The Blog Studio

It’s been ages since we last released a free WordPress theme. I’m kind of embarrassed about it to tell the truth! I’ve started at least 10 free theme blog designs over the intervening years, but something or another always comes up. This time though, I am committed!

In the spirit of forcing myself to finish this thing, I thought I’d show you a bit of a teaser. The image below is very much a work in progress. Certain elements will probably make it through to the final, while others won’t. The theme release is about a week away. It will be our holiday gift to you.

So without further ado, here’s a wee look:

If you recall, late last week, I made a number of small changes to this site to see if I could gain back some of the google juice we recently lost. I think our drop in position is related to a decision I made to reduce the number of words on the site’s home page. I made some tweaks to the home page layout to accommodate longer post excerpts.

Five days have passed, so I thought I’d have a look at the search results to see if we’re ranking any higher for “blog design”. We are, but only by a single spot. However, looking at the cached versions of our site on Google, I see that the site hasn’t actually be indexed in about 6 days. So, the changes to the home page aren’t yet being reflected. Should be interesting to see what happens. As a side note, the search results for “blog design” are very volatile. I see a lot of change in the listings from day to day.

I’m chomping at the bit to try a couple of other SEO tweaks, but I’m trying to be smart about this by making one change at a time, so it’s effect can be measured.

Next up: waiting to see what effect the home page change has, then diving into meta description. Fun!

For years, The Blog Studio has sat near the top of Google’s results for “blog design”. Not only was our home page keyword rich, but we had a ton of incoming links, and we’ve been doing this for longer than 95% of the rest of our little industry. Recently though, we’ve slipped off the first page.

I think the drop in position was timed with our redesign. One of my goals was to reduce the number of words on the home page. I wanted to let the video and the work speak for itself. In retrospect that might have been a bad decision. Looking at the folks who have taken over “our” position on the search results, the thing that is most obvious is that they have a LOT of written content on their home page. I’ve made some adjustments to the home page to lengthen the post excerpts, and rejigged the layout slightly.

As of today, we’re the 13th result for “blog design” on google. I’m going to give Google a few days to see if this change has any effect. I will, of course, report my findings!

You want economic stimulus, we got it right here! For the remainder of the month of November 2008, all new design projects will receive an automatic $1000 discount. Please note: this only applies to new design projects with contracts signed by November 30 2008. So act quickly! Fill out the RFP form, or get in touch

Why on earth are we doing this, you ask? Well, it’s simple really. Adam, Mike, and Lucia are super busy with some top-secret development work, leaving me with a bit of time on my hands. I’m sitting here feeling all guilty while the rest of the team is slaving away, so I thought I’d try a little experiment to see if I can single-handedly book a couple of new projects between now and the end of the month.

To be clear: we’re talking full-on custom design here people. Check out our portfolio of work to see what I’m talking about. We’re also talking full service. Read a few testimonials from past clients to get a sense of the kind of service we’re known for.

This is very much a limited time promo though, as we have a couple of new projects starting up in the new year that will keep us all occupied. So if ever you’ve thought about having a completely customized blog or website built just for your needs, act now, and buy yourself a flat screen tv with your savings!

During the redesign and rebranding process we launched a few months ago, I made a bunch of screen shots of the work in progress. Reviewing them gives a really interesting look into how the site developed.

As you’ll see, I started with one clear idea: make use of watercolour to create a bit of a sophisticated feel. Through a gazillion revisions, you can see that idea develop. I went pretty far down one path, but the intent in the original use of the watercolour had been lost. I literally wiped the slate clear of all colour, and immediately felt like I had it.

In retrospect, I may have gone a bit too far on the dark colours in reaction to the visual direction of the earlier versions. Perhaps it’s time to tinker a bit!

As an aside, looking back at this slideshow posted below, it’s interesting to see how may versions the scan of the watercolour went through. I was determined to find a way to use it!