Comments on: Design and Getting Links

By: jo

jo — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 02:27:03 +0000

Hey, can you tell me how to do something basic? I want to add a “stay updated, subscribe here” button to my site for readers to subscribe to email updates, but haven’t had much luck accomplishing this (I’m pretty new…)
Many, many thanks -
jo

By: Riverbelle

Riverbelle — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 13:11:30 +0000

Some interesting ideas. Is it possible to get notified of future updates from your blog?

Cheers,

Wayne

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 04:33:01 +0000

No they don’t break my theory at all. For DIC I actively went out to let people know about that site, which is something I never did for Work Boxers and Whitespace. Also considering the content is different and the communities are different it honestly takes different approaches I think. Gawker’s design really wasn’t that bad when it started. It has since become dated, but with Gizmodo and Fleshbot the traffic was already there. Same with WIN when they stole Rojas for Engadget.

Quality design puts a foot into the door in helping to establish credibility. While that foot can get quickly stepped on with bad content at least you have it easier than the people who have to work with a crappy design and great content.

If design was the only key to success I wouldn’t bother with stressing about what I am going to write next.

By: Tyme

Tyme — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:38:36 +0000

Scrivs, I read your post a couple of times and honestly, so many things whirled around in my mind I could not think of what to address first. The FF post helps explain your logic (and your excitement) but I still find myself typing something out, deleting it, starting again, deleting. So if you can tell on your stats how long I’ve been on this site that’s why…LOL.

Congrats on your increase in traffic…but if your theory is true…explain Whitespace. Or this site. Or WIN and Gawker. Don’t they break your theory?

Ha! Made it with only asking one question!

By: karmatosed

karmatosed — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 19:22:04 +0000

Really raises the question of do hits maketh a blog? While they are important maybe it isn’t the only measure of a successful blog – really a debatable point. I do realise the importance of design, however and have experienced this myself after being part of css reboot and redesigning my blog. After my own still continuing traffic injection I now am thinking of ways to maintain and keep users, this is the next stage and probably just as important as a nice look and a whacking traffic rate.

By: Designer Sex Sells better than Generic Sex. » A Jack of All Blogs

Designer Sex Sells better than Generic Sex. » A Jack of All Blogs — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:36:35 +0000

[...] Some chump in his workboxers is spouting off at the mouth again. This time his wisdom has been decreed that Mike’s wonderfully sexy designs is what makes the difference for Damn Im Cute. And while I don’t disagree that the desings made a huge difference. I also think there is some other factors that need to be brought into questions. Pageviews is not always an accurate number. Consistency, Longevity, and the willingness to obtain links down the homestretch is what counts and Sexerati has a much better edge, as does Jack of All Blogs. [...]

By: Entrepreneurship, blogging, and college - College-Startup.com

Entrepreneurship, blogging, and college - College-Startup.com — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 06:17:22 +0000

[...] Scrivs made an interesting post at Work Boxers about good design and getting links. He provides some graphs of his traffic before and after the redesign of Damn I’m Cute which, by the way, is an amusing blog that I read regularly. [...]

By: Scrivs

Scrivs — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 21:21:58 +0000

A great point Garrett. Unfortunately, most blog owners don’t have the luxury of having the gift of design or someone on their team that can tackle design issues. In this case I suppose it comes down to how fast you think you will see a return on your investment if you hire a designer to put up a template for you.

By: garrett

garrett — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 20:49:12 +0000

It’s a very good point you’ve raised here. I dedicated a good portion of time to the design of my site http://indieanthems.com and this opened up the possibility of traffic from, not just the relevant music sites, but also sites like CSS and design galleries. I also think it helps differentiate your site from others so, even if you’re just rehashing articles from other sites, people will read yours because it provides a better user experience. But like you say, sites with ugly designs probably have higher CTR because people are trying to escape the horror…