Mike Arauz's Blog – The Archives

I spent the weekend designing and coding a thorough overhaul of my website, mikearauz.com. I've been plotting this redesign for a while, and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.



Websites are most valuable for the introductions they make, and the relationships they foster. While I definitely want people to read what I write, it's more important to me that we establish some kind of ongoing connection. This is why the "main navigation" on the page actually takes you away from mikearauz.com to my profiles across the social web: Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Delicious, Flickr, and LinkedIn.

Also, the pictures, videos, and links that are pulled in from my Tumblr blog and posted in the right-hand column don't offer permalinks. I think this is appropriate, because they are all links to someone else's content, and someone else's permalink. The intention is to make introductions between my readers and the content creators at the other end of those links. I benefit more from having made the introduction than I would from trying to take the traffic.

This is an approach that more brands should be taking with their websites. The objectives for a branded microsite should not be visits and length of stay, but rather the number of ongoing relationships it inspired. How many fans did the site lead to on existing social networks like Facebook and MySpace? How did the brand enhance its reputation by introducing its visitors to other fans, to compelling content elsewhere on the web, and to other fans who were creating that content?

Let me know what you think of the new design in the comments. Thanks.