I was having a conversation about the blog redesign with a colleague (a media consultant). After we discussed the Stock Trader’s Almanac dedication, she said words to the effect of "Hey, soon you will have some media quotes about The Big Picture."
I told her I had already accumulated quite a list of them, and she was aghast — that’s precisely the right word — that they were not prominently displayed somewhere on the blog.
Anyway, here’s the short list — I am not sure whether to embed them in a side column, or to display them as a link. She wants to splash them across the top, but that’s simply too much for me.
Media praise for The Big Picture:
~~~
"Trenchant economic commentary"
-Floyd Norris, The New York
Times
~~~
"Barry Ritholtz pens The Big Picture, a must-read blog, and is a regular guest on financial television, where he tries to
provide a counterweight of rationality to the typical ravings heard
there."
-Randall W. Forsyth, Barron’s Up and Down Wall Street Daily"My favorite market blogger"
-Larry Kudlow, CNBC’s Kudlow & Company
~~
"Mixes technical analysis with macroeconomics
to come up with some insightful calls on the direction of the stock
market."-Business Week, Blogging For Dollars
"Eclectic posts, well worth it"
-Barron’s, Not Another Blah, Blah Blog
~~~
"Making the world of finance and market behavior
accessible to any interested party with a web connection."
~~~"One of the brightest minds and irreverent voices on Wall Street today. . .truly is one Wall Street’s important thinkers
and rising stars."
-Stock Traders Almanac~~~
"The base camp for new explorers of investing blogs.
Accessible and unintimidating, the Big Picture tackles both the economy
and the financial markets with a conversational style and ample
references to pop culture."
–Associated Press
"The Creme de la Creme of
Financial Blogs."-WSJ Managing Editor
“My favorite market blogger”
-Larry Kudlow, CNBC’s Kudlow & Company
Cnbc
———————————————————-
BR, kudos for all of the terrific quotes, but really, Kudlow is hardly objective, because you’re practically married to him in the media! His show would be nothing without your frequent appearances.
BR….PS…do mention something by John Mauldin!
Maybe Krudlow is a closet bear! Or a closet something or other.
The quotes may be a worthwhile addition to your front page. There are many options for how they could be incorporated into your site design. Hopefully you have a good web designer who could give you some ideas.
Your site contains some of the most valuable information I read regularly on the web. Your expert opinion is your site’s greatest asset. A less generic home page design (and site back-end) could make this asset more obvious, rather than burying it in a never-ending ream of posts down the main column or lost among the million things crammed into the side column.
I’m a web programmer myself and don’t have the expertise to give you concrete design advice. I know where my expertise ends and that of professional user interface designers begins. You may want to read over this book to get an idea of the thought processes involved in creating a design with good usability:
Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
Dear Mr. Barron’s:
I am greatly appreciative of the kind words of recognition. It makes my, to now, woefully short-changed life a bit more bearable.
Stay tuned. I hope not to disappoint.
Eclectic
BTW, BR… this is to your credit as well… so don’t hold your breath for a CD.
I can understand a media consultant’s reaction to your modesty. I agree, a splash across the top would be too much, but until a designer works with you and comes up with a great placement, maybe a “kudos listing” along the right panel, starting at the top right, would work. Consider using two or three of the best and most current quotes on that spot; link to the rest.
It’s a great blog. Thank you for creating it and for offering your thoughts and insights. I always enjoy my visits here.
That’s how I choose movies. I know it’s gonna be good when the trailer tells me how highly rated it is.
The Big Picture is like a great indie band. The quality is recognized by any visitor without the need for the usual and often misplaced hype. All you have to do is keep on doing what you’re doing imo Barry…
Quality is viral!
Do not read that blog. Barry Ritholtz is a terrorist.
– George W. Bush
Well deserved praise.
I would suggest a box in the top left hand corner that chooses a random quote every time you load the page or a java box that flashes a new quote every five seconds or so. If you make that box clickable or a link under the box pointing to all your other reviews(just a simple read our reviews). Then people can go and read your kudos without taking up too much space on the front page(you may also want to do that for your books and CDs on the right hand side too BTW. I think Amazon gives you the ability to do that if I recall correctly). That allows you to put every review you have ever received on one page without sounding too pushy or egotistical by having too many of them on the front page. A final tip is instead of putting all the reviews in the front page generator, access only the best ten or so of the ones that carry more weight than the others(NYT and WSJ over joe’s backwater blogging house)
This is another thing I’ve learned about web marketing(it may not have as much relevance to your site due to the nature of your referrals but for anybody checking you out after having found you on search engines this will apply):
Most people will decide whether they want to continue reading your site within the first 30 seconds(some people claim 7) of seeing it so your ‘visible real estate’, the stuff on the screen the first time you click on the page has to catch them and hold them. That is why I suggested the box in the top left hand corner. It is the first place the eye goes to when it clicks on the page (because English is read from left to right)and adds instant credibility while not taking up too much of the time and space of your regular readers. You want to be satisfying both crowds.
I would also suggest you make it as ubiquitous as your big picture title because not everyone is coming to your page through the front door and that strong selling point may never been seen by a potential viewer if it is only on the front page.
I hope that helps
You could put it right above ‘Essays and’..
Reviews
NYT, WJS, Barrons’s More
OR right belowup the title.
either could be one of these mouseover things
that expand without clicking.
I would read that blog if I knew how.
George W.
All this praise and NOT ONE OF THEM mentions The Sweater?
Shocking really.
Well-deserved Barry, well-deserved.
Hope you’ll still be able to take shots at the MSM for their misguided analysis of markets and the economy without feeling any need to censor yourself due to their praise
yay, The Sweater!
– George W. Bush
Calm down! It’s your third comment!
– Dick C.
enough kissing Barry’s butt. we know he’s cool. Now is the top in or what????
HSBC: Has Someone Banged Chime?????
I think I hear a bell ringing, does anyone else see anything on the charts to warn about next week? I hear Feb. is never that great so perhaps a St. Valentines’s Day market massacre is on the way.
Cheers.