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The end of 2016 is nigh… which means different things to different people.
Some use this time of year to practice gratitude for all of the wonders of the year. Others may choose to lament the passing of musicians, actors, and superstars (I <3 you David Bowie! :'( ) Still others prepare their resolutions to spend money on a gym membership they never use or to save more money… ironically opposing goals.
But not here at GCC… instead we get wild and crazy with acronyms like CSS and PHP, play with Internet servers and caching tools, and of course take steps to minimize taxes for this year and beyond.
And last but not least, Winnie’s book was released at the end of December, quickly becoming the #1 new investment book on the market! (Mandarin / Chinese only.)
You may have already noticed the results by how fancy everything now looks around here. Please allow me to highlight these investments in the future, with a focus on ease of use and improved access.
Fast, Flexible, & Mobile Friendly Theme
A theme is basically a layer of clothes for a blog… it determines how a site looks.
At the beginning of GCC, I picked a rather bland and boring theme with the equally bland and boring name of Twenty Ten. As in the year 2010…
A lot has changed since that long ago era, yet Go Curry Cracker looked much the same. This was most apparent on mobile devices… which this site just assumed was another computer with a big display. Along the way replacement themes were offered with names like Twenty Twelve and Twenty Sixteen, but I didn’t really care for them.
I played with twenty or so different themes over the past few years, but none of them clicked. But then last year I found the Divi Theme from Elegant Themes and I fell in love. It is fast, flexible, mobile friendly… and beautiful.
The downside is that it wasn’t free. I paid $224 for Lifetime Access to Divi (and 86 other themes plus several plugins.) The positive of working with a for-profit organization is that they provide better support, which I’ve used extensively. I think the results speak for themselves.
Alternatively I could have paid $69/year for Divi access and support, but I’m in it for the long haul and thus prefer a One Time Fee.
New Logo & Tagline
Go Curry Cracker also has a new logo.
This replaces the previous logo of… some black text.
This also wasn’t free. I paid $89 to a design company in Malaysia (I think?) This provided several design concepts and unlimited changes… I think I nearly reached that limit. (Here are a few of the early concepts.)
If you are looking for a new logo, you can get 15% off at Logo Design Creation by using code gocurrycracker.
To go with the new logo, we also got a new tagline that I think better reflects what we are about:
Retire Early. Travel the World.
Google Search
I used to have a search function hidden in the sidebar that used the (terrible) WordPress search tools. It was so bad I deleted it.
Now the main menu contains site specific Google search, which should make finding what you are looking for a ton easier. Just click the magnifying glass logo in the upper right. (If you want Google search on your own site, Google CSE is your friend.)
Improved Archives
Speaking of finding things… the old archives were kind of ugly and had poor layout.
The archives page is now clean and slick, and even highlights the number of comments on each post. Links to the page are available in the new header and footer menus.
This is a simple change with a nice free plugin called Clean My Archives.
Simpler Menus
As Go Curry Cracker grew in volume and content, it seemed more and more items found there way into the main menu. It started to look a bit like those programmable television remotes where it takes 15 minutes just to find the right button.
Now lesser used (yet important) functions have been placed in the header and footer menus.
Email List Management
For a blogger, the email list is kind of a big deal. Social media sharing is a great way for readers to see the content you create, but none of it comes close to email as a delivery mechanism.
I had been using MailChimp for quite some time, but I hated it from Day One. I didn’t want to spend hours messing with templates and editing layout, I just wanted to write good content. I don’t think I ever got the MailChimp setup right. I would even get emails telling me that the “font was too light” or “I can’t see the images”, yet I had no idea how to fix it.
So a few months ago I switched to ConvertKit. Everything was well formatted, and it just worked. I don’t get excited about techie stuff very easily, but Winnie actually told me, “Just shut-up about ConvertKit already!” So I will…. after one last thing…
Overall, this allowed me to eliminate the SumoMe tools I was using. I was able to drop a $199/month SumoMe plan (plus Mailchimp fees) and replace it with ConvertKit and some free plugins. If you are curious, they offer a free book, The Complete Guide to Email Marketing that is pretty good. Convertkit plans start at $29/month (I’m currently paying $159/month, but I paid for a whole year and got a couple months free.)
