Some of you might have noticed: Yoast.com has changed, as usual because I, its founder, have changed. The site has gotten a new design over the last few days, and new copy on quite a few of its static pages. The reasons for the redesign were plentiful, but most important: the site had to look more professional, and as less of a “hobby” blog. Judging by the initial reactions on Twitter, it worked. There’s still loads of things I want to improve on it, but that’ll come over the next weeks. As usual by now with my designs, full credit goes to my buddy Frederick for doing all the heavy lifting.
The reason for the site having to become more professional is the second, more personal and more important part of this post. Starting last July, when I “incorporated” my own Yoast BV, the Dutch equivalent of an Inc, I’ve been working on my own projects more, while also still working at and with OrangeValley. As of December 1st, yesterday, I no longer work for them.
Leaving OrangeValley
The fact that I’ve left OrangeValley might surprise some of you, so let me explain why. OrangeValley has grown tremendously since I became its first employee in October 2008, both in size and in knowledge. I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed working with the people there, as it’s one of the most talented crews I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, helping a range of very cool customers. Naming any of my colleagues specifically would mean not naming one or two others, when all of them have their own specialties and they’re all great people, so I won’t. “Why leave then?”, you’ll ask.
Because it’s time. It’s time for me to be a true entrepreneur, and not an employee. I’m a very ambitious guy: being one of the best SEO’s of the Netherlands, which I think I can fairly call myself, is not enough. I want to be amongst and compete with the best in the world. Some people might think that’s arrogance, I’ve decided that doesn’t bother me anymore.
So it is, with some pain in my heart, that I wish them all the best, I’m certain they’ll do great things. There’s two people whom I will name, as I especially want to thank them. Frank and Ortwin, managing partners at OrangeValley, have been great mentors throughout the time I worked with them, encouraging me to take my own path even when it had been in their better interest not too, to them I want to say: Thanks guys. While I’m leaving the company, we’re not done yet, we will be working together in the future, I’m quite sure of that.
So what will you be doing?
I’ve got several ideas for products, at least one of which will lead to a very cool startup soon. A lot of this will happen in cooperation with other people, often with Frederick, in whom I’ve found a sparring partner of incredible value, and I’ve also got a couple of new sites planned with my buddy Roy.
Another product I’m working on and will be spending more time on, is my free WordPress SEO plugin and its paid modules. I’m very excited to work with Mark Robertson of ReelSEO on the Video SEO module and with Arjan on the Local SEO module. Those projects combined take up so much time that it’s no longer possible for me to combine it with a job at OrangeValley, and frankly, I no longer have to. This site and my other sites make me enough money to live off, and allow me to fund all of these projects myself. I know, I’m a lucky guy.
So off we go, on to new adventures!
A nice and professional new design Joost! Good luck with the new adventures :)
Joost,
Good luck with becoming an entrepreneur, which is a great way to create value for customers in the global marketplace.
// Remo Knops
Honest post. Good luck with Yoast.com and in all your future endeavors!
Good luck on your new adventures!
P.S.: The new design is really spiffy!
While I hate to see you leave, I wish you all the best in your new digital entrepeneurship. I would suggest changing the colors of the comment box, as they make my head hurt ;-)
Let’s keep each other updated, preferable during a beer session! ;-)
Erwin
Nice move, good luck.
congrats dude, well-earned!
Hi Yoast,
It’s a pity to see you leave Orangevalley as I alway enjoyed working with you! You really brought a ton of knowledge to us and our clients but of course I wish you all the best on your new adventure!
We’ll keep in touch,
Roel
Congrats Joost! Was expecting something like this eventually so way to go for taking this step!
Joost, the best of luck to you on your new adventures. I’m confident you’ll do more than well.
Nice design by the way!
I really dig your redesign and wish you all the luck in the new venture(s). Looking forward to all the new stuff you are about to launch with our mutual friends :-)
Looking forward to your new projects and products. Hope you will keep on sharing the same great content and education.
Congratulations, man! This is awesome :-)
Loving the new design, too.
I wish you the best of luck Joost, together with Dutchies Roy and Arjan and the things you are doing now and in the future. And there is nothing wrong with having some degree of arrogance, as long as you can deliver the results you say you deliver, right? ;-)
Hi Yoast,
Surprised to see you leave Orangevalley, but no surprise to see you taking your own business to the next level ;-). Good luck with everything! And nice, tight design of course, suits you!
