Over the last month there have been many changes applied to this website. Traffic to the site has increased greatly and there have been quite a few visual changes. All these things are great, and I wanted to go through exactly what was done.
There were many small visual tweaks made throughout the site, but the below list outlines the larger updates.
#1. New Logo Designed
I had a new logo professionally designed. I will be posting a review of the company later this week.
The new logo gives the website a much more professional feeling. I’ve always liked the design of the layout, but the logo was a sore subject for me. This logo fits in very well with the current website design.
#2. Moved Page Links
The page links were moved from the right sidebar to the header. This creates more room and makes those links easier to find.
#3. Added RSS, Twitter and Facebook Icons
The Twitter and Facebook links were in the footer of the site before. I integrated icons and put them into the header. I also took the email updates subscription out of the right sidebar and made that an icon, along with the RSS feed.
The icons add color and depth to the design, and my hope is that people will use these methods to connect with me.
#4. Page Additions and Updates
- I re-worked the About page, including adding new photos.
- I added an Archives, Donate, Links and Sitemap page.
- I added a WordPress and Blogging category.
- I tweaked the layout and sharing options on the post page.
#5. Most Popular Sidebar Tool
Since increasing the amount of articles I write, I noticed that many of the best articles I’ve written were not easy to find for new visitors. The hope of this tool is that visitors will stay longer on the site and discover more content.
#6. Google Search
I was using the default WordPress search, which is pretty horrible. I switched over to using the Google search, and it seems to be giving more accurate results.
#7. Topics
To make more content available that has been written before, I added a topics section to the sidebar.
Future of MontanaProgrammer.com
I will continue to post 4-5 articles per week. My goal is to not only continue to increase traffic, but also increase the comment discussions. If you would like to write a guest article for this website, please go to the contact page.
And like always, if you have any suggestions in how to improve this website, please let m know.
MontanaProgrammer.com 
The logo fits the site extremely well. Very elegant and very well done. Props to the designer!
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Thanks Joseph. The company is unique in the design industry and I am very happy with the results. I’m definitely not a designer, so I’m glad I finally have a logo that I can stand to look at.
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I hear you on the designing part. I’d personally like to be primarily front end development with simple design as necessary, but I don’t know how to market that.
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It would be hard to make it as a freelancer if you are not specifically a designer or a programmer. There are many web companies that use people who can put together a website, but don’t create the main design elements, so that would be an option.
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I agree, it’s really hard to make is as a freelancer without design skills.
People buy on pretty much looks alone. That’s a tough one for me having been trained as an engineer and scientist and mostly worked on back end code.
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If you go as a freelance web programmer, the key is to make sure they are aware that you are not a graphical artist. This doesn’t work out too well if you are dealing with clients directly, but often times web companies will outsource to freelance programmers…which can be a great scenario for you.
It seems like people/companies are always looking for competent web programmers (especially in regards to PHP).
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[…] New Logo, Site Updates and the Future of MT Programmer – Montana … […]
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I’m sure a lot of graphic designers would be saying that it’s hard to get freelance work without coding skills too.
I think that there are so many web design templates and themes out there now that as a coder you could get away with using these.
Seems that designers these days are learning some coding and vice-versa. I think this makes sense to have a bit from both worlds. 🙂
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I hear what you are saying. As a programmer I know how to work with graphic software like Fireworks and a little Photoshop.
Where the whole scenario melts down is when you have to do something creative, like create a logo (for me that is). If you saw the logo that was on this site last week, you would know what I’m talking about. 🙂
The same thing goes with designers. Everything works out as long as things don’t get complicated.
But I like being a specialist because I get paid more. I rather be great at one thing than pretty good at a few things.
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