Updates Coming To The Website: New Brand/Site Name, New Site Styles, New Content, and More!
Hi readers and writerly friends!
I hope you all are well. It’s reaching peak temps this summer in Oklahoma, where we’re seeing highs get into the 100°s. I’ve been in the process of moving and preparing for back-to-school but in my free time, I’ve been making some changes to my website and brand, This blog post details the current and upcoming changes to this site in 2022.
This post is for informational purposes. I get steady traffic to my website, and I’d like to make the transition as smoothly as possible for all my readers. Likewise, for learning and transparency, I’d like to keep track of the changes.
If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please reach out.
Upcoming changes for 2022 include:
New Site/Brand Name
New Logos and Site Media
Blog Page New URL slug
New Blog Post Formatting
New Blog Content
New Newsletter Content
Features
Shop Product Logos
Broken Links (temporary)
Wonderforest Landing Page
Photo Formatting
Chicago Style
Other Changes
New Site/Brand Name
First and foremost, Wonderforest/Wonderforest LLC/Wonderforest.net/www.wonderforest.net will be changing to Payton Hayes Writing & Editing Services/www.phwritingservices.com. After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided to rename my editorial business to something that is more relevant, succinct, and appropriate for my work. The new name is relevant, practical, and straight to the point. I will be changing all the site media to reflect this change.
New Logos and Site Media
As mentioned above, the logos, pictures, photos, artwork, and other media on www.phwriting.com (formerly www.wonderforest.net) will change to reflect the brand’s name change. In an effort to maintain brand uniformity, the logo’s color palette remain the same. Below is a comparison of the old logo alongside the new logo. Logos were made with Canva.
Blog Page To Merge With Home Page
Previously, the Blog hub page (where all my blog posts could be accessed, not just recent posts like on the Home page) was called “Blog” with the url slug “https://www.paytonhayes.com/blog-feed/”. This slug will be changing to “archives” and will look like this: “https://www.paytonhayes.com/archives/.
Tip: To return Home at anytime, simply click the logo at the top of the screen.
Additionally, images will not be edited to contain lens flares or sparkles anymore. These edits are hard to keep uniform from photo to photo and often distort the images they’ve been applied to. This was an aesthetic I’d decided on in the early stages of the blog’s creation and honestly, it’s time for a change. I will try to swap out all the edited photos for uniformity, but that will take time. For now, all cover/thumbnail photos will no longer contain these elements, and the rest of the site will follow shortly.
New Blog Post Layout
As the previous paragraph states, the Blog will be getting renovated and that includes blog posts as well. Blog posts will not always contain an image and will no longer be concluded by a photo of myself with a byline. Blog posts will follow a casual, conversational, AP Style Column-like style.
New Blog Content
I’m hoping to have a more steady creative schedule in the upcoming months so hopefully you’ll see more posts here soon. I plan to finish the Book Writing 101 Series this year and I’ve got a few book reviews in the works. If you’d like to see me cover a particular topic or review a book, please reach out. I am hoping to get the Features page up and running with content sometime this year as well so keep an eye out for that.
New Newsletter Content
Following suit with the changes coming to the website and blog content, the Newsletters will be seeing some cosmetic changes as well. A new newsletter will be coming soon, along with the new blog content and Features.
Features Page
The Features page will now be part of the Blog Page.
I am looking for writers, artists, and fellow creatives who are interested in guest blogging for my website. I get a fair bit of niche traffic but I am wanting to expand beyond writing advice and editorial content.
I'd like to start an e-zine with a focus on OKC and articles in the following categories:
Nonfiction: education, health, beauty, fitness, arts, entertainment, business, travel, lifestyle, diet, and culture.
This is a non-profit, collaborative effort to give other artists and creators a voice and help my colleagues gain more journalistic writing and editing experience.
Diversity and inclusivity are two of the most important elements of this project. Writers who identify with a marginalized community are strongly encouraged to get in touch.
Please reach out if you’re interested. Serious inquiries only.
Shop Product Logos
The Wonderforest-branded content that will not see changes are the products listed in my online shop. The WF logo will remain as part of the merchandise designs and will be included in the finished products. Changes to these items and their listings may come at a later date but will remain the same for now.
Broken Links
Many of my “Read More” or “Related Reading:” links will be temporarily disabled. You can search articles straight from the website. Further reading lists already contain the exactly titles of other posts, so simply copying and pasting should pull them up for you. I hope to get these up and working again asap, but if you need help finding anything, please let me know.
Wonderforest Landing Page
Lastly, but certainly not least, you might come across a Wonderforest landing page to help redirect traffic from the old URL to the new one. Again, the old URL is www.wonderforest.net, and the new URL is www.paytonhayes.com. I still own the URL for Wonderforest and will not be retiring it anytime soon. I have plans for it in the future, so keep your eyes out for that! In the mean time, this site (www.paytonhayes.com) will be the place for bookish content, writing and editing advice, and editorial services so make sure you bookmark it for reference later!
Photo Formatting
Photos will no longer have lens flares or other extensive editing. I will also try to include more of my own photos rather than generic stock images. Additionally, I will be adding captions and bylines to photos in blog posts with links tracing back to the photographer for credit. Thumbnail photo credits will always be at the end of the blog post.
Chicago Style Blog Posts
This change may not be immediately observed, but moving forward, my blog posts will now follow Chicago Style formatting. Previously I was using a mixture of styles, but being a book editor, I’d like to demonstrate my knowledge of and experience using the Chicago Manual of Style by ensuring my posts align as closely as possible to Chicago Style. I will not be using superscript for my notes or putting endnote/footnotes at the end of blog post sections as this will take way too long to edit using HTML and will break up the blog posts in a distracting way. Instead, blog posts will feature in-text author-date citations and a bibliography section at the end of the post. Thumbnails will also be credited in the Bibliography. Older blog posts may or may not be updated to reflect this change, but all posts from 2022 and onward will follow Chicago Style.
Other Changes
Other items that will see changes include: Wonderforest social media, contact email, terms of use page, other policy pages, and business cards.
Thanks for reading! If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please reach out.
