As part of the 31 Days to Become a Better Blogger project that is currently running on Christian Web Trends, I am asking for feedback concerning my blog. While this is aimed at the 60 plus participants in the project it is not a close process. So please, let me know what you think.
Here are some guidelines in what to look out for when reviewing:
- Layout and Design
- Speed
- Functionality
- Engagement
In terms of look and feel; does the blog appeal to you, look professional and is well put together? Do you think that the colours and images have some form of consistency that contributes to a theme and does not look random or wishy washy? If you want to go into more detail here you could look at at header, main page, sidebar, and footer separately.
How long did it take for the page to load? Did it feel quick enough on your connection or hopelessly too long?
Do you find the links and widgets useful? For example the top and random posts, the facebook connect and search fields. Is there something that you’d like to see.
When you arrive here, do you feel inclined to comment or to dig deeper for other information. Is the content engaging in a way that will keep you longer on the blog? If not, can you recommend something that could help in that regard. How about the social bookmarking buttons; do they help you to share with others and hence extend the engagement beyond yourself?
You can really say anything you like, you are not bound by the above. However if there is on thing that I would like to see improved above all else it that of engagement. I would like to improve the blog in a way that sees more comments, longer visits, more sharing and more clicking on internal links.
1. Layout and Design
To be honest I don’t like the Standard Theme – it’s almost become the must use theme for christian blogs. Yeah, for sure it’s coded well, etc but I like to see a bit of inidividuality to each blog I visit.
Other than a personal dislike though it works well and responds quickly. Given what teh blog is about though I’d have expected a little more background imagery to do with camera / film tech.
2. Speed
No problems with this either at work via our nice fat pipe or at home on my struggling 2Mb and ageing hardware.
3. Functionality
Because it’s a part of the Standard Theme functionality is good and as expected – it works.
I know one of your stated aims is to be a part of teh social media workd but to me the dozen or so sm icons detract – especially as they are semi-duplicated at the top of each post. On that, is their being partially hidden intentional?
What links? All joking aside – your links, be they blogs or categories or posts are too far down the page.
As to the usefulness of the RSS reader count or the spam block count I confess I just don’t get that. Do they actually serve a purpose?
4. Engagement
Well, as you know, I was already engaged here before the 31DBBB process. For me it works but then we are talking topics of interest to me.
Do I tend to dig deeper – truthfully no I don’t but that’s because I’ve arrived from a direct link to respond too or via my RSS feed and again go straight to the post of interest. However, when I first came here I did spend some time wandering the site to see what’s what.
All in all a good clean layout (even though …) and it works well. The only bit I don’t use / see is the “stuff” at the bottom – simply because it’s too far down.
Nothing overt needs to be changed IMO.
When you arrive here, do you feel inclined to comment or to dig deeper for other information. Is the content engaging in a way that will keep you longer on the blog? If not, can you recommend something that could help in that regard. How about the social bookmarking buttons; do they help you to share with others and hence extend the engagement beyond yourself?
.-= Stuart´s last blog ..Internet Safety Sunday =-.
thanks for making the effort for this great insight.
1. I have been planning a while to put some background images, was let down by a friend whom I had asked. So I must do it myself
3. yeah, spam counter, what is that? And the social bookmarks I was afraid that they would be too much – I might remove the lot at the top of the page or position them differently.
and all that stuff at the bottom, it’s all lucky packet I guess. It might be interesting to use Google’s Page overlays and see if any people are clicking there – I just thought that it added a bit of a personal touch without being too in your face.
The ‘stuff’ at the bottom is not something I think I’d even spotted before your request for feedback.
I thought I’d better do a thorough job for you and cover everything I could see. Leave it if you aren’t bothered if it is used or not but to me it’s just lost and a dead area.
Oh and I know about being let down by graphics folks – I was supposed to be having a personalised WP setup and was willing to pay for it but after a few emails determining what’s what and some examples they just stopped talking to me. Weird.
.-= Stuart´s last blog ..Internet Safety Sunday =-.
I ask this question a lot over at my blog, usually accompanied by some sort of giveaway (great way to grow subscriber numbers). Your load time was good, layout is good and clean – the only comment that I would make is that a lot of people have told me that black backgrounds turn them off. I write a photography, inspiration, mommy blog so the readership is a little different, so keep that in mind, too. But otherwise good with good content and readable!
Thanks
I think that the black needs to be toned down with something interesting. Something that breaks it but is relevant to theme and content. Lots of people have told me I need something else there just like that, Stuart also brought it up.
1. Layout and Design
Overall, pretty good. I like the Standard Theme, but also understand how some feel that it could be a little overused. I think that one thing that remedies that is personalizing it a little more. If you feel adventurous, then look for a plugin called WP Flickr Background. I’m not sure how it works with your template, but it could bring in some nice options for image backgrounds very easily.
The only other thing that I think is that I’m not a fan of how the Live Traffic Feed widget in your sidebar looks. The functionality is fine, I just don’t like the text heavy, and not-matching look and feel of it.
Overall the rest is pretty good. The Standard Theme does provide a nice, clean look.
2. Speed
No issues here. But I’ve got awesomely fast Internet.
3. Functionality
Typically I (personally) like the Top Posts, but Random doesn’t do much for me. But don’t remove just because of me… that’s just my personal opinion. I also like the Facebook page widget. I have that on my blog too.
4. Engagement
Not bad. I think that you have everything that I would expect and use if so inclined. The content seems pretty good too. My only advice is to make sure that you keep your posts VERY conversational in nature, because I think that is the key to improving engagement.
Overall…
Nice site. Oh, and I’d work on a new header image. I’m not a fan of plain text with coloring applied to it. But I like what you have going on here, and will likely spend more time here… ESPECIALLY since you have that High Calling Blogs badge on your page!
.-= @bibledude´s last blog ..10 must-read posts [from @thehighcalling blogs network] =-.
Hey the blog looks great. Great Job!
One feedback would be to have the sharing options that you have on the top at the bottom too. I know you have a few options but adding a few more like facebook and such might be a good idea.
The reason being, its more intuitive to read something and have an option to share it at the bottom. When people see the option to share it right at the bottom they are “more prone” 1)to see the sharing options and use it and 2) Not forget or put it away for later because we know later never comes around. I like how you incorporated Buzz as a sharing option.
Secondly some of the stuff that you have way at the bottom (not sure what it is)are not organized (It could be my browser, I’m using Firefox).
What youre saying is completely true. I know that everybody must say the same thihttp://www.adsense-id.com/forums/images/vtc/36_002.gifng, but I just think that you put it in a way that everyone can understand. I also love the images you put in here. They fit so well with what youre trying to say. Im sure youll reach so many people with what youve got to say.
Hey brother Good Morning.I am agree with your blog article about that but i found something strange that i felt you did not know the main problem before you posting this so i want to ask :where do you know about this dude ? Regards owner of pastisold.com bye
This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!
Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.