Site Update:
BIG changes are coming to Dream Wedding Directory. I’m very excited to ‘let slip’ that we have a whole new web design coming soon to Dream Wedding. With the whole new look we will be adding a new section to the website. While I can’t tell you exactly what it is just yet, I can say that we will be going into to a public beta very soon. To find out more about what this means, please ‘like’ Dream Wedding over at our Facebook page or follow us over at twitter and watch out for our updates.
It’s quite a makeover for the Dream Wedding Directory, with most of the changes giving more prominence to Featured blogs:
Homepage
- Featured blog profiles. To showcase Featured blogs on the homepage four Featured blog profiles are now displayed, which change daily. Each of these shows the blog screenshot, directory category and a snippet of their review.
- Recent updates from Featured blogs. This is a very exciting development for Featured bloggers as their latest posts are now displayed on the homepage.
- New images to represent categories. Rather than use screenshots of blogs listed in the directory, we have now added images to represent the categories. This creates a better user experience; with the images more closely representing the category topics.
Blog Directory Page
- Realignment of blog categories. The blog directory categories are now organised as five rows of two, making the recent updates from all blogs more visible.
Category Pages
- Today’s Featured Blog is more prominent. The visibility of Today’s Featured Blog for each category has been improved, including more text and increasing the size of the five teaser thumbnails.
The site has also got wider to make room for a big new directory addition to the site, which Derek and I are currently working on.
Derek and I are very pleased and excited with our changes to the directory. We are confident that both wedding suppliers listing with us, and visitors to the website will benefit from these improvements.
Lindsay.
Blog names
I have decided to list wedding blogs under their companies business names in the blog directory. Some businesses have different names to their blogs, and I was concerned this was causing confusion to visitors of the site.
The blog directory still links through to the original blog, nothing has changed about the links, but all blogs will be listed under their company name.
Updated FAQ and submission form
I have also updated my blog directory FAQ page and the blog submission form. These changes explain the different listing types in more detail and what the requirements are for entry.
I believe these changes will have a positive impact on the site, helping visitors browsing and wedding suppliers listing their blog within my directory.
With some of the blogs listed in the wedding blog directory, there was an issue getting the thumbnail images that accompany blog posts. This was most noticeable when a Featured blog was highlighted as ‘Today’s Featured Blog’. Normally a row of thumbnail images are displayed along with a more prominent entry on the category page.
As you can see with this example of Mark Skeet Photography, who was one of the blogs affected, no post images were displayed.
It is something that has been troubling both Derek and me for some time. Not only was this problem letting the blog directory down, but we felt we were also failing some of our Featured bloggers who were affected.
In a spark of inspiration – at the weekend – Derek realised there was a very simple and elegant solution to the problem. First thing this morning he got to work implementing the fix and I am very pleased to tell you it is now live on the directory.
Here is Mark Skeet Photography showcasing a ‘Today’s Featured Blog’ entry, in the photography category, in all its splendour.
Hi and welcome to the Dream Wedding website,
My name is Lindsay and I have created this site as a resource to connect wedding vendors and customers. Right now you will find a blog directory, to which I have added an entry to each category to get it started. I will be filling it with the great blogs out there run by wedding vendors and service providers. If you run a blog about weddings in the United Kingdom, please submit your blog for a free entry.
I hope you enjoy your visit and will come back soon to see what’s new,
Lindsay.
