Just a short note to let readers know that in the next hour or so you’ll begin to see changes to ProBlogger as we launch the new design.
As with all such launches we’re sure there will be a few bumps in the road as the team behind it get things up and running – do checks – find glitches – carry out fixes etc
We ask for your patience and understanding as we do this as it will probably take us a little while to iron out any issues. If you find any issues/bugs/dead links etc please feel free to let us know in comments below. Your help in this will be greatly appreciated.
Once things are stable I’ll write a post outlining some more of the changes and thinking behind them and I’d then love to hear some discussion on what you think. Your constructive feedback will be appreciated and will help make ProBlogger a better resource for all.
Darren nervously backs away from the old orange design….
Awsome new design! I have to ask though, why did you move your affiliate / ad links to the right. I read through your ‘for beginner’s’ section and it said that the ad placement hot spot is on the left sidebar. Just wondering if it really makes a difference. Once again, I really dig this new design
Looks good so far.
And you’ve changed the little feedburner button now? The static version is much nicer! :)
Ergh…too…clean.
I suppose it’s just a personal preference, but I quite enjoyed the orange design.
Your blog posts in the left column look like Google Ads. At first I thought all your content disappeared with the video thing smack in the middle.
Hopefully people will be able to distinguish between the signal and the noise on this new site. Your old design was clear and concise, I’m not sure I’d give this look the same definition.
Excellente! I’ve changed the template on one of my blogs as well and it’s still a work in progress. But the new layout here looks rgeat!
Looks awesome!
Ryan – Check out the “blog” link at the top. It’s laid out in traditional blog format. If you don’t like the new homepage, just use that instead. :)
Third time I’ve complemented this design; but I’ve just noticed the absolute lack of Adsense! Your RSS feed says (said*) that that was the source of 40% of your income. Will you make a post in the future letting us know how dropping Adsense here has worked out please? :)
(At any rate, it’s alot nicer not having to scroll past all that to get from a post to the comment section!)
Sweet, this is much easier on the eye! Not the most creative design ever, but very tidy!
Congrats, you managed to make your blog look like every other blog out there (TechCrunch, Read/WriteWeb, etc). I guess being original is no more in today’s world.
Looks great Darren! It’s definitely much cleaner, and I think you utilized the space well – particularly the footer. Great work :)
WOW!!! I love it!! This is one heck of a look. GREAT job to everyone who worked on this.
Jason MoneySpace
Wow my head spun when the site loaded lol. Deffantly a big big change. Wow, but I do like it. Will just have to get used to reading the left column now. I deffantly like the most popular blog section down the middle.
Looking good thus far!
Darren,
I love it. BUT…
My first impression was not as stellar as the rest. I got my first look by coming to this post from my Google Reader on a Win 2K box running IE6 at 1024×768. All I saw was the header and the post. The right sidebar got pushed to the bottom. I went to the front page and got the same result with the right sidebar on the Win 2K PC.
It looks great on my Win XP laptop using Firefox.
Blessings!
Hank O
I cant believe you’re getting rid of the “Helping bloggers earn money” phrase you used to have by your logo. That was part of your image/identity. Why letting it go?
I love the “Best of Problogger” section at the index, any chance that is available as a wordpress plugin? ;-)
Much better. Looks great. The old style was cluttered and the font too small. This is a big improvement.
Ok. The design looks truly professional! It looks excellent, it really does. I am excited to see the site go through this re-design, and I think it will only help to further boost your brand.
Wow Darren I really like the layout. My blogs are all about content cluttering the page but I am really excited about the centralization of the main page and the way that it gives you everything in one place.
Fantastic change although I know some people are just going to hate the change in that they will have to click to get ot any article.
You have given my inspiration to kill the upcoming weekend in a design change.
Unfortunately, no. It uses a script called DOMtabs and I edited Alex King’s plugin “Popularity Contest” to display the All time / month popular posts and the CSS is all broken up ;)
Hey! I like it! a lot actually! congratulation to the design team… or guy.. or whoever did it.
I also changed my site design today, so i invite you all probloggers to share your feedback there.
Congrats again!
bug- when i submitted a comment for the video I was directed to a blank page that didn’t load. https://problogger.com/were-entering-new-design-transition-phase/
My apologies if this is premature but the imbalance of the 3 columns is very distracting. Why a big open space in the middle of your home page?
I really like the “best of” widget, nicely done.
bug- the long url in my prior post did not wrap correctly.
