Best & most professional critique gets $100

[chrisc]

Yes, im serious...

Im looking for a 5-6 paragraph professional critique/review of my blog on the following basis:
(the advice has to be substantial for the prize to be awarded)

1. Design. Would you recommend a 2 or 3 column blog? Is there a blue theme you would recommend?

2. Content. Is the content compelling? Is it professional? Does it contain enough pillar articles to monetize in the future? Is it a topic that will work?

3. What you would do to monetize the blog? What methods have worked best for you?

4. Technical and SEO. Critique the domain name, the article headings and suggest widgets to improve subscribability and 'stickiness'

5. Widgets. Im looking for those which i can post youtube videos and also my own recorded videos as well as podcasts. Currently, i cant find these.

The blog is averaging 300 hits per day and 30 new readers per day. The address is in my sig.

Browsing sites like these can certainly help, but i have to get bits and pieces for each question i have. I want an area where every concern i have can be answered.

I'll be checking this post on a regular basis and as long as you have a paypal account, the best advice on the above points will get $100.

Its a win win situation.

Chris :bigsmile:

[Dan Schulz]

1. Design. Would you recommend a 2 or 3 column blog? Is there a blue theme you would recommend?

Chris, if you're planning on monetizing the blog, I would go with a three column layout with the content on the left and the two sidebars on the right. The two sidebars would be used for blog metadata (and other sidebar content) and advertisements respectively. I'm not an advertising guru, but I'd put the advertisements on the left sidebar, and the regular sidebar content on the right sidebar. As for which advertising networks to use, I really cannot say, but I can tell you for a fact that I cannot stand the concept of WidgetBucks. Text Link Ads may be more appropriate, as well as Google AdSense for "just starting out" but I'm not sure if you'd want your potential competitors' ads showing up on your blog. So I'd use AdSense if you feel like rolling the dice, but go with another advertising network if you're more conservative (like I am). Aspen (Chris Beasley) over at SitePoint would be a good person to ask as for monetizing a site would be concerned, and is something I need to do myself (that is, ask him for his advice). Oh and one more thing. If you can, get a custom design. It'll uniquely identify and brand your blog, and if it's a good one, will become an instant classic.

2. Content. Is the content compelling? Is it professional? Does it contain enough pillar articles to monetize in the future? Is it a topic that will work?

Your blog has more than a few glaring spelling and grammatical errors which stand out like a sore thumb. Just like with clean code, I'd fix those up immediately. Having sloppy Web copy will not attract new readers; in fact it's far more likely to turn them away. You do seem to be jumping around from topic to topic to topic, which is something I would not do. Choose a niche and stick with it. The writing style is also far too casual for the nature of the topics you're covering. Instead of trying to be overly friendly and personal, I'd rather see you use a more editorial and professional approach to your blog writing, except for the occasional personal entry. That way your readers will be able to tell right away when they're reading an informative article or a more personal entry.

I dont think the quality of the articles is high enough to monetize at this time, especially if you're going to be using an advertising network like Google'ls AdSense, which IIRC uses the keywords in your Web copy to determine which ads to serve your site's visitors (along with other things, such as geo-location). Instead, I'd learn how to write compelling articles that people will want to link to. While the book I'm about to recommend tends to focus heavily on selling, the lessons available in the book can be translated to blogging with a little effort. That book happens to be "Web Copy That Sells: The Revolutionary Formula for Creating Killer Copy Every Time" by Maria Veloso (I chose not to write this critique in the style she advocates in the interest of keeping this a fair and friendly competition). You may also want to look into marketing your blog via word of mouth. "Word of Mouth Marketing" by Andy Sernovitz will also be more than helpful in this regard. I've read them both and recommend them very highly.

3. What you would do to monetize the blog? What methods have worked best for you?

(please see the first paragraph).

4. Technical and SEO. Critique the domain name, the article headings and suggest widgets to improve subscribability and 'stickiness'

The domain name is personal, but it is definately brandable. Not the strongest potential brand, but it is servicable. If you can come up with a better name and the domain name is available, then by all means take it. Now, as far as the "technical" aspects go, I hate to say this, but WordPress by and large SUCKS when it comes to the proper application of semantic markup. Fortunately for you, I have a custom WordPress theme framework that theme designers and developers can use to create their own accessible, clean, easy to use, minimal, most semantic, search engine-optimized and usable premium quality free theme available for the WordPress publishing system. And best of all, when I launch the site that will host the theme framework, not only will I be making it available to the public, but I'll be giving it away for free. This theme framework will blow "Premium WordPress Themes" and the "Revolution Theme" series of WordPress themes out of the water, with the code quality (from what I have seen by clicking "View Source" anyway) far surpassing either of these two theme frameworks, not to mention being absolutely free. Oh, and it'll also be far easier to use and adapt than K2 as well. I gave an advance copy of this framework to one of my clients and he said it reduced his development time by nearly 70%! It'll be available to the public next month. I strongly suggest you try it out.

