New Remarkablogger – New Domain, New Server, New Design

Aug 11, 2009
10 Comments

newtagWell, there’s just so much newness all over the place, here.

I finally did something I’ve been meaning to do forever, move this blog to its namesake domain, remarkablogger.com and off of michaelmartine.com.

I’ve also moved it off of Slow Daddy and onto a much faster server, so I hope you notice the difference in page load speeds.

Doing all of this over the weekend was a colossal pain in the ass, but sooooo worth it. Here’s a tip, by the way: when you are moving your domain, don’t forget to change your info in all of your Google services:  Analytics, AdWords, FeedBurner, and Webmaster Central. If you use Aweber or some other email list management service to deliver your email newsletter, don’t forget them.

I’ve also redesigned using the bitchin’ new Headway theme. In addition to all the etcetera-type-stuff I had to do with moving my domain to a new server and domain name, I redesigned my blog using Headway’s Visual Layout Editor and other nifty tools. I couldn’t believe how fast it was to get great page designs. Check out the Blog Consulting page or the Testimonials page.

In fact, I didn’t create a line of custom CSS code until near the very end, when I decided I needed some specialness for some of the “leafs” (it’s a Headway thing) on the home page and for the sidebar widgets. My custom CSS file has only 13 styles in it.

I actually haven’t hardly used Headway at all until now. I saw pre-release versions, but really only just poked around in them for a few minutes. This is the first time I ever really took it to task, and it performed admirably.

Part of the redesign involves a spiffy new home page that stresses the business more while still providing many ways to enter the content. You can expect to see a few more tweaks over the next few weeks as I refine the design. Blogs are living things. They evolve over time and no design is ever perfect.

I have recorded much of my design process as screen recordings. As soon as I edit out all the boring parts where I’m staring at the screen, I’ll put ‘em up here so you can see how I started from the basic theme and redesigned Remarkablogger in Headway.

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  • Love the new look of your blog...I bought the headway themes and I'm trying to figure out all the tweaks to get it the way I want it....congrats on taking action!
  • Thank you! In the future, I'd appreciate it if you used your real name in comments. :)
  • Love the look of your new/updated blog!! Really clear, clean and easy to read. The time you put into it was definitely worth the effort!
  • Thank you, Dinneen! What's funny is that because Headway is so easy and fast to use, I put in less than half the amount of time I used to spend designing!
  • hmmm... I'm still training my eyes to your new design. It's clean and lots of spaces but I think I prefer you old sidebar though.
  • Eric, thanks for that feedback, man. The sidebar does need a little more, doesn't it?
  • I like it - very clean and fresh looking. A weekend well spent - well done!
  • It's great. I would make the logo more distinctive (in terms of stronger colors), but overall - I really like the clean perspective.
  • Hi Michael,

    I haven't been on here for a while but your new blog is looking great! I will definitely be back to have a good look at it soon!

    Cheers

    Grant
  • Good point! Thanks!
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