Welcome to the newest version of John Chow dot Com. As you can see, we’ve made a lot changes around here. Please take some time to look over the new theme and tell me what you think. John Chow dot Com Version 3 was designed by Nate Whitehill and his team at Unique Blog Designs. Here are some of the highlight of the new theme.
Cleaner Landing Style Front Page
The most dramatic change to the blog has been the switch to a landing style front page. This gives the blog more of a content site look than a blog. The landing style layout allows me to highlight feature articles and videos, give summaries of the most recent posts and create a shorter front page that will load faster.
Those who prefer the normal blog style layout have not been forgotten. All you have to do is change your bookmark to the blog link and the layout will switch to a normal blog format.
Less Scrolling Required
One of the biggest complaint about the old theme came from readers who run low resolution displays. When viewed on a 1024×768 screen, very little of the post was viewable without scrolling down. We’ve fixed this problem by moving the content way up. You can see the different in the comparison screen shot.
New Photo Gallery
John Chow dot Com Version 3 features a photo gallery where you will be able to view my photos. I have tons of photos from my travels that never get published because of space limitation. Right now, the gallery only have a few car and food pics. However, I’ll be loading it up with photos from trade shows and other stuff that you may find interesting.
Lijit Blog Search
The blog search is now powered by Lijit. I think you’ll find the new search feature a lot better than the default WordPress blog search. Give it a try and tell me what you think.
Take The Poll
Another new feature of the blog is the poll. The poll not only helps to increase interaction with blog visitors, but it also allows me to get demographic information about my reader base. The first poll question is asking how you feel about the new theme. Please vote now. More polls will be added in the future.
No More Car In The Header
I was the first make money online blog to put a high performance car in my header. A ton of another blogs copied that. I wonder how long before those blogs remove the car from their headers? 
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Just so you know. The peel ad on the top right corner is blocked by the banner will all of the ad programs on it
I couldn’t even find a peel ad on the site???
Peel ad works for me, just fine!
Just one glitch that the poster above said and you need to fix. the peel away is crashing the right part of the site. if you would like i can send you the screen shot of it.
site seems to be a little more cleaner and the color scheme a little more consistent. The peel away is working for me but the peel is going behind the reader number and twitter counter
I think thats a great theme.. Congrats
But as per my suggestion – you should get a mascot like tylercruz or zac
Yea, thats a nice idea, in fact that would look pretty sick!
panda! panda! panda!
It was about time for a change. Looks good
I love it. Seriously. It looks much cleaner. It looks like a blog in some areas & then other areas, it looks like a regular site. UBD did a nice one.
I totally agree with you. A cleaner design with less scrolling.. Hopefully will make visitors stay longer and generate more ad revs for you..
Agreed. I also noticed that he did find another spot to place another ad. Can you spot it? =)
Ugh! You paid money for this theme?
What do you mean urg? This theme is way better than then last one.
And I don’t think he paid for it. I think that UBD did it for free.
You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t even try.
You need to go upload a Gravatar, John.
Hmmm, now why isn’t my Gravatar working?
I do know what you mean. Best is to be yourself at all times..only we have to try to be the best of what we CAN be..I am still trying..The new layout is fine by me!
I don’t know the key to the success, but key to the failure is to please everybody.
It’s exceedingly dull yet, at the same time, is very busy. It completely lacks personality. I have to revert to my first reaction: Ugh!
Oh yeah – I’m glad you use Lijit now. I signed up with them last month & I love it. It’s better than the Wordpress & Google searches put together.
This layout is insane! I love it! UBD kicked major ass once again! I really wonder what could top this.
I prefered the old style. Maybe this will grow on me??
Change is hard for the brain to wrap around. I’m sure in a week most people will barely remember the old version.
I actually liked the theme before the one that got retired yesterday.. John chow was all about fast money, fast cars, nice looking…
oh the good ole days..Now its time for a change.. Ad books teach us that users tend to ignore ads that stay in the same place.. Thus you need to reshuffle your ads location every few months or so.. or get new users who aren’t familiar with your layout..
I think this design doesn’t have as much “personality” as the last one.The removal of the car might have a lot to do with that. It might also be nice to bring a touch a color to the background (the columns on either side of the main content area). I also notice that you don’t highlight the ReviewMe icon anymore. Any particular reason for that?
No reason for the removal of the ReviewMe icon. I just didn’t felt it was needed.
I like it. I think it needs some more stronger colors on the border.
too much light grey..
