Comments on: Some Thoughts On Redesigning Your Site

By: Ogo Ubah

Ogo Ubah — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:54:27 +0000

This is really useful.

I’ve been thinking of getting a custom design for my prelaunch site. I currently use a template but I agree with you, I feel more compelled to take content from a custom site more seriously.

Food for thought, I’ll have to look into getting this done.The only problem now is, where to start looking for one?

Thanks again for the advice.

By: Corrie Davidson

Corrie Davidson — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:21:29 +0000

Great article! Thanks for sharing! Really good points- and I know most designers would agree!

By: Lyndon Apthorpe

Lyndon Apthorpe — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:14:16 +0000

Good post Adam.
I am quite new to your blog and I am really enjoying what I am reading.
I guess I’m a bit of a glass half full kind of guy and look for the opportunity in everything.
I just wanted to add that the re-branding exercise is a great way to re-energise your lists of contacts that you may have built up with the original design or template. It provides a great deal of material to write about and a great way to launch offers to your lists through newsletters and campaigns.
Also, if your brave enough, you can go as far as getting your readers, clients, followers etc to be involved in the design process. Give it more of a community grown feel with the use of surveys and polls, forum topics etc. Additional benefit of this is incredibly valuable insight into peoples preferences to give you even more material to write about and share.

By: Christi Davis

Christi Davis — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:46:30 +0000

I really liked the Respect your Designer and the Know Your Goals portion.

If you’re working with a designer you’ve already picked, you need to let them do their job. Hopefully they’ve done their research and they know what they’re talking about. They’ve gone through the steps it takes to determine your target audience and what this audience responds to. This site isn’t about you and what you want, it’s about what your audience wants. The designer has spent a lot of time and energy figuring out what will work best. If you’re not going to trust them, you shouldn’t have hired them in the first place.

I also really liked that you pointed out the need to know your goals. Establishing objectives, strategies and tactics is the first thing we learn about marketing. It’s textbook. But a lot of people forget about how important this is, and they don’t go through the steps. You really need to look at what you want to gain from this Web site and develop a thorough plan. Otherwise, you don’t have specific tactics outlined and it will take too long to reach your strategy. Or you could have specific tactics that fail because they are off strategy. It may seem simple to point out the need to outline your goals, but it is important and it is often overlooked.

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:28:21 +0000

Great post Adam! It was a pleasure working with you, which means that the advice you’ve given out above is definitely true! I can’t even think of anything to add to it.

I suppose the only other thing I’d add is that little things make such a difference, especially when you’re working with a very small team like you said. There’s no harm at all in firing in the odd joke (Or if you’re me, countless smilies ;) ) to make things more pleasant working together.

Even how you phrase your requests can make a pretty big difference! Just speaking as a designer; the more I enjoy a project, the better the end product usually turns out!