Tuesday, November 15, 2005

All Change Again

Yup, new template time once more. Flushed from the improvement in a number of things on the Chav Mum site, I pinched the code and CSS to give this the going over I've wanted to do for a while now. It's still in progress, so if things break and disappear then they will be sorted. Any thoughts and comments would also be appreciated.

The main changes are that all the stuff that used to slow the page down (javascripts from trendy blog places and directories etc.) have all dropped off the main tables to their own tables at the very bottom of the page. It looks a bit messy, but should stop the annoying lag hangs that the nav block on the right used to get.

You'll also notice I've gone border crazy - I like that look and now I can do tidy borders with CSS and not the horrid table type borders. Also, ever since I added the Goggle ads I've been frustrated by the fact they reflected blogging rather than the site's content of Digital Photography and Art sort of things. I've taken steps to change that with the layout - it'll take a few weeks to notice it on the homepage here, but its already working on some of the archive pages.

Oh yes, and there's a new favicon and Contact section. I've dropped the Guestbook, also, its goodbye to the searches sub-domain as well as dropping the old reviews and articles sub-domain. The articles are being moved here in favour of a new slimmed down approach which I'll be adding the old content back too over time. I'm quite pleased with the way it looks - let us know what you think. :)

Posted by Dio Bach at 23:58

11 Comments:

holly said...: I do miss the pictures of your "cast of characters"- even a pic of the Dio himself. There are sooo many ads over to the right now! Apart ffrom that, it looks very clean and snappy. Noticed when I stopped by last night. Did you change font, too?; 1:59 AM
Elise Tomlinson said...: I like the new layout Dio. Ah, I remember the first time I pinched CSS...sigh.

I'm not seeing the ads of which Holly Speaks...but I do miss the photo of you looking like a bad ass with your cig...

I will say this though, the site loaded really quickly. After your last revamp it was loading reeeeaaaaallllly sllooooooowwwwwllly.

So, big improvement there. And I like the borders around everything...nice and clean. Me loves the outlines!

And, I like the font too...

Oh, and that site about giants is awesome!; 7:49 AM
Elise Tomlinson said...: hmmm, FYI, the ads didn't appear when I first visited the site, there was a lot of black empty real estate on the tops and sides, I thought you were doing the less is more thing...but when I hit "refresh" to see if my comment posted, all the adds magically appeared. I hope you're at least making some bank off of it.
:); 7:51 AM
Dio Bach said...: Holly, the cast of characters was nice, but it made me feel a bit worried having them there - and that photo of me puffing a fag is so old now the person in it feels like a stranger. :(

I need a new one but as of yet haven't had one I've wanted to share with the world ;)

I've tried to keep the ads out of the main content, so they've all jumped to the right. The one with the pictures will probably go as they don't perform, but I'm waiting to get a slot with BlogAds, so if that ever comes to fruition, the left will change a bit. The beauty of the new layout is its pretty easy to change things.

Elise - the CSS I pinched was my own, so its more a regurgitation than a theft. :D

And the Ads across all my sites are starting to return enough to hint at a decent enough income that I may be able to work less days than I do, and devote time to family and creative stuff.

I won't go into figures here, but I think its something you'd be worth looking into - I have a refferal link if you do though, so please sign-up through that.

I think with your traffic, niche and content - a couple of well thought out and placed GoogleAds on your blog could net you a few nice extra paints and things a month. :)

That goes for Holly as well - I know a lot of people don't like the ads - I do them in overkill - but there are much more subtle variations possible - and I like the google ones when they work well, they work really well - adding to the value of your site by linking off to relevant content at other sites.

I made some more changes last night, so its still an ongoing process with this. Thanks for thoughts so far. :); 9:28 AM
Elise Tomlinson said...: uh, erm, yah... the CSS I pinched was my own too...

:)

Thanks for the info about Google ads, I've thought about it but...just not sure I want to go there. I love all the ads on your site because they're about pirate treasure. How cool is that!

If I could have ads relating to sea zombie fashions it would be a no Baaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiner.; 2:14 AM
Elise Tomlinson said...: btw, is "no brainer" a common expression in the UK?; 2:15 AM
Dio Bach said...: Pretty much - all us internet regulars speak mainly American these days. ;); 10:57 AM
holly said...: You really make money off of those things? Well then, whatever, man-- go! And paint something, dammit!; 11:23 PM
Elise Tomlinson said...: Yah, I want my pin head damn it!; 3:30 AM
Dio Bach said...: Holly - its taken a while, but its starting to show signs of being a potentially good side income. As I'm to be redundant at the end of June 06 - Every little bit helps.; 3:30 PM
holly said...: I'm really sorry to hear that about your job, Dio. :( I hope something good opens up for you.; 11:46 PM