Opinion Needed! Calling All Readers!
Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay and I know that most of you are wondering what Enkay has been upto but there have been a few things going on. I came to realize that I missed BetShopBoy’s party so I wanted to congratulate him on the big move to a self-hosted Wordpress blog. I recently went through a server move myself and even with the two days of downtime my Alexa seems to have been doing really well.
Possible Blog Update
With everything on the rise, I thought that it may be time for a small update to the blog. No, this isn’t a custom theme such as what John Chow has had however, it is a small update to clear up the sidebar for the blog in an attempt to make it more organized. More so this is would be an update to clear up the right sidebar, out of the two that I have on the blog. I have two designs that are already designed and I just wanted your opinion on them because this decision will affect my readers more than anybody else, so who better to ask! Let me show you the two designs for starters:
[Update]: The only difference between the two designs is that Style 1 has graphics that have a background in them and Style 2 has the same graphics without the background. Some may feel that Style 1 can be distracting because of the background and thats why I needed to see what works well for you!
I would refer to the design on the left as Style 1 and the design on the right as Style 2 and I want to ask you which one do you prefer. If you prefer the design the way it is then “Original” would be sufficient. I wanted to get your opinion on which design you prefer, so in your reply somewhere if you could please state whether you like Style 1, Style 2 or the Original, I would really appreciate it!
I was planning on releasing the theme midnight tonight as a surprise but after having an extensive talk with a few of my peers, I came to realize that it may be better to see how my reading audience feels. I will wait till midnight tomorrow before I finalize anything and will surely consider your responses in deciding what needs to be done.
Why The Update?
The reason for the update is to make my sidebar more organized to help make it easier for people to find things that they are looking for. Also, with the new setup, the right sidebar will be a little wider to accommodate expanded advertising options considering the blog has consistently seen great progress looking at the Alexa and Technorati ranking. Other than that, the content of the sidebar is not being modified in any form however, everything was adjusted keeping in mind what my readers would prefer. Also for the most part, the location of all the content in the sidebar is pretty much the same. Now it is all up to you to decide how you like each of the styles, or for that matter, if you don’t like either!
Thank you once again for your support and emails. I want to thank everyone who has helped bring this blog the progress that it has seen over the months and I am beyond satisfied with the results! If you have any questions or comments, please email me by visiting my Contact page!
Please tell me this is a joke and I’m not crazy.
I can’t tell any difference between them.
If I have to pick one, I’ll say #1. Deffinately #1 ;P
Do me a favor and stop by my place tomorrow and give me your oppinion on the article I’m writing right now.
Thanks
There is a subtle difference! Actually the graphics used have a background in the Style 1 and dont have a background in Style 2. Mainly people thought the background in the graphics was a little distracting!
P/s I will be checking out your blog
I would go with Style 1 with the following suggestions. Add some graphics to the Subscribe Bar, add header bars for the rest of the sidebar sections (Pages, Recently Written, Featured Sites, Etc), and consider (not necessarily do, but think about) doing some sort of background graphic for the header and footer bars to blend it all together a bit more.
I like that suggestion. I will definitely think about it! Thanks for the great tip Nick!
Go for number 1 enkay – nice when you put all the ads section
Thanks! I was considering adding the “Ads” section to better publicize the advertising section.
I think one without distracting background shall work well for you. I would prefer to concentrate on your content than any design. But you may find other readers interested in the design as well.
Right now, which template you are using and do you host your blog on your own?
Hi Abhijeet, its more of an organizational update but the graphics have been added to clear up the mess. I see what you’re saying though. As for now, I am using Vertigo Enhanced 3-Column and host the blog on my own.
Thanks for the shout-out pal, the unvieling ceremony was a roaring success!
The differences between style 1 and style 2 is too subtle to notice, or is it the screenshot not doing it justice?
Since you mentioned the background in the graphics of style 1 may seem a little distracting to people, and i for one dislike distraction. I’ll stick my neck out for style 2. Well, at least I’m not a fence-sitter. haha!
Good luck for your theme update, have fun!
No problem at all! I think that the differences are subtle so I am still deciding what might be the best choice since the vote seems quite divided!