andreasviklund.com

Here it is, my own version of the Daleri Selection theme that I presented in the previous post. I am perfectly sure that lots of pages, posts and details are broken on my site right now, so please don't shout too loud if you run into something that doesn't work. I'll spend the next couple of days on reviewing all pages to make sure that everything works…

So, what about the new look? Well, first of all, it has a third column and needs a screen width of 1024px to look well. I know that leaving 800px behind is a sensitive point, but according to my site statistics very few of the site visitors are still running 800px. Feel free to protest if you don't like this change, feedback is always welcome. The sidebars will be organized in a better way than before, so it will be easier to browse subpages to the different site sections. The main menu will contain fewer links that will lead to site sections (like "MP3 music", "Website templates" and so on), and each site section will have a number of subpages (for example: "andreas01" and "andreas02" under the templates section) that you will be able to access through a subpage menu in the left sidebar. I will also open up the possibility to get sponsored links on other pages than the frontpage - something I have not had before that many have asked for. The sidebar parts are still not completed, so the sidebars may be a bit confusing right now.

And what more? Well, some new colors, some new styles. The content area is wider (600px instead of 540px), which will allow me to post larger images among other things. As mentioned before I will add lots of content pages, one page for each template and theme - with additional material for every release. I will also put direct links to the latest theme and template release in the sidebar so that it is easy to download the latest design. But more about that later. For now, the main priority is to make sure that the basic site features and pages are functional!

Let me know what you think of the changes. And don't read out too much from the header photo, I will explain the background of it in my next post!

Edit: …and it validates!

Edit 2: I know it has no significance in reality, but andreasviklund.com now has a higher Technorati authority than the three most popular blogs in the world (Engadget, Boing Boing and Gizmodo). My technorati rank is #4, which means that there are three blogs in the Technorati universe that has more incoming links than this site - but which are also excluded from the top 100 blogs list. This is useless trivia since the majority of my incoming links are from people who use my designs, but still very cool numbers.

Edit 3: I got to get some sleep. Most things should work now, but the archive will be down for today. I've left the monthly archive links in the sidebar in case someone wants to read older posts, but those links will be removed once the archive page is functional again. Contact form and commercial templates should also work now.

One of the things I have planned for a long time that will be launched at the same time as the new design (tomorrow, always this tomorrow…) will be theme variations. Pre-created customized versions of the themes, based on common requests from users and other designers. For example, a lot of people have asked me for Swedish versions of my themes, so translations are ready to be released. And others have asked for wider versions of the WP-Andreas00 and WP-Andreas01 themes for WordPress, and I will provide that as well.

Each theme will get its own page, where all these custom versions (and other modifications) will be listed with direct download links. Want a light version of Daleri Dark? Or a 3-column version of 1024px? If the demand is big, I will create it and add it to the list.

What kind of variations would you like to see to the themes in the future? Let me know, your opinion matters! This will apply to the website templates as well so feel free to write in comments for those as well. But please keep in mind that the templates will take much longer time for me to create all those variations since I will have more than 20 templates to work with when the new ones are released…

To see one really beautiful example of what a modified theme can look like, you can visit the newly launched website of the Ájtte Museum here in Jokkmokk. The site is based on a wider version of WP-Andreas00 with a number of small changes - and translated to Swedish. It is probably the prettiest site I have seen using that design, the enlarged header and the large amounts of beutiful photos add a lot of value to the design…

Tomorrow? Are you sure?

No, I am never sure. And I know that you know that by now. But I am happy to announce that I have now found the first andreasviklund.com site sponsor - so now I have only two sponsoring spots available:

The new "sponsored links #2" - A set of links in the sidebar of all pages except the frontpage. The frontpage links are managed by Text-link-ads.com, but I was not able to add a second set of links for other pages than the frontpage so I will do it manually. Currently 8 link slots free, sold for 3, 6 or 12 months at the time.

The "template sponsor" slots - Sponsorships for ALL my templates (and soon also WP-themes). Each template and theme page (which means the page on andreasviklund.com which includes screenshots, add-ons, additional images, template comments, tips and hints and the variations that I have described earlier in this post - NOT any page in the template itself!) will have space reserved for a sponsored link or a small image banner. Once paid for, the sponsorship lasts for as long as the template is available - probably for several years. Each new template release means a new sponsorship slot, and based on the big interest for this idea I think that it will be very popular. I don't know what this may be worth, but I welcome bids and offers to get a starting point. I guess that andreas01 will be the first one to go!

The whole idea with putting more ads on the site is to allow me to work with making templates and giving free support as a full-time job. If everything works out as I want to, I will soon be working in a team with my girlfriend Johanna - based on the lovely business model that makes it possible to make a living from giving away things for free. That will only work with the help of sponsors, generous donations from people who use the templates for commercial purposes and my percentage for sales from the commercial template store, but it looks perfectly possible now so we are going to give it a try!

But I am always careful about ads, and I can assure you that they will not become disturbing. They fit greatly into the new design (which I'm testing on my secret test site right now). There will be no flash, only small image banners (if any at all, currently there are no images) and no AdSense, minimalls, ebay auctions or anything like that. All links will be clearly marked as sponsored links, but they are still placed in visible places to make sure that the kind and helpful sponsors and advertisers get the attention that they deserve. If you like my work, I hope that you will accept this and support my sponsors. Their help will result in lots of new templates, many new themes, much better support (not only from me but also from Johanna!) and hopefully a real blog!

Yes, I'm planning to become a blogger as well. For real! One that actually writes interesting posts every now and then. It is a little fantasy of mine, it would be a fun thing to do. Especially since my site would be my full-time job. But we'll see… For now, the new design is priority #1. Let's hope for a good tomorrow!

Ok, here is another promise that you will have to wait for: The template page will be improved soon! (OK, that was a lame one…) I have written a note about it right on the page, where I explain what it will look like once I run the big update script for the site.

Among the new features, the most requested thing will be add-ons. New images (LOTS of new headers and backgrounds!), additional CSS styles, modified CSS styles (for example, a 3-column version of andreas03) and user-submitted material. Want to contribute? Just let me know, I'll add everything that I like, and maybe even some stuff that I don't like. We'll see…

And each template will get its own page on the site, so it will be easy to find the additional material for the template you want. And one of the two new sponsoring options will be the possibility to sponsor single templates - by putting a banner or a text link on the single template pages. At the launch there will be 18-20 ad slots available. All sponsors will also get listed on a separate "Thank you!"-page, along with people who support my work through PayPal donations. The top-5 donators will be listed in the sidebar of all pages on the site as a special thanks to show how much I appreciate your help. You are great, and I hope that this will be a good way to give you something more in return…

Now, as you all know, I am a slow person to fulfill my promises. But my girlfriend Johanna will be away over the weekend with the dogs, leaving me with nothing to do but working on the update. I'm hoping to have most of it all ready to go online on sunday. Until then, can anyone guess the new name of the upcoming design series? It is possible to find it if you do some investigation work on the web, but if you manage to find it - please keep quiet for a few more days!

Today I'm celebrating that it is exactly 50 years since my mother Yvonne was born! It is a quiet and very peaceful celebration since she left this world seven years ago, but her birthday is still a day that means a lot to me. And with the recent celebrations for dad in mind, I felt that I wanted to do something in the memory of mom as well. I'm working on the final details of it now, and hopefully you can find it right here soon!

In other news, the music will be removed from the site tonight and other things will be moved and re-organized. Look back here tomorrow for more details. And to all of you who keep on e-mailing me about advertising on the site, make sure you check back here tomorrow since I will present a new advertising option that many people have asked for.

I have always liked Technorati, it has been a great site for keeping track of interesting topics and finding new bloggers. And it has been a great site to find sites that use my templates, since they are basically printed out in a nice list because of the incoming links to me.

A year ago I wrote in this blog that I had reached the Technorati Popular Blogs chart, and I got as high as #31 on the chart before I was removed from it. Of course I don't belong there, since the incoming links are mostly credit links from sites that use my themes and templates. But I have still kept the incoming link number and the official Technorati rank, and I have now been ranked among the top 15 sites in the world for one year according to the Technorati rank. Since I am disqualified from the real chart, I haven't got more than a few new visitors from Technorati. But today I found out that they have renamed the incoming link count, and now they call it "Authority" - which means that it is time for me to give a hint that something is wrong:

My current Technorati Authority and Technorati Rank would place me right after Engadget on the Popular Blogs chart. As cool as that may look, it is not where I belong. So I hereby ask the Technorati folks to write me a line if there is anything I can do to help out here. If not, I'll just wait for things to happen…