Thursday 21 March 2013

BLMA gets a Dynamic Facelift

You will probably already have noticed that BLMA has been given a makeover, and I'd like to know what you think of it. Way back in 2011 Blogger introduced Dynamic Views as a template option for blogger Blogs. Although I liked a lot of what I saw I decided not to enable Dynamic Views because it wouldn't carry over many of the Widgets I had working in the sidebar. More importantly it wasn't possible at that point to insert a header picture which meant my 'hand crafted' logo art would disappear.  However most of my initial concerns have now been addressed and after some fiddling with the template design I decided to shift BLMA over to the new template. 

One of the major benefits of this new layout it that it has increased traffic across my blog, literally overnight. One reason for this is that it is easy to see and access several of my most recent posts from the home page without having to scroll down to find them. This means that new visitors to the site are now presented with five posts to catch their attention rather than just the latest one and are therefore more likely to look around. I have also read (but con't confirm if this is true) that blogs with Dynamic views get a higher page ranking in Google Searches which also increases traffic on the site. Obviously my priority is to communicate with existing readers but if I can attract more followers and add to 'the conversation' then that isn't a bad thing.

Most of my sidebar widgets work fine in this new layout (now that I have tweaked them that is) and I have been able to fix the 'header issue' and insert my own artwork. The only problem I have encountered so far is that the new width settings have caused some minor formatting issues with older posts. I'm working on this issue now so hopefully that should be resolved soon. I have also opted to drop some of the less popular Pages to make the header bar less cluttered.   

As with previous changes of layout I can promise a few things. Firstly BLMA will remain a non-commercial site, meaning no adverts. I doubt if I would ever have the sort of site traffic that would generate much income but from a purely aesthetic point of view I don't want the site cluttered up with  adverts over which I have no control.  Secondly BLMA will continue to feature lots of my pictures and in that respect Dynamic Views really is the best way to present my posts. 

So what do you think? I'd really appreciate your views and feedback on the new layout and if there are any major problems please let me know and I'll do my best to resolve them.

31 comments:

  1. I am sure I will get used to it, but I am not there yet! But if you don't continually try to improve things you do run the rsk of stagnation. Therefore I am in favour!

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    1. About once a year I get the itch for a makeover and usually change the header art or the colours, but this has been the biggest and most radical change so far.

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  2. The new design is nice, I think having a go on it is a good thing.
    The only thing I have to get used to is that people can choose what design they want to have, but that will come as time goes by.

    Cheers,
    Thomas

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    1. Thanks Thomas, glad you like the new look.

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  3. Looks very interesting, Big Lee, very much like a magazine. I shall have to try this out on my own! Cheers, Simon

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    1. Magazine is my personal favourite but I like that readers can view the site in any one of the seven styles available.

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  4. Flipcard for the win (its the choice of Champions!) Like the new design Lee.

    I think more people should experiment with dynamic views.

    Phil

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    1. Actually it was your site's use of Dynamic Views that convinced me give it a go on my own blog. Kudos to you sir!

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  5. Hmmm am ambivalent re Dynamic views as can look a bit 'messy' IMHO
    But will watch with interest to see how it goes for you

    Cheers
    Gary

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  6. Very nice! Definitely looks more 'modern' (which is a good thing), I'm now tempted to give it a go myself.

    Regards,
    Matt

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  7. It looks great - but for the mobile experience it seems tougher to find things. And it seems slow. But as was said, change keeps you from stagnation.

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  8. My main issue with the dynamic view is with pictures in posts. In the standard view, clicking on pics (usually) opens a pop-up display which you can scroll through. What I've found with dynamic view is that the pic displays in the current window/tab and then you have to click the back button to go back to the post, which reloads from the top.

    Now, all that might be down to how people have their pages set up, but it can be annoying for readers.

    However, the layout does look good and the ability to easily find older posts to view is quite handy.

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    1. Thanks for the heads up in this issue.

      I've looked into it and found that in old blog posts some pictures appear as overlaid windows and some appear in a feature called Lightbox. Lightbox allows you to scroll through all the pictures in that post as if they were a slideshow, but it isn't supposed to be enabled for Dynamic views so I'm not sure what's going on.

      I'll keep digging to see if this can be activated or if there is a workaround I can set up.

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  9. Looks nice, clean and hip. Won't take long for me to get used to it.

