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The New GoBackpacking.com

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I'm excited to announce the complete redesign of Go Backpacking is now live!

Sunset in the Galapagos Islands
Sunset in the Galapagos Islands

After almost four years of using free and premium designs I customized myself, it was finally time I hired a professional.

Based on the recommendation of blogger Karol Gadja, I enlisted Charlie Pabst of Charfish Design to spearhead a unique theme built on the Thesis framework.

The project turned out to be a bit bigger than either of us initially realized; however, with the coding support of the talented Shivanand Sharma of Binary Turf, the foundation is now in place for a faster, easier-to-use Go Backpacking.

The Design

I've always been a fan of minimalist web designs.

My primary goal for Go Backpacking's new layout is to emphasize the high-quality stories, photography, and videos being published.

I aimed for a clean look, with plenty of white space to give words and photos room to breathe.

Logo

Troy Floyd of Foggodyssey.com provided the concept for the new logo, which features a white arrow in the "Go" to symbolize movement, and the silhouette of a backpacker in place of the "i" in "Backpacking" to represent us travelers.

Navigation

The main navigation running along the top of the blog has been simplified, focusing solely on pages instead of blog posts (except for the Planning category).

You can still find high-level blog post categories (listed as Topics) in the right sidebar if you prefer to search that way, and Category and Tag links beneath every post.

Also, within a few days, there will be a tabbed box with lists of the most popular posts in the last 30 days, all time, and based on the number of comments received.

Style

The new font style is easier on the eyes, and the larger size should make reading posts a quicker, more enjoyable experience.

Social Media

Along the lines of creating a focus on content, the social media sharing options are now in a vertical scrolling bar along the left margin.

The buttons will follow you as you scroll down the page, making them easily accessible while keeping them separate from the articles.

If you like a post or page, please share it via your preferred method, whether giving it a Retweet, a Like on Facebook, +1 on Google, or a Stumble.

Comments

After using the Disqus commenting system for the last few years, I'm reverting to the default WordPress system for reader comments.

I've received ongoing feedback that Disqus can be hard to use, thereby preventing readers from leaving comments, which sucks to hear. I also suspect it was slowing down the site.

Help me test it out by sharing your feedback below!

Land Iguana - Galapagos Islands
Land Iguana - Galapagos Islands

Photography

In a continued effort to make Go Backpacking a visual feast for the eyes, the dimensions of the standard photo on the home page feature slider, and in blog posts, is a larger 640 x 480. 

The size of the thumbnail photos throughout the site is also larger.

The overall margins have been widened to accommodate gigantic 1024 x 768 photos for the Photo Favorite and Photo Essay posts.

Shadows have also been added to the images (another tip from Troy, to help make the photos pop off the screen).

Advertising

If it weren't for the advertisements you see on Go Backpacking, I wouldn't be able to support my full-time travels, nor pay for the excellent contributions from Mark Wiens and others.

To better organize the banners, widgets, and links, I've moved the "Featured Sites" from the sidebar to a particular area near the bottom of each page.

By clicking on the ads and links that interest you most, you're helping to support Go Backpacking.

Site Speed

A primary reason I'm switching to the Thesis framework after several happy years with Woo Themes is in the hopes of significantly improving the time it takes to load pages on Go Backpacking.

Ideally, I'd like to see the home page loading in under 5 seconds, which is less than half the time it did under the old design.

Introducing Go Backpacking Travel Guides

Earlier this year, I took a weekend to re-think my vision and goals for Go Backpacking. The new Travel Guides section is the result.

I want Go Backpacking to be a trusted source of fresh, practical travel advice.

Blog posts are a terrific way to publicize the site; however, even the most popular stories are quickly buried in the Archives as new ones are published.

Travel guides written by myself and other expats and travelers with extensive experience in a country will be continuously developed for destinations around the world going forward.

Full guides are currently available for Colombia, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Kenya.

All guides include:

  • Sightseeing highlights
  • Introduction to the local cuisine
  • Cost of travel
  • Insider tips on how to enjoy the nightlife and date the locals (for both men and women)

And every country guide will also feature at least one, if not several, city guides which include:

  • Transportation info
  • Safety tips
  • Recommended places to sleep, eat, sightsee, and party

The Future

While the new design is now out for the world to see, I've already got a growing list of things I want to fix, tweak, or improve.

