Out with the old and in with the new.
UKOffer.com was looking a bit tired and dated of late so I've refreshed the design for the New Year. This is probably about the 8th or so refresh I've had over the years - over the 8 or so years I have had the site, not just 1 year, that would be a bit excessive!
When I set out to write the brief to pass on to my designer I started to look at all the discount code sites that are out there and pick out the best bits of what they were offering. Before long I had a huge "to-do" list of functions and design elements that I wanted for the perfect discount/voucher code site. The list was about 10 pages long and contained so many features I was beginning to worry if we could fit them all into one site.
But then I decided to take a step back, take some of my own
advice and really think about what I wanted from UKOffer.com. Was it really worth building another "me-too" discount code site? I had gotten too carried away with trying to build the best discount code site in the world that I almost forgot that UKOffer.com has never been a pure play discount code site? Instead some of my most profitable pages on the site have been from special offers and promotions from selected retailers. Take this
post for example, it's not a discount code or really that special an offer. But by carefully selecting keywords and writing a useful piece of content it gets a decent amount of traffic and on a good day can earn £70 or £80 in commission. All from just from one blog post.
So I decided to abandon my plans to make the best discount code site in the world and stick with a traditional blog style design. Some of my most favourite websites in the world use this format, it makes finding the latest content really easy and I think it's pleasing on the eye too. I hope to make the site more sticky for my users by adding fresh content as often as I can, so that they will view UKOffer.com as a destination to revisit and see what the latest offers are from time to time.
I've added some more tools to make categorisation easier and added in a couple of more ways to find offers, discounts and promotions. I've also added in a new newsletter function (it's 90% complete at time of writing) as I've promised myself that this year I will try and maximise my database of active users.
So, instead of trying to compete with a load of other discount code sites I hope I've created something that is a little different. Don't get me wrong, its not revolutionary and there are other sites that use a similar format (particularly in the USA) but for me it's a slightly different approach to the genre. It also allows me to go outside of the pure discount code sector and also publish more generic offers for my users.
The site was designed and coded by Keith at
Web Design Ireland. I can highly recommend him, his work is fantastic and he is very reliable.
What do you think? Please leave a comment below and let me know your thoughts on the new design.
Opportunities for merchants - free ad placements
I will be putting a lot more resources into building traffic and visibility to UKOffer.com this year and as such I have some opportunities for merchants. The new design has been built with the following ad slots available:
728 x 90
250 x 250
120 x 600
300 x 250
So, if you can provide me with an exclusive offer using the text UKOFFER or similar and can provide a customised banner in any of the 4 sizes above I will display them free of charge. The banners just need to say something simple like "“Save 10% at xyz merchant using discount code UKOFFER”.
Please
get in touch if this is something you can offer.
What I'm listening to right now: Dwele Feat Slum Village – "Brandi"
UPDATE: Thanks to Jim at
Gone Digging and Dom at
Big Bathroom Shop for some awesome custom banners. Your banners are already live and looking good, still opportunities for other merchants though.
about me
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com, ContentNow.co.uk and some other stuff. I have no idea why I'm blue on this photo though but I like it!
Hi Kieron,
I like the new design, how come you did not use the guys at UBD and chose Web Design Ireland instead? I have a few more blogs I want themes with and I always like to follow recommendations.
Thanks,
Hi Andrew – WDI did ContentNow for me and I really like their work and their style. Nothing wrong with UBD at all, I just like to have a mix of design styles on my sites.
Hi Kieron,
Love the new site design. Maybe its just my PC but every time I visit the new site my browser hangs while 900 odd items load on screen (I dont know whether these are all images ?)
Whatever it is that is taking so long to load happens to every page and everytime I visit the site so it is not getting cached ?
Matt
Hey Kieron. Like the new look and feel – colourful, fresh and bloggy. Very nice!
Hi Kieron, I like the design too, very easy to use despite the main navigation having lots of elements. It would be good if the Most Popular, Hot Offers and Top Retailers were more relative to the section you were in – out of interest do you track conversion rates of individual offers?
Andy
I agree with matt Price. the site took 11 secs to load via internet explore and im on a 20mb connection (so says virgin)
firefox loaded the site up in 3 seconds.
Matt – thanks, will look into that.
Si – thankyou very much!
Andy – good idea, will look into that also. And yes I track conversion rates.
