Help Me Help My Blog! (January's Thread)

[Maw Books]

Many of us would love a place to ask specific questions about our blogs and get your input! So, I think this is how it will work and if you have any ideas, let me know. If we can discuss 1-2 blogs a week or about 4-8 blogs a month that would be great. There are a lot of us and I don't want anybody to have to wait if they are anxious. I will start a new thread in February to start fresh again.

So if you would like your blog critiqued, then feel free to post here your url, your goals, and what type of input you are looking for. The more specific you are the more we can help. I'm sure we'll all be nice! And remember, it's your blog. Just because somebody mentions something doesn't mean it will be right for you.

So, if there are a couple of you that would like help, then go right ahead!

EDITED TO ADD: Let's try to keep the comments threaded underneath each blog that is getting reviewed, that way it's easy to figure out the conversation. Thanks!

[Shelly Burns]

Alright...Aerin and I have "fixed" the blog template that I so graciously messed up, trying to fix it. LOL! She uploaded again, with things centered, and little ol' me figured out how to align left, and center the header. What do you think? I do have to redo all the widgets, which is why my blogroll is lacking many, many names, so don't get offended. It's going to take time to get them all in there. So, go ahead and "give it to me." I can take it! One thing: I want to change the color of the words in the header, so help me there especially.

[Britt C.]

Have a look at mine: Book Habitue

I don't really have any goals or anything, other than getting more people to read and comment.

[Maw Books]

I like the template but I can not read anything in your sidebar because of the text color and red background. Your posting column is okay but the gray text just really hurts the eyes.

Put your subscribe buttons at the top and your quote widget at the bottom.

Have some type of photo or your avatar somewhere on your profile. I want to get a sense quickly of who is writing this blog. I'm not connecting right away with a actual person behind the blog.

I really, really like seeing book covers in reviews. I would start adding these in. And italicize book titles. I can't easily make them out from your own words.

Make your posts easy to read. Consider using bulleted or numbered lists, etc. Separate your paragraphs out with a space.

I'm not sure how your rating system works. R-1, R-3 etc in addition to your stars.

Use anchor text to hyperlink your outgoing links rather than giving me the full http:// address.

That is my first impression. Hope it helps!

[Britt C.]

Okay, I put the rating info in the sidebar, added an avatar, rearranged widgets, fixed the sidebar text color (I didn't think it was that bad, but everyone has commented on it lol), and figured out how to do the hyperlinks.
I initially had planned to take pics of the books, but I always forget.
Thanks!!

[Trish Collins]

You don't have to take a picture of the book. Just grab the image off the web. Go to Google Images and you can find just about anything. Save it down to your computer and then upload it onto your blog.

[Trish Collins]

Natasha covered most everything, but there's a few things I want to add.

I really like your blog. I'd never seen it before and think your writing's great.

The red is a difficult color to read on. Frankly, it's generally not recommended by ANYONE to use anything but a light colored background with a dark colored text. Light text on a dark background is hard to read, and while people can subscribe to your feed and not have to see light text on a dark background, people who stumble on to your blog for one reason or another won't want to come back and they probably won't know why, but it'll be the dark background and light text.

The way you get more people to come to your blog is to...go to other people's blogs and comment. You need to let people know you're out there.

And the way to get people to comment is to engage them, and the best way to engage people is to ask them a question. If you can, make sure you respond to each comment either via email or as another comment on your blog.

I can elaborate on any of this if you want, but I'll leave it at this unless you have any questions. :-)

Good luck!

[Britt C.]

Thanks!
I fixed the color of the text on the side, but the website where I get my templates is down.... I LOVE my template, but I'll see what else they have.

[meg89]

Trish and Natasha covered a lot (and they're the experts), but here's my 2 cents anyway:

I agree that the gray text is difficult to read, although I do like the red and yellow template colors (I get bored easy). However, I can see where Trish is right about it turning away readers.

I'd like to see you use labels. I like to browse blogs by looking at their reviews or their recommended list, so I don't have to cipher what the titles mean and search through the archive. It gives visitors a way to get around and see if they like what you have to say without making them work too hard.

Your rating system is somewhat complicated (I found the post) so I would delineate it in the sidebar or link to the explanation whenever you review, again, making it easier for new visitors to figure out.

Happy Reading!

[Britt C.]

I've started to add labels. I'm trying to figure out how to put the labels somewhere so you can search them or whatever.
Thanks!

[meg89]

If you're using blogger, you tag your posts when you write them up, there's a widget that sorts them automatically that you can add to the sidebar

[Britt C.]

I found it! Now I just have to remember to tag them!

[chrisbookarama]

First of all, I like your blog title. Very nice.

I agree with everyone about the red. I also think if you are going to have a literary quote widget make it one that readers can scan quickly.

As for commenters, ask questions of readers, comment on others blogs, join weekly memes like Booking Through Thursday.

That's all I can think of.

Christina