SQLAuthority Banner Journey: Five Looks in Ten Years

The SQLAuthority banner journey is best told by the banners themselves. Five of them have hung at the top of this blog. Each one saw a different year, a different reader and a different version of me. So today, I’m handing them the microphone, starting with the first one.

The First Banner: “I Was There Before the Name”

“Before SQLAuthority was a name people knew, the blog had a longer one: Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave. Under it ran a simple promise, Notes of a SQL Server MVP and Database Administrator. Up in the menu sat tabs for a resume and for jobs. The blog was still part notebook, part business card.”

“Look behind the face in my picture. That’s a wall covered in SQL: a GROUP BY, a JOIN, a FROM Sales. I was the most honest banner of all five. I said exactly what you’d find on the page. Every journey on this blog starts with me.”

The Green Banner, 2008: “I Was a Gift”

“I was the first one with real color. Nobody bought me. I was made as a gift for a blog that was barely two years old. Look at my corner and you’ll find the MVP badge. I wore it like a medal, right beside a fresh green glow.”

“Readers came with one error message and one question. I wanted them to feel that a person was on the other side of the page, not a company. I think I did my job.”

The Blue Banner, 2009: “I Was the Makeover”

“Green was friendly, but I was confident. I brought a larger, sharper photo, so readers could see more of the face behind the answers. I changed the whole color of the site to a cool blue.”

“Look closely at my background. A cloud sits on one side and a grid on the other. That was a small bet about where SQL Server was going. The cloud won that bet, by the way. I’m a little proud of that.”

The Database Banner, 2010: “Readers Chose Me”

“I’m the only banner that won an election. The blog was nearing its fourth birthday, and a poll picked me over the others. I came with bigger images, a bigger logo and cleaner edges. And yes, I’m the one with the database icon.”

“That icon matters more than you think. The plan was always to replace the photo with a great database icon one day. I was the closest anyone came. Even with the icon right there, the face stayed.”

The White Banner, 2016: “I’m Still Here”

“Let me tell you a secret the others never knew. The photo was only a placeholder. Once, it was removed from the banner. Readers missed it, and it came back. Every DBA knows the rule: nothing is more permanent than a temporary fix.”

“So when my turn came, the face stayed and everything around it got cleaner. I came out of a design contest with over 50 entries. White background, a bold red logo and a friendly smile. That spring, the blog had over 3,500 posts and over 110 million views. Its tenth birthday was a few months away.”

“Ten years later, I’m still at the top. The hosting changed. The theme changed. The blog grew past 5,800 posts. Nobody has replaced me yet. Scroll up and say hello.”

What Five Banners Taught Me

Now it’s my turn to talk. The first lesson of the SQLAuthority banner journey is simple. Readers own a blog’s look as much as the writer does. They pick it, they question it and sometimes they bring back what you removed.

The second lesson is about change. Every banner fixed something the one before it got wrong. None of them was perfect, and that’s fine. A blog, like a database, gets better through small, steady changes, not one big rewrite.

You could argue that a banner is decoration and only the content matters. Mostly, I agree. But a familiar face tells a tired reader at 2 a.m. that they’ve landed somewhere they’ve been helped before. That’s worth keeping.

The third lesson is one I’ve believed since 2016: a blog is the best resume ever. If you’ve been thinking about starting one, start this week. Your first banner doesn’t need to be perfect. Mine was a photo in front of a wall of SQL.

The notes readers left in 2016 are still below this post. Read them, then add yours. Which of the five banners was your favorite?

A banner is not a picture at the top, it is the face readers trust.

Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.