This may come as a shocker to most here, but MckMama redesigned her blog this week. It was a quiet affair, no fanfare or tweets from MckMama on the whole ordeal....yeah, who am I kidding?
So after looking at the new blog (yes, I clicked, so sorry! I had to to write this post), the first thing I noticed is it is painfully s-l-o-w loading. It's made even worse when you realize you have to reload the page again because she has found a way to DOUBLE the number of clicks by having a lead-in and then a "read more" link. Instantly, her hits should go up astronomically, unless you are one of those readers who gets annoyed by having to click twice to read something.
The long skinny ad is now right below the header (instead of at the top), making it very "in your face" and it's made worse by the fact that it's a moving ad. There are four small ads/"advertise here" graphics on the right, but you can't click to get information on her ad rates - not that I think she would post them anyhow.
There is also a large picture of Stellan in a hospital bed, looking grave and hooked to every wire possible, linking to "Stellan's Story." Make of that what you will.
MckMama has admitted that if you are a first-time poster, your post will go into moderation, and readers here have commented that they are already blocked from her site. So there goes the whole "you might be unblocked" theory.
Since she's on WordPress, she can now control how much you are blocked from seeing. So if you're blocked, please let us know what you can see - just the posts, posts and comments, just the ads (HA! Now that would be brilliant), or nothing at all.
There is a new feed where you can read everything without clicking (and double clicking!!).
For those users who browse the 'net using FireFox, there is apparently a way to block ad impressions - Adblock Plus. If there are others, please let me know as well!
So.....what are your thoughts on the new site (if you clicked, which of course, we aren't supposed to do. Ahem.)?