Much cleaner theme, loads a lot faster, nice look. However it seems a bit washed out. Also the car was a major asset to this blog, removing that will kill your branding.
Cleaner theme, loads a lot faster! It helps the readers that don’t have broadband connection stay at your blog.
Layout is not the most important factor to determine the loyalty of your readers. You already success brand yourself as expert so i’m sure most of us will “stick” with your “quality and informative content” even your blog layout is very “ugly”.
To Your Success
Bryan Hee
I like it much better, but I spent a few seconds clicking on the big “# 8 comments” text, expecting it to take me to the comments, before I realized I have to click on the much smaller, “What’s your take?” button.
Going to fix that right now.
All fixed.
It looks really great! I like the slideshow on the front page showing different articles. I want to add that to my blog in the future.
Congrats John!
-Andrew
Great new theme, John! I love it!
Very nice, I love the new look. I’m gonna save my pennies and have those guys re-design one of my sites.
Dude, version 3 is sweeeeeeeeeeet!!!
It rocks my socks off.
One day I will bring out a new version for my site. But today it does me well enough
It looks great.
Unique Blog Designs has done a great job.
Wait, I just noticed something…no more link love for commenters!? Did I miss something??
We are fixing this.
I really really love it! wow.. such a great looking new theme. My favorite part was the top left side side of the main page with the featured side moving articles. I like it a lot!! I can see headlines of all them and a little blurb!
I’ve seen a free wordpress magazine style theme that looks alot like this, just with a couple of different widgets than you are using.
Are you sure UBD designed this originally?
I have a friend that uses one similar to this as well. Visit http://www.discoveringdad.com to see it.
Your signature car is gone too! Everytime someone saw that car online… they knew it was John Chow… you need the car back.
I like the new look man! I know that there are still some minor fixes that need to be made, but overall, it’s great!
By the way, I’m thinking of getting another redesign for my site as well. It’s about time that I got my own unique theme.
Wow new version is bomb! I really like it than the previous one. Cleaner and easy to navigate. Keep it up
I like the new version of the site. Clean, simple, and professional appearance.
I, however, do agree it lost some personality and needs bit more color.
Otherwise, cheers to the change!
I like the new design John. Congrats! I am going to miss the car though.
@Nate – Rock solid design as usual! Keep up the great work!
Hi John,
The new theme looks great, one of the better UBD themes.
However, I’m surprised they released it to you, you may want to run it through a HTML validator, way too many errors…
Also, it seems your home page never finishes loading, loading spinner never stops for me in firefox.
Dave.
The validation errors are from external WordPress plugins, MyBlogLog recent readers javascript, and John’s TTZ advertising engine. Sometimes these things are not fixable due to the JS we use to integrate widgets, ads, etc. Even sites like Tech Crunch and 43folders (popular blogs) have dozens of validation errors. It’s hard to make a blog validation-perfect just because of how many JS widgets blogs run these days.
Fair enough Nate, I’m fairly new new to Wordpress so still learning the ins & outs…
However, I do think all these plugins can & should validate easily enough enough.
Even viewing the source of this page, there seems to be lots of extra JS & styles added, I would think that with any paid theme, these would be removed & added to the main stylesheet & all JS would be placed in one JS file and referenced when needed.
Other than that it looks great, well done.
One reason we don’t put every JS and CSS in the same file is that many of the WordPress plugins automatically insert their appropriate style or JS code into the header. Modifying those plugins solely for the purpose of putting all code in one file would mean we had to do it each time again whenever upgrading to new plugins. Again, this is all pretty standard for WordPress blogs, but thanks for your feedback. Hope I clarified things for you.
Very nice. Still has the same JC feel to it but the design is definately cleaner looking
I miss the car. And the colorfulness in the old theme. Okay, there wasn’t that much color in the old theme, but still more than this one. Other than that I love it.
Hmm… that’s a lot of change to take in.
I guess I’ll start with the few things that bug me:
There’s TOO much stuff on the front page. It’s sort of overwhelming.
How are you selecting your featured articles? Some of your selections I can understand, but why the June income report? Is it the $10k from Brian Campbell? If you’re going to feature articles at least try to keep them timely by including the most recent income report (August on the way?).
I checked it in a couple browsers and I’m having problems with the display of your twitter counter.
On some of your more commented posts (for example the June income report) with nested responses, the date from the comment is overlapping the “Reply to this comment” from the previous post. That should be a pretty easy fix.
As mentioned previously, the peel away is being obscured by your top stripe ad.