As far as SEO goes, the main things that are killing your blog's SEO are the mis-use of headings (H1 is the top-most heading of the page, and should thus be used as the page title, not the site title) and the weak copy of the page copy. As I said earlier, fix those up, and your rankings will start to improve. Don't try to chase down widgets to improve your subscriber base. Instead, focus on your CONTENT. Afterall, content is king, and unless you're Louis XVI, it's good to be the king.

5. Widgets. Im looking for those which i can post youtube videos and also my own recorded videos as well as podcasts. Currently, i cant find these.

Again, don't use widgets. Not only do they produce crap code, but they're also pains in the neck to alter. Instead, I'd focus on plugins. (Yes, plugins can handle YouTube videos as well as other multimedia - and unlike widgets, they're actually editable too.) Look at some of the successful blogs, such as ProBlogger for instance, and study what makes them tick. Learn from them, and emulate what they're doing right, and recognize what they're doing wrong. "Web Copy That Sells" has a self-assessment that you can use to determine what parts of your page copy need to be improved, as well as to tip you off as to what you're doing right.

I strongly suggest you read it.

[EverythingEverywhere]

1. Design. Would you recommend a 2 or 3 column blog? Is there a blue theme you would recommend?

Right now the site looks like you just turned it on and are using the default wordpress theme. I'd use a 2 column site for now and grow your audience. Until you do that, everything else is moot. If you can afford $100 for a review, you'll be able to take the time and get a better theme made if you have a real audience and want to start making money.

2. Content. Is the content compelling? Is it professional? Does it contain enough pillar articles to monetize in the future? Is it a topic that will work?

What is the topic? As far as I can tell it is whatever you want to write about on that day, and you would like to make money online. That just makes this a personal blog. Unless you are already a celebrity, it is very hard to get an audience for a personal blog. Couple that with the default wordpress theme, and this doesn't look professional at all.

Pick a subject matter you care about and focus on that. Develop an expertise in that subject area. Anything else will be a waste of time. Personally, I avoid sites which tell me up front they are trying to make money online. I don't really care what your motivations are for having a website, I just care about the content.

3. What you would do to monetize the blog? What methods have worked best for you?

Get an audience first. Worry about making money later. If you can't develop an audience, then the effort spent on monetizing has been wasted.

4. Technical and SEO. Critique the domain name, the article headings and suggest widgets to improve subscribability and 'stickiness'

Your name as a domain is great if people know your name. As I said before, if you are a celebrity, even in a given field, that can work for you. I don't think it necessarily hurts you, but most websites that have a name as a URL are usually just personal blogs.

I have a personal blog that uses my name, but I got a different domain name when I started my travel website.

5. Widgets. Im looking for those which i can post youtube videos and also my own recorded videos as well as podcasts. Currently, i cant find these.

Each YouTube video has embed code on the page. Technically, you don't need a widget or a plug-in. I've found it easier to just use the raw code.

There is a plug in that will put a small Flash player for mp3s on a post. I forget the name, but I have it installed. That is handy for podcasts

Summary
Your problems are much larger than worrying about the number of columns and what widgets to use.

I think you need to get a better idea than "I want to write about whatever I want to write about and make money on the internet". There are 6 billion people the world who can do that. Whatever you niche is, you need to have a niche. That is the first thing. Do that well and nothing else will really matter.

The way to make money blogging, is to blog like you don't care if you make money.

[chrisc]

To respond to 'everything everywhere' with the comment:


The way to make money blogging, is to blog like you don't care if you make money.


I currently blog like i don't care about making money. I have been blogging for over 4 months for not a cent. My point is, I would do it for free.

I somewhat agree on the content area, im thinking of just commenting on media articles(having a niche) and changing my domain name from my personal name.

My argument is what if you want to develop an online magazine? What if you want to develop many topic areas? Would what you are discussing still be relevant?

Doesn't a popular radio station have many different topic areas?

Also, I wonder if i change my domain if it will do much damage with 300 hits a day?

[Dan Schulz]

A 301 redirect from the old domain to the new one would take care of that. Though I'd personally toss up a message saying "I've moved! Wait a few seconds and I'll take you there." for the first month so people don't get confused and think the site's been hijacked.