Ads
There are some ads displayed in the sidebar, which you probably can’t see because of your Ad Blocker. (I use Adblock Plus, personally.)
I’m using the Google Adsense plugin to manage those ads, and it really does a great job of making everything easy and turnkey.
I’ve also started trying to sell ad space directly, just for products/services that I think are valuable and worthwhile (details here.) I did this in part because I get asked, and also as a deterrent from the people who send me emails asking to do paid guest posts, sponsored posts, or paid links (those automatically get marked as spam.)
To help, I’ve purchased a plugin called AdRotate Pro for 29€. There is a free version too, but the guy who wrote it is a digital nomad living in the Philippines and I like supporting that kind of thing. He has easily provided more than 29€ worth of support, and the paid features like Geotargeting and Advertiser support are worth it.
If you happen to like what you read on Go Curry Cracker, please consider adding gocurrycracker.com to your Ad Blocker whitelist (all of my favorite blogs are in my whitelist.) If you think having ads makes me a terrible person… well, lots of other things make me a terrible person, we can just add this to the list. But ads do help pay the blogging bills and buy some cheese for Jr.
Content
Of course all of this would just be lipstick on the pig if I didn’t (continue?) to write stuff that is useful, valuable, and inspiring. So that is what I’m going to do.
All of the investment of time and energy in ease of use and improved access is to help drive Go Curry Cracker onward and upward, which I believe can only be done by providing more value.
Over the past few months, I’ve been working through more advanced tax minimization ideas. I’ll share those in the new year. I’ll also share more details about blog income and tax optimization thereof.
We will begin IVF treatment in January and are evaluating a Destination Birth. I’ll share our planning and thoughts on pros and cons of a 3rd citizenship for GCC the Third.
And lastly we have a few ideas for our next big adventure. Our original retirement days were in Mexico and Central America, this year was SE Asia and Europe, and next year… stay tuned.
Happy New Year
We made some pretty significant investments in a new theme, new logo, and blogging tools. This should make it easier to find what you are looking for on devices of all sizes. And it should look pretty too.
And content wise, 2017 should be the best year yet with lots of exciting ideas to share and explore.
Thank you all for your support over the past 4 years. Here is to a very happy and exciting new year to all of you!
Onward and upward!
Jeremy, Winnie, & Julian
If you are interested in starting a blog of your own, please read How to Start a Blog. This tutorial walks you through the exact steps to create your own blog. Through my special Bluehost link, starting a blog of your own costs less than a monthly latte. And with an annual plan you can get a free domain name through our link!
Love the new logo and theme changes! Great work GCC, and Happy New Year to you!
Thanks Mr. T. Happy New Year!
Love the new look and all the changes. Congrats to Winnie’s book launch, exciting news!
Happy New Year to the whole family, Tawcan.
Winnie’s book stuff is pretty exciting… we have some short trips around Taiwan scheduled for book signing events and author meet-n-greet. Should be fun.
Site looks great. I’m looking forward to more awesome content and your new life adventures. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year Mr. Enchumbao
Happy New Year, GCC Family! :)
Happy New Year Joe, and to the whole rebel spy family too!
Happy New Year! Will an English translation of Winnie’s book be available in the future? Looking forward to hearing about your new adventures.
There aren’t any plans for an English version, but it is hard to say what happens next.
Thanks RocDoc, happy new year to you!
Love the new look. What was the charge for the Google search tool or is it free like many of their other apps? Happy new year.
Google search is free
I love the new logo, also like option C (looks very flashy), but I think this one is very “you”! I love the idea of the rolling suitcase being the cracker!
Best of luck with the IVF treatment and warm well wishes for the new year!
Thank you Vanessa.
I didn’t care for any of the 3 initial concepts, but the designers were really easy to work with… I love the final result.
This is an awesome new site design Jeremy and love the logo! Congrats to Winnie on the book too. That’s an amazing accomplishment! I don’t mind the ads on your site at all. Some people have them and they ruin the reading experience. We wouldn’t want Jr. to miss out on some cheese ;) May 2017 bring your family more happiness and safe travel! We’ll be following along! Happy New Year!
Happy new year and a super awesome 2017 to you too!
And thanks for the cheese!
