Should I launch a Network before I love the Design

[evossman]

Ok, so I have a name, I have a bunch of blogs, I have a great promotional contest but my I feel like the design of my blogs in general is basic and dull, and the I can't quite get the design of my blog network main page to look snazzy.

I'm one of those that will probably never be satisfied, so should I just launch my network without a beautiful design in place and hope the contest and the content keeps it going for now or should I get the design top knotch, probably by paying someone to design it, before I officially launch.

Any help will be much appreciated. You can check out my regular blogs through my personal homepage link, all the blogs are listed down the side.

Thanks

[Blaine Moore]

If you are going to be continually tweaking for 6 months before launching, it probably isn't worth waiting. If you think you can buckle down over a weekend and get something done, then set your deadline and have at the new design. Hiring somebody to do the design for you could be a good idea, and giving them the deadline lets them buckle down. Just plan for a launch with enough leeway that if they aren't done or you want to tweak things that you can still launch on time.

The trick is more setting a definate date to launch rather than is my design ready or not. That's a personal preference thing. Once you launch, you may not have time to work on the design.

[Yaro]

Don't wait - getting traffic, getting indexed in the search engines, getting links etc takes time, so the earlier you go public the quicker all this will start happening.

You can change the design as you go and but it's the quality of your content that will win readers over. Also, consider that later on when you change the design to something better you will have a positive impact on the audience you already have - sometimes it's smart to start with something you can improve for the sake of impressing people when you make the improvements...if you get my drift!

[WillB]

I agree with Yaro - design isn't *that* important. As long as it doesn't look utterly rubbish like most sales pages do, you're laughing.

I like the designs personally - the Sprint Rants and Rumour Patrol style more.

[evossman]

Thanks Yaro and Blain, both great answers. I've launched all of the blogs in the network over the past year but never had a name. I decided early on, probably after reading one of your articles Yaro, that I just need to launch blogs and get them getting links, page rank, and into search engines. The name would come in time, and it did almost a year later.

Now that I've got the name I'm going to try and stick it out for a week and work onthe design. I've got the help of my brother who's a little more artistically inclined than I am and I hope to have the design done by next week.

I'm not sure if a whole site wide blog template design will happen but, I'm also working towards that as well. That one I'm not too worried about though. The site design of the network site is important to me to get looking somewhat professional. We'll go from there then.

Thanks for your help, I'll keep you guys posted.

PS, I also posted this at sitepoint, I'm trying to get as much feedback as possible right now, I like Yaro's forums though because it feels more personal right now. Thanks Yaro.

[Yaro]

Glad the feedback is helpful Erik. There aren't many regular forum readers here but that, as you are noting, can be a good thing, as long as the few regulars who are here keep it up.

This forum is like a start-up, everyone knows everyone because we are a staff of 5. Then we get venture funding, hire people, we grow, hire some more, then suddenly we're big and all impersonal and no one knows anyone anymore...but we all get paid better, so well, it's a trade-off

[Blaine Moore]

...but we all get paid better, so well, it's a trade-off
[/b]

You mean, I could be getting paid right now...? Heheh.

[Yaro]

Heh, we all earn the same on this forum - kudos.

Not accepted in stores but valuable nonetheless.

[evossman]

I think this forum will continue to grow as more people become aware of it and your blogs Yaro. I like it right now because, your right, I know (virtually, I mean in virtual space) and respect the people who leave feedback and comments on my threads.

As for the design. I think I have a basic network page that I like, and I'm getting to work on the blog template. I'm trying to do a switch up of the standard 3 column-content on the left blog network theme but might do something different. (But why change something that works right? B5 Weblogsinc, etc)

WillB - those two blogs are ones that I have worked on the design of, and I like, so thanks for the input, encouragment is always appreciated I hope the other blogs can play catchup. I'm tossing some things around with my designer (aka my brother), he got the art genes. Hopefully we'll come up with something.

Thanks guys I have another question but I'll start another thread since I think it's a good subject for a thread and I'll be interested to see people's opinions.