of what’s changed, the story behind the changes, and reveal a little of our next steps (there’s a lot more to come).
ProBlogger started as a fairly personal blog about my journey to make a living from blogging back in 2004, and since that time it’s grown far beyond even my wildest expectations.
Since 2004 we’ve published almost 8000 blog posts, but have grown ProBlogger to include an annual event, a podcast, a book, a series of eBooks, and a Job Board.
While a first-time visitor to ProBlogger might think that this just happened, longer term readers will know that this growth has been a real evolution. As a result, ProBlogger has become something of a challenge to manage with the brand being spread across multiple domains, having multiple designs, and numerous WordPress installations (as well as some custom designed backends).
Of course on top of that is an array of Facebook pages, groups, events and other social media accounts!
I often describe ProBlogger as being like a home that has had extensions put on it rather than an architecturally designed home.
The dream has always been for a purpose built design but as the years have gone on this has become a more and more challenging task.
Step 1 of a New ProBlogger
This redesign is the first of numerous steps towards pulling the many aspects of ProBlogger together to be a more cohesively designed home for everything.
We decided to start with the biggest part of ProBlogger (the blog) and so largely what you’re seeing today is just changes on that part of ProBlogger, but you will also see a new look that will be extended out across the other parts of ProBlogger in the coming months.
Portals: To Help You Find the Help You Need Fast
You’ll also notice that we’ve introduced some changes to the way that you navigate ProBlogger with what we’re calling our ‘portals’ of information on some of the key areas that our readers come to the site looking for help on.
There are now portals to help you:
On each of these portals you’ll find a video introduction to the topic from me, some suggested reading, recommended resources, and our latest content from the blog and podcast.
New to ProBlogger? Start Here
There are a few new pages on the site also including a new Start Here page.
These portals will continue to evolve and we may add more once we see how they’re being used by readers.
More Changes to Come
In the coming months more changes will follow this new blog design rollout.
Our next tasks will include:
- a complete redesign and overhaul of the back end and features of the ProBlogger Job Board
- moving all of our web properties onto the one domain at ProBlogger.com (the podcast is already there)
- redesign of our podcast and events sections (to reflect our new colours and design)
We’re also working on some new content strategies for ProBlogger. In the lead up to our event in September we’ll be introducing you to a number of subject matter experts who will become regular contributors to the blog and podcast – each with their own field of expertise. You’ll see less one-off guest posts, and more from this small and carefully selected team.
We’re also working hard on some new resources to help you lift your blogging to the next level. Stay tuned.
Find a Bug? Help Us Improve
Lastly – we’d love your help in bug testing our new design. As you’d expect with a blog with almost 8000 posts there is a lot to test and we’d love your help! Please let us know here if there’s something that looks broken with as much information on where you see it and what it looks like to you.
Thanks!
PS: A huge shout out to my team. Mario who coordinated the design, Laney and Grove who helped dream up the changes and have implemented so much and Stacey for all her work on our content strategy! Well done!!!
Looks great! I’m sure this was a massive project. Love the new portals. Thanks for all that you do for us bloggers!
– Mike
Thanks!
We did it !
Time to Celebrate!
You did a fantastic job, Mario! Yay!
Well Done
Boom! Love the new design guys and girls! I know how much effort must have gone into it. Huge! Well done!
Very nice! The new design looks much better than the former one, which was becoming somewhat old. Onwards and upwards!
thanks!
Hey Darren,
The new design is rocking, It is more user friendly than the older one. Especially the right side bar would be very handy for visitors. I simply love it. cheers.
great – thanks for letting us know!
Hey Darren,
Congrats to you and your team. The new design looks fresh and I love the scrolling sidebar, it makes clicking the links a lot more intuitive and natural. Honestly, before I felt the sidebar detracted from the site, but now it adds more into the seamless whole.
Will you be posting more on the conversion rates going forward from your redesign and from your recently launched opt-in? I’d loved to hear the results you gain from those, and how they helped jump the general conversion rates.
I’ll keep a look-out for any broken links, or if anything seems out of the ordinary, and I’ll make sure to let you and your team know.
