WPCandy

WPCandy is back and better than ever. We’ve been working hard for a little over a month now, and we’re extremely proud to present you WPCandy v3. Ever since we launched WPCandy v1 in October 2007, we’ve been one of the top WordPress-dedicated blogs on the internet, bringing you the latest tips, tricks, and hacks. Today we’ve taken the site one huge step further.

So first off, why’d we do this? Our only real income is from ads, and it certainly wasn’t pocket change to bring in two fantastic designers to help us out. After all, WPCandy isn’t even a year old and we’re already on our second redesign.

Mike and Dan began conferring a few months ago about how much the site could expand. At the time, WPCandy was a quickly-growing WordPress blog with a fantastic collection of articles and tutorials. We decided that a new site would need to feature a much wider range of WordPress-related content, and to do that, we’d have to stray from the typical post-and-sidebar blog layout and try something new.

We first set out on the search for a new logo. Throughout WPCandy’s history, the one thing we’ve lacked is branding. We’ve never really even had a logo until now. Thanks to Matt Davey, now we do! And a sexy logo, may I add.

After a few fruitless attempts at a design, we set a budget from out of our own pockets and began the search for a web designer to help us out. We settled on Sam Brown, a British web designer who runs the design studio MassiveBlue. We gave him the logo and a wireframe and said “Go for it!”

A few weeks later we had our design. Dan immediately opened Photoshop and Coda and got to work. Mike began finding, buying, and coding themes and later helped to rewrite URLs (all 179 of them) and do some of the other dirty work.

Almost two months later, we have version three. The site is powered by a single installation of WordPress, from the themes and plugins section to the articles collection to the discussion area. It’s all under one roof. We’re hoping to expand further and bring in lots of new content, sell some themes, and get some contests going. Let’s take a look at some of the new features.

Homepage

The new site has a lot too offer. Let’s start with the homepage. You’ll notice it’s not your average blog homepage design. We wanted a homepage that would better organize the whole site, instead of just displaying the latest blog posts and a regular sidebar.

Articles

Moving on to the articles section. I’m sure the first thing you notice is that this section is now red, instead of blue like the homepage. Just a nifty little touch. Anyways, you’ve got the latest posts on the left, and our ads, post categories, latest articles, and external links on the sidebar.

Themes

Our themes section is where we’ll be keeping everything about themes, obviously. There’s the featured theme article at the top with theme reviews and collections right under. And right under that is something you’ve gotta scroll down to find out

Plugins

The plugins section is basically the same as the themes section, except in pink. This will be where everything about plugins will be going down.

Sites

The sites section is our gallery for WordPress powered sites. Yes, we will actually be updating this frequently, so make sure to check up every few days.

Discuss

Now, onto the discuss. We’ve decided to finally incorporate the discuss into the main site so we there’s an easier way of communication between us and you and vice versa. If you are already registered on the main site, you’re good to go for the discuss. If not, just make sure to register!

What To Expect From Us Soon

Themes. Along side with working on the new site, we’ve been working on some themes for you guys. Now, these aren’t going to be the most amazing “Premium” WordPress themes you’ve ever seen, but instead themes with good designs and good functionality.

In a few weeks we’ll have around 6 themes available for purchase. That’s right, for purchase. No these will not be free themes, but instead low cost, high quality themes. As for pricing, we’ll probably charge $20 for individual themes, $40 for 3 themes, and $60 for all 6 themes.

Oh and WPCandy v2 will be released along with these paid themes, but for free. WPCandy v1 will remain free, of course

And last but not least, you can also expect a contests section. We love giving back to the community, so be prepared to win some new prizes!

Conclusion

Holy crap. This post is probably way too long, but we’re glad we got this off our chests. We hope you like the site and we welcome any feedback! Pretty please (with a cherry on top), leave a comment expressing your thoughts on the new WPCandy!