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!

[meg89]

I would love to get some feedback! My blog is Literary Menagerie

I'm new so any advice would be helpful, but especially I'd like some feedback on the book reviews I have done so far. Too long? short? boring? too little summary? etc. as well as the other content in general. What makes you read/link to/share a post? How much balance between personal and content is best? What makes you decide to return to a blog/follow it?

I want to read and write about books that are worth talking about and I want to bring in readers who want to talk and disagree with me. How do I build a discussion from a blog post?

Also, on the technology side, I can't figure out how to do a backlink! I somehow end up creating a new post on my blog instead of a link back to my blog, and I know some of you know how to that, so let me in on the secret please!

Any other thoughts or advice... I have super-thick skin (like a komodo) so please be honest--I'm enjoying blogging so much and I really want to do this well! Thanks so much for your help!

[Maw Books]

I'll come back when I've got more time to take a look at your content but here are a couple of my very first impressions just from looking at the front page:

The template that you have chosen is a very common one, it looks to be a default. So, in other words, my first thought is not very exciting (Ha! This is from the woman with the most boring template ever! So take that thought with a grain of salt). The image in your header and footer falls off to the right side. It is not within the borders of the space allowed. It looks like it's just floating on top of another header instead of it actually being the header.

You ask people to click over to get your email address by visiting your profile page. It's just one more step for somebody to do. Make it simple.

Underneath your profile, you have a Amazon widget but the title above it says Search 2.0. Huh?

Subscribe buttons should always be "above the fold." In other words, higher up on the page.

I am not familiar with blogger so I can't really help you with the backlink question.

As far as building discussion from a blog post, it's a good start to leave comments on other blogs. Build up a readership/community and the comments will follow. Make sure the comments you leave are meaningful and you will receive the same. Give good quality content with a strong opinion. Ask questions or for differences of opinion.

I'll be sure to peruse your blog more to take a look at content.

[meg89]

The template is standard--I can't get any of the custom ones to upload. I keep getting errors and can't figure out why.

[Maw Books]

Can you list exactly what the error code is that you get?

[sheistoofondofbooks]

You can enter your address in "coded" format on the front page and spiders won't catch it:
dawn DOT rennert AT verizon DOT net or
dawn [dot] rennert [at] verizon [dot] net are some I've used in comment boxes

I still have my address under a "contact me" tab at the top of the page. Moving it to the front page is one of those changes I plan to make :)

[Maw Books]

I have to click on profile and then click on email which is two more clicks away. Rule of thumb is to make information available by the least amount of clicks available. So I'd rather just be given the email address instead of being told where it is. I'd write it out as simply as possible so spam won't catch it. I wouldn't use a widget unless you are talking about a contact form on another page.

[Trish Collins]

When Men With Pens critiqued my site, they said this when I had my email written as trish DOT browning AT gmail DOT com: The contact information in the sidebar doesn’t look appealing with the email written like that (but we understand why you did that).

An alternative is to have Email Me, with email me being a hyperlink for people to email you. The code for that (and I hope this comes out right!) is: < a href = "mailto:youremailaddress" > Email Me < / a >

I've put in a bunch of spaces so you can see what the code is, so all you have to do is take out the spaces.

Alternatively, if you can add a contact form (don't know if you can do that in blogger), that's always a good choice.

[Amy]

You can add a contact form! Of course it takes a bit of your own customization, but here's the blog post where I learned how: http://scribbit.blogspot.com/2008/01/five-more-things-every-blogger...

[Maw Books]

I like contact forms also. That's what I use. Good to know you can do it in blogger.

[meg89]

I like the idea of a hyperlink. Thanks for the code!

[Paperback Traveler]

If you use < a href = "mailto:youremailaddress" > Email Me < / a > and write your email address out correctly, spiders will still find your email. They have been coded to recognize the html as having an email address embedded in it. To have a nice looking link while still thwarting most spammers, you could write the code out as follows < a href = "mailto:email [AT] domain.com" > Email Me < / a >. When the link is clicked, the person's email program will open and a new message will be started with "email [AT] domain.com" in the email field. The person would then have to insert an "@" symbol and delete the brackets and the word "at."

It should be noted that some people feel that using links to your email address that require the person to click on the link to see the email address is annoying. Also, depending on how the person has their browser configured, clicking on the link will cause the default email program to open, not necessarily the program the person uses.

Another option would be to create an image with your email address. That way you could write it out nicely without risking a huge increase in spam. You could even, if you wanted, make the image a link to your email address by using this code:

< a href = "mailto:email [AT] domain.com" > < img src="the location of the image" > < /a >

[Maw Books]

Okay, I've had some time to look at the content. I really like how easy to read it is. You've got a great balance of photos (which are nicely spaced within your text), videos, bolded information, short paragraphs, and bulleted item points. If you are able I would try to get the stumble it buttons and share buttons onto the same line. Also, if after an evaluation period you find that nobody rates your blog posts consider taking them down. But if they do get rated and you enjoy it then by all means leave it up.

My one thought about summary, etc. is that if you use a publisher/amazon synopsis for every single review it begins to feel like the content is not original. It's something that I can just go to Amazon for. I would come up with some of my own summaries. I certainly fall back on publisher/amazon synopsis from time to time (be sure to credit who is writing these synopsis) when I'm tired or in a hurry, so it's not bad. I see a lot of bloggers do it. This is totally up to you though and my own opinion.

Balance between personal and content is up to you but people come back again and again because they enjoy the blogger and feel like they have a relationship with them. How you want to convey personal stuff is up to you. I don't put up any posts unless they are about books so if I want to talk about something personal than I like to tie it into reading or a book somehow. Others intersperse personal random posts with book reviews, etc.

Anybody else out there want to help out?!