Loving the new look. Very professional and slick. Good luck with your next steps!
Great new design! And all the best with the new Yoast BV :)
Good luck with your new job
(Have you got a coffee machine at your new desk? very important!)
Btw have you seen the mail about the WP SEO plugin I`ve sent you a couple of weeks ago?
Good luck Joost!
Sounds like a logical next step. I hope you’ll have a lot of fun with your new projects.
WOW nice move good luck Joost!
A wise decision I believe. I’m already on the same path (different goal though), so I can relate to your decision and I am sure you are going to enjoy the life of a true entrepreneur.
Best of luck to you, and I look forward to following your process here on your freshly designed blog. Nice job on that (Frederick :-)
P.s. I’ve been testing your WordPress SEO plugin on several sites, and I think you are on to something really good.
Best of luck with the new ventures, hope they go great for you :-)
Come on, i’ve landed on your site so many times while googling for WP solutions.
You are already one of the best SEO & WordPress experts in the world, not just in The Netherlands. I’ll vouch for that loudly :)
Good luck matey…
Whilst I had reason to like the old design and its super high quality cartoon face its a completely understandable switch. Glad to see the toon still gets a run out in avatar form.
Nice One. Have a great 2011 !
Good luck with this step into freedom! And hard work ;-)
Great new design Joost and I am sure with these extra hours each week you will continue your ascent to get where you want and deserve to be even quicker.
Great new design Joost. Congrats on the bold move away from OrangeValley and good luck with your future endeavours! I have no doubt it’ll be one smashing success after another. :)
I always found it wierd that you choose to work for a company. So this decision to change your path is not total strange for me. Good luck!
Loving the new design.
Are the ‘related posts’ created by a plugin, or have they been hardcoded into the theme? If it’s the latter, is there any chance that you, or Frederick, could post up a tutorial?
YARPP is heavy on the queries and Efficent Related Posts doesn’t get post thumbnails, unfortunately.
Congrats Joost! There’s nothing wrong with breaking loose of the chains. You have the knowledge and capabilities to stay afloat being your own boss (a true entrepreneur). Never be scared to follow your dreams.
I’m for sure waiting in line for a site analysis by one of the best WordPress expert on the market. :)
Hi Joost, congratulations with this new adventure and good luck. I’m sure you’ll do very well. We’ll keep in touch.
Joost I see you have an new look for an new year…I like it bro.
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
The new design looks good and professional except that the logo is very big and taking much space from the top, nothing on the right, nothing on the left. It may be okay to have it like that on the homepage, but on the other pages, no need at all.
Nevertheless, congrats for the new look!
Good luck with your enttrepreneur activites yoast
I was just wondering though how do you make money of this site?
Affiliate ,individual contracts or something else?
I would like to have an answer from you
thanks
Good luck !!!!!!!!!!!!
You are growing and that is a good thing. Just like those static pages that you have revisited and cleaned up, you are reinventing yourself. I applaud your courage and initiative and wish you the very best Yoast!
Joost I’m just gonna add to the chorus here in congratulating you on your success. All the best in the future.
Thanks for all the TIPS!
Great new design! Looking forward to this next chapter in your life.
P.S. You might wanna put a comma after “to speed” in your tagline on the home page.
You’re design is quite inspiring. clean and professional. is it possible to base one of my projects with it?
Hey Joost,
First of all I want to wish you all the best with your new adventure, I’m sure you’re gonna kick ass! ;-)
At the same time, it sucks to see you leave of course. I learned a hell of a lot from you in the time we worked together at OrangeValley and had a great time working with you!
Let’s stay in touch, preferably with beer (and pizza?), like Erwin said. ;-)
And don’t forget that your legacy lives on here at OrangeValley, especially in some of the projects we’ve coded together. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s a good thing…. ;-))
Cheers!
- Martijn
Congratulations!
I must admit I did not know that you had a job “on the side” – I figured you had been living of your projects for a long time since you are one of the most prominent people on the WordPress scene.
Good luck on becoming one of the most prominent people on the SEO scene as well.
(But why – there are so many there already? Why not focus on WordPress and cool, unique projects? :-))
The new design looks great.
I actually like the previous design better, it had more identity. :D
Congrats!! Thats awesome news, and the new site looks great!
