If you’ve visited the site since yesterday, chances are you noticed things are looking a little different around here.
That’s because I’ve unveiled a new Brave New Traveler design and layout, incorporating a number of changes I’ve been wanting to do for a while.
Warning: if you’re not a web design geek, I won’t blame you for not reading any further.
But for the rest of our readers interested in things like CSS, layouts, and Wordpress, than by all means, read on. Here’s a breakdown of the most important changes and why I chose them.
Shrunk The Header
I loved the old Brave New Traveler header. It was a great place to showcase an interesting photo. It’s just too bad it took up too much prime real estate on the page.
Website experts will tell you the better way to design a site is to have the juicy content start sooner. After all, when you see the header once, you don’t spend time looking at it again later. You want good content. So the header had to go.
Widened the Columns
While it’s generally best practice to stick with the lowest common denominator in screen resolution, I realized after delving into my Google Analytics that over 75% of visitors have screen resolutions set to 1024 x 768 or larger.
That means most of you were reading the previous Brave New Traveler layout crammed into a 780px wide column. Too narrow, in my opinion. So I stretched the new width to 950px, taking advantage of that extra breathing space.
Added Most Popular Posts
It’s a tragedy for a blog to bury their best work in the archives. There’s no better way to entice new readers to stick around and subscribe than showcasing your most cherished content. Hence the new ‘most popular’ column beneath the categories.
Tweaked The Advertising
In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have to place advertising on Brave New Traveler. But because I would like to pay our contributors one day, I need to start making some cold, hard cash. I briefly considered pornography, then decided it didn’t really fit with the whole “exploration of travel in the 21st century” thing.
So option 2 is fiddling with the placement of Google Adsense, an Amazon store, Text Link Ads, and a variety of trusted affiliate products in an attempt to monetize the site for semi-steady income. (Hint: If you’re enjoying yourself and the blog, clicking the ads and buying the products is appreciated).
Strengthened The Community
One major component I felt was missing from the previous layout was the public support of the wonderful readers that visit Brave New Traveler. These are the readers who comment on the posts, spread the word, and generally make it feel like a thriving travel community.
My answer to this was to include the MyBlogLog widget and filling out the travel blogroll, in the hopes of sending some link love back out into the travel blog universe. After all, it’s the readers who make a great blog. Otherwise it’s just a couple people talking to themselves.
Added ‘More Travel Headlines Feed’
Each week I roundup the latest and greatest links from around the web. Sadly, not all the links end up showcased. But I still end up bookmarking it.
So to help you keep track of the plethora of great content published everyday, I’m publishing a new “More Travel Headlines” rss feed which you can subscribe here or just scan the headlines in the bottom right of the website whenever you visit.
What do you think of the new layout? Feel free to tell it to me straight. I can take it.
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12 Comments... join the discussion!
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Telling you straight because I’m your friend Ianbaby:
Too much ads. seriously. I alsO miss the photography elements in the header, I enjoyed that.
All in all it feels fresher and lighter but THE EVIL ADS EVERYWHERE make it confusing (i.e it feels like the blog content is being highjacked by other stuff).
That’s why I like RSS: no ads.
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Hi Ian, I like the extra features, and it looks great! I agree with Lucia, the old header will be missed. Can you add a smaller picture to the header? Something to jazz it up a little.
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lucia & stacy – thanks for the feedback! i know, i liked the top header as well. the other issue with the old layout was i felt the top header was competing with the graphics i used in the actual posts, since those were big pictures too. i figure with this new layout, the post graphics will stick out more and will always be changing with the new posts.
sijeka – i wouldn’t expect anything less than straight up from you jess-baby. but for ads, there’s actually only 1 extra amazon store strip. the old template already had 2 google ad strips, except one was on the left hand side instead of across the top. so really, there really isn’t much more than before. i’ll keep fiddling though and see if can either blend them in better, or remove the ones that aren’t doing much.
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You should have a “photo of the day” around the sidebar area then… I miss the photographic elements (even if daily posts have graphics!).
(About the ads – okay, maybe what triggered the comment is the huge “advertise here” sign, it irks me…)
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I’m a design/CSS/Wordpress and travel geek and I love everything about the new site design. Nice work!
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Nice work. I, too, am working on a redesign, but I don’t feel pressed at the moment because I’d like to get the network going and have a lot of things to do before I go to Asia for 5 months.
I’m not sure I’m a fan of having such a wide layout. I understand that it’s because very few people still have 800×600 screens, but I still feel like it’s a little ‘unclassic’ to have it wide. It feels intrusive :-p.
That said, I’m a big fan of the new header. I didn’t like your old one very much because I didn’t get the point of the picture other than to make the site a little less bland… but it’s not bland now either. It’s simpler. Better.
My 2¢.
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I like the wider layout, probably because my screen is wider and I don’t like all the empty space. Sometimes the wider layouts can get too busy, though, and I don’t like that. I think you did a good job on keeping it clean.
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Hey Ian,
I am in no way a design geek – I have someone else do that for me! ( I know, that is bad!)
Anyway, So this is an outside perspective: I am like the majority here and feel it is much cleaner, but at the same time, really miss the photographs. You know what they say, pictures say a thousand words, and when it comes to traveling, people want to SEE places, SEE where they want to go, get inspired. There needs to be a vibe and a feeling of adventure when you first see the webpage. There could be some kind of banner up top to catch the eye and let people know from the first glance this website is about travel!↵ -
Brave new layout! The pic made me wonder if there ever was a “BatBackpack”? If Batman were ever to be a backpacker, he’d put us all to shame. He can afford cooler gear.
-Ethan
Backpacking on Little Money↵ -
hi all — I appreciate all your feedback on the site design. sounds like most of you are generally positive about it, though missing some of the more photographic elements. i’ve got some ideas on how i can bring that feel back in… stay tuned!
@ethan – ha, a batbackpack would be amazing. someone better get on that, pronto.
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Hey Ian,
It’s strange for me because for some reason photos have never loaded in the header and the width hasn’t changed either from what I’ve been viewing from the start. Not sure if my work computer is wonky or what. I love the overall design and don’t mind the ads but shifting the text to the left has left it feeling a bit lop-sided to me.
But I guess I’ll just have to get used to it!
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