[shyflower]

1. Design.

I'd recommend a three column if you want to advertise. Otherwise your sidebar is going to go far past your content and ads in single sidebars are confusing to readers.

Although the eye follows top corner to bottom and then linear from top to bottom, I'd still put the ads far right. If you had sidebars to left (instead or right) would you consider a band of advertising between your navigation and content? Develop your blog first for the ease of your readers and second for yourself (SEs, monetizing, etc.)

For monetizing I would also suggest small ads at the top of each blog post. If you use adsense, that's a good place to help ensure that the ads are relevant to your post's topic.

2. Content.

Your post about paying for a critique is fairly well directed. Other posts could use some work. Nearly every paragraph starts with "I" in your post about monkeys. Albeit, your blog is about your opinions, but you need to present your opinions to better include your readers.

Use active verbs that include your reader. Instead of, "To do this, I need some help," rephrase it "Can you help me". The latter pulls the reader in, the former is just a statement.

I also think your attempt at irony is failing. Both the monkey post and the Internet vs TV post are too negative for my taste. Look for positives to write about or at least try to change negatives to positives. What you may perceive as irony or parody may be perceived as venting and cheap shots by others.

Your mechanics are fair, but it seems you are relying too much on a spell checker and not re-reading what you have written before you have published it. In the first paragraph of your review post, you have the word "ask" instead of "task". Those are the kinds of errors most spell checkers won't catch.

Further down your page, you have used the possessive pronoun "its" instead of "it's" for the contraction of "it is".


3. What you would do to monetize the blog?

I haven't monetized anything. I do have an adsense account and I think I would recommend it as a start. However, it's my understanding that it's difficult to integrate adsense with other monetization platforms because of its TOS. I've recently signed up for CJ (a friend has given good reports on it) and I belonged to linkshare a while back, although I haven't heard good reports about it, I may use it again.

I do belong to several single affiliate programs, but I don't push them and therefore I don't do well with them. What I like about them is that they are real programs and businesses that I use and can personally recommend.


4. Technical and SEO.

I don't have a problem with widgets. In fact they come in handy when aligning items in sidebars. However, your widgets aren't going to improve your subscription rate or stickiness. Only good content will do that.

What article headings? Those other than your article title are nearly non-existent. If you're asking if your titles are provocative... yes you do have a knack for writing good titles, but you could do some work on content presentation with more bulleted lists and hx headings for eye candy.


5. Widgets. Im looking for those which i can post youtube videos and also my own recorded videos as well as podcasts. Currently, i cant find these.

There was new youtube widget (or maybe a plugin) in the WP codex. However, since I haven't tried it I can't recommend it.

By the way... I agree with everything that everythingeverywhere said.

[Jelena]

So, who won?

[Dan Schulz]

*crickets are heard chirping throughout the forum as people wonder whether this thread has been abandoned or not*

[malique]

6) constant feedback/evaluation if holding a contest. ;)

[shyflower]

Really? Did any of you think this guy would really come across? It's actually sort of pathetic that he even volunteered (fake or not) to pay for what he could have had for free anyway. So take the dork off your subscription list and move on.

[mccormicky]

Well even if that guy never meant to pay anyone I for one am very impressed with the answers and I wish he had left at least a thank you for all the effort you guys put into them.

[shyflower]

One of the great aspects of being a member of a community is that sometimes you post to answer a question and your answers help others. I don't mind that he (or she) didn't respond. Good riddance to those who only want to take and have nothing to give.

[chrisc]

Hey all,

I have been on holidays for 2 weeks and have had a break away from the PC over christmas...I needed it!

So- apologies for not responding right away. I have needed time to reflect and take some time out.

Anyway, i will be sure to carry on with my promise!

Chris

[chrisc]

After deliberation, Dan Schultz has WON.

Congrats!

Dan~ can you please post your paypal email address and ill transfer the funds.

Thanks to all participants for your appriasals. Even though it is a little dehibilitating knowing there is a long way to go, its a start. :)

[ses5909]

Thanks for coming back in and updating Chris! There is nothing wrong with room for improvement :)

[Jelena]

I'm glad this little contest got a winner :)

Congrats Dan.

[doorlight]

You go DAN!!!!! WOOHOOO!!

[malique]

ah cool.

time for contest forums, sarah? (ses)

[Dan Schulz]

Two words. Holy crap.

Yeah, I'll send you the PayPal info.

[shyflower]

Congrats Dan! ... and sorry Chris for my unMerry thoughts.

[Dan Schulz]

(Thanks Linda. While the $100 was AUD, the $85 after being converted to USD was still close enough.)

[Jessi]

Wow. Very nice and congrats for getting rewarded for your efforts!