the new Ask a Manager is here!

Well, my long-awaited upgrade to WordPress is complete! I’ll be making various tweaks in the coming days, but we’re live again and everything should be working. (Please let me know if you find anything that isn’t!)

My transition to WordPress was incredibly easy … because I didn’t do anything. I just sat around on my couch and ate pie while the utterly fantastic Laura Moore from SmallestDecisions.net did the entire thing for me. If you are looking for a web designer to build or redesign your site, or just to handle a platform transition like this one, I can’t say enough good things about Laura — she gave me complete peace of mind (and I am not someone who easily obtains peace of mind in such projects) and did a phenomenal job. She is awesome.

P.S. Next project: A real logo, finally. If you have slogan ideas, bring them on!

{ 19 comments… read them below }

  1. Jennifer*

    I can’t seem to subscribe to the comments feed.

    ( I subscribed to the post feed when you first announced it, so that’s working on Google Reader. But it looks like I would be having a similar problem with the post feed if I hadn’t already subscribed.)

    Suggestions?

    P.S. I like the current logo/motto too.

  2. Monica*

    I like the slogan, but the logo could use an upgrade. I’m not a design person though so I wouldn’t be able to offer up any ideas.

  3. Anonymous*

    Looks good. I don’t have any suggestions for a logo at the moment, but in my opinion, it’s fine.

  4. NT*

    I must confess even though I like technology and change, I liked the previous arranments better. Before there was an article and comments to it, it made perfect sense. Now I have 2 separate feeds and it doesn’t make much sense, especially if by mistake I go to the comments first. Any suggestions there?

  5. Ask a Manager* Post author

    NT, sounds like you would be happier only subscribing to the main posts feed, and not to the comments feed. That way, it’ll be just like the old feed was — you’ll just get the post, and if you want to see the comments, you can click through the post on the blog itself (as opposed to reading it in your news reader). That’ll be identical to the old set-up.

    There was actually always a comments feed, but I didn’t advertise it before so people only knew about it if they stumbled on it by chance.

    Does that help?

  6. Jeff G*

    So… I love WordPress over others… and agree that having help is good. But she couldn’t update your feedburner feed so I didn’t have to change your URL yet again? :(

  7. Ask a Manager* Post author

    Actually — she did! I was wrong in thinking you’d have to switch. So no matter which you subscribe to, the old or the new, it should be working for you!

    (I don’t use feedburner, which was the issue. But she redirected the old feed anyway.)

  8. Cassy*

    I love the current slogan, but agree that the logo could use an update, at least in terms of typography to feel younger, sleeker and increase readability.

    p.s. I’d be happy to be a part of the redesign if wanted.

  9. Ask a Manager* Post author

    Cassy, that is so nice of you! (And I just looked at your site and love your work!) I have contracted with a designer but if for some reason that doesn’t work out, I will totally be calling on you.

    I’m fascinated that people like the current slogan; I threw it up there randomly when I first started the blog (and at the time assumed no one would read this site and I would end it a few months later) and have never loved it, so it’s interesting to hear that (at least some) people like it!

  10. Gayle Laakmann*

    For logos, check out 99designs.com. You actually run a “contest” on the designs, with designers submitting their actual logos. At the end, you award all the prize money to one designer.

    You get many more ideas and I’ve always been really pleased.

    Just one piece of advice: it’s a contest. The more you pay, the more designers you’ll attract, and the happier you’ll be.

  11. Cassy*

    To me, the slogan just makes sense. Sometimes last minute inspiration is the best. The blog is intended for people to “ask the manager” about any of their concerns and questions, but, even if they don’t ask these questions themselves, they might discover them. Everyone has similar unanswered questions.

    The flip side being “you’ll tell us anyway” makes sense because, even if someone doesn’t ask a question, you’ll tell us about something anyway.

    So, I guess in short, ask and you’ll get an answer or just look and you’ll find answers to questions you didn’t even know you had.

  12. Kate*

    Good job Alison! It looks great, just one thing. Some of the italics are getting lost in the posts (I’m in my Google Reader trawling through what I missed on vacation). So a reader question will have one or two lines in italics and then it reverts to normal, which makes it hard to separate the questions from the answers.

    1. Ask a Manager* Post author

      Weird. I found the ones in Google Reader that you’re talking about. They’re formatted correctly on the site itself, but not in Reader. I will investigate!

Comments are closed.