SQL Authority News – Behind the Scene Story of New Look

SQLAuthority.com blog started on November 1, 2006. Since that day I have blogged over 3500 blog posts and have witnessed over 110 million views on this blog. Today I am happy to tell you that SQLAuthority has a new look and the behind the scene story. This year we are going to witness 10th anniversary of the blog in November and it is amazing success of the teamwork. This blog was started as a bookmark collection of personal favorite script and slowly it turned out to be a place for the SQL enthusiast to talk SQL.

Today the blog has witnessed over 108 Million Views in the last 9 years. (View Stats)

I really want to thank you for your kind support!

New Look – Behind the Scene Story

This is the first time when I redid my website, we have so many changes. I have made all of the changes myself and during the experience I have learned a lot.

New Hosting

This probably is the biggest change. I was very happy with my previous host and I used them for over 9 years. However, during this year, I have learned a lot and I want to experiment. My previous host had many restrictions and hence I moved to new host. My hew host is SiteGround and I am very happy with their support and performance. Here are few salient features which I was looking for on my hosting site:

• Scalable to handle over 1.5 million views per month
• Robust to manage over 1000 requests concurrently at any point of time
• Rock solid security
• Fastest possible response time to support tickets
• Early adopter of cutting edge technologies
• Ultra fast site performance

The website is now loading over 50% faster in recent tests and I get my support tickets answered in less than 8 minutes. If you are not happy with this your current host, you should give SiteGround a chance.

New Theme

I have been using the same theme for over 8 years. Yes, you heard it right – 8 years. Previous theme had done its job very well. It worked well and withstood various tests of time, however, it was the time when I move to the new theme. Previous theme was a free theme available in the market and author had not updated it for a quite a while. Web standards have moved light years ahead and various new mobile devices are now primary consumer for the web. I finally decided to purchase a theme which is advanced enough to support me for next few years. Thanks to Themeforest, it was easy to search for the new theme with following features.

• Mobile Friendly Ultra Responsive
• SEO Optimized
• High Quality Retina Ready Modern Design
• Fully Customizable
• Clean Google Fonts
• Easy Integration with Other Apps

Well, I was fortunate that Themeforest had a just right thing for me and I was able to convert the older design the new design.

New Banner

SQLAuthority.com Banner on the top of the blog has been biggest brand contributor element. Everybody recognized me because I was there in the banner. When the original banner was designed, I had no intention to be there. It was designed thinking one day we will remove it once we have a great design for database icon. Just like the saying that “There is nothing more permanent as a temporary fix”, I never got around to changing it. The banner stayed there with my photo. In between I tried to remove it, but it was not received well so we moved my photo again in the banner.

Though the banner is simple, I use the services of 99Designs to build it. Their business model is very unique. For every design we launch a contest and the most talented designers from all over the world compete for our business. This is the 3rd banner they have built for me and every time I have received over 50 submissions of different design. The great guys from 99designs not only do banners, but pretty much everything related to design (like business cards, stationary, advertise anything). Next time when you have to design something, try 99designs and see how they magically transform your design.

New Email Newsletter

SQLAuthority.com sends two different kinds of email. The first one is the daily blog email to users who have signed up for it via wordpress.com. The other one is I send it every week. The weekly email is my favorite email as I write my experience of the week in this email. I write what I have learned, what I have taught and where I have been. I also write war stories of my consulting experience and share script to help SQL Server performance. I strongly suggest you sign up for my weekly newsletter, they are fun and really great way. Here is the link to sign up for my weekly newsletter.

To send weekly emails I use services of GetDrip email services. There are many different services out there which are very good, but I like two particular things about GetDrip. a) Visual Workflow – I think it is one of the most unique things about GetDrip, I can write complicated workflow to users. b) Clean Emails – I have been receiving emails in templates for many years, I am personally not a big fan of them. I like to read emails which are simple and easy to read. GetDrip is just right for me and blog subscribers love the new weekly emails. If you have blog or business, I strongly suggest you should focus on building subscribers, as it increases the user engagement. I think GetDrip is a great partner.

Summary

The change is the only constant and SQLAuthority.com just got a new makeover. There are four big changes to SQLAuthority.com.

• New Hosting – SiteGround
• New Theme – ThemeForest
• New Banner – 99Designs
• New Email Newsletter – GetDrip

Well, that’s it. I hope you like the new look of SQLAuthority.com and this behind the scenes tour. I strongly suggest that you start your blog and share the expertise and knowledge with the world. Trust me, blog is the BEST resume ever.  I am telling you this from my own experience.

Leave a comment – I am eager to hear your thoughts!

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)