Sneak Peak at MomsCashBlog 2.0
Hey guys, JJ from MomsCashBlog is around here somewhere but in the mean time, I decided to stop by and give you a little preview of the new theme (before she notices, of course). I’m Enkay from the Blogosphere and i have put together this theme for JJ and I wanted to get your feedback. The new theme is coming soon and I figured that the best way to get the readers all revved up was to give you guys a sneak peak at the new theme. Do I think we’re giving too much away? Of course not, because we all know that until we see the real thing, we can’t enjoy the complete experience and that’s what these images are meant to do. I have two preview images here for you today and I want to start off by showing you the completely re-done top half of the blog. I will go into more details but for now, I’ll let you soak it in. Go on, soak it in!
Ahhh, that’s right. As you’ll notice quite a few things have changed. Although the true details of what is changed will be talked about once the new theme is live. I wanted to give you guys some idea of what the theme re-vamp involved. There are quite a few steps involved and maybe many of you aren’t familiar with how I actually design the blog. The idea is that on a limited time frame (usually a couple hours a day for a week), it sometimes becomes difficult to completely re-do a design from scratch so my steps are as follows:
1) Find a theme that suits my needs. That’s right! Starting off with the right theme means you have a backbone all ready for you. All you have to do is go in and add your creative genius!
2) Add critical components. What I mean by that is adding things such as the logo, the menu bar, the sidebar components and footer components. These can include anything from twitter, to recent comments to tag clouds, etc.
3) Add graphics. The most important part of a design is to make sure that your graphics flow with the blog. You’ll notice the new enhanced graphics used on the new theme. It still retains some of the old design charm but adds a whole new modern appeal to it.
4) Test the theme for inconsistencies. What I mean by this is that sometimes when you develop a theme, what you miss out on are the little things. The spacing may not be right and things of that nature. Although this doesn’t sound like a lot. There were quite a few issues on the new them that took about 40% of my time!
5) Add the money-makers. This includes your Kontera, InfoLinks, Adsense and advertising network type stuff. Generally, this isn’t a big deal so it doesn’t take much effort but adsense integration can take a while to be effective.
6) Test the theme again and correct errors. Testing the theme one last time is key to the process. I realize, as early as about 15 minutes ago, that I missed out on a few things and that I have to go back and edit them.
Alrighty then, time for the bottom half of the new theme! Have a look!
As you’ll notice everything has been streamlined and that’s the key to any new design out there. Simple, effective yet modern. I hope you guys like the theme. We’d love to hear your feedback. If you haven’t heard of me, I am Enkay from EnkayBlog.com and WhatISeenToday.com. I will start blogging soon again so stay tuned for that but in the mean time, if you need anything, do email me at enkayblog (at) gmail (dot) com! Thank you so much for stopping by and we hope you love the new theme!
Comments
It looks very nice. Are you customizing another theme or you build one from scratch?
Thanks so much Plin, I have no idea but I believe Enkay is customizing a theme…but I’m going to get him to answer some of these questions. Do you like it as much as the original, do you see something we should be adding or would you like to see something different that I never had on the original? Love to hear you thoughts, especially where you start a new blog every time you get writers block!! jj
Lol. JJ, I start a lot of blogs to play around with the themes and trend of at the time (E.g. swine flu). I usually let those (including the domain) expires after a year. I kept 3 on a regular basis that I will never let it expire even if I get no readers. They have become a part of me.
As for the new theme, so far it looks good. It make me thinking about getting people to redesign my sites. =) I can give you more feedback once it is live.
Wow, Simple and great theme!
I love it JJ! Very nice and clean
It looks like it will be nice and easy on the eye. I’m looking forward to seeing it live. Where and how do you test your theme? Do you play around with it on another domain name or do you use another method?
Hey guys, thanks for all the positive feedback!
@plin – I actually find a theme I like and then re-do it so the design aspect is what I focus on rather than the skeleton and coding parts
@Gerri – I actually set up a test site generally on my own server and test out blog designs. At one point, I was changing themes so much, I had set up a live test site and given my readers the URL so they could come by any time and see what I’m working on!
