Why I made the change:
- Navigation: Once you get used to the navigational methodology, it should be easier to bounce around the site. Everything is in a more logical, consistent place. Links, blog roll and archive on the left and ads/search on the right. It's like a new haircut. You may not like it at first, but it should grown on you.
- More space for new features: There are a variety of new features that I'm considering including a "Label Archive," a jukebox, Georgia Sports Blog apparel store, Del.ic.ious headlines, etc. There was no where to put those new features in the old 2 column design.
- Monetization of the Site: To be totally honest, I would do the blog for free. I've received over a dozen offers to write for other blogs, blog aggregators or site publishers in various arrangements from legit (AOL and well known sports sites) to downright sketchy (don't ask). I've refused those offers because this is my hobby, and I don't want to lose control of the site (Plus, I have a real job). My goal for the site is to deliver great content that keeps folks entertained. Obviously that starts with entertaining myself. Financially, I'll never get rich doing this. But I'd like to offset some of my vast Bulldog related expenses. The new design allows me to better deliver ads and affiliate information in an organized away...hopefully without interfering with the navigation of the site. Before, I used ads to break up navigational elements on the sidebars, and many of you never saw some of the site's resources.
- Branding: There are some branding changes that I'd like to make over time, and the design will help with that. More on that some other time.
- Stagnation: Honestly, I was tired of looking at the old design.
Known Issues/Problems
- Clickable Headlines for Blog Articles: Update: This issue is fixed. Dave supplied the code, and you should be able to click on a headline with no problem.
- Comment Font Size: UPDATE: This appears fixed due to Dave's suggestion. Let me know if its' still busted
- Cool Bullets on the Sidebars: I miss this little guy . I'm trying to bring it back on the side bar as an automatic feature in the LI tag, but I don't know how to do that in the CSS Style sheet. If you're a CSS guru, can you tell me how to fix this?
- Monitor Resolution / Blog Width: The blog was previously 800 pixels wide, and now it is 960 pixels wide. The main content area remained virtually the same width. According to the site stats, roughly 7-8 percent of you have a monitor resolution less than 960 pixels wide. That means most of you shouldn't be negatively affected by the wider screen. Those of you who have the smaller monitors will only be impacted in that you won't be able to see as many advertisements. No biggie right?
- Expandable Posts; Most of you won't notice this, but I lost (at least temporarily) the ability to break up long posts using the "expand" or "read more" feature. I hope to have that back soon.
Any help / feedback would be appreciated.
PWD