Recently, I worked through the redesign process of this site.\u00a0 While I had my\u00a0blog designer draft\u00a0an overview from his perspective, I wanted to share some thoughts from mine.<\/p>\n
First up \u2013 it\u2019s worth it:\u00a0 invest in a custom design<\/strong><\/p>\n I was using a free theme I customized myself up until the end of January, 2010.\u00a0 It was simple and did what I wanted it to do:\u00a0 share ideas and build a community.\u00a0 Although this worked, I should have invested in a custom design sooner.<\/p>\n Many reasons to do this:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Do your research<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 you should choose a designer you have personally sough out and found their style resonated with you.\u00a0 Take your time to find this.\u00a0 It makes no sense to choose someone who designs in a style that doesn\u2019t fit your brand.\u00a0 Designers all have individualistic styles and preferences, so find one that aligns with what you want.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t go cheap<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 it\u2019s worth spending the resources to invest in a good designer.\u00a0 No, it\u2019s not as cheap as using a template, but you get what you pay for.\u00a0 Good designers don\u2019t cut corners, they spec things out, work through revisions, make something SEO\/social media friendly out of the box, all that jazz.\u00a0 Bearing you find a designer you really like and have done your homework, you shouldn\u2019t mind paying their rate.<\/p>\n Find a small shop \u2013 <\/strong>small shops rock at design \u2013 I still haven\u2019t worked with a big firm I\u2019ve been happy with.\u00a0 There is just less creativity inherantly with larger groups.\u00a0 My experience is web design is a dish best serviced by agile firms and individuals (you might not find this to be true, but it\u2019s been my experience).<\/p>\n The less people involved in the design, the better<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 the more people there are, the greater chance you\u2019re going to ruin it.\u00a0 Everyone has specific tastes and, to be perfectly honest, most don\u2019t have any aesthetic sense at all.\u00a0 Let the people who understand the audience and those who will be marketing the site have a say \u2013 by bringing more people than this into the mix you\u2019re going to ruin it.\u00a0 Also, only bring people who are web-literate into the process.\u00a0 Most others aren\u2019t going to add much value to the equation \u2013 they\u2019ll like it or hate it but they won\u2019t be able to articulate why in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n Respect your designer<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 don\u2019t make them create more revisions for revision sake.\u00a0 Be clear with what you want before the first go.\u00a0 It is my pet peeve when others try to micromanage designers or make them create an insane number of mock-ups.\u00a0 Also, listen to your designer:\u00a0 they are making recommendations\u00a0to make your site better<\/em>.\u00a0 Their opinion should matter to you, and if not \u2013 why did you hire them?<\/p>\n Know your goals with the site <\/strong>– and the goal of the site is not just \u201cto make money\u201d or \u201cprovide ROI.\u201d\u00a0 Discuss your audience with your designer and ensure everyone understands what it is you want to get out of the design.\u00a0 Let them know everything from your overall businesses objectives and strategies to specific marketing tactics.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t trust your designer to this degree, you haven\u2019t chosen the right one.\u00a0 Your designer should understand the specifics as much as your internal team does.<\/p>\n Your web designer is not your internet marketer<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 your web designer isn\u2019t going to do SEM\/SMM work for you.\u00a0 They can build you something with the propensity to rank and the content to get shared, but it\u2019s up to you to market it.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been shocked to hear about these stories happen to friends of mine who are designers (as a marketer, the shoe is on the other foot:\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to design your site for you, rather I will act as a consult to help it be successful).<\/p>\n The answer to that question is simple:\u00a0 optimize it to accomplish your objectives.<\/p>\n For this blog, my goals were simple:\u00a0 subscriber conversions and\u00a0 continue to build community.\u00a0 I was able to achieve them just by looking at the data and making what was successful from the old design work in the new one.<\/p>\n Make your current site data work for you<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 there is a reason on this blog the specific social sharing buttons were added \u2013 they are consistently the top referral traffic sources.\u00a0 I looked at the data and it was easy for us to increase the chances for content to get shared by calling out the sites most used by the community.\u00a0 Note some of my top referring sources, and then the fact that these networks are all now well-represented on pages.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It makes no sense for me to call out networks a majority of readers aren\u2019t using.\u00a0 A lot of bloggers call out tons of sites in the post template, but this clutters a design and takes the focus off the important calls to action.\u00a0 If you ask users to do too much, they\u2019ll do nothing.<\/p>\n Take the elements working in your current design<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 I had good data backing up leaving the subscribe CTAs at both the bottom of each post here and at the top of the right sidebar were already in the right spots.\u00a0 Daniel at\u00a0Daily Blog Tips has data\u00a0on this too.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to run the numbers, but I\u2019ll let the growth trend speak for itself.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Seems like obvious decisions, but the fact that I already had my finger on the pulse of my site analytics helped us create something effective quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Recently, I worked through the redesign process of this site.\u00a0 While I had my\u00a0blog designer draft\u00a0an overview from his perspective, … <\/p>\n\n
Once you\u2019ve decided to create a custom design, how can you get great work out of your designer?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Once you\u2019re designing the site, now what?<\/strong><\/h2>\n