More than six months have passed since I redesigned the blog, and I’m still hearing from some readers that they are having issues navigating the current design.
As I’ve confessed before, I hate change just as much as anyone else does — but updating the blog to a mobile-friendly design was a must. Google forced the issue back in April 2015, an event webmasters dubbed “mobilegeddon.” In the months that have passed, the Wall Street Journal noted that “Mobilegeddon was a big deal after all.” 46% of non-mobile-friendly sites lost Google traffic if they kept their mobile-unfriendly designs after the cutoff date. I love what I do for a living, but this is my job too, and there are few businesses that could afford to lose almost half their customers.
I realize not everyone browses from a phone or tablet, but according to my blog’s statistics, nearly half of my readers do now. If you do browse my blog on a mobile device, you’ve likely noticed how cleaner the design is and that it’s easier it it is to read versus the old version. The blog now automatically resizes to fit the size of the screen or device you’re using.
If you’re still having difficulty navigating the blog, let’s walk through some of the features of the new design together.
Through the redesign process, readers stressed that they wanted simplicity. My old blog featured a four-column design, and unfortunately, nothing about that was mobile-friendly. The new blog features horizontal menus across the top. These menus automatically collapse on a mobile device into clickable menus that expand when touched.
The main categories across the top of the page feature a quick link to all Deals of the Week posts, not just the ones on the homepage. If you’re simply looking for coupon matchups for the stores I cover, you’ll find them in here with the newest ones at the top.
All of the printable and electronic coupon links that used to be along the left side of the page can now be found in “Get Coupons.” You’ll also find links in the top bar to the Forum (more on that in a moment) and the Private Messaging feature of the blog.
Clicking “Send PM” allows you to send a private message to another user by entering the screen name of that user on the blog. Once you begin typing a username, the blog will show a list of suggested users. Note that the username must be entered correctly for the message to send to your recipient — if your friend’s screen name is “CerealFan” but her name is “Katie,” addressing your message to “Katie” will result in a message that gets sent to nowhere. You will need to log in to the blog to use Private Messaging.
(You might think this goes without saying, but I get email almost every week from people who say they sent PMs to “Jill” that I never received..! I’m Coupon Maven here on the blog, so if you’re sending a message to me, make sure it’s coming to my screen name.)
Your user will see your message the next time they log in. Lastly, the Log In/Log Out is conveniently located on the right side of this bar.
The second, white category bar beneath the black navigation bar is new to this version of the blog, and this is where you’ll find blog articles on a variety of other topics — everything from entertainment to home to food, beauty, travel, and things to make. This makes it very easy to find posts about doing Disney on a budget, some of my favorite outdoor gear, a recipe for bacon-wrapped meatballs, or the time my hair turned orange. Product reviews and media appearances can be found here too.
As always, the newest posts and articles are at the top of the page, both on the homepage and on the individual category pages.
Heading down the blog, the column on the right side of each page has some features you’ll want to note too:
The search bar is right at the top. You can search not only through blog posts and topics, but forum posts too — all results will be returned on the same screen.
“View Recent Activity” replaced the “Recent Posts” button on my old blog. Click this button to view the 50 most recent posts on the blog. If you register for a free account, then log in, the “Recent Activity” page will show posts new since your last visit in black text. Posts that were present on your last login will appear in grey. This is a great way to keep track of what you’ve read since the last time you logged in:
Heading further down this column, you’ll see an overview of the six most recent Forum posts by users like you:
You can click each post to read it, or click “Create New Topic” at the bottom of this box to quickly add a post of your own! Note that while anyone can leave a comment on the blog without logging in, you will need to be logged into the blog to post in the Forum.
(Again, just register for a free account to post in the Forum — you’ll only have to do it once! If you haven’t posted since the blog’s redesign, you will need to reset your password — no passwords were saved when the old blog transitioned to the new.) You can also browse the entire Forum with the “Forum” link in the top navigation area on each page.
From within the Forum itself, clicking your own screen name will bring up your post history and links to topics you’ve started or posted in, as shown above. This is a good tool to help find old posts you may have written or are looking for. When you’re browsing the Forum, any posts you’ve clicked to “Favorite” or “Subscribe” to will also show up on this screen.
Note that you do not need to be logged into the blog to post comments on existing blog articles, but you do need to log into the blog to post new topics or comments in the Forum.
Below the Recent Forum Topics, you’ll find a quick list of Hot Deals — any time-sensitive deals that I think you’d like to know about are here! You can view the entire archive of Hot Deals by clicking on the “Hot Deals” header in this area.
If you are looking for specific information on how to save newspaper coupon inserts to use with my “Deals of the Week” writeups, please see this post.
Lastly, if you wish to receive my blog’s daily email newsletter (no spam – just one mail per day detailing new posts on this blog that looks like what you see above) you can sign up at this link. You can subscribe or unsubscribe at any time. With the daily email, you’ll never miss a single new post — or a great deal!
Is there anything else I can help you find or learn how to use? Please feel free to post below, and I will do my best to help point you in the right direction. All of the content of the old blog is still here, and it’s tough when readers say “I can’t find anything,” but I’m not sure specifically what they mean. As always, I’m trying to make the blog as easy to use as possible, but I can’t help if I don’t know what’s ailing you :)
If you’re wondering about more of the back-end details of things that necessitated this upgrade, I’ve been talking about that too today in the Forum at this link.
(I have also had readers recently request to remove expired deal posts from the front pages of the blog — I am continuing to work on this, but it’s a time-consuming process as each post has to be moved individually. When I move old posts, they will show up in the Recent Activity page, because the blog is noting they’ve been “modified.”)
MBurke says
Jill, I don’t see any mention of the Coupon Tom link. Is it still located on your site?
Coupon Maven says
It sure is — it is at the bottom of every store’s Deals of the Week post each and every week. It is also the last item under the “Get Coupons” link in the top menu on each page: