Could Someone Review My Blog???

[Chris Jones]

I was just wondering if somebody could do a review of my blog?? If you could I would greatly appreciate it. You can find it here. Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, or questions, would be appreciated.

Also I am starting the 31 Days to Building a Better Blog challenge. So I would appreciate comments on my posts as well so that I can start to implement the ideas presented. Thank you

[Sarah Stewart]

Hi Chris, I am one of the people doing the blog challenge at the moment. Have got stuck on day 7 - I think we're all having problems with time management!? LOL.

Just had a look at your blog. I am very new to blogs so this is not the opinion of an expert by any means. I like the color scheme and the fact it feels clean and crisp. I do not like the advert right in the middle of the post. It distracts my attention and makes me think that the post has ended there, which of course, it doesn't. Otherwise, you have the RSS feeds and search facility which is what Sue Waters says you should have.

Good luck with the challenge. look forward to hearing how you get on. cheers Sarah

[Chris Jones]

Hey Sarah, thank you for looking at my blog and telling me what you thought about it. I fixed the advert thing, I use a plugin that automatically puts an advert in every post but I can control where it goes in the post so now it's all the way at the bottom. Originally I was thinking that maybe if it was in the middle of the post more people might click on it.

In review of your blog, I think that you should distinguish the content from the sidebar with a color change. Maybe the light blue you have in the upper right and left corner's that way the content is seen as more important. Also the comments, I was going to comment on a couple of your posts but to comment a new window pops out and (at least for me) it's really small and it won't let me make it bigger, and the only text I can read is: "No Comments." So I would recommend that you if possible you make it possible to comment on the page that the post is on without it opening a new window.

Good luck to you too

~Chris Jones

www.joneschris.com/blog

[Chris Jones]

One other thing, I don't know how it happened, but somehow I lost your comment on my blog. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you could repost it. Thanks.

[Christine Martell]

Here you go Chris:
http://www.screencast.com/t/EKntwme3D

Hope there is something helpful.....good luck with the challenge!

[Chris Jones]

Hey Christine, thank you for the review, I appreciate it very much. In reference to the "Blog" page I have on my site, I made the link in the introduction go directly to the page that my blog was on as I figured that it was the most important part of my site anyway. Also I have updated the header image - title and tagline. When I redid the blog I didn't update the "About" and "Home" pages, so now I have done that. I was using a plug-in for those ads and it randomly places the ads somewhere in the post, I have updated all of the pages so that the ads display at the very bottom of the text instead of at the top or in the middle. I have also changed the "subscribe to" text in the sidebar. Also the reason that you aren't able to comment on the blog page is because that has the most recent posts in it and thus when I get more blog posts it will have more in it. So you have to click on the title of the post to get to the actual page that the post is on. Thank you again for the review.

[Christine Martell]

Glad it was helpful. I really like the changes you are making......think it's a more unified messaging. Good work!

[Simon Thomas]

Hi Chris,
Firstly, I like your theme. It looks very modern and clean. I'm not sure about the text in your header though, it seems to be a bit fuzzy, a bit difficult to read. From a structural point of view, it's strange to have post related links (e.g. subscribe to comments) right over in the far column of four. i wouldn't think to look there. The phrasing of the links in this area also seem a little off, for example "Subscribes To Comments Post Rss".

It's a bold move deleting all your old content. it may put off some readers. If I was reading a blog, and it suddenly removed all its old content I'd really start wondering about the author's commitment to the blog. It would also stop me from linking to the blog at any point in the future, I don't want to send my users to a page that doesn't exist anymore as it shows my blog in a negative light. Also, because there's no content, there's not an awful lot to review at the moment.

Good luck.

[Chris Jones]

Hello Simon, thank you for your review as well. I have updated the header image, so I hope that clears that issue up. Do you have any suggestions for where I should put those post related links?

Yeah, I know it's a bold move. But I really felt that I needed to do something that would get me (personally) to implement the things that I am learning and not allow me to just go back to how I was doing things before. Also, since I wasn't involved in the blogging community that much I didn't really have any links to my blog other than a few to my homepage from some of the comments that I had written. But, since I have redone it and started over and started interacting with the blogging community more, I have gotten more blogs to link to me and I have even gotten an offer from somebody to do a guest post on my blog. So I am very thankful for all of that.

[Chris Jones]

Hi Danielle, thank you for your suggestions. I have updated the header image and made it go more with the direction that I want the blog to go. Hope it meets your standards now. Thanks again.