I like the photo gallery. It’s good that you’ve collected all your pics in one location and I look forward to seeing what you add.
In all, the version 3.0 is nice. It’s clean and looks like a lot of the other blogs out there… I wish you would have kept the car.
Congrats and I look forward to getting used to it
Thanks for the feedback. We’ll be tweaking the theme over the next few days. Most of the big stuff was fixed in the test site. Now that it’s live, we need to fix all the little things.
Glad to give you my opinion. Realize that it may only be worth what you paid for it.
Found something else to look at for tweaking. In my version of Firefox (I haven’t upgraded to 3 yet) the feed DIV overlaps on top of the peel away ad when it’s peeled down.
And is it just me or can you no longer close the top stripe ad? I’m not seeing a box to close it which is pretty annoying.
And as I was trying to post this I found an addendum to my comment about the overlapping dates and “Reply to this comment” issue. Because of it, the entire “Reply to this comment” is not clickable when there’s overlap. You have to mouseover all the way to “comment” before you can do anything.
Fixed both of these things.
Nate-
I admire your ability to take this deluge of feedback and turn it around so quickly.
I also pity you. I can imagine you telling your special someone, “Sorry, I can’t go out tonight… John Chow is launching version 3.0 of his blog!”
Keep it up!
Like it much better. Typical of UBD to keep improving!
Reminds me of ProBlogger’s redesign, which reflects the big amount of content available here. Me like.
Good stuff, John. MUCH cleaner. Coming to Vancouver Bloggers Meetup September?
Looks purdy. Seems to load faster and is more clean. I like it.
Do you pay for redesigns or does UBD do them for free and you just plug them?
Yes I do pay for it. A theme like this would run around $2,000.
I think the new look will grow on me : ) But, the Recent Articles change too quickly for me to read what they’re about. Maybe make them flip a little slower? Otherwise, it looks awesome!
Wow… this new layout is much better… more organize too… Good job!
That is nice theme. What I am interested in is the photo gallery.
Very nice. I like clean and neat…… I am probably borderline OCD. I do miss the car however. It has become synonymous with you. Even though many others have copied, those of us who have followed your blog from the beginning know who the real dot com mogul is. Maybe you could use a Volkswagen Carmen Ghia……haha.
Seriously though………..very nice, neat and orderly. Wishing you continued success.
The layout is like problogger but it’s ok. The comments section look really messy, well something you still need to work on. Overall it’s better than the old one. Good job nate
This is the worst set up ever, I liked the last theme the best, everything was easy to find and I liked how the entire post was available to read on the homepage.
Change your bookmark to http://www.johnchow.com/blog/ and you have it.
John I just saw your home page……and this goes for Nate too……WOW
Is it intentional to not have a previous/older posts link at the bottom of your blog page? Right now there are the five most recent posts and then… nothing.
Sometimes when I had a little extra time, I’d enjoy paging back through your posts and finding something interesting. I hope this isn’t permanent.
On a related note, the archives page is blank.
The limit on posts per page was always five post. We’re working on the archive page as well as a few other stuff.
Interesting new look. I will take some time before deciding if I like it or not. Some people just don’t do well with change. One thing I notice is that you don’t display your entire post on the main page. Doesn’t this go against some of your original advice? That isn’t me complaining. I am just curious if this is your continued evolution and you are turned around on that idea.
As always, I will keep reading! Good luck with the new look.
You can go to a normal blog layout by click the “Blog” link. http://www.johnchow.com/blog/
Wow! I got shocked when I visited this blog. I thought something happened.
John Chow:
Well done! I like the new version 3. UBD did a great job. Just curious. It is loading slower than the older version. Not sure where the problem is.
It looks much cleaner though!
It may be because caching is turned off while we are fixing several tiny bugs. Once all the minor details are ironed out, caching turns on = super quick loading times 4tw!
Nice, I like it… very clean and more room above the fold for important things other than a car header. There’s a little too much white and gray in my opinion and I think it would help if the outer background was dark, not white.
Other than that, pretty cool. I like how your homepage is more of a portal now. And I’m sure your ebook downloads will increase now that it’s featured more prominently. Very nice, UBD. Wanna do mine?