Same as Matt 900 odd items downloading, happens on every page…
Love the design too, nice and fresh. Would be interested in finding out how long it took the designers to develop it ??
Looks good Kieron, clean and simple which makes it easy to read and navigate. 10 posts on the home page looks quite long without a shorter page break.
I’d be interested to know which Plugins you’re using if you don’t mind sharing?
Love the new look Kieron, it’s different enough to look, well, different, but subtle enough to keep the branding the same.
I’m experiencing the same 900+ items load issue too with IE, but with Chrome it flies!
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Gadget – good idea, I will do a plugin blog post soon.
Richard – we are looking into this, have no idea what the 900 items are!
Hi Kieron,
Really like the new look – big improvement on the last design. Looks more modern and visually more appealing.
It’s not surprising the post you mentioned converts really well. The pics are stunning – something you don’t get on most discount sites.
Seems to be a problem with your ‘Detailed Information’ footer links though! Getting 404 errors.
Cheers,
Neil
I saw the new design and it is really commendable. Looks fantastic indeed!
8 redos in one year? You must be rich. I have not touched my template for a year+. Looks like that’s why I don’t earn much these days.
Atniz – no that’s about 8 “redos” in 9 or so years, lol.
Neil – thanks for the spot, all fixed now
It looks good mate, I remember the original UKOffer site, it was one of the first sites I had a link exchange with 8 or 9 years ago I think. I was yours and Joes site (cantbarsed.com) that I rememeber for some reason
Cheers Wardy! You’re making me feel old now mate, but yeah I remember the good old days of link exchanges
Hey Kieron, I love the design as well, nice and fresh. For 8 redesigns in a year says a lot mate. Nice
OK, OK I obviously didn’t make it clear enough in my original post – so I have now edited it. This refresh was the 8th or so over the 9 years that I’ve owned the site, not just in 1 year
New Layout Looks really good.
Looking good as always Kieron. You must be made of money though – I can’t afford 1 redesign per year for my blog, let alone 9!!
Just out of interest, don’t you think it will confuse your returning customers if they constantly see design changes?
Keiron,
Great blog keep up the good work.. Although I’ve no idea how you manage to keep UKOFFER profitable with 8 redesigns already this year. Why don’t you just proof off several design concepts, pick your favourite and make that live rather than changing it every-other day?
Well you’re obviously doing something right anyway.
All the best for ’09.
Jimmy
Ha ha ha.
I can only guess the latest comments are a big wind up. Anyway, I am looking forward to the next design release for UKOFFER (next month presumably)
Lol Matt I’ve come to the same conclusion and am not replying to any more “8 redesigns in a year?! Are you mad?!” type posts. Cheeky readers!!
Firstly well done on yet another successful site launch of a new design.
Which leads me to my question, On each redesign do you get different ranking for your pages within your site, or do the design not affect the traffic you recieve?
Thanks Tris
Tris – the redesign doesn’t affect the ranking, and that’s the way it should be. If it does there’s something very wrong!
Well on your reccomendation in this thread Kieron I’ve dropped your designer an email to see what he can do for me. I mentioned your name incase it helps get you any discounts for future work you send his way!
Kieron,
Love the new design – actually I really like how the logo is ‘attached’ to the banner at the top. Clever way of highlighting that offer space.
Big kudos to Keith too – i’ve used him for a few projects which i’m developing at the moment, and he’s excellent! Clearly you’ve given him a great brief though, which goes a long way towards getting the results you want from a designer.
Best of luck with the new site!
Hugh
Loaded fine using Firefox. Great design!
I saw the new design and it is really commendable. Looks fantastic indeed!I appreciate the time you spend sharing these information.tips. Thanks Pau
It is regret that I find myself commenting on this post. Following on from what I believe to be an attractive design, I decided to ask Web Design Ireland to complete a new site design for myself. The long and short of it is that despite trying so so many times to contact them, I have never received the site design but have unfortunately paid the money. Not a happy chap.
@gadget
Have you tried calling Keith? Unfortunately he has had a bereavement.
I myself had paid him in advance for some work done and was as worried as you are, but submitted a Paypal request and he refunded me unfortunately after telling me of his bad news.
I’m sure if you submit a Paypal refund request he’ll get back to you.
@Hugh.
I have emailed him on numerous occasions dating back to Feb 2009.
The PayPal refund request is my last resort.
I’m sorry to hear of his news.