Every year or so, we change the look of Cheezhead. Usually just get antsy, I guess. This redesign, however, is a tad different. We’re growing up a bit. Most noticeably, there won’t be just one author. We’ve hired a little help (more on that later).
That may be a tough pill for some to swallow, but the fact is I simply can’t keep up with all the news that should be reported and all the commentary that should be made. And besides, my brain’s kinda empty after 3 years.
That in mind, we’ve made some of the following updates:
- More Video - I’m a big believer in video. The content we produce will now be continuously featured in the sidebar, in addition to single posts.
- Featured Stories - Top stories get top billing. No longer will you have to follow a stream of posts with equal weight. We’ll do our best to help you get right to the hottest stories.
- Popularity - The sidebar now gives you easy access to our most popular stories and the ones with the most comments.
- Gravatar Enabled - Want your photo featured when making a comment? Simply join Gravatar to easily plug it it with every comment. And maybe this’ll help add a bit of community.
- Flickr - We’ve plugged in photos from our Flickr account via the sidebar.
- Tags - We’ve streamlined our categories and added tags. This will enable us to organize more content on the industry’s most important players and issues.
- Author Info - Each post will have information on the author and easy ways to connect with each one.
We’re really proud of our site and the journey we’ve taken up to this point. That said, we’re not stopping the innovation and hope to add even more value in the months and years to come. We hope you’ll continue to join us for the ride … and feel free to comment on where we’re going (just be sure to get your Gravatar first).
July 6th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
The site looks really great Joel. Nice clean layout and I like the gravatar addition. I hope more people add support for it.
July 6th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Thanks, Lance.
July 6th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Certainly very clean. What are you turning the site into? Recruitment industry blog or something more?
July 7th, 2008 at 8:58 am
I like it a lot, Joel. Well done.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:11 am
Simon, the site will continue to focus on creating content around the employment industry and recruiting. There will just be more voices doing it. That said, who knows what the future may hold? Stay tuned.
July 7th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Really well done. Man wordpress is something. This redesign may have won my devotion to typepad over to wordpress.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:06 am
joel, I like your redesign and am looking forward to the increased story flow!
By the way, your new page does not fit on my screens which are set to 1024 x 768 resolution…
July 7th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Thanks, Matt … Eric, the site should fit. I think the total width is around 1000. Feel free to forward a screenshot and I’ll shoot it over to our designer. Also, let me know what browser and version you’re on … I know some older versions may have issues.
July 7th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Congrats on the redesign Joel.
One thing - my preference would be to see the author’s name at the top. It is cool that you have a short bio at the end with your byline though, especially as you add new writers. But I’ve always preferred to see who is writing something, right at the beginning.
And I’m not put off at all by the fact that you’re adding writers - I think it’s a good thing. So congrats on scaling!
July 7th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Ben … Thanks. Noted. Each excerpt will have a byline (see homepage), identifying each post’s author and every RSS feed will have the author’s name at the top (or should at least) hopefully making it pretty easy to determine who’s who.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:04 am
my bad, it fits - I had the font size set larger…
July 7th, 2008 at 11:42 am
Joel:
Great work. Love the design and updates.
July 7th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Joel - another idea - find the plugin that allows people to subscribe to comments. That way they’ll get email updates when future comments are made on a post where they’ve commented. I find this works great to keep people coming back and interacting.
Here’s the plugin:
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/
Also, I enjoy this one for Related Posts:
http://www.w-a-s-a-b-i.com/archives/2006/02/02/wordpress-related-entries-20/ (not sure that link works, just search for Related Posts plugin)
Hope that helps!
July 7th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Thanks, Ben … keep in mind this is a work in progress. Good now is better than perfect later. We’ll look at adding such functionality in the future.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Joel, nice work - I like the new layout. Congrats on the growth. Your site is a must-read for any job board operator or anyone in our space - your new site layout only makes it easier!
July 7th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Hi Joel
On FF3 I see the sidebar at the bottom of the page. The entire width is taken by the post !
July 7th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Oops. Now it OK!
July 7th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Joel - I completely agree. Just tossing out some ideas. I look forward to seeing the continued improvement off of this great redesign.
July 7th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Joel
Very impressive, and you’re even responding to comments :>) Wondered how long before the volume would hit you. Techcrunch watch out, Joel’s on your case.
Fine if FF3 and wide screen layouts. Best bit, the first pod under the last ad with the multiple info feeds; really cool.
Peter
July 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Clear, clean and easy to nav.
Suggest putting “recent posts” and “videos” above the fold. ‘Would make it stickier IMHO. Perhaps interspersed between the banner ads?
Congrats, you invested a lot of time in this and it shows.
All the best 8~)
July 7th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Joel,
I will chime in with everyone else in saying that the new look of this site is really nice. I also appreciate how much time you put into this site. Your efforts have paid off in many ways. It’s the only site I go to for updates on the recruiting world. Looking forward to more, not only from you, but from new authors as well.
July 8th, 2008 at 1:02 am
July 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am
Joel - I’m putting this comments-thing to the test. Let’s see…it’s been about 3 weeks since the last comment by Jason Davis (which, by the way, was riveting). Word to Jason: no more attempts at commenting when it’s 1am.
That said, I’m diggin’ the changes. And, it’s cool to see this thing continue to grow.
By the way, I still have the glasses. You can borrow them sometime if you’d like.