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A few days ago, Small Potato published perhaps a blunt but personal opinion about Nate Whitehill’s Unique Blog Designs titled:”The Elephant in the Room“. We think he wrote what a lot of people were thinking — Is UBD really that Unique?
Just a quick recap for those of you that haven’t heard about Nate’s UBD. His wordpress theme designing company rocketed to fame and fortune after he had managed to give John Chow’s blog a complete new look. It was a unique theme because it was the first one of its kind to hit mainstream popularity. As if this wasn’t enough to ensure UBD with new theme orders from other bloggers, they managed to hook Mr Shoemoney too. Excellent marketing and a great way to boost your business.
Shortly after Nate had done the Chow design, we contacted him to see if it would be possible for him to provide us with a very similar theme. Obviously we were looking to continue our whole copycatting scheme at that time. Fortunately enough, Nate took his time in replying, probably because he was getting swamped with new orders, and we got some time to over think the whole situation. Not soon after Chow went live, very similar themes started to pop up left and right. Unique was no longer a keyword in our opinion.
This little time-out helped us to think things through and stopped us from acting on sheer impulse. Chow’s theme wasn’t really our taste and we felt we had matured enough to go our own way. Hyder from Weborithm then came into the picture and we’re very happy he did because we absolutely love our theme. We can definately say that we have got a one of a kind, unique blog design. (We’re actually going to give away a full blog makeover by Hyder this month for those of you who want a really unique theme too!)
But we’re starting to drift off topic here, one thing we wanted to comment on is the fact that after the review, the designer that does Nate’s designs stopped advertising on Small Potato’s blog. He felt the article was a stab in the back. On top of that, we are under the impression that he seems to think that he had a right to diplomatic immunity of some sort since he was a paying advertiser on Small Potato’s blog. In all fairness, we understand why he might have gotten upset about the blunt criticism, but in a professional manner, he should have distinguished “business from pleasure”.
You know that on a blog, the owner can and in most cases will say what’s on their mind. Just because you pay to advertise on the blog doesn’t give you an elevated status. You pay for advertising because you’re looking for traffic and the conversion of it into paying customers. You’re not paying to advertise on someone’s blog just because you’re friends. As soon as money gets involved, a relationship can quickly turn into business.
We talk with Small Potato every now and then via email, and we’ve got Nate on IM. They’re both really nice guys. The fact that someone disapproves with the way you do things and then shares their opinion in public means they do take a genuine interest in what you’re doing. It doesn’t mean they don’t like you as a person. Take their criticism to heart and respect their point of view. It might improve your work. But make sure you can tell the difference between business and pleasure.
Update: Just to clarify things, we are NOT dissing Nate and his Unique Blog Designs. We admire his keen business instincts and marketing insights he has displayed. The themes are just not our personal taste. That’s all!
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Your theme is OK. The header is what makes it IMO.
The header and the footer. This is important and on my blog I made my own header but haven’t yet worked on the footer. I’m not a graphic artist, but to do something on header and footer by yourself is better than using a simple standard theme.
Cow, I do agree that everyone has their personal opinion about their blog design, etc. I think Nate is a great guy and he does stop by all the blogs every once in a while to check out whats going on. His theme for John Chow really catapulted him to the top and I think he is a great business man and thats what makes him successful. I dont want to bash him or anything, but sometimes the designs are similar but I am sure Nate will take the criticism in a positive light and bring about a change to his designs. =)
Okay, so big deal, thats how the web works. You see something you like, then you copy it. (my site sucks, so I have no room to talk-godaddy template blog). However, it reminds me that there really isn’t anything new out there. Everything to some degree is a copy, and in some cases a copy of a copy. Original ideas are only original for a short time. After a while, everyone forgets who’s idea it was. I actually like this blog, but the best one out there (my opinion) is shoemoney’s. Nothing personal.
I got the impression that Adii, the designer, was upset because he considered Small Potato a friend and that his post came out of no where. If was going to post a review on a friends body of work that was not favourable, I would also send him a personal email as a courtesy and give him a heads up saying that it was just business, nothing personal.
i agree, ur header not done by hyder is what makes the theme.
Whenever somebody says “It’s just business, nothing personal” it always reminds of Kill Bill.
The header on your theme is great cow, but the theme design is pretty good, it is very user friendly and I like the way everything intergrates togther.
I think this theme is better than the one on John Chow’s blog, but that is just personal taste.
I’ve got a side project going on where I’d like to have a headed done by the same artist as yours. If you don’t mind, drop me a line.
I personally think what makes your site are the cow themed buttons and the color scheme.
can’t wait to see the new theme. But current theme is OK, I like the header
exactly if someone tok the time to write a criticism of your work(note i dont mean a bashing) than that means they probally want you to read what the wrote and improve. I know if someone told me you suck and heres why, Id be alittle mad at first but would then look at why they think i suck
P.s. I dont suck, I rock.
We personally like UBD and the work that they do. Of course, we are a bit biased as they just completed the design work on our blog http://www.lizardwisdom.com.
Stop by and see that they do indeed produce unique work.
I agree, I’d like to point out that I was there at the ripple:
http://natewhitehill.com/the-aftermath/
(find the comment by Rhys).
Like you said, I do like Nate, I think he’s a great guy, I just feel that all his designs look the same, but then again he jumped in and did something most of us wouldn’t have done, hence he’s getting the success.
The next lesson is to make his theme’s look different. If he does, then he’s onto a winner
yeah your header makes the whole site to me as well….who did your header again??? i might need some work by them….Nate is ok but the guy charges like 800 bucks for some crappy basic stuff imo….keep up the good work cowman!!!
I wrote a post about how he was charging to much for the themes that all look the same Then I did an experiment showing I can get a personal programer to do the same site for $75 bucks and they all got mad there all even trying to black list me I no longer get contacts from all the site’s Unique blog advertises I’m starting not to like this it’s like the only one’s making it are the one’s that johnchow gets a cut from I’m not willing to pay $500 a month to be friends with johnchow (which i would lov to be for free
) sounds like a geeky mifia anyway you can read more about this in thegeekboys.com
What I like about this theme is the header and the footer, it gave me the WOW factor and kept me from coming back.
Getting a blog makeover will be nice but writing a post is too much for me, can make it a little bit easier like subscribing to your RSS Feed?
It is arguable that when money involves, there will be no more friends link there. The case might be you don’t have an ads, as a friend, I pay you to get my ad placed on your site. Yet, it is more common that money hurts relationships.
(I am contradicting myself I guess…
)
What a sag this whole discussion turned in to.
I want an unique theme, there are a lot of blogs using the the same theme as mine
Well I reckon to be honest I am actually happy for Nate, the company has made heaps probably after doing John Chow and ShoeMoney. I reckon I would do the same if I was into the same business.