Not sure if you'd noticed or not, but I recently had Free Money Finance reviewed by ProBlogger readers. Here's a summary of what they suggested and my thoughts on each of them. Note that these recommendations aren't from regular readers, so I'm not going to do anything until I give regular readers a chance to chime in. That said, here we go:
A number of ProBlogger readers found the number of strong colors and shades in the design (green, yellow, red, black, white and blue) jarring and dissonant, and that the logo looked a bit like a DIY job.
Ha! It looks like a DIY job because it is one!
But I do need a new logo (the name and tagline will stay the same) and I am thinking of limiting the main colors. Which do you like best -- my green, yellow, red, something else?
Few reviewers had a bad word to say about the content. It struck me as very clear and concise. However, I probably wouldn’t want to read it on the site as my screen’s resolution is 1680 x 1050 and the content area stretches very, very wide. Consider fixing the width of the site to fill the screen at 1024 x 768, but allow for whitespace or a background on the sides at higher resolutions.
I've been toying with this idea for some time. What's your take on it?
In regards to the color of the excerpts (FMF had wondered if red was working) I would suggest switching this to an easy to read gray. A number of readers pointed out that red is more eye-catching than black and thus excerpts are emphasized more than the author’s content. In the context of some critiques on the amount of colors utilized in the design, it makes sense to strike red off that list by switching to gray.
When I quote a person or article, I've been putting that quote in red to make it stand out (just like that paragraph above.) Do you like this or do you think gray (or something else) would work better?
Use post excerpts on the main page with a Wordpress ‘More’ tag. This will encourage readers to navigate to the post-page to keep reading. When they click their browser’s social media buttons, they’ll be voting for the specific page, rather than the site as a whole. Specific blog posts tend to do a lot better than whole blogs.
What do you think of this idea -- basically having a summary of the post on the home page and the rest of the post on another page? Good idea? Bad idea? Doesn't matter?
Use more descriptive and inspirational headlines. As seen in the ‘Best of’ list in the sidebar, post headlines which tapped into reader aspirations (being ‘Rich’ or a ‘Millionaire’) have tended to do very well.
If anything, I think I'm often over-the-top with my headlines. Thoughts here?
Develop the habit of adding images to posts. Social media users browse the web very quickly and rely on visuals to communicate with them initially. An eye-catching image can mean the difference between a visitor who stays on your blog and a visitor who leaves the way they came.
I have opted for a more "clean" content area. Any thoughts on images versus no images?
Consider writing longer, thematic posts or resource lists. Short posts rarely do well on social media unless they’re incredibly profound or very useful. Longer, value-packed posts tend to be a favored format.
Yep, I need to set a goal for this (such as one per day, etc.)
A number of readers suggested placing some form of advertising in-post, as these tend to perform better in comparison to ads in sidebars.
I have two issues here: 1) Typepad isn't the most friendly option for adding ads in the content section and 2) I'm not sure how readers will respond to ads in the content section. Your thoughts?
There is an incredible amount of stuff packed into the sidebars on either side of the content. There are some really important elements in the sidebar coupled with a lot of unimportant elements, and I think a lot of what’s important is probably getting lost in the clutter.
This is true. I have way too much on my sidebars. When I changed it last time, I wanted enough on the sidebars so they went down fairly far with the posts. But Now I'm thinking "less is more." The only questions are 1) what stays and 2) where does it go. Some of their suggestions.
- Move a Feedburner subscription icon above the fold.
- Move up and emphasize: reviews (good social proof from sources who’re authorities to your target audience) and ‘Best of Free Money Finance’. People want to see the best very quickly when they first visit your blog.
- Remove: recent posts element (it’s easier for users to just scroll down), recent comments (”person I haven’t heard of” commented on “post I haven’t read yet” — not so exciting for a new user), simplify your category list down to 10 - 15 (it’s so big as to be intimidating), move the blogroll to a separate page, remove lists of posts from the sidebar or put them on a separate page.
- Move your About and Contact information above the site sponsors on the right. Your About page must be easy to find because new visitors will often give up if they can’t get quick and concise information on what your site is about.
What are your thoughts on these?
I'm currently deciding what actions to take, but there are changes coming. I won't be able to incorporate everyone's suggestions (nor would I want to -- I have to decide what works best for me and the majority of readers), but I do want to give everybody a chance to be heard and comment before I start a re-design. After all, this is "your" blog too. Your thoughts are welcome and appreciated. Thanks for your input.
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