Introducing ZJ Blog Version 3.0

When I first went live with ZacJohnson.com, I knew I wanted to stand out from the rest. The first blog design that I had when I went live, was a custom blog design with absolutely no ads or banners. Then in December of last year I went with a new blog design after meeting with UniqueBlogDesigns. Once the new design from UBD went live, I started writing monthly revenue reports as the blog then became a new revenue source. Nearly one year later and ZJ Blog Version 3 is released and now live!

The Original and Previous ZJ Blog Design

Say “Hello” to the all new and improved ZacJohnson.com. First off, I’d like to say thanks to UniqueBlogDesigns.com for the redesign. Nate and I were talking for quite a while about doing the redesign and I was skeptic. I loved the previous design and couldn’t imagine it getting that much better. I told Nate what I would like to see in the new design, and the UBD team worked their wonders and it looks amazing!

Besides the obvious look and redesign, here’s a few improvements on the new design.

Twitter Updates:
If you happen to miss any of my Twitter updates while on Twitter, you can now see my latest tweets on the right column of the blog.

More Content / Less Ads:
The previous design was limited to a 550 pixel area for articles and posts on the blog. The new design offers up to 660 pixels on written content. Less ad space and more content is better for all readers.

Improved Navigation:
Overall navigation has improved with a new header and newsletter subscription on the right side. The main page also features five rotating posts summaries, which are selected and considered some of the best posts from the blog.

Bigger Comments:
Comments are now easier to read and avatars are much bigger. Not only will your voice be heard, but your icon/face will be that much more visible.

There are a lot of new improvements and features on the way. Please browse through the new blog design and let me know what you think!

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44 Comments

  1. looking real royal here zac – I see yu stayed with the blog theme look instead of the new media look trend

  4. Pretty cool. It is wider than normal. I guess you need to have a nice widescreen huh? LoL I need to get rid of this thing.

  5. I'm liking this very much! Nice and clean, and the twitter bar is clean and flows excellently with the theme. If you don't mind my asking, what price range was this redesign from UBD and how long did it take, approximately? I'm considering biting the bullet and getting a unique design done myself.

  11. Love the refresh, Zac! The old look was great, too, but sometimes a refresh is a good change. I think this is one of those times. I also love the added touch of posting your twitter updates. Congrats, and great job to UBD!

  14. I don't like it. The only things I like are probably some of the new features, but that's about it. It looks too "GENERIC" with the "default" looking font. Is Nate and his crew finally losing their touch? 😀

    -Mike

  15. <a class="replyTo" href="#comment-91485" rel="nofollow">@Play Games Win Prizes:

    Fonts can easily be changed, I will play around with it and see which I end up liking best.

  21. I like the new layout. I like the single column on the right over the double column.

    Was actually at ubd last night downloading one of their templates. Went there after spending all day Sunday looking at the free designs on the WP.org site. ubd had just about everything I was looking for. I wish I would have taken your advice from one of your posts on their new citris design and checked them out right away.

  22. Hi Jac,

    First time commenting here but I've been following your blog via my feeds for a long time now.I think it was immediately after the john chow review. Dropped by just to say I like this theme.

  25. I prefer the old one but have to admit the new tweets thingamabob is COOL!

    Well done and I look forward to being a continuing reader for a long time to come.

  26. Zac, love the new clean, stylish and improved site design & format! Your site is definitely something for all those who are branding their blogs online to aspire to!

  28. I'd drop the rotating top stories, take too long to load.

    Other than that the new design is awesome. And yeah, the bottom part looks very nice and clean.

  32. Really impressed with the new version! Visited the site directly earlier just for a visit and see the changes and enjoyed looking around at the new features. Great work! 🙂

  33. new design is pretty good. best part the footer, much better.

    one thing i dont like is that the "# of comments" is at the top now…i'm used to it at the bottom. overall good though.

  34. I'm digging the new look Zac! It is much more organized and everything is just…easier to read. Nice job man.

  36. UBD seems to be the top bloggers choice, who am I to argue? When it is time for custom work, I will be calling.

  37. Your new theme looks very good. Good work for UBD – very nice. I have noticed that you have more quality space for ads and more modern design! Nice!

  40. Zac:

    When the home page loads, it first briefly displays the Featured Posts in a long list… all 5 spread out. Then it very quickly changes to show them conflated into the one top section.

    Secondly, the Read More red button is partly obscured by the 5th clickable square. Maybe just my system peculiarities on that last part, though.

  41. I like the new design. The sliding "Best of Zac" section is cool—how do you do that? I wonder if the empty blue space in the title bar could be put to better use—just an idea.

  43. All the blogs that I have seen from UBD are great and have some features that are well, unique. I like the look and feel of your blog. I like the off the rack themes the most I will do is buy a Revolutiontheme's theme. Nice work tho!

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