The New Blog Herald

The Blog Herald has finally had a new design by Thord Hedengren (the current editor) and has relaunched as of last Friday. This has been planned for some time and there has been much discussion in the internal forums about how the design should be and its effect on the site as a whole. All the BH contributors have given great feedback and we hope that you will agree that the design is a real improvement.

First off, a bit of history. The Blog Herald was founded by Duncan Riley in 2003 and then went through six design changes until he sold the blog to Blog Media in early 2006. Blog Media then employed Chris Pearson to do an overhaul in mid-2006 and the result was a very attractive “newspaper look”. However, after we at Splashpress Media acquired the site in late 2006, we felt that a further design change was needed, as it just gave us very little room to monetize the site and put in our own network features (feed boxes, widgets, etc). After consulting James Archer at Forty Media (which later resulted in the Gangway Theme, later released for free at Performancing Themes), we turned to Brian Gardner to help us fulfill all our needs. Over several months, Brian worked closely with us to produce a design that balanced all that we wanted, helping to take the Blog Herald in a new direction. And this has been the design that BH has adorned for well over a year now.

However, times change. We have come to realize some of our mistakes at the Blog Herald with the new direction that we took the site. Firstly, it was clear that we had moved too far away from the “news” element, which is after all what the site was founded on. This was a tactical decision, as it was felt that another of our sites, 901am, was covering this element. However, the news about blogosphere itself and the subsequent commentary, was being left by the wayside in large parts. The old design pushed away the news posts under the ads and in the right sidebar, rather than bringing them to the forefront where they should be. This new design by Thord has hopefully corrected that. And by getting back some of the best news bloggers out there, as we announced with Matt Craven, hopefully the balance between “feature posts” (tutorials, tips, etc) and “news posts” will be readdressed. In addition, the Blog Herald being such an old site, we have to deal with what is a rather chaotic and unmanageable categorization situation. Thord has hopefully solved this by introducing the tag and tag clouds as a remedy. So for all future posts, only one category will be used rather than multiple- allowing for easier navigation. These will simply be: news, features, guides and interviews. There will be a few more, such as podcasts, but many of these will be added as tags later on. For example, for Lorelle’s infamous WordPress Wednesdays, you will now find them under the appropriate tag and not in a category.

We also hope that the new Blog Herald is an improvement in a visual, aesthetic sense as well. We have listened to the criticisms, e.g: from Kaspars Dambis. That the logo is more fitting. That we have gotten rid of so much of our “clutter”. We realize that we had too many ads and we needed to do away with the feed boxes from sites such as Blogger Jobs, Blogosphere News and Bloggy Award. As Kaspars commented:

“One should never criticize the design of a website on the grounds of visual liking or preference, but rather by how well the design enhances and delivers the content to its readers and viewers. Different content requires a different approach to presenting it in the way that is both accessible and easy to explore.”

Anyway, enough from us. Here is Thord’s official annnouncement over at the Blog Herald:

As you’ve probably seen, The Blog Herald doesn’t look they way it used to. This is intentional, luckily, and part of our efforts to get better at everything. That’s the goal after all, so let’s be frank about it.

I mentioned the relaunch with a new design when I took over as the editor a few months back. I would’ve wanted to do it sooner, but you can’t get everything you want, and besides, the poor designer’s schedule was really full. Being my schedule, I did the design, and I hope you like it.

So let’s talk a little bit about the relaunch, shall we?

The New Beta Version

First of all, let’s get something straight right away: This site is currently in beta, which means that some things might not function properly just yet. This is due to a number of things, the most prominent one being that The Blog Herald is chock full of content, had a ridiculous amount of categories, and have a history that isn’t to be taken lightly. In other words, there’s a lot of stuff going on with the archives, the categorization, and with tagging. I’ll be keeping it in beta until everything works more or less as intended. Or at least until the full footer is up…!

That being said, this new version is fully functional, so you can browse the archives, or visit the brand new tag cloud, knowing that it behaves decently enough to be released to the public. We will update the site as usual, as well, so stick around.

About the New Design

The new design brings the content back in focus, which should mean a better flow and a more natural reading experience. We’ve got a simple top menu to make sure that you can dive into any main area of the site at any time, and the latest stories listed in traditional blog behaviour.

The small left column lists the hottest topics right now, being tags of course, which is something that The Blog Herald haven’t had before. This means that the archive isn’t properly tagged (yet), but everything new and most of the most recent updates are, so you can track what’s hot just by looking at this list, and read our extensive coverage of the various topics by clicking the links. Don’t forget the larger tag cloud either.

