Fam5.com Critique

[admiral70]

I have been looking for some feed back from people that blog and/or read a lot of blogs. My blogging started from recommendation of my nurse during some health issues (which you can read about).

Blog: http://www.fam5.com
Goals: A place for me to enter my thoughts of various topics.
Design Goals: Trying to stay simple yet effective.
Audience: Weight Loss people, technology wonderers, and just general everyday life people.
Other: If you go to the WLS category you can see where all this started. I belive starting in August 2005.

Feedback is apprecited. I would like to expand my blog into something else and just not sure what yet.

Thanks for the feedback.

[shyflower]

I like your blog. I especially like the navigation tabs up top. They're a little different and made me smile. :)

The one thing I would do is remove the meta from your sidebar. Most readers won't want to register and registration implies that they can't post until they "join".

PS: Congrats on the weightloss... I know what it's like!

[Jewel]

I think it looks well put together, and like you spent a reasonable amount of time on it. I think that you are doing a good job appealing to your audience, but I do think that it looks a bit plain on the top. Maybe you could add a subheading or something to that effect?

[admiral70]

Thank you for the feedback. I am trying to come up with a catch phrase or subheading but struggling a little.

In you opinion a blog that jumps around a lot on the issues does that lose people or is that okay?

[shyflower]

What makes me want to read a blog isn't always the topic. In fact, more often it's the enjoyable style of the writing.

IMO you have done a good job categorizing your topics so if I accessed your blog and the topic of the day was tech and I was interested in your foods or weightloss categories, I'd know right where to go. :)

I think your style of writing is engaging enough to encourage visitors to seek out posts in their category of interest.

[goldfries]

while i like your layout and color choice.

i think that the domain name and the blog title just doesn't match.

try to have a domain name and title that matches.

Yahoo points to Yahoo. Google points to Google. goldfries points to goldfries. fam5 points to Blankenship Blog? :) get it?

your topics are quite general but i see the main focus is on medic / health.

IMO you have better blog content than most that I've come by although some posts look like log. i didn't quite understand the categories, like computer stuff you have full review. WLS - what is that? it looks like a log.

as for the intro page, perhaps summarize the content?

[admiral70]

goldfries thank you for your insight. I have often thought about making the name of the blog the same as the domain name. The domain name came about that my wife wanted a shorter email address. So she came up with Fam5 meaning a Family of 5. Well not sure if fam5 and the meaning will conflict with the general aspect of the blog. I noticed goldfries has nothing to do with your website or blog but was a nickname. So with that in mind I guess it would not matter.

WLS stands for Weight Loss Surgery. I guess I assumed if a person was wanting to read about weight loss they would know what WLS stands for, maybe that would not be the case.

Once in a while when I get some new gadget I like to post a review about it. I see the three post in computers did not have a category of Review as well.

Do you tend to stick to one category per post? So if I had a computer gadget I bought and posted a review in your opinion should it be in review only and not in technology, computers, and reviews?

Thanks for your input it means a lot to a new/old blogger.

[goldfries]

I noticed goldfries has nothing to do with your website or blog but was a nickname. So with that in mind I guess it would not matter.

yup. it was just a name. i've explained it in About section. the name signifies me, my participation in my country's tech forum. :D people know my nick very well, so might as well use that for them to visit my site too!

remember me, remember my site. :D

WLS stands for Weight Loss Surgery. I guess I assumed if a person was wanting to read about weight loss they would know what WLS stands for, maybe that would not be the case.

nah, don't worry about that one. :) i'm just being a curious blogger trying to figure out what WLS mean. i thought Weight LosS.

Once in a while when I get some new gadget I like to post a review about it. I see the three post in computers did not have a category of Review as well.

Do you tend to stick to one category per post? So if I had a computer gadget I bought and posted a review in your opinion should it be in review only and not in technology, computers, and reviews?

it's entirely up to you. :) for me, i stick to a main and a sub. however i don't see how wrong it could be if it's related to all relevant categories.

for me, i'll file the post in just one category. and if that category is a sub-category, then i'll add the parent-category as well.

Thanks for your input it means a lot to a new/old blogger.

you're welcome.