Andrew, PageLines' founder and myself at their pre-launch in LA this October.
I am a notorious technophobe, which is odd since I’m the CEO of a web company and an avid writer on this little thing. But for years I couldn’t so much as tweak the sidebar of my beloved blog because I didn’t know how to code and couldn’t figure out most WordPress themes.
That all changed one afternoon when fate smiled upon me and I ran smack-dab into PageLines‘ founder Andrew Powers. That day I learned about PageLines and their fabulous drag-and-drop framework which quite literally allows me to change my site on a whim by pulling my cursor across the back-end of this blog. I quickly switched over to PageLines and was amazed by the ease of use and attractive simplicity it’s design offered.
The reason I’m sharing this with my Escaping audience now is because PageLines is launching their 2.0 version and the PageLines store at LeWeb in Paris right now (I know I’m green with envy too). Here’s why I redesigned my site on PageLines and why you should too…
Ease of Use
The reason I changed over to PageLines was because I was sick and tired of not having any control over my site. I love to write, but I’ve never spent the time to even learn basic HTML and because of that I felt like a prisoner of my blog. If I wanted the sidebar changed, or the header tweaked I would have to bug one of my designer friends or post a job to Odesk. It was a pain and even the simplest change was a week long process.
I can change the layout of my site with a click of a my little cursor
I can change the color of almost anything on my site with PageLines color picker
I'm a typography lover, so I like to change up my font from time to time their simple interface let's me do that in a snap
Clean, Simple Design
Another reason I was really drawn to PageLines was the design sense. The typeface is eye-catching without being distracting, the lines are smooth and the transitions are clean. It takes very little “design savvy” on the users end to build a beautiful site. Another big plus is the fact that no matter what you create on PageLines it’s set up to look amazing on all mobile devices, from Androids to iPads.
Now you can read Escapingthe9to5.com on your iPhone, before it was incomprehensible
The Store
My very favorite feature – that has a lot to do with why I made the switch to this platform – is the PageLines 2.0 Store. A marketplace for drag-and-drop web design (think of it like an “app store” for drag-and-drop sections, plugins and themes). The store gives us (the tech-un-savvy) the ability to buy new sections, plug-ins and widgets for our sites directly from the admin interface. Best of all, everything is you purchase is drag-and-drop!
The PageLines store offers both paid and free add-ons for your website or blog
Try out PageLines yourself by clicking this link. Your blog will love you for making it pretty and easy to use and I will love you for clicking an affiliate link.