Hey Gyutae, they do a very nice job don’t they. You can always tell a UBD theme as they always seem to be that much cleaner. I have been using crappy themes since my blog birth and I finally got the Dev package for UBD’s citrus theme two days ago for Feed Flare. I told NAte what I am about to tell you – I Don’t like it – I love it
I love the new theme John, much easier on the eyes. My only gripe is my dislike for peel down ads…but thats just a personal issue.
version is much muxh better
Congrats on the new version , I like the new design…i am getting used to the new blog
I like this version, although it makes it look like you’re a newspaper or something. With this design you’ll be able to capitalize on ad sales, but IMHO, it make the content look like it is an afterthought.
Just my 2 cents…
Theme looks more professional and easy to use! Great work!
love the new site – I like the affiliate links at the top too.
John,
That is an awesome page!
Nate and UBD they took care to keep it clean and friendlier.
I really like the navigation, and all of your ads are right where they belong! I will certainly consider using unique Blog Designs when I go huge with my blog(s) now totaling seven!
Respectfully, Nicholas
Hi John,
Good to see the new theme up… (And glad that the heavy lamborghini pic is gone) – Here’re my views on the new theme…
Positives
- Very good above-the-fold utilization
- Blue as the base is retained which is really good
- I really liked the referral links placement below the top navlinks. Very good utilization of the space and hotspot
- Love the featured articles animation… Very good way to attract new readers
Improvement areas
- It’s really taking a lot of time to load, when I saved it read 1MB for the homepage which is a crime. Though most of your readers are in US/UK/Canada, perhaps 20-30% of them still come from low-speed networks. You need to seriously work on this!
- Number of navlinks below the banner may be reduced by a couple. May be you can take out the links titled ‘Blog’ (anything else?)
- The search button needs refinement and overall there’s too much of grim grey look
- The johnchow logo may be reduced in width by 20-30 pixels to leave some space between the 468×60 banner, it’s way too close right now. If some text prominant ads appear on this banner, it may look ugly
- Though, it is a trend to spot the RSS image and no ‘subscribe to feed’ text, I would still put it. And may be next to the RSS icon, you may put ‘What is RSS?’ kind of explanatory page link
- Make the feed and twitter counter colors a bit more prominant
- Featured sites, Recent Polls widgets have alignment issues
- Footer recent comments, reduce the comment excerpt length so that it fits in within two lines (a couple of them are spilling to the third line)
- Finally, earlier blog was giving a little more personal touch and projected your personality with the lamborghini… Though, it was good to take the car away, you need to park something else instead. May be your face or something like that to give it a personal touch
Cheers,
Ajith
The peel-away ad shows up like it’s supposed to in IE 7 just not Firefox.
That thing about the peel and the strip ad was true on the old site too.
I guess this is ok. I think I was expecting something a little more “wow”. It’s fine. I’m glad there’s no cartoon drawing of you, John. That’s getting real old across the blogosphere. It is much easier to see your ebook ad on the new design, so I think that’s probably the biggest improvement.
You want to see WOW, you should see the Citrus theme I got from UBD two days ago and got it on my blog. Dame that theme pops
Say it ain’t so! This new design sucks. I can barely read the [first two sentences] of each blog post on your front page. The text is way too small. Blog posts should be back to the way they were, the way the should be.
John, want to make a bet on how bad this new system of displaying blog posts will reflect negatively in your stats? I think it will suck A5S. Try out http://www.clicktale.net (not a shameless plug, no way affiliated) to see how your visitors are reacting to it.
This just proves to me that you didn’t look around like I asked. You can set blog post back to the way they were. Look around. You’ll find it.
I like this but it is a bit messy than the last version. I prefer the old one.
Awesome redesign John/UBD! Just something I noticed, not sure if its intentional… but the bottom nav bar link to “Blog” links to “http://www.johnchow.com/’.get_settings(‘home’).’/blog/” it still redirects to “http://www.johnchow.com/blog/” but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
That has been fixed now.
Nice design. But blue is boring.
Just looks like another generic make money online blog now. There’s no John Chow character in it!
John, the last theme was terrible.
This new one is probably the best I’ve seen across the blogosphere. Everything above the fold is flawless. Gratz!
I don’t really think you needed to pay $2k to UBD for a design like this. Don’t get me wrong, it is nice I just don’t think it is worth the cash.
Truth be told, UBD makes more money selling ready made themes for $99. Both take about the same amount of time to design. However the custom themes are only for one customer so that one customer has to pay for all the hours it takes to design.
I like your new look, I just re-design my website as well , Check it out
i thought the car will be replaced by an airplane… but this new look is absolutely fast!
Hummmm John You added yet another spot for the 300×250 ads, opened up more ad space = more money for Johnny. Smart layout John, keep it up.