In the coming days and weeks, we're going to continue fine-tuning the design.

In the coming months and years, the focus will be on making Go Backpacking your trusted guide for budget travel around the world.

Related Stories

About Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio. He's been to 68 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.

Comments

  1. Pete says

    Looks great and loads nice and quickly. Terrific job!

  2. Stephen says

    I like the new design, but I liked the old one as well...

    • Dave says

      Thanks Stephen. Was there something specific (if you can remember) that you liked about the old design?

  3. jill- Jack and Jill Travel The World says

    Like. Really appreciate the new typography. Definitely easier to read than the old one.

    • Dave says

      Thanks guys, my original inspiration for the new typography was Ayngelina at http://baconismagic.ca

      Then (much later) when I started reading your blog, I found it so much easier to read, I had to make the change myself. I've also started bolding more because of you!

  4. Fred says

    Looks great, Dave. The new design is very clean and easy to read. I recently switched one of my blogs to Thesis and am really liking the framework so far.

    • Dave says

      Thanks Fred, I'm excited to see how Thesis performs!

  5. Ben says

    Love the nice and clean new look Dave, especially the jump-out photos! Helps that they are stunning photos to start with!

    • Dave says

      Thanks Ben!

  6. Prime says

    Like! it's "cleaner" and easier on the eyes.

    • Dave says

      Thanks Prime! Mission accomplished in that case. :)

  7. Monica (@TotalTravelBug) says

    I really like the new logo. Looking good!

    • Dave says

      Thanks Monica, I'm glad I took Troy's advice and jazzed up the logo. The idea for the white arrow came from the FedEx logo.

  8. Anita MacKinnon says

    Looks good Dave. Very clean and professional.
    I know you are still tweaking - are you adding pictures to the remaining "you might like" links (only 2 have pictures but maybe that is an update still on the way!) Would love to know how you add those to the bottom of your post. I find them a very useful tool.

    • Dave says

      Thanks, Anita. I'm giving the related post thumbnails a little time to generate, as we had to create all-new thumbnails for the posts. But if they don't re-appear, I'll switch plugins.

      There are several companies offering these free plugins, including http://outbrain.com (which I use now) and nrelate. LinkWithin is also good, but doesn't offer reporting/tracking info like the other two (and also little to no support)

  9. Andi of My Beautiful Adventures says

    Congrats, I love it!

    • Dave says

      Thanks Andi :)

  10. Nima Heydarian says

    I like the new design. It's clean and organized. I'm a big fan of minified sites. I really like the font size and line heights too :)

    • Dave says

      Thanks Nima, that's exactly the kind of reaction I was hoping for!

  11. Barbara Weibel says

    Love, love, love the new design. Very clean and eminently readable. Funny that the guy who got me to redesign my site (after much resistance) is now redesigning his.

    • Dave says

      Thanks Barbara! It took longer than expected (4 months from concept to implementation) but I'm super happy with how it came out. I think my prior design was on its last legs, and investing in a professional design was well worth the money.

  12. Kristin says

    Looks awesome Dave! Nice work and love love love how much it makes the photos pop off the screen!

    • Dave says

      Gracias Kristin! I'm glad the design is doing a better job of showcasing the photos. :)

  13. Drew Meyers says

    Nice and simple. Love it.

    • Dave says

      Thanks Drew, that's exactly what I wanted!

  14. Priyank says

    Hi Dave, I love the new design a lot. White space and sans serif fonts make reading a pleasure. The page loads quite fast too (something that I notice only when I am using internet from a cyber cafe). Congratulations!

    • Dave says

      Thanks Priyank, and it was great meeting you here in Cuenca today!

  15. LIssie - from Travel Tips says

    THANK YOU for ditching Discus - I hate it, even if its seems uber-popular among travel bloggers! I love the shadow effect behind the photos - it really makes them "pop". I agree re the shareabar - seems to work quite well -particularly for those of us who tend towards the looong post!

    • Dave says

      Thanks Lissie, I like responding to comments via WordPress' default system over Disqus as well, so it works out better for us both.

  16. Charlie says

    Well done Dave, it looks better. I'm glad you reverted back to the default WP comments, I never liked Disqus!

    • Dave says

      Thanks Charlie. I like having more control over the look of the comments. I knew I wanted bigger Gravatar photos, for example.

      Still have to improve the navigation, as apparently I've made it harder to find info since removing the category navigation.