This is Day 25 of a group project I am doing with 60+ other bloggers. Over the past few weeks one person’s blog has been chosen each day to be reviewed by the members of the group. Today is my day for a review.
If you are one of my regular readers or have been directed here from a search engine will you join in and answer a few questions about my blog. Your input will help me improve what and how I offer what readers want.
If you are from 31DBBB, thank you for stopping by. Your input will be very valuable as I learn the specifics of blogging. Please take the time to search this blog from top to bottom. It is a new blog so this should not take you very long. Below is a list of questions that will help me as I move forward:
- In response to yesterday’s assignment, I changed the layout of my homepage. Please let me know what you think of the new layout. Do you find it easy to navigate? Is it attractive? What are the drawbacks? etc…
- I also moved several items from the sidebar to the nav menu. Is this functional or should any of these items be in the sidebar. I did leave the categories in the side bar so that it would give context to the blog. Should I leave this or take it out since I have the archives in the nav menu?
- Did you find all the information that you needed on the homepage? What was missing?
- How do you think I could better utilize the sidebar?
- What do you think of my writing style? Does it make you think? Does it make you want to act? Does it bore you? etc… Also, are the posts too long or too short?
- What other insight do you have that would help make this a better blog? What would help you make better use of this blog?
- Will you help me by answering the short survey in the side bar?
Thank you for taking the time to help me become a better blogger! If you can only answer one question that would be most helpful. The more feedback I can get the better. Will you ask your readers to stop by and leave a comment.
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Wow! Talk about writing a question post! I’ll choose the ones that jumped out at me.
I like the layout. The share toolbar is not a favorite of mine because I don’t like moving pop-up things, but that’s just me. It’s cool that you have a comments policy, but it’s written more for one of them fightin’ blogs like a major political site. The first thing that jumped out at me was your threat to delete my comment, and I didn’t read any further. As a first time visitor, I really dislike being threatened before I’ve done anything.
Welcoming the 31DBBBers in the header is a very nice touch. WP Greet Box is a plug-in that will allow you to welcome visitors from different sites like Twitter, Facebook, or Google.
Love the photo of Simon Cowell. He looks like a nice guy.
Good luck with the rest of your reviews!
Erica, thank you very much for stopping by. I have had mixed reviews on the toolbar and the comments policy. I did slightly change the wording in the comments policy to hopefully make it feel less personal and more general when it comes to the deletion of comments.
Thanks for the tip for the WP Greet Box. I saw that in use when I visited your sight. I have downloaded the plugin, now I just have to get in configured.
I love the new layout, Larry. I’ve been looking at so many blogs lately that I have to admit I don’t remember what it looked like before, but I love all the little articles with their accompanying thumbnails. Great stuff! The nav bar and side bar are good; I like having some things on the sidebar — otherwise it might look lonely.
The homepage has everything I could want. The individual posts, however, could do with some kind of navigation function other than my having to go back to the home page. I guess it’s basically the same as a blog without a different home page; where you have to click on the blog name to get your navigation functions back. It would be nice, though, to be able to click on the next article of interest from the article page. Not sure how you (or I) would do that.
Your writing style is great and the topics are clear and relevant. If you need to, you could probably add another 250-300 words without turning me off — don’t know how others feel about that. I’m not saying your posts are too short at all; just that you have some wiggle room here. Sorry I don’t have any suggestions. You’ve just done such a good job here I can’t think of anything I’d change.
Blessings, Cindy
Cindy, thank you for taking the time to stop by.
I agree that it would be great for readers to be able to navigate from an individual post to other content. For now, I have changed my setting so that the post category will be displayed in the by-line. Hopefully, if the article is appealing to them they will click the category in the by-line or sidebar to read more. I don’t have any other solution right now. I am open for suggestions from anyone.
I really like the Twitter, Facebook, Subscribe button near your picture at the top. That is great, and not too much else on the sidebar. Seems good.
Keep the categories. I like your writing style, it’s unique and it’s own. The background color seems rather dry, could use some flavor but at the same time this color is good for reading.
Becky, thank you for stopping by.
I played around with different colors after your post but did not come up with anything that I liked. I found that a white background was hard on the eyes (IMO) and most other colors seemed to clash. I also found that this color made it easier for me to read. I guess right now I am passing on beauty for functionality. I have been looking at other templates as an option.
Larry,
1. The new magazine style format of the home page works well. It really gives a quick-view picture of what you write about by highlighting your recent posts. Well done. If people are just coming into the home page it helps them find what they want to read quickly and easily. They can still come to the blog on a link to a particular post and get the whole post at once as well.
2. I think you were wise to leave the categories on the side bar near the top. Let’s people know at a glance what you write about.
I like the pop-up share widget at the top. One thing that it does in addition to allowing us to share easily is that it serves like a header that stays up there as you scroll down so that I know at a glance what site I am at.
5. Your writing style appeals to me. It is personal enough (like when you write about your family) but not “all about me.” I appreciate the life lessons and the challenges you give to your readers to go further.
Richard, thank you for taking the time to visit. Your comments are just as encouraging as you blog.
