Blog Post URL Structure

We changed the blog post URL structure from toolguyd.com/year/month/title to just toolguyd.com/title. We did quite a bit of trial and error and digital duct-taping, and *knock on wood* it doesn’t look like anything is broken. But if you see something that doesn’t look right, please let us know!

Comment Reply Button Added

We added threaded functionality in the comments section, so you should now see a reply link at the bottom of each comment. This way, if you want to, you can reply to a comment directly to make it more visible.

And don’t forget that you also can subscribe to receive new comments via email, either to keep up with the conversation or if you’re waiting for an answer to a question. You can manage your comment subscriptions and unsubscribe at any time.

You can find a link to the list of home improvement coupons & deals pages at the right side of our main navigation menu. We will be actively updating the Home Depot, Sears, and Harbor Freight coupons and promos pages, and will occasionally post updated information about new Lowes coupons as we come across them.

Amazon Bargain-Hunting Search Tool

You probably know this already, but we’re HUGE fans of Amazon.com and purchase quite a few tools from them. Occasionally we come across crazy-good deals, and we wanted to share one of our more successful search methods with you. One of the ways we find these deals is by checking several %-off search links that we’ve bookmarked, similar to the ones at the bottom of this Amazon tools deal post.

It was late at night, and as I was preparing to post a few such 50%-off and 70%-off links to our new Amazon coupons and deals page, I realized there must be a better way. After all, we can’t include search links for every brand or tool type you may be interested in bargain-hunting for. A few hours later, we finished coding a custom-built search that specifically looks for deeply-discounted tools on Amazon.

If you try out our Amazon search tool, please let us know what you think, if there are any bugs, and if you have any ideas for improvement!

We have also set up a similar Amazon discounted product search via DealGuyd.com, but with the ability to search for discounted items in product categories other than tools and home improvement.

You *should* notice improved speeds across the board. If not, then we’ve got a problem somewhere, one you will hopefully let us know about. We will continue to look for ways to improve your ToolGuyd browsing experience even further, but for the time being we’ve squeezed out about as much speed as possible.

So… with all that work we did behind the curtains, do any of you notice a change in loading speeds?

New ToolGuyd Subscription Options

We have a new newsletter signup page that offers three subscription options that you can sign up for:

• Special Newsletter
• Daily Updates
• Weekly Updates

ToolGuyd Newsletter

We’re currently working on our first newsletter, and hope to use it to share news or information beyond what we cover here. This includes new tool sneak peeks, special giveaways, and other fun things.

The frequency of these newsletters have not yet been determined, but there will probably be one per month at most.

Subscribe Now

Daily Updates

We are migrating over from our current daily email update service to a new one. The new service delivers email updates once per day and include headlines and excerpts from all posts published from 11am the previous day to 10:59am the day-of.

The layout is much neater than the previous one, and will be refined further. We also made it far easier for you to update your subscription preferences or unsubscribe should you want to.

Current daily email subscribers will be notified by email in a few weeks prior to turning off the old email service. You can of course sign up for the new format immediately if you’d like.

Weekly Updates

In addition to daily updates, we have created a new weekly update option that is delivered once per week on Monday mornings. The default layout does need a little improvement, but we’re working on it.

Subscribe Now

As always, we’re interested in reader feedback. If you have a suggestion or idea, please let us know with a comment or private email.

My recent article for PopMech just went live – check it out at 8 Essentials for Every Garage. Here’s what the article briefly covers:

• Workbenches
• Lighting
• Flooring
• Vises & Work Holding
• Tool Chests
• General Storage
• Power Strips & Extension Cords
• Safety Gear

Is there anything else you would add to the list?

The above photo is by RaceDeck, a highly recommended modular tile garage flooring manufacturer.

We’re having some technical issues, and comment spam filtering is one of the services that’s down. As such, comments are now disabled on posts more than 5 days old. Sorry about that, hopefully this will all be fixed by the end of the day.

For the time being all comments must be manually approved, which means they won’t appear right away.

Right now not a lot is going on there, but you can/should “like” us and chat us up every now and then.

A few things to mention:

• You must post a comment AND check the box to subscribe to replies
• You must do this for each individual post/discussion you want to follow
• When you subscribe you will be sent a link with instructions about how to unsubscribe should you want to do so

This feature was implemented to make it easier for you to see answers and replies to your questions and comments. Any questions?

Just a bit of news - we have officially surpassed a 100,000 page views per 30 day milestone, with just one month to go before our two-year anniverary! So, thank you all!

We know that quite a few people (~4%) are reading ToolGuyd with their smart phones (iPhones, Androids, and Blackberries), so we’re going to start experimenting with a new mobile interface to improve usability and performance. If you don’t like it, there’s an on-screen option to change it back. If you experience any problems, please drop us a note to tell us about it.