The new design looks good, and I appreciate you sharing the tools you use to manage everything.
I do have one comment on ads. You mentioned there are ads in the sidebar, which I think are very reasonable, but there is also a very prominent ad at the top of the page and right in the middle of the article. Those are the ads I don’t like, and why I am inclined to leave my ad blocker (uBlock Origin) enabled. I’m not writing this to criticize, but to let you know how I, and possibly others, feel.
Good luck with baby number two! We are probably going to start trying for our second soon too.
No worries, an ad blocker will serve you well. It is also a good way to make sure all of your blog reading is done fiscally free ;)
Haha. This actually got me thinking. I’m not sure if you have the data or if it’s readily available elsewhere, but it would be interesting to know how much ads in each location generated.
Great new design and layout – works really well on my mobile :)
Good luck for 2017! I wish you many wonderful adventures!
Good luck for 2017 to you and yours too!
Nice improvements, buddy. As I said to you on Twitter, you may be the most-successful-ever blog that got that far on the default theme ?
Hoping for a big 2017 for us, too– we’re discussing some huge life changes that ought to make for interesting material.
Yeah, I’m a slacker. I would have made changes sooner but I didn’t like any of the themes I found until this one.
Congrats on the new design and logo. Hey, in the end I come here for the content but it’s even better if it appeals to the eyes as well and the new design looks awesome. Happy New Year and best wishes for all your adventures!
Happy new year! Thanks ERN!
Great clean, crisp new look. And thank you for sharing the smart choices you made for putting your money to work on website improvements.
Congratulations to you and Winnie on your success and happy new year!
Happy new year Mrs Groovy!
Nice work on the site, I’m gonna have to check out some of those plugins.
Congratulations to Winnie on the book. That’s awesome it’s taking off!
I’ll be looking forward to seeing where you guys go in 2017. Happy New Year :)
Happy new year! Thanks!
Bug report: After hiding the top bar by clicking the X in the top right, the top-level menu links (Press, Contact, Archives…) no longer work. I’m using Chrome 55 on Windows 10 with uBlock Origin.
Thanks, I’ll look into it.
I’m diggin’ the new logo and look. Nice work tidying up the site!
I’ve got paid sponsors in the sidebar and header, and I believe the ads are not blocked by blockers, as they are images I’ve manually inserted. The Google AdSense images have been relegated to the bottom of the page and sidebar, and are probably blocked by most, anyway.
Happy 2017!
-PoF
Happy New Year PoF!
I’ll check out your ad machine to see how a professional makes it work.
New site looks great. Way to top off a great 2016.
Wishing you all of a great 2017 as well!
Thank man. A great 2017 to you too!
Wishing the GCC family and all your followers a safe and prosperous New Year!
Thanks ChuckY, much appreciated.
Look great guys. Have a happy new year, I look forward to your posts in 2017.
Thank you Renee. Happy new year!
I like the new logo. Congratulations to Winnie on the success of her book. All the best for your upcoming IVF treatments and a very happy new year to you and yours.
Ooh nice and shiny, congrats on the new look! Hope 2017 is a good one for you :)
A bold and hearty Happy New Year to you too!
We may be in Saigon sometime this spring.
Hello! I’m not a big fan of change with things i already like. The old GCC was my comfort food, I’m digesting the new and have realized the same great content is there so I’ll still check for new content every morning as usual(I am on email list). Over the holidays I pulled up several old articles to share w friends and family and thought “wow!!” that was oddly easier then ever before. So the redesign explains that.
So as a totally non-tech person I have to ask how do I allow the ads? I know I’m a tech idiot. 2017 I’ll learn Spanish and computer engineering while working out at the gym:)
Haha, sorry to change things up on you. Good to hear you also like the new and improved version.
As a totally non-tech person, are you running an Ad blocker? Many of the tools have a “disable on this site” check box.
This is what it looks like in my ad blocker:
Really nice job on the redesign. That’s one of my goals for 2017. My site is looking dated and it really need a face lift. Wow, good luck with the IVF. I thought you guys are pretty young, but I guess there are other issues. Thanks for sharing the links. ConvertKit looks really good and I’ll see if it’s the right fit for us.
Happy New Year!
Happy new year Joe!