I just bought the new Citrus theme Dev package from UBD and got it onto my site yesterday, man does my site pop now. Check it out when you have a chance. (what is with everyone getting new theme’s, shoe, you and me – great minds think a like…lol) the only thing with my site is, the same problem I always have is that darn Brian’s threaded comments don’t work….very frustrating and mybloglog widget didn’t load right either.
I would have to agree with a few points John, The layout is cleaner but it lacks your personality. I am sure you will get that figured out in time. Unless you think of more ad space as your personality.
Some of your affiliate links at the top are not working either.
I love the content page. It looks incredible, gets you right to the content, and provides a nice showcase for your sponsors.
However, your home page…hmmm John, I’m not so confident.
You are a blog, and many of your posts deal with personal material. (Like your dining adventures) So, I’m not sure if people are going to click through to the rest of the article to find out if your latest meal was too salty.
There are some strong points to your home page though…I really like the featured posts, videos, and latest photos. That really showcases all that you have been doing with your blog lately.
Overall, job well dome by UBD, my one constructive critique is go back to full posts on the index page of JohnChow.com.
This theme is MUCH nicer, in my opinion.
I did notice other blogs with the same car, with an almost identical theme…
I also found the theme on a free themes site once.
So, copycat proliferation is to be expected.
*runs to change the sugarbuzz project theme…
just kidding.
The first thing i thought by having a look was “very busy main page”………..I personally don’t like layouts where you have to search things on main page. But if we switch it to blog mode it rocks.
That is the great thing about combing blog landing pages with a traditional two-column interior layout as well. People get to choose which they prefer reading.
the little post numbers at the bottom left of the featured articles are about 60% hidden as is the ‘continue reading’ button for a few of the posts as they scroll by.
i do like the /blog version a lot better. otherwise your most current content is relegated to a tiny little area on the left.
Number hiding should be fixed now.
I like this new theme…. really cool… nice work by http://www.uniqueblogdesigns.com/
John, share with us how much is the theme cost
Very dull.
What’s with all these new designs blogs are having? Is it a new design event?
I sure hope Nate could throw a free design over for me.
-MIke
Nice design and much.. and look professional.. We use the same plugin for photo album and I know it is great Plug in
The landing page seems to be a rip-off from the problogger website.
Its surely better than the one earlier but not unique!
I think it’s funny how people keep saying that. If we were to go by that logic, than Problogger’s landing page is also a rip-off because I’d seen it on other sites before that one.
Problogger design might in turn be a rip off. Agreed.
But, lets go by who design this new V3 theme: “Unique” Blog Designs.
Don’t get me wrong: Its a good theme, but what’s UNIQUE in this theme if its so similar to others. Where is the originality?
I must be in the minority of people that the new design loads fast for. It doesn’t load slow for me at all. I’m thinking it’s something on the readers’ ends.
Nice layout…
How much it’s worth?
WOW! This is so much better than before.
Awesome… very clean layout john, but wheres your entrecard?
Looks like your link to PerformancingAds at the top is mislabeled as “Shoemoney”. Check out the HTML:
<li class=”shoemoney odd”>
<a href=”http://www.johnchow.com/go/performancingads.php” style=”opacity: 1;”>ShoeMoney</a>
</li>
Love this version and there’s a lot of things I could learn from this blog.
Thanks ^.^
The header is awesome! Sidebar and widgets are great, especialley the make money online eBook widget!
But.
This theme is to bright. Borders are to soft. I miss some blue background color!
The header is awesome! Sidebar and widgets are great, especialley the make money online eBook widget!
But.
This theme is to bright. Borders are to soft. I miss some blue background color!
Greetings from Switzerland.
Its look so clean John, and larger than before..
hi man
i hate this look
i love your prievous look……….
ok
all the best!!!!
I liked the older version than the new version john… what do u say..
John why dont u make some more changes.. i think the theme is very heavy
Is the peel ad gone?
This is how JohnChow should have looked for years!
Excellent job John and Nate!
You may want to have gravatar.com open in a new window. I was going to change the pic before submitting the comment and when I went back the comment was gone and had to rewrite.
Another great theme from you JohnChow! This new theme look cleaner and nicer than the previous 1, congratulation! I like the top there (Kontera, pepperjam and other money maker), when i point my arrow there, it’s coloured! Cool! =)
Another great theme from you JohnChow! This new theme look cleaner and nicer than the previous 1, congratulation! I like the top there (Kontera, pepperjam and other money maker), when i point my arrow there, it’s coloured! Cool! =)
*Edit URL, sorry john!