I don’t really have much to add that hasn’t already been said. The new homepage is awesome, keep the sidebar with the categories and your writing style is solid. The number 1 thing I would recommend to build your blog however is links. You can have a blogroll on your side bar or a page on the nav menu that provides the reader with the same resources that you use to write your posts. Even if you have to dig a bit to find some good ones, I think that would really add a layer of depth your blog.
Sage, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I like the idea of adding a page in the nav menu. That is definitely an option for the future. I will start putting together a list of sites and blogs that could possibly be used. I have been trying to figure out ways to promote some of the blogs I have discovered in the 31DBBB group. There is definitely a lot of talent and there are several that would fall into the same category as my writing.
I am also considering doing some posts that highlight the blogs the closely relate to mine.
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I love the drop down tool bar!!! Very cool!!! I also love the new look. I am beginning to see why everyone loves WordPress. Much more control with content compared to blogger.
Wendy, thanks for stopping by.
There is more control with WordPress. However, it is still a lot of work. I have to learn something new every day. I am my own tech support.
Larry, I think the new look is great. You have a typo in your tagline “pusuing” instead of “pursuing.” Your layout is clean and I think lots of bloggers could learn from that. Your writing style is very relational and you are one of my favorite new blogs to read. I would respectfully choose to disagree with Cindy and say that your posts are perfect in length. Rather than going longer, I would love to see you post more often. Great work, bro!
Hey buddy, thanks for dropping in.
I like writing and would love to post more often. However, I find that right now I just don’t have the time. I know you can relate to that. Maybe in the future when I am independently wealthy I can write more.
Oops! I was afraid that comment wouldn’t come through clearly. I didn’t mean that Larry should go longer, but rather that he could go a little longer if he felt the need. He’s doing just fine, and if he went a little longer, that would be fine, too, IMO.
Larry, I am really impressed by how the layout feels both clean and complete. Way to go! The one thing I think I can contribute is about the “Subscribe” button for subscribing by email: Because the colors match the inactive text box, it looks like another text box instead of a button. I don’t know how much control you can have over it, but it would be nice to make it more button-like. Oh, maybe like the “Submit” button in the comments here!
On the home page, the “Share” button does not fill the space, so there’s this funny blank spot that looks like it was made too wide. I’m using Safari on a Mac, btw.
I really like having a poll in the sidebar! Nice touch.
John, I appreciate you taking the time to stop by.
Unfortunately I didn’t have much control over the subscribe box. It was generated by feedburner. Also, I found that the coding was causing a conflict with my search box. Instead of the search box searching the site, it was prompting to feedburner. So I removed the box and inserted text for the time being. I know that adds an extra step to subscribe by e-mail but I am my own tech support so it may take a little while to figure out a more reasonable solution.
John, I have been playing around with my blog settings for the past couple of days in response to the feedback I have received. I am hopeful that the visual problem you had with the share button was a result of that. I would be interested to know if you are still experiencing the same problem. I am able to access my blog on all five of the major browsers and when I opened the homepage in Safari I couldn’t see the blank space you referred to. I am using a pc instead of a mac so I am not sure if that makes a difference. Please update me on what you see.
Oh, I found another: The search box at the bottom. What I see is “To search, type and hit e”
John, thanks for pointing that out. Apparently the dimensions in the footer caused that problem. I moved the search to the sidebar to correct the problem.
Hi Larry,
You’ve done a lot of work reformatting your home page. I like the NavBar and your writings on each page. I like the sidebar and the poll. Great job. A good way to find out what topics your reader is interested in.
1) While I think having a few articles on the front is good because it gives the reader an easy, visual choice to make, I think the number should be limited to maybe four. It does give a magazine appeal and is super easy to navigate through. I like that.
2) Leave the categories in the sidebar. To me, it’s like an index page in a magazine.
3) Yes
4) Fine. I like the share button in the post. I worked hours trying to get it into my posts. Finally settled for the sidebar this morning.
5) Your writing style does reflect you and is enlightening without being preachy. I think you are a good writer. Keep up the great work and the good topic ideas.
In Him,
Janis
Janis, I just read your comment on the archives page. I found a code that someone had written for Thesis theme users and inserted it into my template. I had to create the archives page and direct the code results to that page and then everything is automated from there.
Janis, thank you so much for taking the time to stop in.
I tried reducing the number of posts on the homepage but it made the page look unbalanced (in my opinion) because of the length of the sidebar. So I matched the number of post to equal the length of the sidebar so that the page would look full all the way to the footer. Not sure it the is best, but it seemed to look better as I compared the two.
Just want to say thank you to each of you for stopping by. It means a lot. This group has been very helpful to me. I hope I can repay the favor for many years to come.
God Bless!
Hi Larry – playing catchup as I’ve been away and I love downtime from tech when I get it …
Anyway, here’s my 2p.
I do like what you’ve done with the homepage and understand the impetus but I feel it may have gone just a tad too far with the current post not getting the boost it deserves. If it could somehow be given greater “presence” or more of an excerpt than currently you have….?
The second thing that stands out to me and is something I don’t like is the pop down toolbar from the top of the screen as soon as I scroll down. I find it off-putting but not enough to stop me reading.
Other than that I’ve filled in your poll and like what you do so keep on keepng on.