A website is like a haircut; you wake up one day and feel an urgent need for a change!
Well, that happened to me recently, I decided to change the look of this website. So I picked a new theme, added some images, and customized the look to my liking, all in a matter of a few days. I’m still in the process of fine-tuning it, but this makeover just feels so good!
WordPress grows with you! Case in point, let me show you how this website has changed over the past several years:
Original look Previous lookWith the Studio Press “Beautiful Pro” Theme
With the Divi Extra Theme
Get the Divi theme (and you get the “Extra” theme bundled with it)
You might have heard the term “web shame.” Once a site is up, many people just forget about maintaining it properly, ending up not feeling comfortable about sharing it with others at some point. They would say things like, “I have a website, but it’s now so old…,” or “Here is my website URL, but it hasn’t been updated for a while.”
Well, with WordPress, it’s not difficult to update the content or even to change the whole look by yourself!
Your website should grow with you… and with WordPress, it can!
I love the simplicity of your websites and what you do. The new main picture doesn’t seem to be cohesive with what you do. I liked the chalk board ‘message’ as it was clear and succinct because I was looking for wordpress help. Also think the picture is wasted real estate unless there is a message on it. Hope that helps from an outside source? ; )) Thanks.
Diane,
Thanks for your feedback on the image. Yes, it’s not quite “perfect”, but I didn’t want the fact that I had to look for a picture to hold me back.
What I like about it, is it conveys “creativity” which is what I strive to teach people.
But yes a more ‘on target’ image with the message that I teach that, will help
I think the website looks modern now. I’m a fan and a subscriber, even though in my opinion your previous site was way ‘heavy’ (I suppose this is a shout-out to informative copy, huh?).
I know that the banner photo is a placeholder, but I hope your final choice is, of course, relevant, but has the same aesthetic. I’m certain it will be – you’re the expert!
One crit: your bio photo is shabby. Is this a place holder as well? It looks like it was hastily cropped in a phone editing program: entertaining, not professional.
I love the new site. Simple elegance.
David,
thanks for that. Yes I like the simple elegance of it too
Looks great. Nice fresh feel to it.
Marty,
Yes the white space makes it feel fresh
The changes you have just made to your site make it much more “spacious” (literally), light, open, airy. I love the font you are using. The design is very inviting. Will your current students get to work from this design?
David,
This is a premium theme from Studio Press, that would be a separate
purchase.
And yes you can use this in my training program.
You can find information about it here:
http://www.thebestthemes.com/beautifulpro
Looks nice.
Thank Alex! Love your gravatar image 🙂
Love the new look. Now I’m going to have to copy. 🙂 This has been the most difficult thing – to choose a theme. Just when I think I’ve got it nailed down, I see another. LOL!
Linda,
Yes picking a theme can be hard, as there are so many to choose from!
Since I was already using StudioPress, it made the transition easier
Your new look is stunning and very inviting – soft and easy. Very inspiring to someone like me who has not yet created my 1st WP site.
Marge,
Yes I like the softer look too. And girl, you gotta come to one of my trainings and get your 1st site started! 😉
Love it! Were you already using the Genesis framework and just changed the child theme? Or was it from scratch? Did you have to do many changes to get it to “look right”? The new look with headers now is much more streamline and easy on the eye!
Thanks for the inspiration to “redecorate” some of my older sites! Time to get some courage and experiment! Will triple check my backups are up to date – and start playing!
Lauren,
Yes I was already using the Genesis framework with the “Prose” theme. So I just changed the child theme. Once you change themes, you have to re-connect the menus. And since I added a header menu, that made me re-organize the order of my menus.
I also added the “How We Can Help You” section, as that is a widget feature of the Beautiful Pro theme ( http://thebestthemes.com/beautifulpro )
Also since my footer was modified to be one long footer, I had to update that
and I had to move around my widgets because the widget sidebar is now wider.
I am still working on my widgets area, I just didn’t want that to slow me down.
I am also going to adjust the banner graphic at the top.
But again, I didn’t want perfectionism to slow me down and keep me from
getting a new theme up
🙂
Awesome. Love the new look. Very clean. Everything stands out – including your work. High-five!
Mike,
thanks for the kudos!
And I like your site too! Magazine Pro is a nice theme.
All the StudioPress themes are clean and light.
It is more open, I like it alot. I too, at first, was confused by the pic, but it’s a NICE pic & gives the feel that you are looking over the student’s shoulder helping them create! So it’s kinda cool! 🙂
Marr,
thanks for your feedback! Yes, that pic is not quite right, but I love your perspective of what you thought about is 🙂