Update to the PolyInnovator Website... a Big One

If you have been here for a while, then you'll know I take my web design very seriously. Since this site is a reflection of my personal brand, and that is a reflection of me. Then it shows just how deeply important it is for me to get right.

I've used all sorts of a matter of content management systems, but Ghost CMS stands out on top. It has been what I've been using for the last 5 years or so. I struggled to find a theme initially, and scoured the internet to find one.

After going through every website, and all 3000+ github repos. I found one I particularly liked. The design, at least back then, was rather nice. More importantly it gave me the ability to make a separate post type for the PolyCast.

However Ghost lacks a crucial part of website building... a home page and hero section.

I cobbled together something, then basically copy and pasted for each section for videos, podcasts, and socials. Creating this scrollable feed of all my content.

Although it worked for quite some time, and it was truly one of the best ghost sites out there.

The design started to crumble, and the minimalist nature of my previous theme no longer was charming.

If anything it didn't resemble the theme at all anymore.

Just wanted a place where I could showcase my blogs, videos, AND podcasts in one stop. However that defeats the purpose of a blog and distracted from the newsletter and membership (which is crucial for my monetization plan).

Not to say that I still won't showcase the video and audio content, as I even can put a podcast player floating on the site. I just need to do more tastefully, and also remake all of the pages to be more concise.

This also came from the idea of the PIOS, a system framework I created for the knowledge management niche. However due to the layout and design of my site, it made an already rather complicated system even harder to understand as you couldn't find the information easily.

By changing the theme, it forced me to change the navigation. I deleted maybe half a dozen tags, or merged them with similar ones. I.e. the AI tag was redundant, as I have a Technology tag. So I merged them.

I deleted various pages, and reworked others for the theme. This one has a whole feature for recommendations. Which was a new-ish update to ghost, that my old theme didn't have. Thus allowing me to make a way better affiliates page. The membership page looks way more gorgeous now and easier to understand. ETC.

These are all changes that were spawned from having to adapt to the new theme. And the blog gets a lot more attention as well, as most ghost themes focus on the blogs. So by me starting over it gives the blog a chance to shine.

Be at the forefront.

One idea I got from the Kusi Docs theme, by the creator of my original theme. Is the idea of using a doc style for a course. I could create a flow course for the PIOS, to make it a lot easier to understand. Although that theme used the secondary menu as its documentation menu. Thus I can't do that with this theme, but it gave me the idea nonetheless to rework the PIOS onboarding.

I always like the idea of the website having a flow to it. It does help a lot with retention, and for understanding. However it is just difficult to do right. This is why I created the Start Here page ages ago, and I can link at the bottom of that now to the PIOS.

The point I want to really drive home is that while the theme was good for a while. For the last two years or so I've been desperately trying to find a new one. Something to give my site that OOMPH factor, and I think this new change really does that. At least to a degree, and hopefully I can make it even better.

All in all, this project has been looming over me for a couple years. Just like the PolyTools site, and I am glad to finally have it be able to be worked on. I don't think I can fix all of this in a weekend. I still need to restart my newsletter again, as it has been quiet for a while.

Still need to revamp the pages, and restart my blogging daily habit. However this will hopefully motivate me more to be honest.

A huge weight on my shoulders now.