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Things are quite a bit different around here.

Normally when I’m considering a design change, I announce it early. Then I get wrapped up in other things and procrastinate in any way you can imagine. So this time around I wanted to majorly freshen things up in time for the new year, and I figured I might be quicker about it if I just kept my mouth shut!

There are big changes and small. I’ve tested everything I can think of repeatedly and worked out any bugs I found, but it’s very possible I missed something. So if you have any problems at all, please comment here and I’ll look into it.

Here are some of the changes, to help you find your way around:

The Big Stuff

Here are some of the biggest (and potentially most confusing) changes, so I want to review them a bit more in depth:

• New Theme – AFW has a new look. I’m pretty sure that everything you could access before is still available – recent posts, archives, multiple subscription options, etc. If you absolutely can’t find something that used to be here, please let me know and I’ll add it.
• Sites Merged – This is the biggest change, especially regarding subscriptions. All Freelance Writing and All Freelance Writing Jobs have always been essentially one blog, but for a while they were on two different domains. This was for two reasons – 1. Readers wanted to be able to subscribe easily to just the jobs and not the rest of the posts, and 2. People were having trouble with job listings over-running the search results, making it difficult to find archived blog posts other than the jobs.
  • While the sites have been merged again, I only did so after making sure it wouldn’t cause those two previous problems.So… fortunately no existing subscribers should see any changes. If you subscribed to just the jobs either in your feed reader or via email, you should still get only the jobs. If you subscribed only to the main blog, you’ll still only get the non-job posts. If you subscribed to both, you should keep both, as they’ll continue to run through separate feeds. New subscribers still have the same three options – subscribe to posts, subscribe to jobs, and subscribe to comments.
  • The search issue also seems to be taken care of. I removed the job category from the search results function so when you search (using the search box at the top right-hand section of the site), you’ll only be searching the main posts / articles. Considering the past issues, I couldn’t come up with a good reason to keep them included – gigs get filled, so looking at just the last few listing posts is best anyway if you’re looking for writing jobs (and that’s very easy to do by visiting that category).Everything seems to be functioning OK along these lines, but if anyone comes across some gremlins in the subscription or search processes, do let me know.

The Rest

• Categories – I rearranged the categories a little bit – there are a few main ones (in the top nav bar) and the rest are now subcategories under them (put your mouse on the main category and the others drop down). For those who like them all in one place still, or for when you’re scrolling halfway down the page, the categories are also all listed in the sidebar. A few of them have name changes too, but they shouldn’t be unrecognizable. All of their old URLs should be directing to the new ones automatically, so you shouldn’t come across broken links.
• Subscribe to Comments – You’ll now see a little checkbox below each comment form allowing you to receive email followups if someone else comments on a post you commented on.
• Live Comment Previews – Another adjustment to the comments is the live preview. When you’re typing your comment, it will display below that text block as it will appear on the site once it’s approved (meaning you can see how any links or other code you add will be displayed before submitting it with possible errors).
• Adsense - Adsense should be completely removed from All Freelance Writing. If you stumble across an ad of theirs, please let me know.
• Job Search is Back - We used to have the job search form in the right column. It was removed in favor of the job board. That job search option is now back (the job board will probably be back as well, but is temporarily absent). Want to search for gigs? You can do it right from the sidebar.
• Post Ratings – Below each post you’ll see a star-based rating scale. You can now rate any posts on the site, and the top-rated posts will serve as one group of featured posts in the right column (you can see what others liked the most).
• Most Visited Posts – Also in the right column is another set of featured posts (designed to highlight older posts that some readers may have missed) – they’re the most-visited posts on the blog at any given time.
• Related Posts – You can now find links to related posts below each post on the site.
• Social Bookmarking – The old drop-down bookmarking option is gone, and you can find direct links to popular sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, and Twitter below each post if you want to share them or save them to come back to later.
• 10 Posts Per Page – You may remember I recently cut the blog to three posts listed per page because of Adsense rules. With their ads gone, you’ll now be able to browse more posts per page again.

More to Come

While I felt the changes were launchable, they’re not quite complete. Obviously I’ll be keeping a lookout for problems with the new features for a while, but I’ll also be adding some more – some minor, some possibly major. Here’s a preview of what may be coming (feel free to offer your feedback):

• Forums – I used to have forums attached to this blog. Not too long ago I ranted here about the person I gave them to (who committed to maintaining them), because he instead sold off the domain name. I do still have the database, and have been toying with the idea of re-establishing the forums for a few months now (since I found out what really happened regarding things being shut down before). The issue is this – I’d like to setup a forum on a specific platform if I do it, and I don’t know if the two platforms are compatible (whether I can import the old forum into the new system or not). If not, then I won’t be investing the time into launching a new forum from scratch. If I can, then I’ll hopefully get that figured out after the holidays at the latest.
• Contact Form – Not a biggie or anything, but I want to get the About pages merged and add a new contact form to make getting in touch easier.
• Free Job Listings – While I’ve accepted job listings in the past, I haven’t really done much to promote them. So for those of you hiring writers, I’ll soon have a page up with details on how to submit ads and what types of gigs I will and won’t advertise here in that format.
• Networking – I’ll be adding some networking details to the site (like my LinkedIn info and Twitter stream), so those wanting to get in touch with me off of this blog will be able to do so a bit more easily.
• Expanded Writer’s Market Database – I recently started making some new additions to my writer’s market directory, and that will be growing quite a bit moving forward. I’ll also be looking at trimming some of the sections there to keep it a bit more focused – nothing certain yet.
• New Logo – The old logo just doesn’t work with the newer site, so I’ll be re-doing that as soon as I have a chance.

I think that about sums it all up. If I missed something in the list that you have questions about (or if you have questions about anything here), just let me know and I’ll try to clear it up.

Related posts:

1. In Case You’re Interested
2. Case Study: Building a Relationship With Your Audience
3. A Few Minor Updates and Changes
4. Subscribe to the Newsletter and Get Writers Markets
5. Two Ways to Add a Blog to Your Professional Website

About the Author: Jennifer Mattern

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Jenn is a professional blogger and freelance business writer. She has worked as a freelance writer since 1999, and has been an active business and niche blogger since 2004. She owns All Freelance Writing as well as several other sites and blogs covering PR, small business, and related topic areas. She is also currently writing a nonfiction book for freelance writers called The Query-Free Freelancer, and is the author of the Web Writer's Guide e-book series.

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TAGS: afw, forums, freelance writers, freelance writing, Writers Markets