Mar
02
Grab a Hardhat! Improvements Being Made to The Solopreneur Life
Grab a hardhat and watch your step–you’ve entered a construction zone!
Over the next week or so, improvements are being made to TheSolopreneurLife.com.
Why? The improvements will deliver more value to you as a member of The Solopreneur Life community. The changes will:
• Provide added value to the people who advertise on SolopreneurLifeAds.com, which now will be integrated more closely with TheSolopreneurLife.com.
• Deliver an improved user experience for TheSolopreneurLife.com and SolopreneurLifeAds.com. This will come through easier access to TheSolopreneurLife.com content and through easier site navigation.
• Provide increased awareness of vendors who want to do business with solopreneurs.
• Create new monetization opportunities for TheSolopreneurLife.com, which in turn will enable me to deliver more value to you.
Tweaked Layout Presents New Possibilities
My Web designer, Naomi Niles, has designed a tweak to my site–taking it from the current two-column design to a three-column design. My inspiration for the design came from Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac site.
The new site layout:
First column: blog content. This will look the same as now, except the column isn’t as wide.
Second column: a skinny column, 150 pixels wide, will be used primarily for content-related items: the weekly quote, search, most popular posts, resources list, Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn buttons. It will also include a prominent portal to the SolopreneurLifeAds.com site.
Third column: 300 pixels wide, will be used primarily for display advertising and in-house promotions.
Banner: will be used for an ad position.
Interior ad position: at the bottom of all posts, will be used as an ad position.
What Do You Think?
What do you think? What would you do to make the best use of the three-column layout? What annoys you about the site right now (or sites like it)? Please share your thoughts below. Thank you!
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Comments
The content is what I truly value. But yes, narrower columns make for easier reading, on screen or on paper. Don’t know what the result will be on an iPhone or Blackberry – haven’t got one to try. As your colourful advertising is increasing, maybe the background could become more pastel? It is visually a very attractive website: civilised, sober and tidy – as we all try to be!
Hi Howard:
Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, content is king — it can be easy to lose sight of that.
My site is set up so that the content is easy to read on an iPhone — the design elements are stripped away. It’s kind of like an RSS feed, I guess.
It’s interesting where we can draw inspiration for design. Mine for this site came from two places: the High Plains of the Western U.S., and a hotel in San Francisco named Hotel Rex. My wife and I stayed at Hotel Rex several years ago, and I loved how “literary” it felt.
Larry
Hi Larry,
I would like to see the font a wee bit bigger.
Hi F.C.:
Thanks for the suggestion/feedback!
Larry