I love your new themes, you paid it?
Hope you have no problem with the new themes, keep writing, I love your blog.
i guess, this theme are better than version 1 and 2. I prefer this one. Clean and loading fast than before.
it’s alot cleaner
I really like the new look. I notice the ReviewME logo is gone. Are you no longer doing reviews?
I am still doing reviews
Okay great, not that I can afford one of yours, I was just wondering.
I like the blog version of this theme. The landing page is just too busy. It’s hard to find stuff. It is a little easier than ProBlogger’s, but it’s still a little confusing sometimes.
I only read ProBlogger’s blog in feedreader because I absolutely hate visiting their blog and trying to find the post I’m looking for.
But your site does look great!
Hey John, I love the new look. I hope it helps you make $40,000 a month so you can update your ebook. Keep up the great work.
I like the cleaner lines and the interlinking of Home page and blog. Well done to you and your designer. I also like the way you use the footer to give a slew of information about the blog that only the enthusiastic reader may be searching for. That’s a great approach that you have maintained and I think it’s an idea that more people should follow.
Congratulations with the new design, it’s more clean and light for the eye. In my opinion, better. Only fix the ads section for show it complete.
Congrats on the new design. I definitely like this version more than the previous one.
Wow, time flies…..
I remember when “low resolution displays” referred to 640*480 screen resolutions, and now 1024*768 is considered “low resolution”…..
Happy about the new design. Looking good. I think a lot of us are upgrading nowadays. Nice thing ’cause it keeps content fresh and nice.
Nicely done, Mr. Chow!
something fresh! congratulations!
A little bit cleaner than the previous design, great job.
Great new, useful and beautiful design!
The only thing that I’d change is the space between the topnav and the black and white ads. It’s a lot of dead space that breaks up the beautiful design just for the sake of adding a small search box on the right.
Other than that I think it rocks!
Looks pretty good. Reminds me of Problogger.net actually (the front page).
I like the look of the nested comments, they do look better than the standard on (if you’re using the same plugin).
A lot of blue though.. reminds me of swimming in the ocean!
I like the new design , I read from RSS so don’t visit much , but I think you should add some color. Displaying the money makers in colors would be cool. Probably you’ll get more clicks as well
Because the Tabber displays a fair amount of written content, the scroll is too quick. You start reading and it’s gone. For such a quick scroll, you’d need a more graphic-heavy, content low display…
john, how long did you work on it before you made it “live”?
Nate and I were working on it for over a month.
Yup – getting down to the nitty gritty of custom blog design takes quite a bit of time, discussion and revisions. The cool thing about custom blog design is that ultimately, it is designed in a way which reflect and promote the goals of the blogger.
Dude . . . are you going to put a general comment board as a widget so that if there is a particular comment that “needs” to be made but has no category “home” to fit in it still can be read. Man, this feels a little needy!!
I like it. Looking good John. And totally true about the car. I liked the lambo you put up there but sooooo many people copied it. It truthfully got a little annoying and really unoriginal.
Congratz for the new theme John!
I think it can reduces loading time for your blog.
Wonderful ! That is great.
Looks good in firefox…… clean and simple
It reminds me a little bit of mine with that news letter layout system…. it seems to be getting propular…..
I <3 Lijit oodles too. Also notice how Guy Kawasaki and Seth Godin also use ‘em.
They’ve got a great Community Catalyst, Tara, working for them.
The stats are really helpful, and I didn’t find out about them until months onward!
i like this one… looks much easier to surf around the blog… the previous one is a bit messy…
You might want to change the copy on your advertise page now that your layout has changed.
Wow, Your blog looks great, i hope i can get a free copy of this blog
What do you mean a free copy? Hopefully you don’t mean the layout because everyone should be original.
That’s pretty damn funny that they want a free copy of this theme!
Seriously. He must be joking.
To summarise my personal thoughts on the new design. Mixed opinion!! Let’s get it straight. This theme is far better than the last. It’s softer on the eye, less cluttered and I think it appears more focused on the reader and the content than the big bright colorful adverts that took up the whole page. However, and there’s always a however, the general opinion and one I share is that it just looks to washed out. It doesn’t jump off the page and say wow. The new look very similar to Problogger now which all in all I’m a fan of.
Good luck to you John. I think it’s a great improvement. Well worth your time!
