…and famous last words, perhaps.
I’ve done some minor fixes to the design, adding some icons to the sidebar. The cache might make it look a bit funky for a bit, both browser (Ctrl+F5 for Windows users, Command+R for Mac people), and server caching. Live with it, I’ve had to during this whole process.
The Wisdump redesign is my last effort here at Wisdump. Tomorrow, April 1st (which it might already be where you are in the world, perhaps), Ia Lucero will take the helm here at Wisdump. Treat her nicely.
I’d like to thank you all for being such good sports, no matter if you’ve agreed with me or not. There’s been some nice discussions, a few heated ones, a couple of douche bags, and so on. As can be expected online. No hard feelings, actually, just warm fuzzy ones. I’ve had fun.
So thank you for reading Wisdump during my time here.
Where am I off to then? Well, it’s a secret so I can’t tell you that I’ll be taking the helm over at The Blog Herald come tomorrow…
Keeping quiet sucks, so I won’t anymore.
She’s all yours, Ia!
So here it is, the redesigned Wisdump in public beta. There are a few small things left, but I figured I’d get it up there to see what you guys think.
Feel free to compare to the mockup designs I’ve posted previously. They are just that: mockups, which means that the design you’re seeing right now isn’t 100% like them. I never intended it to be, so that’s all good.
Jumbled up? Ctrl+F5 on Windows, or Command+R on Mac, or simply just empty your cache and reload to see the new design.
What do you guys think? Speak up in the comments! I’m all ears…
Jason Calacanis is bashing the ad networks in a recent post. He doesn’t like them, which figures since his content business in the past (Weblogs Inc.) handled a huge amount of traffic. It’s a bit of a duh post, you know, things that has been said a lot of times before, but I guess it needs repeating.
Jason’s got the gist of it:
If you’re under $250,000 a year in advertising? Sure, go for it. Break $250,000 a year, you should go for it with an ad sales person.
Ad networks usually take 40-50% of your ad dollars. That’s a lot of money. They do, however, have connections that you, or a small sales person, doesn’t, which opens doors to wide campaigns that you would’ve missed out on otherwise. If you’ve got a niche, however, those wide campaigns isn’t as interesting, and you’re better of going with a dedicated sales person earlier on, since the peeps at the ad networks won’t do the necessary niche work, and just push out the ads in their pool.
When to switch from ad network to your own sales rep? It depends, and I guess Jason’s got some merit to his numbers in the quote above. I certainly can’t make a better estimate.
The ideal solution would of course to have a strong sales person in your team when launching your content business, but few of us have that luxury.
Lorelle VanFossen is great. If you’re the least interested in the WordPress community you know this. She’s got a great blog, she is a great interview subject, and she does a great job giving us the weekly WordPress recap over at The Blog Herald. The latest one went online yesterday.
Other blogs should learn from Lorelle, and The Blog Herald, in regards to the WordPress Wednesday News segment. By having a returning column on a given day you’re signaling reliability, and that’s certainly a good thing, especially online, where sites and blogs come and go.
Something to think about for your blog, surely.
With that I bid you a happy Easter. I’ll be back on Tuesday next week. Another thing slated for next week is the new Wisdump design, in public beta. How about that, huh?
The Share This button, originally a WordPress plugin by Alex King (interview), is now a separate project, along with the Share This icon and everything. It’s hosted these days, but you can still download the self-hosted plugin should you prefer not relying on an external service.
And it’s apparently used by bookstore and -printer Lulu, which I saw today when following a link.
There it is. Cool.
They use a special layer when clicked, rather than the default ones, although they still stick to the basic style of the plugin. Click it, or see below:
Share This have spread tremendously, at least the icon can be seen on newspapers as well as tech industry leading blogs. Heck, even Google uses it for their share services! Branding gone well, I’d say.
ThemeShaper is hosting a contest for the next default theme for WordPress, since Ian thinks Kubrick’s gone old (I agree). He’s proposing The Sandbox since it’s easily modified, but it looks like crap so a new default design is still needed.
Weigh in, and win premium themes!
It is bound to happen, the Google Web Browser that is. For a company so focused on delivering online applications that compete with the old desktop variant, a reliable browser and the direct connection with the users it offers just sounds like the obvious choice.
So where is the Google Web Browser?
Some might say that Firefox is the closest to the Google Web Browser we’re getting, and that may be true, although a bit simplified. Sure, there’s a Google search toolbar installed per default, but the same goes for Safari, you know. Problem with the latter is that it sucks in Gmail, for instance, which isn’t acceptable since that’s probably the most used Google web application out there, right?
So why should Google do their own web browser? more
The upcoming WordPress 2.5 is delayed, which I saw coming, and that’s fine. I’d rather have a working release, than a buggy one, and I’m sure most of us agree.
One of the new features in 2.5 is a revamped admin look, something that won’t sit well with every user of course. Not that today’s theme is perfect in any way, but change always makes users react, which is why there are some admin themes available.
more
My answer to that question is yes, these days. Editing lots of blogs are a lot easier using a desktop blogging application, although there are limitations to it. If you’re curious about what I’m using, check out Blogging Software for Mac Users over at Devlounge.
So are you using a desktop application to blog? Which one, and why?
You might remember that I bashed b5media for their general themes, and the lack of blog profiling in them, quite some time ago? If you don’t, then read up!
Anyway, they manage to lay their hands on the excellent videogame blog Siliconera, which wasn’t in the b5media template of course. It is now.
Luckily, this theme update to the gaming blog is well done, and a great example of having a general template adapted to the blog in question. Sure, there are things that could do with some polish, but I think it does Siliconera justice. more
