A Review Of Why You Should Follow Your Passion Online

This post is both a Thesis Theme Site Review and a look at some major inspiration by a woman Jamie Varon. Jamie took the Thesis Theme and Chris Pearson’s Cutline Theme (free theme for WordPress) to a new level.

Jamie’s site Shatterboxx runs on Thesis Theme and is beautifully customized with a colourful header, integrated graphics and stylish use of fonts.

But before we cover the look of Thesis Theme at Shatterboxx – let me tip you off to what caught my attention.  Read the snippet below…

Do yourself a favor and check out TwitterShouldHireMe.com

Have a look at what a great job Jamie Varon did using Thesis Theme’s free cousin’s template, Cutline Theme.

Special mention goes to This Old Brain Net – another beautifully designed Thesis Theme site. I found Shatterboxx during a recent visit where they recommended it as an excellent use of Thesis Theme.

What is Bold, Bright & Beautiful About Shatterboxx?

Jamie is herself a graphic designer, among other wonderful talents. Her sites are well designed and in way of a review I offer the following humble comments…

What is Bold, Bright & Beautiful About Shatterboxx?

• Colourful header that is integrated into the background

• Header and background colours and designs have been incorporated into the RSS button, email and t for twitter link – see image to the right.

This is a clever trick in photoshop and other image software programs. You just need to design or alter the symbols you want to use and decide what part of the image you want as a background. I will find a Photoshop tutorial for this and make a link to it here.

• Coloured content column to ease the reader’s eye strain and provide that extra bit of personality that oozes out everywhere
• Bold plain headings in plain text and coloured to match the centre column with matching sidebar fonts
• Three main colours only – black, orange and red on white make this site easy on the eye
• Uses one featured article and 2 teasers on the home page

What Could Be Done Better?

Despite Jamie being a Graphic Designer, it is often the case that when you are paid to do design work for other people, or any other professional service – your own home and affairs are always rushed and not always as polished as you would like, in the early days.

My field of expertise (among others) is marketing and business and as such I always look to identify some areas of improvement. Here are a few for Shatterboxx:

• Add a previous and next button so people can continue exploring and reading  posts from the home page. Even with only a few articles, the previous and next buttons/links will keep visitors on your site longer and [according to some sources] improve your Google juice.
• Where are the archived articles? Do you rely on the recent posts widget in the right sidebar?
• Jamie’s About Page (a post?) – in full-width – looks a bit like an afterthought once comments are posted. I would suggest turning off comments and adding some more links to her other accomplishments. Perhaps an image link to her twittershouldhireme.com site?
• Jamie’s Contact page (a post?) – suffers from the same full-width lack of love as the About page. By adding a simple contact form and ramping up the intelligent use of white space, readers will not baulk at the thought of trying to read it easily when they arrive.

Overall, both of Jamie’s sites are beautiful.

I think she has done an amazing job of creative thinking and creating her ideal future by going for it.Her idea for twiitershouldhireme.com can be a basis for many great ideas and initiatives by the bold and brave at heart.

Jamie is certain to have a bright future. Best of luck. I will be keeping an eye on you. I am always looking for inspiration, for myself, my children and everyone else I am fortunate enough to influence.

If you are interested in Jamie’s design services…

• Logo
• Blog (specifically WordPress)
• Book
• Twitter background
• Business cards
• Stationery
• Branding/Identity creation
• Newsletters/flyers/pamphlets
• Resumes (also offer editing and revisions for an extra fee)

…pop over to her site and get in touch.