This is why I love AdBlock
Nice design but …… I do miss the main car already
Status, prestige, the high life, you know
Congrats
It seems like Nate needs some urgent buzz
This theme is too clean to feel like a rambling blog, I prefer the old one unfortunately. The new functions and features are much better though.
Hi John
I really like the scrolling featured articles addition.The new site looks great.
Thumbs up
Now I always have to click on the “blog” tab everytime I visit Johnchow. I understand that Your front page is meant for new visitors, but as a regular visitor I want to see the blog directly when I enter the URL. Maybe some cookie for regular visitors?
You can change your book from johnchow.com to johnchow.com/blog
I used my bookmarks the last time when their amount went into the hundreds. Then I stopped using them. Today I have the opinion if I can’t remember a page’s URL it’s probably not good enough to visit again.
I’ll stick with typing in your domain with the /blog for now.
The problem with cookies is that they are very easy to clear, and many anti-spyware tools automatically block them. Its a better idea to link directly to the long form of the site.
John–I really an taken by the new layout… And, actually before I read the post I moved around the page, taking it all in. Right off hand (for me personally, of course) it reminded me of my CNN page… getting a lot of headlines without having to scroll around so much. Then, once I read your post your explanation for changes was, for a lack of a better (concrete) word, thoughtful… I guess that’s what it’s all about, right? Anyway, I love, love how it is more content driven and displays so much at once. And, the site was calming (not so busy) for my eyes when it first pops up. The font style is right on and everything just seems to be in it’s own place… I would have loved to sit in on the brainstorming session(s) as you considered readers and their comments and your overall goal for a better site. Well done (I guess I could’ve just said that!).
The new design is good, but it resembles a portal more than a blog. It also has a Problogger feel to it.
I think that your reaching the limits of what WordPress can do and would be better off using a CMS like Joomla instead.
As for the “read more” link after each post, I wonder how many people will actually click this. The nice thing about blogs is that once you open the site, you scroll down the page and read. Most web users are lazy and getting them to click on “read more”, and then click the back button to continue may too much work for them.
While there is a Blog button in the menu for reading content the traditional way, its not clear what it does. What does a Blog button do on a blog? 
That’s the great thing about it. People will see the blog button and wonder what it does so they click on it!
I like the original design, and this one. The version 2 design was too awful I think. Anyways, keep up the good work.
Sweet design. Love the animated news carousel. Great work Nate!
It’s a great template and i want to have it template. Can you give that’s template, (i am just kidding)
Much smoother and less spammy feel!
Hey great new theme guys! I love the way each section is strategically placed. So much easy to the eyes.
It somehow gives me the feeling of “more activity” going on, which I think is good as it keeps people on their toes… excited to see what’s going to happen next.
Kudos to your team, eh? Wow, this puts the pressure quite high or version 4.0. I wonder how that version can trump this one. Hey, but that’s till too far to think about, mate!
- Deep Arora
I love the new design JC! Good choice.
Looks great! Keep it up.
The site really does look great. Love the pictures.
Looks great John, even sleeker. Less is more and the new look is still familiar to your regular visitors.
Okay. Three days after the revamp, here’s my opinion. Overall, the design is well done. It would be lively if the icons for the money makers were in color instead of black and white.
The new design is just great and very successful. The last one was full of clutter and I bet it was moving many new readers away. Now this site became much more readable than ever and I am sure bounce rate will decline sharply as now navigation and reading experience is much, much more better than the previous design.
Congratulations John. I am expecting a review of your new design after a month or two. I am sure you will be eager to point out the decline in bounce rate and increase in new visitors. Now your site is much more usable than before and provides a very pleasing reading and navigation experience.
Be sure that you will gain new visitors because this design will appeal many ordinary (I mean non-geek) people too. They need your site too.
1st impressions count, and my 1st impression is : thumbs up. The new design features a far cleaner header without the campy Lambo image and makes your site visually appealing and (most importantly) increases the credibility factor.
Now, off to see the video of you at the conference blogger panel.
Rob
Great job, John and Nate. Looks good! I do miss the car, but I understand the idea behind the changes. When version 4 arrives, you will hear all the comments about how people miss the old version – 3.
It’s cool!
Clean and clear.
However I liked the old big and bold expensive car!
Mik
I love the new look. It’s much less cluttered and looks more professional. Good job!
I hope that you’re having a great time at Izeafest. I went last year and that was great. This year sounds even better!
I like the look of the new design, but I totally hate the format, it is way too confusing, I think you should go back to the old traditional blog format.
