If you haven’t noticed already, I have a new design for the Lazy Owner.  The look and feel is a bit different and there are some additional components like a top articles section and a sign-up for the Lazy Owner eBook.

I installed it over the weekend and there are still a few things that need to be tweaked to get it where I want it but I think it’s ready for prime-time at this point.

The Old Design

If you don’t remember (or never saw) the old design, here it is. 

The first design was meant as a way to “test the waters”.  See what would work best for the site and what it needed to get better.  After a few months of writing and working with the site, I realized there were some things I didn’t like or that were missing from the design:

• It needed 3 columns.  This was my biggest concern.  I felt that a lot of important content/information was pushed down because of just 1 side column
• It needed to be wider.  Much like the previous item, I felt the width was too limiting.  For a 2 column site, it was already constricting, but I felt that there was a lot of wasted room.
• Needed room for advertising.  The plan has always been to put on some advertising but I didn’t know just what would be used.  With a better idea of what ad options I’m going to use, I needed a design that would fit.
• Newsletter sign-up.  I think it’s always good to have an e-mail list and I knew I wanted to add one eventually.  This gave me the opportunity.
• I didn’t like the font.  I don’t remember exactly what it was but it didn’t look clean enough for me.

Version 2.1?

While I like the new design, I realized that there was a big problem with it - the headline is below the fold.  With so much information, you can’t see the headline so when you go to a new page, it looks like the page you were just on. 

So I’m thinking about moving the 3 sections under the banner to the side and move the headline and top nav up a little bit. 

If you have any comments or suggestions, let me know.