New Photo Blog / Spring Cleaning
Please take a minute to re-introduce yourself to the sidebar. I’ve pared down a lot of the “me elsewhere” links, and have quietly added in drop downs for the categories and archives. For the very observational folk, you’ve already noticed that the one major addition is also to the “me elsewhere” section where I’ve added my new photo blog. WordPress.com just released a new theme that adapts itself to the color makeup of the picture. This makes it look like the theme is customized for each picture. Here’s a little preview:
I’ve backlogged a few of my favorites, but will be sifting through my Flickr photostream for some old pics and throwing those in there a few times a week as well. To navigate, you just click on the right side of the picture to move backward and the left side to go forward through the photo posts. Head on over and check it out. Let me know what you think here, or leave a comment there. I’ve queued up three pictures per week for the next couple months, so visit often. Sorry, you’ll have to follow two sites now 
[jeffphoto.wordpress.com]
Personally, I can’t see myself ever going to that blog. You have this blog and a photo stream, both of which I follow, so what does this other one get me besides a fancy pic wrapper?
I think I’ve said it before, but I think all your nav sections should be grouped. One clear, concise place for users to figure out the methods they can find other posts makes it easier IMO.
Also, clicking on the left photo returns a 404.
Chris
May 7, 2008 at 8:26 am
Chris, I’ve fixed the 404, thanks…As for not following the photoblog, I guess it’s not for you, but some others might enjoy it rather than sifting through my Flickr photostream…
Yeah, I’ve got to rethink the navigation on the right side…Maybe move you off the sidebar
I’ll be working on it today I suppose.
jeff chin
May 7, 2008 at 8:33 am
This is true… not all people can be as cool as me and feed it into Netvibes. Suckers!
If I can offer some constructive feedback…
-Remove the calendar, I think it’s kinda duplicative
-Move the Recent, Archives and Categories to the top w/Search
I think it’s a lot of info to throw at your users. Do you have any metrics on click-thrus for stuff like the “Recommended” section? I put all my recommendations and “elsewhere” links under the Link page on my site. People probably won’t go there to find them but I figured they probably didn’t really care to begin with.
Chris
May 7, 2008 at 8:53 am
Your comment has kicked you off my front page!
Calendar is gone, me elsewhere has moved up, pandora songs liked is gone, recent comments has moved up, and Flickr moved down.
I do have some stats on the clicking of the sidebar…some people have used my blogroll section to find your site and others, there was a decent amount of the pandora widget usage, but most of it was for Flickr. The problem I have with moving it off onto another page is that it requires users to click to another page to find links.
jeff chin
May 7, 2008 at 8:59 am
~runs to remove Chin from my blog links~
I like the reduced content… it’s much better… but I’m bitter you removed the Blogroll!
Chris
May 7, 2008 at 9:35 am
ok ok, you’re back on. just had to bypass the wordpress links widget. Don’t even get me started on the navigation features on your site!
jeff chin
May 7, 2008 at 9:42 am
I tried to implement change but the js didn’t work.
Hey, at least I got rid of the image nav in favor of text/css.
Chris
May 7, 2008 at 10:13 am
i’m with chris… too many shits to follow.
anyway, the feature is really cool. actually, amazing. the sweetest part was that it used brown for india.
Mike
May 7, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I think of it as a place where I can put my “best of the best”. I find that the pictures are way more engaging than looking at it on a site like Flickr simply because of the customized template colors.
I can’t tell if the “brown for India” part was a joke or serious…?
jeff chin
May 7, 2008 at 12:50 pm
I can respect that description because that’s what I use my photography site for. I think the only difference is I don’t expect anyone to feed/follow that site and link people from the main blog when there are new additions.
Chris
May 7, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I wasn’t ready to post damnit!
(Not saying you expect people to, just there in case they want to.)
Chris
May 7, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Exactly. It’s there for people to discover, but I don’t necessarily expect anyone to follow either site. It’s always a “nice-to-have” rather than a necessity (for people to follow). If you read this site, you can click over every once in a while and check it out. If you find that site, it can lead you back here and vice versa. Just a little self-promotion tactic.
jeff chin
May 7, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Take the “brown as india” any way you’d like to take it.
Mike
May 7, 2008 at 5:43 pm