Is A New Wordpress ReDesign Worth It?

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At the beginning, it’s all roses…but in the end it’s a tough pill to swallow. Just recently, I’ve experienced some traumatic ups and downs with the new version of Wordpress. Currently I am running WP 2.7.1 and love it. But hate it, too. The hates are more hiccups in programming and pages missing versus it be a functionality issue. Most of my time is spent writing posts and updating other blogs other than my own mikewanner.com.

Last year I hired a company called Unique Blog Designs. I loved every aspect of the engagement of having Nate and his team create my blog. But I learned a few things along the way. Here are three short ones (In the future I will post a 37 ways to eliminate the frustration with new blog designs) so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.

1. Redesign

The theme that I?ve been using to this point is a custom one from Unique Blog Designs?has been fantastic. In fact the way it is set up is probably one of the reasons search traffic has grown relatively quickly for the blog. But be careful, as all the design work if not properly programmed can be a nightmare as I am experiencing right now.

The redesign will include a custom logo (branding), a distinct look (differentiating it from other blog), more prominent subscription options (designed to grab attention and connect with new readers), a variety of tools to integrate it more with Twitter and Facebook.

2. Option For Video And Best Posts

One of the challenges of blogs once they have more than 100 or so posts in their archives is that it gets difficult for readers to find the best and most helpful content for their needs. If found out that TwiTip does an amazing job of creating what Darren calls sneeze pages?that will be linked to prominently that will target new readers specifically. I’ve seen Darren do this a lot in his other blogs, but amazingly see the loyalty it can bring with new readers, especially ones from sites like Twitter.

3. Pay As You Go Subscription Models

As mentioned above – there are a lot of other ways to make a blog sticky and convert readers. I haven’t formally tried a monthly subscription program or newletter, but know several that have 1000’s of readers who appreciate the content and up-to-date information to help grow a steady readership base, as well as improved ways to bring in loads more traffic. These three methods might be relevant for your blog – but so might some of the others covered in?how to make a blog sticky?post.