Weddingbee Blog
Thanks for all your feedback on our recent layout designs. Many of you commented that the site looks great as is and we shouldn’t change a thing! Thanks for your kind words :).
The thing is, the Google ads we have on the site aren’t generating much revenue at all. So we’re looking into adding banner sponsorships, following the footstops of sites like Oh Joy! and Design Sponge (two of my favorite sites!). The problem with our existing design is that there isn’t a lot of room for those sorts of sponsorships.
That said, I completely agree that we don’t want the site to be too busy. So we’ve tweaked the proposed layout, to move the tags back under a tab (as it is now). You can see where the sponsorships would go as well here:
Some of you also suggested that we make the ad columns smaller, but unfortunately they have to be a minimum designated width and we don’t have any control over that. 
We’re working very hard to create a new layout that’s friendly and attractive, but also gives us enough space to host sponsorships and new features. Hopefully this new mockup balances these issues nicely? Please let us know what you think!
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thanks for explaining, bee! i think it will look less busy when the ads have pictures/banners. right now it’s all text and that looks a lot busier to the eye. keep up the great work!
Woopsie! I commented on the wrong post! Hehe.. Um.. I like it a whole lot better for some reason.. I love that the tags are back where they used to be. =)
my other suggestion to make it look less cluttered is to frame the sponsors in a seperate box on the left side and the ads in a seperate box on the right side so that the posts are their own individual box in the middle as “oh joy” and “designer sponge” do with their layouts. that might just make the layout look more focused. 
the proposed layout looks great!! doesn’t look clustered at all and i love how the tabs are back to where they were before.
the new proposal looks nice! To free up more space, maybe you can look into moving the “More” and “Links” sections up (under the ad on the right) into the tabs on top. As it is right, those links get lost in all the main. Also, to increase page size, can’t you decrease all the dead space (with the hearts) around the green outlines? I’m looking at Oh Joy and there isn’t a whole lot of dead/unused space, yet it still looks clean/organized. Pardon my ignorant web-speak - I don’t know what these things are called!
um, so sorry i didn’t grammar or spell check in my previous comment! I mean that the links get lost in the main content as it is right now. sorry!
i agree with weddingwishes. it’d be a lot easier on the eyes if there were specified places/frames for the posts and ads instead of having them run together. that’s what makes it look all busy and cramped.
Question - what happened to the truncated posts? I was LOVING the idea of that simply becauase I’ll be looking for a post I’d seen before and it is SO much easier with truncated posts instead of the longer ones, but it seems that first day was the only time it really was done. Keep doing it, please!!!!!!
i agree with weddingwishes. frames or more space in between the ads and the body would better define the spaces and be easier on the eye.
[...] I think we started getting inquiries about graphic ads in May 2006. At the time our resources were limited and adding graphic ads took time because they required that we redesign the site. On August 31, 2006, we redesigned Weddingbee to a three column layout to accommodate graphic ads and Adsense ads (we previously had a two column layout), and we launched graphic ads. [...]
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Mrs. Bee, New York Age and Occupation: 29, Weddingbee Publisher Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Internet Engagement Date: May 7, 2004 Wedding Date: March 5, 2005 Venue: Westside Loft, New York About Me: Yes, my name really is Bee! I love my blogging, wikis, and tabasco sauce!
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