New Look at John Cow dot Com and the Reasons for It

Jason Katzenback — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:00:49 +0000

If you are a regular visitor to the JohnCow homestead, you will have noticed that we have done a little rennovating around here and we are very happy with it so far. We still have a few minor things we want to do but for the most part we are VERY HAPPY!

So Why the Redesign?

The previous JohnCow template was fantastic. The colors, images and everything was very nice looking and it was a great template, the problem however was with the templates functionality.

1. Above the Fold: When designing or selecting a template, one of the first things you want to ensure is that your main action needs to be above the fold. What this means is if you want subscribers or buyers you want the offer to be immediately viewable as soon as they land of your blog.

The previous template had a huge header graphic and as a result there was a lot of wasted real estate that did nothing but look nice. With the new template we now have our highest priority offer (opt in) in the header area, making it immediately viewable and have shrank the hieght of the header so it allowed for other action items below to move up higher.

2. Move non action items to the footer: The old template had a cool looking footer but it did not allow for much information to be added. This in turn caused us to have to jam everything into the sidebar of the template and caused some distraction from people seeing the items we wanted them to take action on.

With the new template we now have much more room to be able to ensure we have everything available on the page but it is not jammed into the side bar and distracting the reader from what we feel is first priority.

3. Internal Functionality: The internal structure of the template was also a huge improvement for us. Most templates have the same basc structure and as a result if you are trying to update the template, you need to try and find where that code is in the main templates and if you are not savvy at php and html, it can be a bit of a challenge.

With our new design it takes full advantage of WordPress’s powerful widget technology and all the main areas that are most likely to see changes now use widgets.

There are also more php pages within the template, for example the top navigation on the page is a template page all to itself. This allows for much more control when updating and editing the templates.

Whats Left to Update?: There are only a few small changes left to do and this has to do with creating custom template pages for thankyou pages (remove action items that will confuse people from thinking they might not have already opted in) and opt-in landing pages (such as the ebook page and soon to be Keyword Corral page) that we want the focus to be on the content and getting people to sign up rather then other banners and links.

So, there you have it… the reasons for the updrade!

I also want to give a HUGE THANKYOU to Hyder over at http://www.weborithm.com/ for doing such a fantastic job on this template. If you are ready to take your blog to the next level and are interested in your own custom template, I 100% recommend you check them out. Draw out what you want and http://www.weborithm.com/ will be able to do it for you.

So, what I want to know is…

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New Look at John Cow dot Com and the Reasons for It