The Article
MY NEW WEBSITE – IT’S COMING
11th July 2023
That’s right, I have a new website planned. It’s being built right now. Why? What does it mean for you and for me? How will it affect your experience with the content I currently produce and will produce in the future?
Pick a quiet evening. Just before the sun gives up and collapses beneath the horizon. Open a door and step outside. Away from the hubbub of the traffic. The people. Choose a spot, away from the noise. Listen. Do you hear that? The hammering? The nails being driven? The crunching of boots upon gravel? The drills whirring? Somewhere out there on the horizon? That’s the sound of my new website being built.
And it is, folks. So why is that?
Elements of the user experience that I see here and how I interact with this site via the back end have been irritating me over the years. Did you not sense the tension? Hear the raised voices?
But this is what happens. Any design, no matter what it is, only shows its flaws after weeks, months and years of use.
More recently and more importantly, I have been disturbed by a lack of basic reliability. Of late, my website is going down far too often. Even brief drops are too many for me. As they are for you. Basically, my current server and website team are just not cutting it. I’ve had enough. So I’m moving.
So I’m changing my server, changing my designers, changing my managers. The lot.
Hence, the new website process is already underway. I recently completed tweaking the finer details with my design team, I’ve checked proofs of new page designs, tools, etc. And it’s looking good. The actual build is now underway. I hope – if you’re a website reader – that you will like the changes and will approve of the new design when it finally becomes ‘live’.
The basic site will, I feel, look just as good if not better but you can tell me what you think. For me? The new design looks, if anything, slightly retro. A little bit…50s? Kinda? I have still majored on simplicity, white space, a lack of clutter. But again, you can tell me if that aim has been achieved when the new site emerges.
This new website, I must admit, is expensive. Super expensive. To work with professionals. To attach yourself to a real-deal server with all the mod cons. To have the sort of technical expertise sitting just in the background in case something goes awry. It costs. Big time. I’ve never spent so much cash on The Audiophile Man. Up until now, I have wheeler dealed. I have been, though necessity, the Del Boy of journalism (apologies to my American friends, check out this link). But that way of working only gets you so far and then you have to either move forward and take things seriously or you fester and die. And this enterprise is becoming more serious as the years go by.
Then there’s my monthly bill to keep the new site going. This has doubled. Which is a shock. But really, looking around the industry? It’s the going rate. I have to live in the real world now. Damn it. So, if you can support me via Patreon, that will now take on a new level of importance in terms of helping to keep this new site up and running.
I am also looking to up the frequency of exclusive content on Patreon. Something I have been meaning to do for a while but time and the lack of it and the need to build my YouTube channel keeps hitting me square in the face. Even so. It’s a change that must happen. So, there are changes afoot there too.
Oh and if you’ve ever wondered, as a reading website fan, why I do the YouTube channel? Well, it ain’t the cash, let me tell you! No siree. I earn a fraction of the official basic wage rate running my YouTube channel. No, the reason I do that is because YouTube is the world’s second largest search engine after Google. It’s brand awareness, you might say. Basically, if you’re serious about what you do – you have to be there. Just to be seen. And that’s tough when you’re on your own and you don’t have a staff of 30.
For the content you see on this site? That will continue ‘as is’. There will be no change (Who swore at the back there?) and the way you interact with it will only change in a good way, I hope.
When the new site is online then I might tweak and streamline it after working with it for a wee while but again, only to improve the ‘user experience’, as we high-powered execs like to say.
When will the new site emerge? Not sure. A couple of months perhaps? I’ll keep you in touch with the timetable. If you have any questions about all of this then please, shout at me in the Comments.
More than anything else, though, the creation of this new site and the investment in it is my way of showing you how invested I am in it, how important I think this website is and what I think of the view that websites are old, dead and in the way. That video is the only important media out there. Not so. This website was, is and will remain my HQ. The centre of what I do. It’s my home. Everything else that I do stems from it. It’s importance for my business and for how I serve you information is critical.
I hope you will continue to follow and support what I do here. We – because this is more than me now – have created quite a community here. I count you all as friends now. It’s not a me/you thing. It’s definitely and ‘us’ thing. Sounds a little silly and old fashioned, I know but, after all this time has passed, that’s how I see it.
I don’t thank you enough on this website for your support but I wanted to do that now. I’ll go now before I break down in floods of tears. Too soppy, that’s my problem.
Hello Paul, you are probably the most knowledgeable,informative, helpful, and enjoyable source of news, views and reviews of hi fi stuff and music available to the ‘general public’.
But we are of course not general public, we are those very special individuals like you who are into hi fi.
I did try the lowest cost Patreon for a short while but withdrew as there was insufficient to interest me as someone of a senior age with limited budget and a set up that I am as happy with as funds have allowed. Your reviews on equipment have significantly helped me achieve that state of happiness.
I would have liked to learn about your hi fi systems, I mention this because I if it had been possible without being a Patreon subscriber at the higher cost I would have felt it was possibly worth paying a sum just for that. Might it be not be possible to offer Information about what’s being posted and to pick items to see/read for a reasonable fee. Another source of income that you obviously require and deserve.
Thanks for the service you are providing and your humour wen presenting it.
Thanks for your thoughts and ideas, David. Much appreciated. And thanks for giving Patreon a go. Very nice of you. I have started a HiFi Tour series of videos at the lowest tier/cost on Patreon – did you see those? They are available now on Patreon. In those videos, I am looking at the HiFi kit I own and use for my work and enjoyment. I feature those one at a time. This is partly what I was referring to in this New Website news thing. So there will be more of those at that lower tier. So far, I’ve looked at my high-end components: turntable, phono amp, pre amp and power amps with speakers being next on the list.
I am currently finishing notes on a two-part ‘tangent’ in this series. So before I get to those speakers I mentioned above, I’m taking a quick diversion. This will focus on an entire system and I’ll be going into why this particular system exists and what it consists of and will go through it piece by piece.
Anyway, there’s lots more to come from that area. I see Patreon as a great opportunity to feature items that maybe the majority of readers/viewers might steer away from. A bit niche perhaps? If there’s anything else you would like to see on Patreon, please let me know.