New theme for A Blog about Nothing. What do you think?
New theme for A Blog about Nothing. What do you think?
I decided to jump on the “new theme” bandwagon after receiving a review from Internet Babel advising me that my theme sucked and my blog was to cluttered. I agree(d) and just needed that little bit of promting to do something about it. So I spent 15 minutes looking and decided to go with Blog Oh Blog’s Black and White theme. There are a few reasons I choose this theme over some of the other ones available on the site.
- Simple yet effecient design
- Two sidebars (widget ready) on right side of content
- It was free
- Great color scheme
What do you think of this new theme? If you could change 1 thing about it what would it be?
I like the new, cleaner look. It’s easier to read.
But, it does still seem cluttered with ads. Not that ads are a bad thing, but it just feels like the content is crammed to the side, and the ads overwhelm it.
dcr - Thanks for the feedback. I’m still working on the ad placement. Cluttered in post, or cluttered in the sidebar, or just in general?
I don’t really know what it looked like before, but this is “clean”…er…
Stinkypaw - Thanks for taking the time to comment. Am looking at your suggestions from Blog Catalog.
Hey there!
The theme looks great, the only suggestion I have is that you should have a logo designed. That would really set it off as your own.
You can have someone design a good logo for as little as $5 (digital point forums)
Let me know if you have any questions, and best of luck!
i am all for the ’simple yet effective’ look - this is what i’ve been doing with my blog for a long time.. I like your current look - it’s clean and simple.. although IMHO, it is still just a tat-bit crowded..
Ryan - Hey long time no see, thanks for stopping by! I agree the logo is the next step. Thanks for reminding me.
Randy - Hey thanks for commenting! When you say crowded where do you mean? In the posts or sidebar, or…? Thanks!
like most of the others are noticing the top part seems too flashy with all the ads…
i don’t know if it will work well but maybe you can try something without much animation in them..
in fact the best thing would be to put all ads on the rightmost sidebar.. and push your articles and categories up a bit.. and you can also give your ads some title.. two blanks looks sort of out of place…
having said allt hat, it is a wonderfully wide design, gives you blog a lot of space and smoothness… just tweak your sidebars a bit (i know its a bithc!) and you are on…
Hey. First off, this theme is much better. But your still mising a crucial defining factor to the blog. As already mentioned a logo would help that, you need to really define the blog in it’s entirety. Think of the name ‘a blog about nothing’ although vague, that really means it could look very creative. I could give your blog a ‘makeover’ for a small price. Header, sidebar and what not. Just gimie a shout by checking out my contact page on Internet Babel if you like.
I like the new layout more, it’s definitely cleaner, but I also think you would benefit from some sort of custom header. Not that you necessarily need to “brand” it, but for lack of a better word, it would help identify it from other sites, especially since now the layout is so open. The sunset photo from before didn’t really say “A Blog About Nothing” to me, but at least I knew where I was when I got here.
I would also try to squeeze the ad space a little more too, since the writing is what I’m here for
squeeze the two sidebars
add a nice header
and You are donne I guess
Fc - Thanks for the suggestion. I like it and did as you suggested. The two with animation unfortunately have to stay as they don’t offer any that size without it. Believe me I’d love not to have the animation, but oh well.
Nick - If anything I might get a header/logo done in the next couple of weeks. If I do I’ll get in touch with you.
Joe and Blackysky - You both seem to be suggesting the same thing in “squeezing the sidebars” which I assume means making them thinner and the content area thicker?
Yeah, more width in the Content div. Right now its only 510px, which is only about 50% of your real estate. You could go 60/40 without losing ad space, especially if they stack, and you’d get more content above the fold.
Joe - Ok, changed the width of the layout, and gave #content 27 more pixels. Don’t know if it helped any?
I think it does help, even if the difference is minor. The content on your page is the most important piece of the page (at least I’m assuming it is), so it should have a higher visual priority. If it were me, I’d squeeze the far right column a little bit more to make it the same width as the middle one (~200px), and widen the content even more still. As it is now it gives the impression that the middle one is getting pinched, but it is better than it was.
(You asked
)
Joe - I’ll take a good hard look at it tomorrow and see if I can’t tweak the column sizes a bit more. Tried before but kept running into problems.