Overall – a nice clean look, but can I be rather critical of one major point?
When will blog and web designers realise that a significant proportion of the population CANNOT read white text on a black or dark background without their eyes hurting badly?
Granted – the offending text is at the bottom of the page and is just a list of links – but it is still a problem.
I don’t like that it’s missing Darren’s photo. That made it feel more personable.
BOY. That’s s stark change. But I like it. Only thing you’re missing is your mug somewhere on the front page. You gotta do it! There are a lot of posts that say one should have their pic on the front and point to your site as a prime example!
…Oh wait…I didn’t even see the bottom there. (#):)
I think it looks fabulous, great work Darren!
I agree you , hope your picture will be returning to the sidebar.
this is BEAUTIFUL
After looking at your Sitemeter stats I guess the Win 2k IE6 thing is not that big of a deal after all. The site looks outstanding on Win XP and Linux using the following:
IE 7 on Win XP
Firefox 1.5.0.1 on Linux
Firefox 2.0.0.6 on XP
Opera 9.22 on Linux
Opera 9.10 on XP
Netscape 7.2 on XP
Mozilla 1.7.13 on XP
Oh Yeah… Firefox 2.0.0.5 does fine on Win 2K
The Palm Blazer on my 700P doesn’t do the template justice at all. The text links and search box above the header writes over the header image. I have the same problem on a blog I am designing for a customer.
Hank O (aka TheOzz)
Very nice! For some reason, I’m even liking the sponsor ads on the sidebar :D
well go visit them Lorna – they paid for this! ;-)
Sidebar crash in Internet Explorer 6
check it out!
http://images.myokyawhtun.com/albums/8gh2dbxy30cft1wsjkra/problogger.png
this looks awesome! But your picture should be up there somewhere not in the footer!!
Very streamlined. It was hard for me to navigate the other one. Hope all the same stuff is here. Very sophisticated logo. Good luck, problogger2.0
thanks for everyone’s comments on the ie6 problems – we’re aware of it and are working on it. Shouldn’t be too much longer.
A way bigger change than I anticipated – HUGE kudos to you and your team for such an inviting and well done front page. I also need to change my own front page soon… I may steal an idea or two from you… ;)
Congrats on your evolution – scary and fun, isn’t it?!
Much “more minimal.” Excellent, Darren.
Nice. I like it. I don’t feel like I’m in a phone booth anymore.
Agree that that is an impressive footer; and I really like your new thumbnail “about me” blurb.
Wow, the front page text is so small it’s almost unreadable. Looks like I’ll be focusing on your rss feed, and just clicking through to single pages as necessary. Too bad, as typing ‘problogger.net’ into my browser used to be a nice diversion.
Ch, Ch, Ch, Changes…… Looks great! Change is good, especially when its nicely done like your new design.
One complaint, I don’t see any content or submission form on the Group Writing Project page, https://problogger.com/group-writing-project
Fantastic Darren!
The meta has some problems in Safari, here is a screenshot
http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h59/c_stavanger/Picture11.png
Also, the b5media Mobile RSS is oveflowing the sidebar and its probably best to stick an overflow:hidden in the main column. The url above might break your design in IE.
Finally, I think the round corners in the green subscribe and submit is unnecessary, there is nothing else round in the design so they kind of stand out.
fivecentnickel – patience my friend. We’ll get it right for you.
I think you saw it for a few seconds while we were playing with CSS.
As the post says above – give us an hour or three to get things right and hopefully we’ll have the bugs ironed out for you :-)
thanks for the feedback though – we’re getting there!
Absolutely fabulous. Hats off to the designers. Are you using any new plugins since your post about the WP plugins you use?
Looks great.. It took a minute to get oriented, but I think ti’s great. I see the move from blog to blogging portal has been made.
Looks great so far!
this new design is awesome. clean, uncluttered, and easy to navigate, and a non-blinding color scheme :)
Major props to the designer. This is so clean and easy to navigate. Also, it is very aesthetically pleasing. I just noticed though, that there is nothing under the sponsors section for me. I’m running Firefox 2.0.0.6 in Windows Vista. Other than that, totally awesome.
New design looks great Darren and Ben! I really like it, way to go!
Beautiful and very well organized with one exception – the link for comments must be at the end of the article.
Nobody is gonna like the scrolling back to the top where the link is.
I really think it’s an impressive design. I will miss the old.. but, hey…. Life must go on.