Miscellaneous I’m adding archives (finally) — what do you think?

I’m adding archives (finally) — what do you think?

December 8, 2006 · 23 comments

I get emails like this every week:

Dear Mr. Sethi ,

Your web-page is very soothing to look at, but not so easy to read it. May be you can re-visit your font style.

What a cute, fobby email. So after getting 83295235 emails about iwillteachyoutoberich.com being too long and hard to read, I’m close to unveiling archives so this damn blog doesn’t show 300+ entries on one page (oops).

Richard Wu, who saw one of my desperate requests for help, has been helping build a tweaked iwillteachyoutoberich. It includes archives (so the page isn’t so long), bigger fonts so you don’t go blind, easier navigation between posts, a different URL structure, and some other small improvements.

Here’s a preview:
http://iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/ (note: this is just a preview, it doesn’t have my current blog posts, etc).

What do you think? If you see bugs or problems, please leave a comment on this post. We’ll fix anything you spot and then migrate over sometime in the next few days.

23 comments

Leave a comment

1 Bran December 8, 2006 at 10:27 am

I could care less what your site looks like (or how slow the page loads). Everyone should be reading you via feeds anyway.

http://onthefly.wordpress.com/2006/11/01/rssatom-feeds/

2 tom December 8, 2006 at 10:30 am

the archives are nice, but i like the old font better. i didn’t ever have issues with the old font.

fyi, i’m using firefox 2.0 on windows.

3 TZ December 8, 2006 at 10:40 am

I like the original site better (except for the slow download)…there’s something about that font that makes the page very unique looking. The other “improved” one, with those fonts…well, it just looks like any other “ordinary” blog…

4 Chas Grundy December 8, 2006 at 10:57 am

Friendly tip: You’ve built up some great search engine exposure over the course of all your posts… when you change your URL structure, be sure to set up redirects from the old ones so you don’t lose all those links.

5 Bru Smith December 8, 2006 at 11:03 am

Honestly, I think part of the appeal of this site is that the entire thing is on one page. It creates a chronology that gives the reader the sense that he hasn’t missed anything, and nothing has changed. You feel “in the loop”.

6 Flexo December 8, 2006 at 11:04 am

I like having the date in the URL (it doesn’t hurt Google search result listings as I’ve heard people ponder). And the right column starts below the entries in the left column in Win/IE 6 (my only option at work). Otherwise… a lot similar to what you have now, and that is good!

7 Prajacta December 8, 2006 at 11:57 am

Sheesh, who are these people that don’t like the current format?

I’d just like toyou to know that its perfect just the way it is! I hope the Table of Contents is staying!

8 TuMahler December 8, 2006 at 12:22 pm

I think its an improvement. Just one small thing: 2 line titles need a little more space between the lines. For example the second post in your example “Friday Entrepreneurs: Kennenth…”. The two lines need more space between them.

9 Catch a Gideon December 8, 2006 at 3:00 pm

I like the current format as well. Doing your entries in a traditional archive format doesn’t make sense since it doesn’t matter when you made posts.

Also, you already have archive pages. Just remove the title portion of the URL leaving the year and month and there you go. You just need to edit that page so that the titles are actually links to the posts instead of just text.

10 evie December 8, 2006 at 4:25 pm

I definitely prefer the original format as well. Like commenter #3, I don’t think your blog should look like every other blog. I also think including the comments in the same page is more inviting to commenters (and maybe why you receive more comments than most other blogs), and encourages your following to actually read the comments.

11 Pedro Pais December 8, 2006 at 6:02 pm

I really prefer the current format, on the new one the font is quite strange.

I think you should just create the archives and maybe enlarge the default font a bit.

You also have some stuff that’s on a light gray that’s quite hard to read, maybe you should think about another color.

12 Richard Wu December 9, 2006 at 1:57 pm

Some quick notes regarding the tweaked version:

The font has been increased in size by 10% in some places and the color of the text has been darkened in some places as well — to those of you who don’t like the new font…it’s the same font =)
Not everyone has broadband…the existing home page will take (I’m pulling a number out of the air) 2 minutes to fully load on a modem. That’s a long time to wait.
If you’re someone who follows the website regularly, most likely you’re not going to scroll down and read the older articles that often…how often do you pick up your favorite novel to reread it?
@ Chas: We’ve worked to redirect existing article URLs and maintain the search engine rankings to the new URLs
@ TuMahler: Thanks for the feedback I’ll talk to Ramit about that change.
@ Pedro: Can you specify which places are hardest for you to read?

Keep the feedback coming and thanks in advance!

13 dimes December 9, 2006 at 2:01 pm

I’ve always been a fan of the TOC myself, though unrevealing post titles don’t help much.

14 Jennifer Lynn December 10, 2006 at 2:25 am

Hi Ramit. I’ve just recently found your blog via a Google search, I believe. I don’t know at this point because I’ve just spent, like, two hours reading down the page – almost your entire blog. My brain is about to have an aneurism now. Thanks for the informative read.

*spasms off to bed*

15 Jonathan December 10, 2006 at 12:51 pm

I’d just like to see archives myself. All blog posts should not be on one page. Nothing else needs to change though.

16 Ted December 10, 2006 at 10:16 pm

The preview looks terrible and common like every other blog. Keep the TOC as is. The front page gives me the impression I am looking at a vast vault of information. If people dont like the size of the font then make it bigger in the web browser or get the site via rss.

17 Enrique December 11, 2006 at 3:39 am

I like one page layout with one single issue to educated us or make us think.

I would placed your new e-book at the right of your page.

So, New people are exposed to your work.

Enrique
em99_9@yahoo.com

18 Kimen December 11, 2006 at 8:40 am

The gray text is the hardest for me. I use a laptop screen and unless I have the screen pushed way down (like at a 120 degree angle) it’s really hard to read the gray text.

But the blog is worth it

19 gCent December 11, 2006 at 10:41 am

Nice improvement. Just two comments:

- In IE6.0 the content of the right column is displayed in the bottom of the page. (In Firefox 2.0 it’s ok)

- In both browser the long string “we’llchargeyou$25laterbutdon’tworryaboutthatrightnowit’sChristmasafterallhappyholidays!!!” goes over the right column.

20 Ben December 12, 2006 at 9:07 am

Please, please, PLEASE syndicate your entire posts. I don’t want to leave my aggregator to read your excellent posts.

21 Ramit Sethi December 12, 2006 at 9:20 am

I do. My feeds are full-text, so check your feeds and try re-subscribing.

22 Adam December 17, 2006 at 1:26 pm

Maybe start using the tag to break things up a bit on the front page. I could see that being the most frustrating aspect of visiting the front page. It’s hard to //quickly// know what the most recent info is without going on a trek along the scroll bar.

23 Prasad December 30, 2006 at 11:22 pm