Taking Things To The Next Level - MenWithPens.ca
Posted February 4, 2008 in Writing 17 Rockin' Comments »
If you are a writer and haven’t heard about James Chartrand and JCM Entreprises already, or if you haven’t read last week’s open thread where James was kicking ass in the comment section (which resulted in us asking James for a guest post), well you’re definitely missing out.
James told me in an e-mail that they were in the process of rebranding their business and moving their blog to a new domain. James asked me if I would be willing to ‘rip his new blog apart‘, which I thought would be really fun. :)
Comparing The 2 Sites
Of course it would be quite difficult for me to write this post without actually comparing the 2 sites, so here we go:
JCME Blog (same domain):
The first screenshot is JCME’s homepage, you will notice that their blog has a completely different look (second screenshot). While I believe every business should have a blog for obvious reasons such as traffic, exposure, etc… I assume that most people visit JCME to read the blog, so I think the look and feel should be consistent throughout the whole site, but this post is about their new blog, not the old one, so let’s have a look at it.
This is, in my opinion, a step in the right direction.
Here’s how I see it:
Before: JCME is a great company that offers profesionnal web content writing services. Oh… and by the way, they have a blog!
After: Men With Pens, part of JCM Entreprises, is an awesome blog about writing and freelancing. It is run by a bunch of really cool folks and they offer profesionnal writing services.
In some cases separating the blog from the business can be a good thing, it all depends on your goals. So James, what are your goals with this new blog?
Let’s have a look at this new blog.
1- The Design
For their new blog they decided to go with the Revolution News Theme, which has more of a magazine feel than the typical blog layout (with the latest posts on the frontpage). Good move!
2- Different Tagline
What really hit me when I first saw their new blog is the new tagline! It went from ‘Web Content Writer Tips From JCM Entreprises‘ to ‘Web Business Tips For Writers, Freelancers and Online Entrepreneurs‘. That is great, now they can write about a wider range of topics and not worry if it’s not always about writing and blogging. Again, good move.
3- RSS Subscription
Major improvement there! Ok, the RSS graphic may be a little big but still it’s a huge improvement (attention grabber). Instead of just saying ‘oh yeah, here’s the RSS feed‘, now it’s more like: ‘Hey you! You like our discussions and you like what we write? Well grab the rss feed and stay up to date!‘. You simply cannot miss the RSS section. Offering different subscription options is also a really good idea. I personally prefer to receive posts in my e-mail and I guess I’m not the only one.
Have Your Say
What do you think of their new blog? Do you think it was a good idea to move it to a new domain? Which one do you like better? The old blog or the new one? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with the rest of us and with James and his team. By the way, don’t forget to subscribe to their RSS feed.
Jon
About the author: Jon Phillips is a full-time freelancer, designer and blogger, he loves WordPress and plays guitar in a heavy act. He's also the founder of Freelance Folder. Oh and he'd be pleased if you would follow him on Twitter. :)
Share This:
subscribers
FreelanceCommunity
Design Trends: 25 Of The Coolest iPhone APP Website Designs
One type of design I’ve seen a lot lately are the iPhone sites. They generally follow the same plan of attack but are there some that really stand out?15 Typography Books To Help You Learn and Love Typography
A list of typography books that I personally recommend that has helped me learn, understand, appreciate & absolutely love typography and type layoutPeople to follow on Twitter for design resources
Here are some people on Twitter you should follow to find some great new design resources.Free Photoshop Brushes: Smoke Backgrounds
This set consists high-resolution free Photoshop brushes featuring smoke backgrounds. There are a total of 15 brushes with resolution of 2500 pixels each.A Clients Guide to Vector Verses Raster Art
A good, simple summary of vector art vs raster art for your clients.
PopularArticles
- SEO Techniques All Top Websites Should Use
- When a Client Can't Afford You: Why It's Still Better to Bid High
- How To Stop Scrambling For Clients And Get A Steady Stream Of Paying Gigs
- A Simple Way To Stop Clients From Rejecting Your Proposals
- 3 Reasons Your Rates Are Still Low (And How To Start Raising Them)
What Is Freelance Folder?
FreelanceFolder is a blog and resource hot-spot dedicated to helping entrepreneurs and freelancers. At FreelanceFolder, we're constantly striving to bring you the articles, information, and community you need to succeed. If we don't have an article or resource you're looking for, please contact us and let us know what it is!
Click here to read details →Recent Comments
- melper: With all those superheroes, let’s make the justice league, to fight the evils client’s that...
- Joe Wallace: Before I went full time freelance, I was moonlighting as a freelance writer while stationed in Korea at...
- supremegraphx: yes, burning bridges is not a good idea.you never know when you might need them.jsut kiss and make up...
Meet Our Team
-
Mason Hipp
Mason Hipp is a marketer, designer, and entrepeneur. Mason helps freelancers and small businesses of all types, and he is the current owner of FreelanceFolder.... →
-
Jon Phillips
Jon Phillips is a full-time freelancer, blogger and designer. He loves WordPress and plays guitar in a heavy act. He is also the founder of FreelanceFolder.... →
17 Rockin' Comments
Jay F.H.
