About this website

WordPress CMS

Aardling.com has been running on WordPress for quite a few years now, since December 12th 2006. I admit that the WordPress learning curve may be steep if you really want to get into it. But it’s worth it in the end.

I had some experience with CSS beforehand, which lent itself great to let me customize some of the default themes I was using.

From time to time I may also hack one of my plugins, although PHP is not my cup of tea. Here is a list of the WordPress Plugins I am currently using.

Thesis Theme Design

Having used some of Chris Pearson’s designs before — notably the Neoclassical theme — my interest was immediately sparked when he announced his plans to create the Thesis theme.

I have been using and tweaking Thesis since October 11th 2008, after making the informed choice to purchase it. The results were immediate: my search traffic trippled in just one week — I kid you not.

Since then this site has evolved ever so slightly. Being a fan of progressive enhancement, minimalism, usability and information architecture, I try to keep my designs simple and intuitive. And people seem to like it.

I’m always flattered to receive these aknowledgements.

Feedback

I regularly receive requests to share my ‘knowledge’ through the comments, twitter and e-mail. Although I cannot guarantee a perfect answer, I do try to help where I can.

{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }

joen 18 februari 2007 om 12:12u

Interessant, goed geschreven én mooi! Ik ga jou heel vaak lezen.

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Chris Pearson 31 oktober 2008 om 8:08u

Dude, you have done an insanely good job with Thesis here on your site. Although you’ve made only subtle design tweaks, the overall effect is amazing. Loving your nav menu, loving your “top 10″ box, loving the whole thing. Awesome.

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Stijn Vogels 31 oktober 2008 om 13:13u

Aw Chris, now look what you did. You’ve gone and made me blush. Thanks for those kind words. I really appreciate them, almost as much as I appreciate your work on the Thesis theme. It was well worth the wait. And I know you’ve probably received a billion similar remarks, but I’m very eager to see what I can do with the front page once Cosmo arrives.

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Jay Thompson 31 oktober 2008 om 22:22u

Stijn, I have to agree with Chris. Great job. Your whole site is very well done! I love the “tabbed box” — is there a plugin for that or did you hand code it all?

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Aaron 16 november 2008 om 17:17u

The evolution of your blogs amaze me, especially since I have no real sense for design and looks and wouldn’t be able to do something even close to this. One of the most professional blogs I know. Very impressive. :)

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Roel 19 november 2008 om 15:15u

Hey, fellow belgian – heb u gevonden via de DIY Themes site. Enkele vraagjes: heb je zelf je coding gedaan, en ben je content met Dreamhost? (hoe lang zit je al bij hen?). Knappe blog, echt. Keep it up!

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Brian 15 december 2008 om 21:21u

Hi,
How did you make the Tabs area in the sidebar? Would like to learn this… Thank you.

Brian

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Stijn 16 december 2008 om 9:09u

Well, Brian. I would love to say I can help you with creating your own tabbed, but unfortunately it’s all custom built. Inspiration came from a lot of other tabbed interfaces all over the web. If anything, I advise that you take a look at how the NYTimes does it, and especially the Structure wordpress theme by Justin Tadlock. There is also a plugin called ‘Tabbed Widgets’ that helps make tabs, but I haven’t found it very useful. Either way, good luck with the hunt for code. ;-)

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Brian 16 december 2008 om 18:18u

Thanks… Justin’s Structure template has a widget for it. By any change can you show me how you modified your custom_functions.php to call for it?

Thanks again…

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Tom 28 april 2009 om 21:21u

Hi there,

I’ve just stumbled upon this blog and I really like it, even though I can’t read it ;-)

May I ask you one question?

How do you make the pictures rotate if you move your mouse over it?
Thats a really great effect :-)

I really would appreciate a little hint ;-)

Thanks and cheers

Tom

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Stijn Vogels 28 april 2009 om 22:22u

Hi Tom. Pictures are rotated using CSS. Right now this animation only works for Webkit-based browsers (Safari, Chrome).

I used this little CSS-trick: img:hover{-webkit-transform:scale(1.5);-webkit-transform:rotate(-5deg);-webkit-transition-duration:1s}

Be sure to check out the cool showcase/tutorial over at The Art of Web: Animation using CSS transforms.

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Tom 29 april 2009 om 19:19u

hey wow, thank you very much for your fast response, with this great hint :-)

Now I’ll try to implement it on my Blog :-)

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Stijn Vogels 30 april 2009 om 7:07u

No problem. By the way: there is also a small animation on the links. Try hovering over the ones in the footer, and you’ll see it. That’s done with:

a { -webkit-transition: color .5s ease-out }
a:hover { -webkit-transition: color .5s ease-out }

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Ton 4 augustus 2009 om 2:02u

Via wat gesnuffel op je site terecht gekomen. Ben zelf ook wat aan het spelen nu op http://www.elcatey.com. Alles zelf gedaan??? Ziet er goed uit.

De complimenten voor je design van een hollander in de Dominicaanse Republiek (Las Terrenas).

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Paul Hesser 7 december 2009 om 0:00u

Hi, I need some help. Trying to get my site to work as I envision – with no luck. I’m not a programmer – more of a designer/business person. I liked your site the best. Do you do any freelance work? Here’s what I want my site to look like – http://www.dakotapaul.com/wpimages/final.layout.jpg How do you change the multi-media box in Thesis?? And rearrange content. Send me an email @ mailto:paul@dakotadesign.com

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Tom 26 januari 2010 om 22:22u

Hello Stijn,

I came across your blog via Thesis and really like the changes you have made – clean lines, efficient lay-out etc. I am in the process of putting my blog together (on Thesis) and would love to “copy” your Sideblog display format for “Korte Berichten”. I have played around with the display format in the Sideblog plugin on my site, but haven’t been able to get the format to look anywhere close to yours. Any chance you could help me out here with the Sieblog display format code?

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Howie 28 januari 2010 om 22:22u

Love your layout. Wondering if I could hire you to upload the code so my Thesis theme would look the same?

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