Welcome to the wonderful world of entrepreneurs! I always wondered why didn’t you started your own SEO company, I guess it was just a matter of time :). Anyways, good luck, many happy customers, and keep the good information flowing on your blog because I learne a lot from it. Oh, and I like the new design.
Congrats! Nice, understated new site (with a bit of an ElegantThemes look and feel, which I like). Might want to ask Frederick to have his footer link open a new page/tab when clicked instead of taking people off your site. Best wishes for a happy new year!
First time i comment here, though i have some of your posts bookmarked and visited this blog sometimes.
Surprised the theme is changed, but it looks good too.
The one i may critise (If you don’t mind :-)) is the small font of your post, it is somehow hard to read, and a tiny comment form..
Other than that, congrats with the new move and all the best.
Kimi
Awesome move. I have enjoyed the benefits of your work and writing for years now and look forward to much more. I have no doubt you will be even more successful following your passion. Congrats!
Looking forward to seeing your future endeavors come to life Joost.
I couldn’t be happier to hear about the video sitemaps, and that you are working with Mark, as I have great respect for both of you.
If there is any way I can help with testing, I’d be happy to.
Cheers!
Fisrt of all, nice new look on your site – very professional design and look.
Congrats on your move. I believe it’d be the start of greater things for you and your business.
All the best, and keep up with the great contents as usual.
Stella
Hm, I really like the old design though I can appreciate your reasons for changing. The footer hover over text color doesn’t create much contrast. Overall though, it’s a nice looking design.
Well done and best of luck in your new enterprise.
We all dream of leaving our paid job some day to work for ourselves and in your case, I’m sure you’ve achieved here one of the many things you aspire in life.
I was surprised to read that you were working full-time until now and also working on all these plugins, site and events.
Good luck once again. I like the site, it does look more professional.
An entrepreneur sounds great!
Good luck!
And make the WordPress SEO plugin the best one out there!!
Robert
Good luck. I have been on the verge several times, but I haven’t left the stability of my day job. I really want to have enough in the bank to live off for at least a year. I’m getting there though.
We are thankful for your efforts for the community and benefit projects you did an do. Hope yo don’t get to busy (we all need you around)and forget us.
I wish you all the best, good luck and success on the new position.
Ghio
Nice new design
The new design is really quite beautiful, yet stylish and professional. You’ve really done a good job this time! I liked the cartoon landscape in the background but that grew old and this is defiantly the way forward!
All the best!
Really like the new site design, front page looks very professional and means business! I will continue to follow the blog as I have been for the last few years. Good luck with the future. Ross
Hi Yoast! I totally understand the need to be on your own. Great redesign of the site. Your is one of the handful of websites that I read regularly. Thanks for the content!
that’s the spirit! with that can-do attitude and your knowledge/skillset you can’t go wrong :)
best of luck to you
I love a shining, humble post: best wishes Yoast.. Hope you like seafood – the world’s your oyster :)
Hi Joost,
Oh, I loved your way of saying to become the best SEO-er of the world. Because the best of the Netherlands you’re already
Change is a good thing, and I am glad you are embracing it. That jump from employee->entrepreneur is something you will never regret for the rest of your life. Good luck!
The site looks great. Best of luck to you!
yoast, I have been following you for a couple of years and I want to congratulate you on you recent decisions. I would like to make two comments:
1. Pride and arrogance are two different things, and often we are taught that pride is a bad thing. Well, pride is based on accomplishments, talent etc. whereas arrogance is the same behaviour perhaps, but NOT based on some sort of evidence. So, feel free to talk the talk and walk the walk because you have deserved it.
2.) The design update- I know what you mean about looking professional, but I liked the old one better because it was more personal. I want advice from a person, not a brand or a corporation and I think the other theme did a better job at that. Also, it’s usually not a good idea to make drastic changes all at once, it’s much better to implement small changes over time, and that’s the same advice I would give any one.
Good luck!
congrat, so smooth^^
The new look has some nice merits Yoast, although why so much space in the header? Is that meant to be artsy? Congrats on your official transition to entrepreneurialism. I will continue to follow your whereabouts and promote you where I can. Cheers, RG.
Joost, I wish you all the best for your new adventures!
Great redesign, fresh elements and clear to read. The old design was Fab but understand that you want to move on. All the best with your new venture.
A great design. Looks great.
And also All the best for the future.