A site like The Blog Herald have a lot of needs, from traditional ads to linking other sites within the network, there are simply a lot of needs. That brought clutter to the previous version, something that isn’t entirely erased (again, out of need) but at least kept to a minimum.

I think I’ll leave you at that. Click around, try stuff out, see what you think. Personally, I think that the 100 latest stories page is a nice addition, making it easier to read up when you’ve been away for a few days. There’s more funky stuff on its way, so keep an eye out for new things here on The Blog Herald.

For now, thanks for reading, looking forward to your comments, and have a great weekend!

So do checkout the new Blog Herald and let us know your thoughts!

Performancing Ads Launches!

We at Splashpress Media have been working very hard on building the ultimate advertising solution for both blog publishers and advertisers, and last Friday it finally came to fruition!

As Ryan Caldwell announced over at the Performancing blog:

Today, we are glad to open up PerformancingAds to the public. PerformancingAds is an ad marketplace for the 125×125 format, which has slowly become the format of choice for bloggers.

Although there are many new features in the pipeline, and improvements are being made daily, we have been successfully running the network in private beta on dozens of high-volume blogs and websites for months and are glad to open it up for public use.

Here are 10 reasons we think bloggers should give PerformancingAds a try.

1. It’s open to all publishers

That’s right. We accept popular, well-established blogs as well upcoming blogs. If you have a blog or website and want to feature 125×125 ads on your site, you can join PerformancingAds. And the more your site grows, the more exposure it gets in the marketplace.

2. Create and book your own ads

In addition to selling ads, all blog publishers can book their own 125×125 ads. You can use PerformancingAds to promote affiliate offers on your site. Or maybe even promote flagship content like this:

3. Expose your site to more advertisers

We chose to have advertisers buy in 1 week increments for a reason. It lowers the thresold for advertiser entry, increasing the number of advertisers in the system, and ultimately making you more money.

4. Be part of the largest 125×125 marketplace on the Internet

We are quickly becoming the largest (and most diverse) network of publishers for the 125×125 ad format. Get exposure in the very first place that advertisers will go when looking to book 125×125 ads. Some of the great sites in our marketplace include Freelance Writing Gigs, Geeks are Sexy, Candy Addict and Business Pundit.

5. Free ad space through our publisher exchange program

All publishers in our ad network earn credits either by A) selling ads or B) showing other publisher ads in empty spots. Credits are then spent by getting free ad space on similar sites. It’s a win-win situation. Everyone gets more exposure.

6. Built by publishers for publishers

PerformancingAds was designed from the ground up by established publishers. We built it with you in mind.

7. An amazing affiliate program

Can you say recurring income? Did you know that the vast majority of affiliate programs on the net only pay you a flat fee. Each month you have to start over from scratch. With PerformancingAds affiliate program, you have the opportunity to build the ultimate source of passive income.

8. We are working for YOU

We have a professional ad sales team in place that is agressively pursuing ad partnerships for the sites in our network. Joining PerformancingAds is like getting your own direct ad sales team.

9. Get paid quickly

You get paid on the 1st of the month immediately following the advertisers’ purchase. No waiting for 30 or 60 days.

10. Make more money

It’s simple. You want to make more money. PerformancingAds gives you the chance to get the most exposure possible for your 125×125 ad space.

And Chris Garrett mirrors Ryan’s enthusiasm over at the Blog Herald:

Some highlights:

* Open to all publishers big and small
* Book your own ads for free
* Gain free traffic through the “exchange” program
* Recurring commission from affiliate referral program
* and of course buy and sell ads!

If you have a space in your blog then this is at least well worth a try. In fact as a publisher I much prefer these sorts of ads over Adsense and I will tell you why …

What advice do you get when you ask how to make more than a few pennies from Adsense?

* Put your ads right in your content
* Blend the color and format to match your content
* Put the ads where visitors will click anyway by mistake (navigation, sidebar)
* .. etc etc

Basically, Adsense encourages you to be abusive to your visitors, or at least encourages you to drive your visitors away via your Ads (you only get paid when you send visitors away).

With weekly or monthly paid banners you do not need to do these kinds of things and you get paid for having an engaged audience of the correct demographic, not for efficiently driving people away. Adsense promotes a high bounce rate, Performancing Ads promotes having an audience.