When we launched the blog, we chose a name we thought would be easy to remember. Just think Tool + Guy + Guide = ToolGuyd. Or ToolGuyD, which is what some mistakenly call us. It’s okay for you to think of us in that way, in which case the “D” stands for downright awesome.

You can view ToolGuyd.com on any desktop or laptop computer, and even your mobile smartphone. We don’t maintain a special mobile version of the site, but our layout is optimized enough to make posts easily resized and viewed in any iPhone or Android data device.

Then there’s our RSS Feed. Plug that link into your RSS reader, and you’re good to go. If you’ve never subscribed to blogs or websites via RSS before, give it a try. I personally use Google’s Reader.

Our RSS feed is also churned out into automatic daily emails. The layout is a bit coarse and content is not as well formatted as on our site directly, but the emails are still very readable. Click here if you want to subscribe. One day we might start writing special newsletters, but we’ll give everyone a heads-up and chance to subscribe if/when that happens.

You can “follow” us on Twitter where we post headlines and links to new posts. That’s also a good place to ask questions and chat with us, but don’t forget that you can also email us any time you’d like.

You can “like” us on Facebook. Our five most recent articles are excerpted and link-to in the “news” tab. You can also interact with us via the “wall” if you’d like to.

Finally, if you have an Amazon Kindle, you can subscribe to receive ToolGuyd content streamed to your device. The subscription currently costs 99 cents per month.

The subscription delivers our RSS feed wirelessly to your Kindle device so you can catch up on our new reviews, hot deal finds, tool announcements and all our other content at your convenience and comfort.

ToolGuyd Subscription via Amazon
Read More About the Amazon Kindle via OhMyGuyd (wireless delivery only applies to the 3G version)

1. We do allow retailers and their sales/marketing staff to post comments. But if the comment is generic or entirely self-serving just to get your name and URL out, it will be removed if not automatically filtered out as spam.

2. If you email me and ask “how can we be featured on ToolGuyd” and I reply with a very specific and detailed response, have the courtesy to acknowledge and respond back. We don’t accept comensation for posts, so don’t even ask. If you’re looking to pay for content or an endorsement, call your local radio station.

3. If you want to be mentioned on ToolGuyd, tell us about your cool new tools, great upcoming sales, exclusive products, or project how-tos. This does not guarantee that we will talk about you, but there’s a good chance that we think it will interest our readers.

4. Before we talk about an unfamiliar retailer, we scour the web and forums for customer reviews, and might even perform a secret shopper type of evaluation.

5. It never hurts for you to contact us and introduce yourselves.

Not all retailers or their sales staff that visit ToolGuyd need to be reminded of these policies. The ones that do know who they are.

At the end of this month, we will likely shut down the Q&A board unless there’s an indication that you guys are interested in it. If this happens, you can still interact with each other via post comments and can always contact us directly.

Alternatively, we’re considering replacing the Q&A board with a tool-centric social media platform. This would allow you to create your own profiles, join groups, and start discussions. Here’s an example of what it would look like.

Perhaps we’ll revisit this idea again at a later time. For now, we’re still eager to hear feedback from you. Many of you check in daily, and we’re glad (thrilled) to have you with us. How can we make your ToolGuyd.com experience even better?

There are still quite a bit of tweaks and refinements that need to be made, but hopefully you have already noticed a few changes and tried out some of the new features.

First, we’ve got a new menu, and pushed the search bar to the upper right corner. The search bar might move again soon, but for the time being we hope it’s visible enough. The menu features a few new category and archive links.

You may have also noticed a ”Brands” link, and a “Stores” link. We went back and sorted every single past post, review, and article to provide a new way for readers to browse our archive. Integrating this filtering feature into all posts is on our to-do list.

The main reading page has been widened by about 20%. We still plan on shortening the size of each post on the front page to make new posts more “scannable”. Additionally, we hope to de-clutter the sidebar. This means possibly truncating the category navigation list and further tidying things up.

There is still time to tell us what you think. The layout is not set in stone, so if you find any usability issue or inconvenience, let us know.

One more thing – in the feedback survey, someone requested a place for open Q&A. Here you go! No, we don’t plan on launching a full-featured forum, but if you’d like to pose a quick question, share a deal, or start a tool-related public discussion, you can do so here. If after a month or three we find that readers are using this forum feature, we’ll then spend some time on its layout and design.

Thank you to everyone who offered their feedback, and hopefully we continue to provide you with an enjoyable reading experience.

ToolGuyd is nearly 18 months old, and from day one we’ve focused on usability and content. We figure it’s about time to spruce things up a bit to make it look a little nicer. Designing and coding the layout from scratch [again] won’t be an easy task, but we’ll get there.

ToolGuyd Satisfaction/Layout Survey