Train-ee.com Relaunches
I’m pleased to announce, after way too many 12 hour days and weekend hours, that Train-ee.com has relaunched. The new site features a slightly different architecture, a new visual design, and a few other niceties.
Most of the nuts and bolts regarding the new site can be found on the related about page - but I will call out some of the changes here as well.
I had two major goals for this redesign - implement a site architecture that would keep the top-level nav consistent and do a drastic visual refresh. The first was necessary because - while Train-ee continues to evolve - I wanted to be able to make changes to the products and services I offer without drastic changes to main navigation. The second was, well, self-evident. The first design of Train-ee was put together in a hurry in order to get the site live to be able to sell the book. At the time I launched the site last January, it was largely an experiment. I had no idea what the demand would be for EE-related training materials so didn’t want to overthink the site before launching. Now 10 months later I’m better able to justify investing in a better design based on the performance of the site so far - which has greatly exceeded any expectations I might have had.
Other additions to the site:
- If you’ve made a purchase from the site in the past, you should now see links to re-download/view those items in your profile (log in, then click the “Profile” link at the top/center of the site). Hopefully this alleviates some of the issues with download links getting lost, ect.
- The profile page - along with all the other related member type areas - are brought into the context of the site design for a more unified experience.
- The site features my first tag cloud implementation. I’ve been reluctant to use these in the past after seeing tagsets get unmanageable and unusable on community site. In this case the tagset will be controlled by me, and offers me a way to provide navigation to information in ways that would be difficult with categories.
- Testimonials are featured quite prominently throughout the site, and get more specific the more you drill into the site.
- I’ve designed the site with an eye towards having other authors than just me. If you’ve ideas for EE tutorials that you’d like to post on the site—let’s talk.
I’m sure there will be more to say about the site but for now take a look around, see the sights, and let me know if anything doesn’t work or look right for you (so long as you’re not on IE6 that is, in case it is what it is..;)).
Previous Comments
Date: Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Comment: #2
Like the new design. It feels very clear and strong. Just wanted to ask you on a could of little points.
1. you do not seem to have a robots.txt file.
This can be good and saves alot of lines in you error logs. It is worth having even with allow all in and a pointing to your sitemap file which I did not find.
2. more importantly I think your title tags should be reversed.
<title>Train-ee ExpressionEngine Training | Free Tutorials | 22 - Display…...
Right now in google your titles will only get this far.
Train-ee will be strong enough on your pages not to be the first title on anything but the homepage. Like this your going to get better traffic:
<title>22 - Displaying Related Events on Ministry Pages | Free Tutorials ......
3. Your meta description is the same on all the pages.
<meta name=“description” content=“Certified Expression Engine® Training by Boyink Interactive” />
This is worse than not having a description often. If you have no description Google will choose something. If you do google will often use it. Your text is not bad, but will not describe most pages. Googles webmaster tools will suggest duplicate descriptions, short descriptions and duplicate titles are all bad.
I won’t comment on the Keywords as lots of people do not value them. I have written a little plugin to load the top words from the page in there cos I still do.
If you have done any of things for a reason all good to you. As the rest of your work is good.
by T-ee. G-ee.
Date: Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Comment: #3
Congrats on the relaunch Mike, love it. L-oo-k-ee-n Good!
Thanks for the technical run throughs as well, always insightful. Maybe it’s built w/ EE v.2 in mind huh?
Cool-ee-o
by Zac
Date: Monday, October 6th, 2008
Comment: #4
Now that is what I am talking about. Great redesign!
by Mucha
Date: Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Comment: #5
I concur… great redesign Mike. Keep up the great work. I for one have been helped tremendously by your expertise and passion for EE.
Date: Wednesday, October 8th, 2008
Comment: #7
Hi Mike,
Congratulations on the launch of the new site. It looks amazing and already I find it easier to navigate.
I am halfway through my biggest ever EE project, so have been a frequent visitor to this site, and have also been a recipient of your help recently on the EE forums.
Thank you very much for your time and efforts in creating this site, and for your help in the forums.
Cheers!
by Steph
Date: Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Comment: #11
Oh, the redesign is lovely! (though it appears I’m a little late to the party :P) I particularly like the front page; the big pictures and snazzy fonts feel friendly and welcoming.
And thanks again for the fantastic tutorials—they’ve really flattened the EE learning curve for me. I may even finish building my first site at this rate!
by Mike Boyink (Author)
Date: Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Comment: #12
Thanks Steph - better late than never..;)
by Efrain Barcena
Date: Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Comment: #1
Great re-design Michael. I like it a lot. I’m glad Train-ee has been a successful project. Train-ee is my favorite resource for learning EE and thanks to your tutorials, I’m being able to create awesome sites. Next week I’m launching a church website I created based on your tutorials.
Thanks and congrats on the new look.