If you want to go to the traditional blog format, click here: http://www.johnchow.com/blog/
Persnally i think both these templates are great, old and new, but your site definetely needed a change…
very nice theme. looks clean and loads faster!
I like the redesign a lot. Less cluttered and much easier to read as a result. The car looked nice but didn’t say much about your site. Still all the same great info, though.
John – Nice new design. I like it. Very clean look and feel. Less flashy than your last site. Now if you could get the guys at UBD to install a comment system like Intense Debate you would dramatically increase your commenting and be able to follow your commenters across various blogs. (no I have nothing to do with Intense Debate – just a great FREE service).
Great new design
Great new design, looks much better than your old blog!
I totally second that. I found the Car pic a little weird compared to money making.
But I just find this Grey thing in comments a little dull. But otherwise, great great skin!
It sounds great. Congratulations on the new version!
for ALL to ALL
Wooooow!! The website looks great!! keep up the good work John!
nice template john. It’s sooooo future. i like it !
Whats future?
I really like this one. Your site keeps getting better!
I dont see changes often but this one is really worth it.
Congrats on your new looks. like it better
Hi, no more car in the header instead many small car photos in the page. Does not matter as long as the content are useful
The skin definitely looks great and ofcourse it loads much FASTER!
This is great looking, cant wait to see revision 4 of the site.
Always staying ahead of the game.
Great! It’s really a good new theme. I like this fresh and clean page. Bravo!
John- as a woman, I like this better. I didn’t like the car, even though I still read the blog. I like the look of this better… sounds from reading that its going to work better for you too- congrats-
What does Problogger think of his site in blue?
Load faster and it is more geometrical (clean) design. I like it. You designers make a good job!
P.S. Is it unique design or I can find another exact template?
Ukion
I like your new site design, however it appears to make it more difficult to view older posts or for a novice to get around your site.
I guess you are moving away from the blog look and more towards a regular site appearance. That might work out better.
I love your new design and should fix up my own site as well.
A very googd template,it loads fater but the search powered by lijit is a bit slow.I like the outlook now.
it’s awesome theme, i love it…hmm can i have the old theme of yours John?
It’s very nice,hehe,very like it,but it should be very expensive??
i like this design alot but that batman car used to get me super excited
Actually really like this new theme… I think it is clean, and in my opinion very web2.0
I like the recent images and featured video area…Good Job!
Hi John ! Love the new look ! I’ve always been a fan as you have introduced me into blogging.
Another Filipino blogger and I have followed your footsteps and has come out with a free blogging ebook of our own. You might want to check it out and give us your thoughts on it or perhaps help us promote it. It’s at http://www.zdiaz.com/index.php/2008/09/29/finally-our-very-own-guerilla-blogging-ebook/
More power to yoru blog !
I wonder how did you add the cool “featured” articles at the top feature?
Is there a plugin, or built-into your WP theme already?
Really cool redesign. Congrts!
may i use the older version?
dont waste it..
why not giveaway..
Working now! Gravatars > MBL Avatars
Why? WordPress (Automattic) owns Gravatar!
John, it is good that you use Gravatar picture and browser address picture to build foundation for your personal brand. However, I would like to see your face somewhere else on this page. Maybe you could replace that JC logo with something more colourful like a big smily face “John Chow” style.
Now the look seems slightly too stale with all the colourful ads coming mainly after the page horizon. Somehow there is slight contradiction between colourful language and themes of this blog when compared to this new blue theme. I would order some red hot colour spots and smiling faces.
I still use gravatar.com Lets see, wow its work…
The themes look like clean John.
At UBD they do great jobs. I got personal theme of them. I like also that they code for larger size of Gravatars images … some sites have them just too mini. Why not see the original details an individual chooses to upload, especially if the same img size is donloading anyway.
You are right about the long hours part, but John and I get to take a much needed break at IZEA Fest in Orlando this weekend. I am sure John will post lots of pics.
John,
Congrats on the new design. Now please add the monthly blog income report please. I don’t care if you earned only 30 K, i just always looked forward to reading it!
Online Dividends
Well to be very frank, I am not too impressed with the new design, I think the old one was better. However, it is all just a matter of choice!
Yea it does give a clean look, white and Grey shades make me feel like I am back in the old days!
How far do the nested comments here go now? lol
Abdul,
What really matters at the end of the day is that the layout appears nice to the majority of users. It’s very hard to please everyone
Exactly. As long as it’s not everyone that hates it, it’s all good.