Fresh Out of the Oven – New Design is Served

I’m thrilled to announce the launch of culinarycory.com with a new design and enhanced functionality.  This project has been challenging to tackle and a wonderful learning experience as a whole.  Now I can only hope the hard work will pay off over time.

Here are some key points of interest as you navigate through the new site:

New Hosting Platform:
This change might not be obvious to you, but it’s huge for me.  I started culinarycory.com using a free hosting platform with a pretty generic design.  This was perfect, at the time, because it required almost no cost to launch.  However, a free service is very limiting and will not be the best platform for my grand visions for growth.  As a result, I have invested in a paid hosting service to give me the freedom I need.

New Design and Layout:
While I was researching design ideas for the new site, I noticed most food blogs look the same.  I wanted to present my content in a way that was easy-to-navigate, placed an emphasis on my tasty photos and encouraged repeat visitors.  I hope this design accomplishes all three.

Print-friendly Links:
I’ve heard people loud and clear.   They love reading my recipes and stories, but hate printing them.  At the end of each post is a link called “Print this Recipe”.  It strips away all of the excess web navigation to condense the recipe to a single page.  Think of it as my way of hugging a tree.

Email Forward Button:
I was amazed to hear how many people forward links to my recipes to others through email.  Now at the bottom of each post is a button to do just that.  No need to leave the site.  Just click, enter the email address, write a short message about how cool I am, and send.

Recipe Rater:
I’ve said this before and I will say it again.  One of the biggest joys about writing a food blog is hearing feedback from people who actually cook my recipes.  I can understand if you might not have time to write a comment about your cooking experience.  This rate system is for you.  Just click the number of stars for the entire world to see.  Plus, there should be no worries about giving me a score lower than a “5″.  I might shed a tiny tear, but make it better the next time.

Amazon Store:
I’m constantly asked where I found some of the equipment featured in my photos.  They come from multiple sources like Williams and Sonoma, HomeGoods, TJ Maxx, Crate and Barrel, and Sur La Table.  This made it hard to tell the world where to buy these treasured pieces.  Hopefully, my Amazon store will serve as a one-stop-shop for all your culinary gadget needs.

More Space for Ads:
Writing a food blog can get pretty expensive.  That can only mean it’s time to start selling advertising space to cover some of the costs.  Of course, I knew the quantity and location of the ads had to be taken into consideration. I wanted them to be in the most profitable locations, without distracting away from the food.

In closing, I truly hope you will enjoy all the changes I have made.  If you see something that needs to be altered or added in anyway, feel free to send me a note through the “contact” link.

I would also like to thank Brent, Mary, Molly, Marc, Deb and Jimmy for their time as guinea pigs and their extremely helpful suggestions before the site went public.

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