February 4th, 2008 at 1:50 pmMen with Pens…
Shooting from the Hip…
Come get your fix…
Make a Sandwich…
Sleep.
Michael Martine
February 4th, 2008 at 4:26 pmIf they keep posting pictures like that I won’t care what they write about.
Harrison McLeod
February 4th, 2008 at 5:32 pmThanks for the review Jon! I appreciate all the positive feedback on the design, we spent a lot of time and effort on it and I’m glad it shows.
Just a quick note, the old blog used to be consistent with the main site up until a week ago. The blog got hacked and we had to do something fast.
@Jay: What kind of sandwich is that?
@Michael: Our plan for world domination is working perfectly. Yessss, Michael…look at the pretty pictures…when you wake up, you’ll only remember our blog is the best blog you’ve ever seen or read…
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
February 4th, 2008 at 7:43 pmAs I mentioned to Jon, I felt he went gentle on the review. (He’s a nice guy; he didn’t want to hurt our feelings.) Since I know a lot of readers have design skills and all that, feel free to chime in and rip the hell out of our design. Tell us what we did right or what we did wrong. It’s all good… and heck, where else can you insult someone’s work freely without consequence?
@ Jay - Next time, take your dirty shoes off at the door. What, do you think this is a slum?
@ Michael - Yes, we thought that the lovely young woman had a particular allure… But the content! Man! What a great post!
Michael Martine
February 4th, 2008 at 10:00 pm@James - LOL. You know the word pens only needs the letter i to be… nevermind.
Dave Navarro
February 4th, 2008 at 10:00 pmI left my initial review before the release … thanks for considering my tips! :-)
Harrison McLeod
February 4th, 2008 at 10:09 pm@Michael: oh behave!
@Dave: Those were some excellent tips you gave us, they worked well, thanks!
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
February 5th, 2008 at 4:58 amMichael. Shame on you. Really. How dare you think that *we’d* consider such…
They do say to have a memorable pen name that reflects you, do they not? :)
@ Dave - Yes, they were great tips and we did use many of them. The problem with this kind of work is that we can do great stuff, and then just be too close to it to be objective. Getting outsider views and feedback is so valuable.
Chad | ProFreelancing
February 5th, 2008 at 7:07 pmSomething I’ve been trying to figure out with my blog - and can see the same problem with yours - is…How can you offer the blog style page as well (one post after another).
Right now, we’re both using magazine styled themes (mimbo and revolution) - but neither of us have the blog theme as well.
ProBlogger, on the other hand, offers both:
http://www.problogger.net/
http://www.problogger.net/blog/
If you figure it out then let me know - because it’s been bugging me for a while now.
Jon Phillips
February 5th, 2008 at 7:18 pmHi Chad, well I can offer a quick answer (for a longer and more detailed, fire an e-mail my way) :)
It has to do with the template system, for example here on FF my index.php has all the posts one after another on the frontpage, and I use the page.php for all the pages like ‘about’, ‘contact’ and all. With a magazine theme the index.php or home.php is a little different. What you could do is create a ‘typical blog’ page (call it maybe blog.php) where you’d have all your posts one after another, just like problogger.net, then create a page in the WP admin, call it ‘blog’ and select that blog.php template for this page, and voila! (or just send me an e-mail) :)
Cheers
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
February 5th, 2008 at 7:18 pmChad - I think - don’t quote me on this; I’m not a coder or programmer - that he created the second blog as a subdomain of the first (that part is clear) and set his blog to pull the posts from the main. Sounds simple in theory, probably a little complex in practice.
Not that I want to go that route, so I don’t consider this a problem ;)
Nice redesign, btw. Better than your old one!
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
February 5th, 2008 at 7:19 pm@ Chad - Jon’s answer sounds better than mine. Listen to him.
Jon Phillips
February 5th, 2008 at 7:27 pm:D
Harrison McLeod - Men with Pens
February 5th, 2008 at 7:49 pm@Jon: Well said. While I understand the underlying concepts, I would have been hard pressed to make an attempt at explaining them.
Offering two views is similar to offering a flash or frames page as opposed to a traditional single web page.
@Chad: For us, the different functionalities (god, I hate that word)served different purposes. James and I wanted to highlight more than just the most recent post. The magazine style suits us in that our visitors are able to see more than one post at a time. Too many good posts were getting buried, never to see the light of day again unless the reader actively went digging through the archives.
James Chartrand - Men with Pens
February 5th, 2008 at 7:57 pm@ Chad - Oh, and surround yourself by very smart people who can explain concepts far better than I can at 8pm at night.
But I bet I can kick their butts for coherent language at 5am ;)
With coffee, of course.
Jon Phillips
February 5th, 2008 at 8:00 pmhaha well I’m usually sleeping at 5am, unless I’ve been working all night, then I’m sure I can still explain stuff. Coffee Mate makes coffee taste great! :)
Trackbacks