I had a vasectomy many years ago, so… plus making babies with science is loads of fun :p
Very nice logo and new look! I am working on my logo too…it’s a pain…
It was a pain at first, but then I started to enjoy the process.
I had poor success on Fiverr and didn’t care for the early concepts…
If you want an intro to the design company I used, let me know.
While the site refresh looks nice overall, I struggle to read the body text. It’s small and light. Even a slight adjustment from 14px to 16px in size and #666 to #555 in color would be a big improvement.
There ya go. Try it out and let me know what you think.
Just added you to my whitelist. Keep putting out great stuff!
Thanks Jordan! Happy new year!
Can we get Winnie’s book on Amazon… taiwa..sites… your book site seems blocked here … curious does your blog biz cover much of your monthly expenses …or can you cover things via your stock funds?
God Bless, Beijing, China
Hi Michael. It isn’t on Amazon that I know of. The Chinese may just be blocking Taiwan sites, but you can also try this one: http://www.books.com.tw/products/0010738648
I’ve shared our expenses and income (via tax docs) these past few years. Sometimes blog income covers expenses in a given month, sometimes it doesn’t. Same goes for dividend income.
Thanks … I have the flu today … so was cooped up at bit … checked out your site … and saw you have this new book…. I will see if I can order it for my wife …. seeing she prefers to read in Chinese to English ….. we are contemplating this early retirement thing …. or semi-retirement …. whatever you like to call it … but it can be daunting ….on the one hand I think we could easily do it … but on the other hand there are a lot of things to consider like schooling, where to invest Shenzhen, Canada or whatever …. the tricky part is we are reluctant to sell our real estate and move out of Beijing because family, friends, ministry and schooling …. the idea though is very tempting … mainly because of the air quality … but the details … my goodness!!!!
Thanks again …. and I will see if I can get my wife that book … it sounds great…. :)
As a non blogger reader for the past 3 years, I’m not really digging the change. I don’t mean to be negative but it’s a lot more difficult to get to the article on my iPhone with all the adds and new buttons. It’s distracting. Maybe I could take the extra step to configure iPhone ad blocker but I most likely won’t and just check for new articles less often. Just some honest feedback.
Hi LX, thanks for the feedback.
I see the opposite on my iPhone, and I don’t have an ad blocker. I don’t have to pinch and zoom, and all of the content is closer to the top with no buttons, so I’m not sure what you are seeing?
I really like the new logo and template design! It’s such an improvement over the design of the Twenty Ten WordPress theme. The way your redid your Archives page is really intuitive and easy to browse now as well.
Overall, I really like what you did with the site, it’s much better and more elegant with the changes!
Minor suggestion: Try out uBlock Origin, it’s supposed to be more light-weight and better than Adblock Plus!
Love the new site! I’ve been around for a few years and I always thought..aww they are off having too much fun traveling to worry about things like fancy blog platforms lol..glad you enjoy the hobby and happy you are still writing helpful content! Happy New Years to you and your family!
This is closer to the truth than you know :)
Now that we are in one place for awhile, I’ve been working through my blog to do list.
Happy new year!
The new theme is great, and I like the logo, but the text beneath is odd. I’m not sure if it’s design or implementation, but any logo creator worth her salt would not put text that tiny on an image for use at that size. Also, it’s not even your new tagline? I’d suggest removing that bit entirely or moving to a wider layout with Go Curry Cracker! to the right and the new tagline in a larger font beneath it. Just my two cents :)
Yeah, the text is weird. I’ve just been too lazy to change to an image without it… until now.
Curious … if one opens a blog like you mention … can they use an overseas bank account to deposit any income … like in China? etc etc …. Would it be taxed in the U.S. and/or China ….. a friendly greenhorn Canadian in China … God Bless … :)
Not sure. I work with a couple non-US companies and they use PayPal.
Thanks will check that …again thanks,
:)
Just want to thank you for all of your posts. I first stumbled upon GCC 2 years ago and have been slowly practicing saving money towards financial freedom. Will definitely purchase Winnie’s book from Eslite bookstore!
The new theme is so fresh and so clean and I love the new logo. As a (really, really) new personal finance blogger, I took notes the whole way through, so thank you for all the great tips. I now have a solid list of tools to look into.
Cody