kiria.ge The Redesign of OrmanClark.com

[planetanews]

It’s been 9 13 loooong months since the first version of OrmanClark.com made an appearance on the interwebs and version two has been on my “to-do” list for the last 12! While version one was intended as an experimental playground to hone some skills, it gained an awful lot of exposure around the web from galleries, blogs and social media – something that I hadn’t planned but of course was delighted to see. In the first week of launch, traffic soared and remained steady over the next few months – not bad for an accident!

 

 

 

 

Pros and Cons of Exposure

Gaining so much exposure in such a short space of time undoubtedly brings many benefits. The most obvious benefit of receiving so much exposure is a direct increase in client work. Whilst I was not struggling for work, enquiries began flooding in (and continue to do so even so far after launch) and in the last 12 months I’ve had the pleasure of working with some great people on some equally great projects. Other benefits include a raise of profile, increase in backlinks (for SEO), job offers, citations in publications, an increase in residual traffic, and much more.

 

There is a downside however and that is having to admit that you only have one pair of hands. While I’ve worked on some fabulous projects I’ve also had to turn down some amazing ones due to inconveniently needing sleep and the phrase “We’ll do it tomorrow, I promise!” becoming my favourite saying. Not much of a downside you may think, but on a personal level it does bother me that there are projects I would wholeheartedly love to work on but simply can’t – perhaps something you can identify with.

 

 

Personal Projects on Hold

For me there is a larger issue that arises from lack of time and that is having to put personal projects on the back-burner. Any freelancer worth their salt will capitalise on an increase in leads as nothing in this game is promised, but in doing so personal projects get delayed. There are a number of half-finished personal projects of mine floating around the web (and my hard drive) waiting for some much needed attention which, in an extremely long way around, leads me to the point of this post – ormanclark.com version two! Version two, as I’ve already mentioned, has been on my radar for far too long, and now I have finally managed to fit it in!

 

 

Version Two

Rather than a brand new concept, version two is more of an update and extension of the original. The single-page layout of the main content has remained as well as the earth/sky theme – although now has been extended to include outer-space. The 4 sections to the front page now include more up-to-date information and the graphical elements have had a much-needed face-lift.

 

The new version is still a little experimental in nature, using a mixture of jQuery, CSS3 and @font-face. Here’s a little run-down of what I’ve used:

 

1. jQuery ScrollTo Plugin
   This was used to animate the scrolling functionality between sections
2. jQuery Cycle Plugin
   This was used to rotate the “I’m currently working on” projects
3. jParallax
   This gives the effect of the projects floating in space
4. Typekit
   Typekit was used to securely use the @font-face functionality
5. ColorBox
   A lovely little lightbox script used for showing more detail about my work

The largest addition to the new version is the blog which of course is built on WordPress. For a long time I have planned on having a place to openly discuss subjects, comment on news and distribute freebies, and now I have it. As you should all know by now I only have one pair of hands and so I won’t be posting like a madman, only when absolutely necessary – there’s no need to add to the ‘noise’.

 

You can still see version one (bugs and all) of OrmanClark.com here

 

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mynameisorman/~4/W_HMANqUrOw

 

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