Well if you haven’t noticed, Life of Justin looks completely different than it did this morning. After a few hours of coding, pasting, yelling, kicking, and screaming, I managed to get just about everything done. Unfortunately it is past midnight and I still have 1 day left of the work week…ugh
So What Did I Do?
I moved over to a new Wordpress theme , called K2. I was looking for something that was easier to use and more importantly, easy to read. I think it is a lot easier to read now that the main content is on the left.
If you are new to the site, here is a snapshot of my old template:
The Process
The process was a pain in the ass. I forgot that I had customized all the PHP files of the old template. So I had to sit and stare at code for a good two hours until I fixed everything.
I had to add all the scripts back and move all the widgets around. All in all, I basically spent the whole day doing this but oh well I guess, it was like 110 degrees outside anyway…
Some New Features
Besides changing over the theme, I also added some new features to the site. I hope these tools will make it easier for everyone to navigate around the site. So here are the features:
Related Posts
From now on, at the end of each post you will see a few posts that are related. It does this by using the tags from each post.
SezWho Commenting
From now on, each comment and post can be rated by clicking on the starts. If you are a user of SezWho, your avatar will show up next to your comment each time to create one on this site.
What Do You Think?
Now I just need to get some feedback from my readers of the new layout. If you like it, let me know. If you hate it, well keep it to yourself, kust kidding. Please share any thoughts, opinions, rants, or whatever else you feel like posting.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
18 Responses to this post.
Looks good bud.
K2 has been running on my blog for a while now so if you need help with anything related to K2 give me a shout. I know it’s quite different from many other wordpress themes but in a good way.
Like the new logo too, it’s crisp!
I love the new look of your template.. the old one is a bit messy maybe because of those sidebars..
keep it up!!//
Overall a big improvement. I like the header and that you have the content on one side now. The color scheme is pleasing. You content is easily found and above the fold. Well above the fold. It is clear which section is which. Good job!
Couple of things I don’t like as much:
1. The active page on your links at the top. It is white on light blue. This is not high contrast enough to be read very well. I’d either give the font a darker color (your main blue, maybe?) or the background a darker color (like your main blue color).
2. You have a few links (such as the previous blog link) where you use a light gray. Again, this is low contrast and hard for some to read. You may be doing this to de-emphasize them, in which case if is probably ok. But if you want everyone to be able to read them, you might want a higher contrast. Even a medium gray would be better, which gives some de-emphasis, while making them higher contrast.
3. You have a lot of stuff on the side bar. Can some of it be moved or removed? I’d move the search up, so that it is part of the header. This will get it out of the side bar and make it more prominent. People are used to seeing it in this location as well. Maybe cut down the number of most popular, recent and comment posts. But overall, you a better in this respect than a lot of the sites I’ve seen out there that are so cluttered that I can’t really find the content.
I like to have the most important stuff in my side bar be really easy to find or even pop out at people (like the ppc ads)
Like I said, it is a really good theme. I would not have commented if I didn’t think it was. I just think that with a little work it can be a lot better. It is, in fact, better than my current theme.
I’ve gone a little too much on the spartan side.
Theme looks great! Didn’t you comment the PHP code you changed or added to your old template. That makes things easier.
Of course, perhaps I’m not one to talk. I do try to comment my PHP code additions and changes, but, um, don’t always…
@ Jason
Thanks a lot for the feedback. I went ahead and changed some of the things you suggested. The active tab is now white with a blue font, but easier to read.
I also cleaned up the sidebar a bit and moved the search feature up inside the header.
Thanks again!
Look great. I know what a pain it is to change themes, I do it every few months. Your Google PPC ads would be better at the top of the sidebar, more exposure.
I think it looks great! I love the color, and the lines are sharp and clean. Good job!
Yeah I think you are right, now if only I could get people to click them
Looks awesome!! Way to go!
I think you should DEFINITELY paste the old header on there, the new one does not have any personality like the old one.
As far as the rest of it, we’ll see if I get used to it, but for now I’m not a fan. Sorry, tough love
I like the new look a lot. I love this shade of blue, very relaxing on the eyes. The only negative that I noticed is that the EntreCard widget is in a much worse position, it is lower (at least on my small laptop, it is below the fold0 and in the 3rd column. This could effect your EntreCard ads, although I don’t think it would effect drops.
I like the new look!
the site looks good man… I too recently did a redesign of my site..!
Nice template! I was trying to figure out how to sort out my template design and bumped into this! I empathise!!
It looks good now tho so I’m sure you feel the work’s well worth it. Plus love the 4 day work week post. I’ve always been an advocate of that one.. go a step further and request the 2 day work week with the 5 day weekend 
I like it…I’m always looking for new themes, some do so much better than others. After switching the theme on best of stupid my comments went up & my adsense earnings are doing better too
It looks great. A nice clean theme with enough white space for my eyes, but still stylish at the same time.
Hey everyone,
Thanks for all of the feedback! It’s always nice to hear what others have to say. I really appreciate all the tips, ideas, and suggestions from all of you.
Hope to see you back here again!
The active link is much better now!
Stevo is right about the Adsense being above the fold, but I have mine on one of my sites below the content, and I do alright with it there. For me, it is more about getting people to the site than it is about monetizing. You can monetize all day long and loose all your readers because you are spending too much time on ads and not enough on your readers.
I disagree with Jeremy, this header is a lot better.
I also disagree with Jennifer. Putting the EntreCard widget above the fold is great if you want to attract the type that will just click on your widget and move on.
You must have a good loyal reader base to get this many responses. Good job and keep it up.
Jason