Hi Enkay,
This is Jonathan from Kontera. Congratulations on your new theme – it looks sharp
In terms of money-makers implementation step, thanks for bringing up our In-Text ad network.
What makes Kontera such an effective monetizing tool is our Contextual Technology, an algorithm that rather than just scanning for keywords, can actually read your webpages for meaning. This added level of targeted relevancy is how we can deliver the highest CTR and best CPC.
Another advantage of Kontera is our exclusive ad inventory from such brands as Microsoft, L’Oreal, National Geographic, HP, Volvo, Kmart, Domino’s Pizza. and more. These premium, often Rich-Media ads are the most attractive to site visitors, offer the best possible CPC, and are only available through Kontera.
For anyone interested in joining the Kontera Network, we’re currently offering new publishers a 70% revenue share, which is the highest rate in the industry. We’re also offering new publishers a $50 bonus if they get at least 25,000 U.S. page views during their first 30 days on the network. Additionally, we recently lowered our minimum payout threshold from $100 to $50 across all payment methods, so now publishers are getting their revenue faster than ever.
To learn even more about the Kontera, please visit our Publishers Page: http://www.kontera.com/publishers
Thanks,
- Jonathan Cohen
Kontera Community Manager
Jonathanc@kontera.com
Hey Jonathan, Great to hear from you and great to see the offer Kontera has in place. I actually did have Kontera myself for quite a few years. I have had InfoLinks lately however but I might have to give Kontera a shot again at my blog and see how well it performs since it has been a while since I had switched over. I might contact you to get things started on my end when I do decide to integrate it again.
Sneak Peak. Its Great
I think it should not be exact what you wanted.Below the header the page link or page button color should need some variations.It is looking so light that visitor may miss the correct page button.I think your present one is much better.Just need some redesign and replacement of the widgets.Thanks and ahave a nice day.
@FreeMoneyMaker; I think what you are looking at will look much darker than what you are seeing now as a sneak peak. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard Enkay mention that to someone else. I’m sorry that you don’t care for it. Come on not at all, even a little change will look good don’t you think? What is it that you don’t care for, is it the cartoonish woman? I wasn’t sure about that at first, but it’s growing on me. I think change is hard to get use to & I’m sure there will be some people who will never get use to the new theme, but if you will stick with me I think you will like it. I want to thank you so much for your opinion I really do appreciate your honesty that’s what we are looking for. If Enkay has anything to add regarding the header & the color variation I’m sure he’ll address it. Thanks again, drop by again always glad when you stop by. jj
Hey there! @FreeMoneyMaker, JJ is absolutely right, the sneak peak is a lower quality image. The navigation is brighter than it appears and I have gone ahead and taken note and will be modifying the navigation colors slightly to get it to stand out a bit more! Let me know if theres anything else! Thanks!
I really like the new layout. While the current pink background may attract the female audience, it is a little hard on the eyes. However, that being said, I am glad you kept the pink and just added it to the header, so people who visit once you have had the change over will still know they are at the right place!
Tom
Hey Thomas, Thank you for your input it is greatly appreciated and is taken under consideration . I’m glad you said that about the pink because I was afraid that everyone would only associate MCB with the pink. After discussing it w/Enkay I said that I was leery of turning off the MCB people who started out with Krysti. Enkay assured me that he would put touches of the pink in places, and I wanted some of the lime green. I think what we will end up with, is something that will accommodate everyone. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. jj
i want to do home based job. Thanks for this informative article. Keep up the Good work.
