I’ve got something to show you.
After ten weeks of designing, developing and updating content, the new Signal Tower is live. The reception has been positive. I, for once, am content with something that I’ve created. It’s a weird feeling.
I set out to build the site with a few goals in mind. I wanted to make the interviews genuine, educational and beautiful. I wanted improve newsletter signups without creating an annoying user experience. I wanted learn as much as I could about WordPress development. Here’s how it came together.
Asking questions
My interest in interviews started in college. from 2009 to 2011 I was a reporter for Auburn University’s newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman. During that time I became the paper’s online editor, which piqued my interest in online publications.
Since then I’ve consumed tens of thousands of interviews. The best interviews happen when the host is genuinely curious about the person they are interviewing—not just what they’ve accomplished, but who they are as a person.
Fresh Air’s Terry Gross asks questions with an honest curiosity. It feels like Terry is chatting with an old friend at lunch. That touch makes her interviews, absolutely fascinating. If I become half as good as Terry, I’d be satisfied.
Preparing for interviews
When Signal Tower was featured on Product Hunt, one of my most recent guests, Fletcher Richman, had this to say—
“Had an awesome experience chatting with Sam and was really impressed by his ability to turn it into an incredible interview.”
Planning interviews is a serious task. It probably looks easy in the videos, but it actually takes several hours of preparation. I read and analyze my guests work, to try and understand their strengths, weaknesses and viewpoints.
Why do I do all of that? The better I know the guest, the more informed my questions are.
Designing Interviews
The previous iteration of Signal Tower was a complete experiment. I felt like it would be a waste to spend too much time designing it, because I had no idea what it would become. Instead, I purchased a template and started writing. Initially it was as a blog, but over time it started featuring more and more interviews.
After a year and a half of experimentation, I set out to design the new site with a clear vision. I was inspired by sites like The Bitter Southerner, The Great Discontent and The Verge, which have custom layouts for stories. Unfortunately, none of them use WordPress, so I needed to figure out a way to get a similar result.
There were lessons I took from the previous site. Guests don’t always provide a large variety of photos. On the old site I needed to position their face to the right, otherwise text would cover their face. Full-width layouts are a bad idea when pictures are important. They stretch and cut heads off on large screens. A good portion of the audience are designers, I know there are a few subscribers out there with Thunderbolt displays.
Picking fonts for the site was incredibly difficult. Because of the interview lengths, I wanted the paragraph font to have a large x-height to improve legibility. I considered Adelle and Chaparral Pro, but in the end I chose Freight Text Pro. It is my favorite font by a mile. If you’re not a font nerd, this site’s paragraph text is set in Freight.
I spent most of my time designing the interview pages. Initially, I started working with Advanced Custom Fields to create layouts. I started designing a set of modules that I could reuse, but quickly realized that this made adding content unwieldy. I thought about creating a set of template pages that I could alternate, but it didn’t have the flexibility I wanted.
Then I discovered the SiteOrigin Page Builder. It gave me complete flexibility to rearrange all content within the sites container and added relatively little complexity to the CMS. It was the perfect tool for the job.
Gaining subscribers without Annoying popups
You know that feeling when you’re in the middle of reading a great article, and then the screen turns dark, and you’re presented with an opportunity to provide your email?
Email subscription popups work incredibly well, but I absolutely despise them. Some sites create annoying and deceptive experiences to push numbers a bit higher. They have a slimy feel to them, don’t they? I’ve never seen a site that has one that feels authentic. It creates that uncomfortable feeling where the visitor knows someone’s trying to sell them something.
Gaining subscriptions is a primary goal of the site. I’ve spent so much time crafting these interviews to be engaging, it would be a disservice to myself. Plus, it would be a crime to interrupt somebody 2,000 words into an interview with a “Don’t miss out subscribe now!” popup.
So how can I gain subscribers without popups?
I’ve made gaining subscribers the sole focus of my homepage. In large lettering it says “Longform Interviews You Can Learn From” with a signup form directly below that. Then I tell the visitor to expect one or two emails per month, and give examples of the types of stories they can expect.
As I write, approximately 2.8 percent of visitors to the site convert to a subscriber. I expect that may drop a bit, once traffic from Product Hunt dies down. It is still a substantial improvement.
Always be learning
A huge reason to work on projects is to try and learn new things. If you look through my interviews there are several people who’s businesses started as side projects. Jacob Hinmon started a backpack company, while Murat Mutlu built a prototyping tool. Mikael Cho used small projects to get press and bolster traffic to his company’s website.
There are countless other examples. Look at Pieter Levels, who’s 12 startups in 12 months challenge has gained traction through a bunch of small projects.
The new website may seem simple, but it is my most ambitious WordPress project yet. I’ve learned a huge amount, and am now comfortable with the platform. I’m already thinking about my next project.
Will that be as successful as Signal Tower? I don’t know. Either way, it is sure to be a great experience.
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