For regular readers of this blog, you'll notice that the design has changed slightly. This is due to a significant change with the IGotNewsForYou website. We've been working for the last few months, gathering feedback, brainstorming, testing new ideas...and I think our latest website is a huge step in the right direction. The biggest change is on the home page. When you take a look you'll see that we're focusing people on trying the site as opposed to selling. We want you to generate a simple version of the mock news page to see how it works. Why did we make this change? After a few months of being live, we identified 2 challenges:

1. People were asking, "WHAT is IGotNewsForYou?"
2. People were asking, "WHY should I spend money here?"

The answer to both questions is: TRY ME. Try it, generate a mock news page, see how it works, laugh and you'll get it. The "hook" for us is the product. You have to see it and "feel it" to get it. And so the new home page reflects that way of thinking. All we want you to do is give it a try, and the product will sell itself. It might sound obvious now, but it wasn't initially. Our original site took a different approach, a more information-based approach (like more traditional websites.) It took a lot of feedback, a lot of thought, a pinch of creativity, some faith and a ton of hard work to get it to this point. Is it perfect? No, I don't think so, but then again, I'm not sure anything is ever perfect. What we want to measure is improvement not perfectionism anyway. The process has been extremely challenging and interesting. It's spurred a lot of additional thought and most likely a few blog posts for the future. And now, it's up to others to take a look, give it a try and tell us what they think. (That's you, in case you were wondering! *smile*) In the meantime, I have to thank a host of people for their help in the process. These people provided genuine and honest (and sometimes "cut to the bone") feedback. And we needed it. Check out their sites. Read their blogs. You won't be disappointed.

• Liz Strauss: Successful Blog
• Noah Kagan: Okdork.com
• Dan Tudor: Landing The Deal
• Bill Baren: The Creative Intersection of Life and Business
• James: Work Boxers
• Cat Morley: Designers Who Blog
• Steve Remington: Why My Blog Stinks
• Leah Maclean: Working Solo
• David Askaripour: Mind Petals

To everyone that took the time to provide feedback and insight: thank you. Your time, effort and interest are more than appreciated. (Technorati Tags: website design, liz strauss, noah kagan, bill baren, igotnewsforyou, dan tudor)