This project has been built from the bottom up using the best minds in the business- be they top-level programmers like Sean Hickey and Damian Manifold, renowned blog marketing experts such as Chris Garrett and Ryan Caldwell, prestigious designer Randa Clay and a highly experienced sales team headed up by Luis Escalante, formerly of Federated Media. We have brainstormed and beta tested over and over, trying to find the perfect balance- offering the best opportunities to both advertisers and publishers and we strongly believe in the product that we built in all its elements. Of course there is always room for improvement, so do please give us your feedback!

We’ve had some great coverage from around blogosphere already, including-:

* Darren Rowse

* Randa Clay

* Winning the Web

* N Speaks

* Blogging Tips

* Blogging Pro

* Chris Garrett

* David Peralty

* Essential Keystrokes

and many more…….:-)

Get started with Performancing Ads today!

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Travelogger: Bitten by the Bug

We’ve been bitten! By the travel bug, that is. Whether it be by plane, bus, car, train or foot, our travel bloggers at Splashpress Media’s Travelogger have been circling the globe (and even beyond) to give our readers the scoop on what travel in the 21st century is all about.

This year at Travelogger were taking on a new, more personal approach to travel. We’re not just talking about the annual family vacation, the quick weekend getaway or the sneaky side trip after the conference. Don’t worry, we’ll still be updating our roster of top places to visit this year, our favourite places to eat and stay, and we’ll still be tipping our readers on what they need to know before they set off on any destination - from the art of packing to what websites offer a kosher deal with minimum hassle.

We’re talking about the travelers themselves, ourselves. Experiences, adventures and misadventures, what it was like to actually walk the walk instead of just talk the walk, so to speak. We’ll feature the most significant travelers of our time, the latest books and articles written which we feel shape the world we live in today and why its so important to discover it all.

So be a real traveller, join us on our exiting journey at Travelogger remembering the words of the great Tennessee Williams:

“Make Voyages! Attempt them……there’s nothing else…”.

Blog Search Engine Partners with IceRocket

J. Angelo Racoma reports on some exciting news over at Blogging Pro about Blog Search Engine, Splashpress Media’s dedicated search engine for blogs:

Over at Blog Search Engine, we’ve announced that BSE is now again powered by IceRocket’s search technology, after a brief switch to Google Custom Search.

While Google’s Custom Search functionality was, well, customizable, we found it limited in terms of focusing the searches on blogs. And so we found an opportunity to partner with IceRocket again, and here we are with them powering BSE’s search.

Now you might be wondering why search using Blog Search Engine instead of going directly to IceRocket or Google Blog Search or other blog search tools. Blog Search Engine’s value-added is its daily posting of a featured blog review, which readers can rate and vote on. So aside from being a blog search tool, BSE also has a blog rating and ranking functionality. If blog reviews are your thing, then you can also submit your blog.

This followed an official announcement at the Blog Search Engine blog:

When Blog Search Engine was first launched by Loren Baker of SEJournal, it was powered by IceRocket, which was then an up-and-coming search engine that was targeted at rivaling the bigger search giants, but targeted at blog content. When Splashpress Media acquired Blog Search Engine, we had to switch to Google Custom Search after a redesign due to licensing issues.

We are now proud to announce that we have struck a new deal with IceRocket, and our search is now powered by IceRocket’s technology. We’ve found out that while Google is the biggest (and arguably the best) search engine out there, when it comes to blogs, it’s still best to use specialized search solutions. And you also get that warm, fuzzy feeling knowing you’re partnering with fellow blogging enthusiasts.

So do head on to our search box to the left to start searching for your favorite topics!

Let us know what you think- IceRocket or Google?

Rubidious Theme for WordPress

Performancing has released its latest free theme for June. Ryan Caldwell announced over at the Performancing blog:

Performancing is pleased to release its latest free WordPress Theme, Rubidious (Latin term for “deepest red”). As the name suggests, the thing that sticks out about this theme is the deep hues of red that it uses, which create a magnificent contrast to the white content area.

The left sidebar of this theme is well-suited for navigational elements and the right sidebar is perfect for recent posts/comments, advertisements, and other larger elements.

If you like dark red and want your content to “pop” then Rubidious might be a great WordPress theme for you.

And over at Performancing Themes itself:

Rubidious is a three-column theme sporting deep hues of red and blue. The theme name is based on the chemical element Rubidium, which comes from the Latin term for “deepest red”.

Two light-on-dark sidebars sit on opposite sides of the main content. The left sidebar is called “menu” in the Widgets configuration page (WordPress 2.5), and is ideally made for navigational elements like links various subpages. The theme supports WordPress 2.5’s avatar features, though it should work with WordPress 2.3 just fine.

Congratulations to Ia Lucero for a fabulous design!

Click here to preview the theme.

Click here to download the theme.