Comments on: Blog Review Time

By: Stuart

Stuart — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:35:09 +0000

Thanks Victor – though I take no credit for the initial idea as that comes from ProBloggers "30 Days to Better Blogging".

By: Gangai Victor

Gangai Victor — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:44:22 +0000

Looks better than the previous design...great questions for evaluation too, maybe I should do this for my blog too, thanks! My recent post 44 Mistakes to Avoid When Leading Worship

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sat, 22 May 2010 09:38:43 +0000

Thanks Janis – I think I get the message now that my 'read' column needs to be wider :)

Interesting about the 'read more' – I ran a poll on this a while back and it came out as 55% to 45% in favour of those who would click on the read more button – so I'm not sure what to do anymore.

I like my homepage (and others) to be short and sweet but also have enough that one or more posts might drag you in.

Let me ask this then.

If you landed on a blog (any blog) and the current post was there in all its glory but subsequent posts had an intro and then the read more – would you be more likely or not to click through? The presumption is that you are there because you like what they write or hope to.

By: Janis

Janis — Sat, 22 May 2010 06:37:30 +0000

Stuart,
Like everyone else has said–I like the blue color. I also think you could widen the text column by having only one side column. I also do not click on the "read more" tabs. In this busy world, if it isn't all out there for me to read, I skip it.
I like the "high tech" feel of your blog.
Janis

By: Stuart

Stuart — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:20:11 +0000

Cindy – many many thanks but I think you do yourself an injustice as I'm pretty sure you and I are in the same geneartion – or at least very close!

That said – I do like simple and bold colours though. If I could make yellow work on a computer screen then watch out :)

I appreciate your insights and will be considering all you've said, along with the others very carefully – certainly the width thing is an issue I want to address and that way I can drop a sidebar. Comp Sci Uni sons are good for something at least.

And thanks for teh follow on my "personal" blog – it's meant to keep my disparate family in touch with our happennings so I trust it doesn't bore you too much – but I'm inclined to agree that spiritual posts aren't for this blog.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:13:31 +0000

Thanks Richard. Funny thing is, I thouught I had categories on the sidebar – so nice spot that they've disappeared. That would have sorted your different areas – but I've been trying to concentrate on Tags more as they're supposed to be more SEO friendly.

PGP is so cool – I can see a series of posts where I introduce it and what it can be used for and why you might use it.

By: Stuart

Stuart — Fri, 21 May 2010 22:10:12 +0000

Well I'm in no rush. The blog is 2yrs old next month and it's been like this for most of that so a few more weeks or months will make no difference.

Will get thoughts together and chuck you an email – again, my thanks.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:47:37 +0000

I, too, would like the text wider. The side bars, two in a row, make me not look at them–just my reaction. I would rather have them on either side, or one of them at the bottom–if you really need all that information up there.

Maybe you could make a special page for some of the content that interested people could go to–like for some of your links, maybe? I agree with you and Sage that the text looks better (and the articles shorter) if it's wider.

I think your colors are fine. Everyone likes something different. Me, I like more complex stuff, but that's my generation. Clean and simple is the thing now, and you've got that. Plus it suits your subject.

I'm conflicted on the whole advertising thing. I never click on them unless it's someone I already know. I would put advertisements on my pottery/art blog or any other business blog, but I would not put them on my spiritual blog unless it were for something of benefit to my readers–example: relevant books (and most of the authors I would link don't take a profit from their books). So that's just me, and my blog is different from yours, which is more on technical aspects and it might be of benefit to your readers if you included advertisements to relevant products.

I very seldom click through on the "more" tabs. The hook line has to be really, really good to get me to do that. Not sure why–it's just my reaction.

Graphics are good. You can have too many of them, but you should always have at least one. People like pictures.

Most of your blog is about things I'm not, well, doing. Twitter doesn't appeal to me, I don't have (or want) an i-phone, and I'm seriously not qualified to train wannabe techies. (Those were the three I looked at.) I could be a trainee–but I'm afraid the teacher would keep sighing and rolling his/her eyes. :lol:

To my mind, your blog has its personality. I like your personal blog, btw, and I signed up to follow it. But I can't see those posts on this blog. Or deep spiritual life posts, either. I think you're doing just right for what the personality of this blog is.

Blessings, Cindy