v5
Over the past few weeks I've been polishing off a pretty comprehensive redesign of Atomiq.org. I've moved to a new host, upgraded MT, redesigned the site, rebuilt the templates and troubleshooted all of that stuff plus some more.
This is the version five (the less-is-more version) of Atomiq.org. I'm quite happy with it--it feels much more crisp, easier to read, and better designed overall. The biggest change was that I took away all the stuff I didn't update (the photo and link blogs) and focused on the posts.
Inspiration
This version started last year after I read Josh Porter's Home Alone? How Content Aggregators Change Navigation and Control of Content and thought about doing an "every page a home page" design. While I worked over concepts, I discovered Garrett Dimon's site and really liked its simplicity.
The recent redesign of plasticbag.org was another influence. I had started experimenting with Arial as the only type face; Tom's redesign made me see the possibilities.
I had also been leaning toward an all-text design, and I finally did that. Dropping the old logo was difficult--and I still have misgivings--but I'm happy with the results.
The other thing I did was move the navigation and "branding" to the bottom of the page. My friend Lisa Graboski gave me this idea and I think the Atomiq brand, such as it is, is strengthened by subtlety.
Comments and Trackbacks
I'm really happy about the return of comments. I disabled them months (over a year?) ago because of spam. So, provided spam isn't a problem, comments will be open on all new entries. I'm using TypeKey for authentication which should make things better.
I like Trackback in theory, but managing the spam has been a major headache. I need to review the Trackback tools in MT 3.2, and think about whether it's worth turning on.
Feeds
Most people experience this site through a feed reader (index.xml is the most downloaded file by far). I've started using Feedburner, and I've redirected my old RSS/Atom feeds to my Feedburner feed. So hopefully that will be a seamless transition.
Advertising
The bottom line, literally, is that in the last few months the advertising revenue from this site has become significant enough for me to think about ad placement.
In the last version, I had placed ads only on individual entry pages. Now they're on the home page, archive pages, and error pages, too. I've also included Google SiteSearch with advertising.
My dedicated readers use the feed, which will likely remain ad-free (and offer the full text of each post). I don't feel too bad about "monetizing" search engine and other visitors.
Feedback
After all those changes I'm sure something's not quite right. Feel free to leave feedback in the comments, or email me at atomiq at gmail dot com.
