If you’re extremely passionate about something, like small businesses and leadership, we recommend starting a blog where you can focus solely on the topic you want to write about. This is how Small Biz Musings came to be born, Kim has been on the leadership journey for 16 years and wanted to share the pitfalls, insight and lessons she has learned.
The initial site was built eons ago, by herself. This is why we (the team) suggested an upgrade once we launched the new 8THIRTYFOUR site.
We know you’re not into long case study blogs, so check out the pretty pictures and let us know what you think.
The Goal
The old site was just a blog. There was no about page, no contact, no nothin’. So we decided from the start that we needed to change that. Mostly we needed a page for the dogs.
The new site had to:
- Focus on blogging (since it’s, y’know. A blog)
- Look great
- Include separate pages for about Kim, the dogs, etc.
- Link to 8THIRTYFOUR
- Rock on mobile
- Pull in her social feeds
- Promote newsletter sign ups
- Integrate with MailChimp, Google Analytics, and a buncha other stuff
- Feel like something Kim would actually use
The Process
The fun thing about having your boss as your client is that they know how the process works. While she tackled content (since it was her blog in the first place), we got to work on the rest.
…And by that, we mean the nerdy digital team started diving into keyword research and devising a brand new site structure. We made sure she actually had metadata and proper html hierarchical markup (unlike the old site). And we did a lot of other nerdy shit, too.
The Results
Prepare yourself. Here we go.
The old:
And the new:
It’s night and freakin’ day.
Okay, enough talk. Staring at the photo is nice, but you’ve got to go to the actual site. Hover over some buttons. Click on the newsletter sign-up in the footer. It’s probably the most fun site we’ve ever been a part of.
And while you’re hyped about that, tell us how we can make your site rock, too.