Honestly, I like the new theme better. For me, the current one is too plain. The new header stands out! Though just my opinion, I’d stick to the four columned footer and the color stays. Just my thoughts here, hope you don’t mind
Looking forward to the new layout and more of your helpful tutorials
@bpo, thanks for stopping at my blog, and if you want to do a home based job you should try my Free Blog Tutorial and get a blog up and running. I will tell you, it’s not easy to make money right off, but with a lot of work and a will to make money you can do it!!jj
@EihdraG, thanks for your comment and letting us know what you liked about the new theme. I like the header also and it does add something to the blog. Please drop by again. jj
Hey Shafar, your comment got lost on me, I just saw it when I looked at the back end. But anyways thanks so much for your positive words. Thank you friend, jj
Hi jj,
At first I thought I landed on the wrong blog but I knew those colors could only belong to you.
I do like the new theme and I feel it’s pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate. Can’t wait to see the finished product. One very minor thing is your RSS feeds in the header (Subscribe, Comments) are pointing to the same URL?
I’ve been thinking of changing my theme and I think you gave me some motivation to do it. I wish you all the best with your newly designed blog.
The theme look nice. Simple, clean and beautiful.
You can do improvement to comment section. Enable threading etc.
I’m loving the simplicity of the theme. People these days seem to try too hard to make a complex theme and in the end it seems to hurt the appearance rather than enhance it. Like Agent Deepak said, I, too, am loving how simple, clean and beautiful it is.
@JasonL, thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment, I really appreciate that. And thanks for the words of encouragement about the theme, I’m so glad that so far it has been well received. Appreciate it again, and thanks for stopping by. jj
@agentdeepak, Hey Thanks Deepak for stopping by and leaving your comment about my new theme. I am glad that you like it and I will run your suggestion by Enkay regarding the comment section and the threading part. I really do appreciate your stopping by. jj
@Robert, Thanks so much for your kind words about the theme, and I’m glad that you like it. I think it is easy on the eyes, and I was afraid that the people who followed “K” wouldn’t care for it, hence I’d get bad feedback. But so far it’s all been good feedback. I will have to let Enkay know about the RSS thing, maybe it’s ok now in the new one? Thanks again for your comment friend, jj
Hi Robert, I bet you did think you had landed on the wrong blog, even when I open up in the morning or whenever I’m still taken aback. I’m not sure if “I’m” not on the wrong page. I’ve told Enkay about the RSS & Comments and he’s fixing that. Thanks for pointing that out to us, I know I wouldn’t have had noticed it so thanks for that. Didn’t you just change your theme not to long ago? I like yours whatever you did, I like the maroon or something is different, but I will admit it’s like a whole new outlook when you do change something like the theme. I’m not sure if we ever really think or give that much thought to the theme of our website or blog, but I now see we all should be taking a good look at what we’ve got. Thanks again for stopping by Robert, always appreciated. jj
Nice blog… But your blog roll little bit wide
Sorry jj and Enkay for late replying against your word.hey its now quite nice,I think Enkay you have had some retouch on the navigations.I think its now readable and quite attractive.JJ I think with sneak peak you site could find a brand image now.Anyway good luck again.Have a good night buddy.
JJ – I love the new blog design; very fluid and easy to navigate…
FlippingmyBlog, Thanks so much for stopping by and letting me know that you like the new design/theme. I’ve received a lot of great feedback so far, so I guess it certainly was the right choice. Please feel free to stop by again and leave a comment, great having you here. jj
Ur new theme is very attractive…very neat design…no clutter at all!
teh-kohli, thanks for the nice words about my theme, I think the majority vote is that it seems like it’s a good thing! Which is good, because I’m not ready to change it right away. lol I also want to thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment, I appreciate that more than you know. I’ve been to your blog several times and have enjoyed and am always amazed at the work you do to help others. Great blog! Stop by again, to your success! jj
Choosing a theme can be really difficult, especially when there are so many to choose from. When I am getting a blog up and running, this is the most difficult part for me, personally. Nothing is more frustrating than finding a theme you really like and then discovering that it is corrupt or does not work properly.
I’m loving the simplicity of the theme. People these days seem to try too hard to make a complex theme and in the end it seems to hurt the appearance rather than enhance it. Like Agent Deepak said, I, too, am loving how simple, clean and beautiful it is.