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  10. I think it looks great Lee. I got on the flipcard bandwagon after looking at Phil's site. But you're right that the viewers have an option to look at it in one of several ways. I think people with slower connections may have some issues with some of the formats. I have also had some people mention that they cannot find the comments section on mine, I have not fully investigated. The photo issue is one that bugs me but I haven't spent any time looking into, I will do and exchange information on it.

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  11. I'm still not sure about this kind of view for blogs. It seems to take away the individuality of the blogger him/herself???? It may give you more hits but I'm still not convinced.

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    1. The irony is I thought it gave my Blog more individuality because hardly any of the 40+ blogs I follow use Dynamic Views and most had more of less the same format as me (ie a central post column and one or two sidebars cluttered with widgets). The fact is the only way to get a truly 'individual' blog is to edit the code and design your own template.

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    2. I totally agree with you Lee, I found only one blog in the 90 or so sites I follow was using it, so it was a good option.

      I also have found that most apple products have a little trouble with the Chrome applications which leads to some formatting and refreshing issues.

      Since you cannot please everyone I just take it as a downside.

      I like it, but I am biased, of course

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  12. Must admit I am not a fan; you seem to loose the overall impression of the blog; the wallpaper, picture header bar, and side bar links info and goodies all seem stripped away...

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    1. That's what I like about it...no clutter and all the focus is on my posts rather than on the widgets in the side bar.

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  13. Undecided, I but applaud the effort.

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  14. Thanks to everyone for the comments and input. It seems Dynamic Views has elicited a mix response from readers but I hope that those that don't like the format will come round once they have got used to it. Rest assured I am working on improving the customisation of the sidebar widgets and reorganising the header Pages to provide a better, more personalised experience. At the end of the day I'd like to think my words and pictures are more important than all the paraphernalia and gadgets of the old site, and this format puts the emphasis firmly and squarely on my posts.

    I'm also looking into the issue raised by Tamsin about pictures. If there is one thing I have learned about Blogger it is that there is a customisation for most things and its just a matter of finding it. I accept that the loading of pages with pictures is a little slower (but not significantly so). Out of curiosity I test visited my blog on a Windows 7 PC, an Android Tablet, a Laptop running the Vista OS and on a Blackberry mobile and all loaded the homepage in under a second. I wasn't able to check it on an iPhone so any feedback from a user of their iOS would be helpful.

    One positive thing I have gained from this change though has been the number of visitors to the site. Yesterday saw a 300% increase in pageviews! Looking at the statistics in detail I am convinced that this isn't just a statistical anomaly but reflects a real increase in visitors. Moreover these visitors aren't just landing on the home page and then exiting, they are moving between pages before leaving, which means my posts have multiple opportunities to turn random visitors into repeat readers. As I said in my post earlier, I'm not doing this for commercial reasons and I won't be activating the AdSense feature. Increasing BLMA's readership means expanding 'the conversation' about our hobby and that, I think, is a good thing.

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  15. The new look has been in place a little over a week and there hasn't been an exodus of readers out of my followers list and my hit count has gone through the roof. So the change seems to have had the desired effect and I'm rather pleased.

    One big positive side-effect that I wasn't expecting is that I haven't had a single spam comment in a week. I was getting upwards of a dozen a day every day but haven't had one since the changeover on the 21st March.

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  16. After following your lead, I reverted back to the classic view because all my extra widgets disappeared in dynamic views. Now I see your rather nice widget bar and I might give it another go. Time to hack some more. ;)

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  17. BLMA has had a month with the new look Dynamic Template and it is definitely staying as a permanent feature. The site hit-rate has gone up by at least 100% and over the last month I have not had a single spam comment to deal with. I was receiving between 20-30 per day at its peak but that has been stopped dead with the move to Dynamic Views. And all without the need to activate the hated Captchas or comment moderation.

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  18. Very interesting; do you have any feeling why there are more hits?

    Cheers, Simon (mulling...)

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    1. I just think the site is easier to navigate around, and older posts remain 'visible' for longer tempting visitors to look around a bit more. Each pageview is recorded so although the number of visitors is probably the same, those visitors are spending more time on the Blog and looking at more posts.

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  19. Got a solution to a problem that a number of people have identified....

    Problem: Widgets overlaying side scroll bar
    Solution: Customise the template and go to Advanced/Add CSS. In the "Add Custom CSS" box enter the following code... #gadget-dock {position: fixed !important;right: 0px !important;} ...and then click Apply to Blogger
    Result: This will permanently pop-out the widgets sidebar next to rather than on top of the sidebar.

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