There will be a couple of minor changes to the look and feel of ToolGuyd.com. I also wanted to take this opportunity to invite you all to offer feedback. Comments, criticisms, and concerns are all welcome.
1. RSS Email Subscription Merge
I have been putting this off for a while, but I will soon combine email lists for RSS subscriptions. Over a year ago we started using a new service to send out automatic email updates, but did not migrate email addresses from the old service to the new one.
2. Followup Comment Subscriptions to be Disabled
Just below the comment box at the end of each post is a toggle for commentors to subscribe to followup comments. This is not a very heavily utilized feature and has been causing headaches, so it will be shutdown.
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3. Possible Comment System Shift to Disqus
I have been toying with the idea of Disqus for a while now and might test it out for a month or two. This would give frequent commentors more tools and discussion features but also allows for anonymous commenting.
4. Improved Navigation
While I like to think that ToolGuyd.com is easy to navigate, things could be better. Part of the overhaul will be to consolidate category and tag classifications. A few months ago I removed a drop-down list from the sidebar that included all 80 “categories.” Most readers seem to use the top menu navigation most, so that’s where I will focus most of my attention.
5. Main Page Layout
14% of all pageviews in the past 30 day are of the main front page. For the same time frame the most popular post had a 2.1% share and the most popular navigation category had a 1.3% share.
3/4 of those pageviews are made by returning visitors. This means that slightly more than 10% of ToolGuyd.com traffic is by returning visitors checking out the new content.
Our main page is simple and I have tried to cut out as much clutter as possible. Few readers clicked on “categories” and “tags” previously listed next to posting dates, so I took them out. 99.8% of all posts are written by me, so there’s no need to have author details with every headline.
There are several developments in the works, but this is where I could especially use your feedback. What do you want to see on the front page, and what don’t you want to see?
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Chris Greene
It already works for me the way it is. Thanks for all you do. You have provided me with more than one “heads up” on a good deal I never would have known about. I’m not a “tool nut” (although I imagine my wife would open my shop door and say “Excuse me???”), but I do enjoy your website and the information and entertainment it affords me. Keep up the good work!
Mrs. ToolGuyd
I’ve had that reaction more times than I care to count.
Mark S
I’d simply say keep up the good work! The articles I enjoy are 1. reviews 2. informational and 3. deal callouts. I’ve have been squirreling away QUALITY tools this year after getting married and getting ready to settle down. Some of my favorites are: Channellock WideAzz wrench, Milwaukee 02424-6 drill, Craftsman thin profile ratchet & USA made sockets, Makita LXT cordless drill, Empire level, Knipex 10″ adj. wrench & old Hitachi sliding compound miter saw I got off craigslist. I figure by the time we have a kid on the way or decide on buying a house, my budget will be severely limited.
Keep on nit picking, dissecting products and know many share your neurotic attention to detail 😉
Stuart
Those are all solid choices. With the Milwaukee drill, I’ve had the 0234-6 on my wishlist for the longest time.
I don’t think it has ever been said that I have a neurotic attention to detail, but it’s probably true. I suppose it comes with the territory.
Gary T.
I have no problems with the way your site is currently setup. I find the information you provide very helpful. Your site has helped me in the purchase of quite a few tools and some other things mentioned by you. Keep up the good work.
Stuart
Thanks, and I’m glad you find it helpful!
AndrewC
I like the current setup for the most part. If you ever have a special, time consuming post, like product comparison, I could see giving that post a special spot of prominence on the page. As for content, I most look forward to comparison reviews, deals, links to interesting tool forums discussions, and DIY/projects. Less interested in product release info and reviews of individual items. But I do appreciate the effort in having a new post every day, and thats why your site has been one of my daily go-to sites for several years. Thanks.
Stuart
I hope to increase the number of project-related posts in 2013 and reviews as well. A few comparisons are possibly in the works if I can come up with useful test parameters.
I’m glad you enjoy the content, and thanks for coming back for more!
This past month was actually the site’s 4th anniversary. The last time I made major layout changes was nearly a year and a half ago. It’s about time for a design revisit, but there are plenty of new content plans as well.
Chris T
My only suggestions would be:
1. Give stories on the main page a smaller physical area around them, so more stories in less space without changing font size. You’re standard artwork size might need to be shrunk too since its always larger than text. Just to condense the information and give the main page a more “list” appearance without scaling the frames on the right side of the page down any.
2. Preface your stories so the reader knows right off the bat what the content is, or make meta tags visible in the title bar area, for example:
“Dremel Moto-Saw Preorder Sale”
could be
“Preorder: Dremel Moto-Saw on Amazon”
“Home Depot, Milwaukee, and Makita Under Fire for Anti-Competitive Practices”
c/b
“Legal: Home Depot, Milwaukee, and Makita Under Fire for Anti-Competitive Practices”
“Kobalt Magnum Grip Pliers on Sale for $15 at Lowes”
c/b
“Deal Alert: Kobalt Magnum Grip Pliers on Sale for $15 at Lowes”
The second one would be nice when checking RSS also.
Other than those two minor things, thanks for all you do and I love the site.
-Chris
Stuart
Thanks for the feedback!
I have been working on this, but it’s trick to do so without things appearing to run together. One thing I’ve been toying with is having a set number of thumbnail image + headline stories in a list, and then a shorter list of just headlines. But there are several reasons why that’s ideal, most notably how it affects subsequent “pages.”
Changing image size might be possible, but I’m not sure how much smaller than 150px x 150px I can go. There’s definitely room for collapsing some of the top and bottom margins.
Regarding prefaces, I might try that out for certain things, thanks for the suggestion. Possibly only for the most frequent post types, such as new tool previews and reviews. It’s a fine line I would have to be careful about.
PutnamEco
Please DO NOT switch over to Disqus it is not web compliant and it is script ridden bloatware that makes it hard for anyone not using the latest microsoft products to interact with. It also has a hyper spam filter that ends up filtering many legitimate posts.
Stuart
Message received, thanks. I’ll back-burner the idea for the time being.
Fred
I know I’m late to the party, I assume most of the changes you want are to focus on user experience but it seems like everyone is happy with the ‘web’ stuff about it. If changing the presentation or overall layout makes it easier for you, I’m sure it would be fine too but I wouldn’t change anything unless it’s under the hood for your own convenience.
I do like the idea of prefacing the headlines above, and I would say the only recommendations I would give are also content related; followups on previous reviews (especially with tools that work well together) comparisons & recommendations (I know you hate comparative reviews) of products you’ve reviewed or mentioned sales about, and maybe a tweak to the category system to allow an overall ‘pro/prosumer/home user’ kind of ‘rating’ for each tool you preview or review. This may sound silly at first but I think it can help augment the existing category system in the long term.