Looking forward to the new direction for Problogger, and can’t imagine the team that went into this redesign – it’s huge!
Congrats, and thanks for all your awesome content. :)
I’ll certainly be sharing what we learn from the new design once we see the stats.
Thanks for the feedback on the sidebar.
Like the new design and especially the colors. But dang is your full-page sign-up-for-my-list form annoying beyond … especially when you enter the page via a link in your mailing list 8^(
Thanks for the feedback – you should only see that once and not see it again now that you’ve seen it that time :-)
For me it pops up on every blog post I visit, even when I’m following internal links.
Interesting – do you block cookies?
Hi Darren
I also get a pop up to sign into the newsletter every time I look at an article. Or look at anything ProBlogger.
Great look on the new site!
Sarah
ok – something’s not going right there – will look into it
ok – I think I’ve found the issue. Hoping it stops for you now?
I think I’ve fixed it – please do let me know if you keep seeing it!
Wow, the new look is awesome!! Congrats on the refresh! Definitely easier to navigate now!
Thanks!
Looks fantastic, congrats!
Congrats on the redesign, Darren! It’s looking really clean and really easy to navigate. I’ve been reading since 2005 and Problogger is no doubt one of the biggest catalysts in me starting my blogging career. Thank you for all the years of excellent content, and can’t wait to see what else you have in store for us!
Thanks Renee – I appreciate you reading so long and am glad that we’ve played a small part in your own journey! Love hearing that kind of thing! :-)
Wow.. This looks super cool. Congratulations to you and your team, Darren.
thanks so much Sonia
Great new design. Very fresh and easy to navigate. Congratulations.
thanks Mel!
I love the new design Darren and thanks for all of the great Blogging tips throughout the years. :-)
thanks so much Sam!
Oh wow, love the new modern design! It takes a lot of guts and brain juice and hard work to change a site (at the size of 8,000 posts and so much traffic!) design completely. Respect.
thanks so much for letting us know.
You’re looking good!
thanks Emma!
Sorry to be an typo-spotter but that’s also what you’re looking for, right?
There’s a superfluous ‘a’ in the word ‘released’ at the top of the page –
“We just realeased a redesign of our site! Found a bug?”
The site looks fantastic and it’s great to hear the story behind it too.
Thanks for all the resources you provide for rookies like me.
thanks – oops. Will get the team to fix that one up. Thanks for the feedback.
Nice Website – Well Done Darren and the Team
Hello Darren,
The new design look quite simple and clear. And i feel it also has improved the loading time. Cheers for new design!!
it’s definitely helped speed :-)
This is my first time commenting…even though I’ve shamefully been an avid reader of your blog for quite some time now.
I absolutely love the new layout and design. And, I completely admire every single one of you for taking on the task of such an enormous project. 8,000 posts? Wow, I honestly can’t even fathom having 8,000 posts in my archive!
Fantastic job on the site. Along with a sincere Thank You for always delivering great information to the rest of us.
Thanks so much Sherri – appreciate you reading and making your fist comment. I hope to see more! :-)
Nitty-gritty. Favicon .ico hasn’t loaded on my page (darn template!)
NEW layout looks great on my OSX Chrome laptop. Great work Darren and crew!
thanks – got the Favicon on our list. Stay tuned!
I love the new design because it’s more visual. What I would like to do is share how I feel about the experience I’m having with the new design. When I visited the podcast page it felt like I was on a different site because the navigation bar is different. You don’t have all the options available. The navigation bar is also different on the jobs page and a couple others. This may or may not be a matter of preference but I like the header up top that you have on some of the pages and yet the resources page, speaker and blog page don’t have one. I like the eight options you have for people to click in order to gain access to the information they need.
Thanks Toni – as I say in the post the blog design is just the first step. We’ll get a similar look, feel and navigation across the podcast section, event section, job board etc in the next steps for sure. Thanks for the feedback.
I’ve been a lurker for a while now but I just have to comment to tell you how I appreciate all your hard work. There is no one that I learn more from. Problogger is my newspaper. I read it first thing with a cup of tea. Now if only you could add a cartoon section and a crossword puzzle! The site looks wonderful.
