Time for a new blog
on: 21/08/2018 | 16:00
Hey folks,
I’m Hellen, and as some of you know, I look after our blog content, which is quite exciting. I’ve been managing the blog for a few years now. So, over the last few months, I’ve been chatting with our lovely bloggers and they’ve given loads of useful feedback. They’ve told us about stuff they wanted to see improved and how we can push the blog even further. It’s been great working with them as their feedback has been amazing. Now we’ve got some news to share with you.
New Blog
A few weeks back we did a soft launch of our new and improved blog. Go take a peek.
Still a work in progress, as there is so much more we’d like to do with, and we’d like to get your thoughts and feedback.
Why the change?
The “old blog”, although full of useful and interesting information, was not performing in terms of SEO and site speed. It was also a little outdated and needed a revamp. We took the challenge to the giffgaff tech leads and they advised us to move from the current platform to a new platform that sits on the giffgaff domain. Why? To make the blog more member friendly.
Now, when you visit our blog page you will notice it loads faster, has the giffgaff look and feel and is now easy to find relevant content.
These small changes will have a big impact. We’ve still got a few more things to add in such as, allowing members to comment, social sharing and give the thumbs up to the articles. Hopefully, these features will arrive in the very near future.
Meet the bloggers
As you might know, our members usually share mobile news, phone reviews, app reviews, tech tips and giffgaff news. I would love to know what else you would like to see featured in the new giffgaff blog.
Also, I would like to introduce you to our amazing team of regular bloggers. They are all giffgaff members and have been sharing amazing articles with us in the latest years.
"I'm willp789 and I've been writing for the giffgaff blog for almost 2 years. I frequently write about new apps and smartphones with a particular focus on the Android ecosystem. I'm very excited to start writing for the new blog as I hope the new design will increase my audience, in addition to the awesome new tools at my disposal."
"I never imagined when I wrote my first blog post 3 years ago that it would have an impact on thousands of people. Everyone on the giffgaff blog team is passionate about producing useful, interesting tech articles. The new blog would enable us to reach more people and compete with bigger publications. This is a very exciting time!"
"I wrote my first blog for giffgaff on 26th August 2013; it's almost coming up to 5 years and I have no intention of stopping because I really enjoy it. I have a passion for tech and love being able to share that passion through my blogs; I’ve written over 300 to date so it’s been quite an achievement!
One thing I have loved about it is the community getting involved and responding to my blogs and sharing their thoughts. This helped build a relationship between myself and them and I feel that the new blog is missing this. The new look is most definitely a really nice refresh though and it looks great. The design overall is much better and modern."
"My name is Will and I've been contributing to the giffgaff blog since 2012 with news roundups, phone reviews and how-to guides. The blog itself hasn't changed much over those six years, so moving to this new platform should be an interesting experience! While some features like comments and kudos are yet to be added, the new look is great: super clean with a nice textured background, big headings and expansive photos. I'm looking forward to the blog's look and feel continue to evolve over the weeks and months to come!"
"I've been posting since 2012 and I'm very excited to have the new blog on giffgaff. The old blog was somewhat limited and the layout wasn't great. The new one is a huge step up from what we had before, so I'm also quite excited to see what the community thinks of it."
So, there you have it. Exciting stuff, right? Keep an eye out for more news about the shiny new blog and, please, let me know what kind of content you would like to see here.
Cheers,
Hellen Benavides
Content Manager
Also it is great to put faces to the different bloggers ! 
on: 21/08/2018 | 19:01
If you found this post helpful, feel free to kudo it!! 