Thanks Vivian!
This is absolutely fabulous! It’s so easy now to quickly get to needed info, especially to review a specific post. Changing the primary background color to white is a pleasing opening to the site. And then adding the blue background on sections of the sub-pages nicely highlights the key group of posts. You were also able to display up front more images; yet, tastefully done. I could say more but there are just so many nice changes. I look forward to the next round of them. Great job!
Thanks so much Shirley – glad you like it!
Awesome redesign – looks stunning and so much easier to use.
thanks Karen – I appreciate the feedback.
Hello Darren, Congrats to you and your team for so much of efforts and bringing your site look amazing and really helpful. The way you have redesigned it needs appreciation and i like you and your blogs (though i am not able to visit regularly) but still i like and enjoy it a lot. Also i am happy that through so much of persistent perseverance you have reached level high enough to hype.
Good! Those ads on the the right aren’t moving around like they used to – they’re just sitting there. That’s a great improvement.
Very nice Darren! I especially appreciate the fact that you only did a refresh. (Nothing more frustrating than having to figure out how a favorite site of your’s works after a redesign!)
thanks!
The new site looks great. I visit every couple days to try to stay up to date on new features and tips. Congratulations!
I appreciate you reading Thunder
Hello Darren, The new design is quite clean and easy to navigate. Haven’t found any bug in the design, will let know if found any.
thanks Anand
At first glance, (I’ve only just woken up), things look much cleaner. Liking the sidebar arrangement, especially the “I need help to…” section. The search bar needs rethinking, it is almost invisible, like it’s been thrown in there as an afterthought.
thanks Gemma – appreciate the feedback. We’ll keep refining it!
Your pic looks fabulous! a elegant, spiffy casual. I love the re-design, to-the-point navigation, colors, and minimal layout. It’s like lots of room to breathe! next to vault of knowledge you share. Thank you!
Great to hear that Gin!
Great redesign I have been following for years I love how clean and nice this design is very easy to read and navigate.
thanks for reading for so long
The old design was actually what kept me away from this blog. Now
for sure I’ll be back and will actually open the the email newsletters
rather than delete them. I like the new look.
Glad that you’ll be back Angela! :-)
I can explain it one word: Incredible! Your design is truly rely on users’ need. It also make your contents more visible to visitors. I wish you continue to be successful.
thanks Timur!
good redesigned i think it’s provide me better Info i think in 2016 it is a greate achievement.
New design is good! Portals are very helpful to the new bloggers as well as to the mature bloggers. Your bog always guides in a better way.
thanks for the feedback – glad to have you reading.
Love the portals to get the help you need–it all looks great!
Glad to hear that Kristen!
Great change! Very useful for readers! Greetings from Poland!
Impressive new design. Looks great.
Nice and very elegant design Darren. I really like it. Especially the color combination and typography is awesome. The new problogger is very very eye catching. Awesome Work :)
Hi Darren,
I really liked the new design of your blog. It is looking stunning and easy to navigate.
Really impressive.
Regards
Samuel
The most is said: It’s a real nice, clearly arranged design.
But on thing: Why not assign a border-bottom to links, instead of text-underline. The links would be more readable, f. e. “Make Money Blogging”. Just my two cents. I am fan of border-bottom for links. ;-)
Yet more inspiration from Problogger! Love the new design. A real joy to use.
I have put it in my swipe file as I need to make some changes to my site (although not to this scale!) and this has really given me some ideas. Well done guys!
On the new home page banner, there are 3 words that are hyperlinked in red. Their readability is very low. I suggest you change the colour of the links. Else, the new design is pretty good and much easier to navigate. The move to ProBlogger.com will be interesting.
Congratulations on the new site – it looks fantastic and I love the different portals and how you’ve organized the content so logically and based on what people are searching for. Awesome job!
Right off the bat, having your invitation to join up as an integral part of the page rather than an annoying, intrusive pop-up is brilliant. Not to mention all the portal ease. Well done.
Wow!
Congratulation on the new site. It looks more better and awesome!
Amazing and spectacular. It has a user-friendly interface. Congratulations