Heyitsjosh - losing direction

[heyitsjosh]

I'm having some problems with my blog, which is really why I'm posting here right now. Wordpress is great, and I know how powerful it is. I feel like I have so much sitting in front of me but I don't really know where to start - it's safe to say I'm losing direction fast.

I've asked myself: What do I want for this website?

Above all - traffic. Readers, subscribers, people who go because they get something from it they can't get anywhere else.
A slick, quick-loading, impressive design. I'm fairly skilled in CSS, and graphic design is my forte`.
Rich content. Posts that reflect things people want to know about, but things I want to write about that nobody else has heard yet.
A little side cash from adverts would be nice, but this is one of my lesser concerns.


I'm just so new to the whole re-web thing. I just barely understand RSS feeds and how they work. I know it's "sydicated content" that readers can subcribe to, but why is that effective?

I appreciate any help I can get, and I'm willing to help out with anything I'm skilled at. ;)

[BPartch]

Hello

I did not see a link to your site anywhere so I have not seen it, but RSS is just a way to allow people to read your posts without having to remember to visit your site each day.

They just add your feed url to their reader and then when you update it tells them (a dynamic bookmark sorta thing) then they check it. If they want to visit then they still can, but honestly when I read feeds I only visit the actual site of the post in question gives me a reason to.

They say the site has been redesigned, the post is not complete in the feed reader and I have to go to the site to finish the article are a couple of examples.

Ben

I'm having some problems with my blog, which is really why I'm posting here right now. Wordpress is great, and I know how powerful it is. I feel like I have so much sitting in front of me but I don't really know where to start - it's safe to say I'm losing direction fast.

I've asked myself: What do I want for this website?

Above all - traffic. Readers, subscribers, people who go because they get something from it they can't get anywhere else.
A slick, quick-loading, impressive design. I'm fairly skilled in CSS, and graphic design is my forte`.
Rich content. Posts that reflect things people want to know about, but things I want to write about that nobody else has heard yet.
A little side cash from adverts would be nice, but this is one of my lesser concerns.


I'm just so new to the whole re-web thing. I just barely understand RSS feeds and how they work. I know it's "sydicated content" that readers can subcribe to, but why is that effective?

I appreciate any help I can get, and I'm willing to help out with anything I'm skilled at. ;)

[heyitsjosh]

Sorry Ben, my link is heyitsjosh.com
I have a bad habit of not posting it.
Thanks for the useful info on RSS, also I'm a member of feedburner, and I'm not quite sure how to fully utilize it's capabilities. Do you have any other tips / tricks to drive people to my site? Or any other helpful info about what I can do to get my name out there?

Thanks in advance to everyone, CC is very appreciated!

[adalante]

Hi heyitsjosh,
welcome to the forums, don't worry too much about blogging and stuff as there are some great tips waiting to be dugged up in this forum, plus there's a bunch of really helpful people around this place.

A slick, quick-loading, impressive design. I'm fairly skilled in CSS, and graphic design is my forte`

Great!, there's also a bunch of free WordPress theme around, i'm sure you'll find one, i think your current theme is already good.


Rich content. Posts that reflect things people want to know about, but things I want to write about that nobody else has heard yet.

Ah, the beautiful world of content, i suggest taking a look at sites like popurls.com to get some ideas for content.


A little side cash from adverts would be nice, but this is one of my lesser concerns.

Again, over time you'll find tons of resource and advice on this forums regarding making $$ with your blog.

[ses5909]

Overall I think your theme looks nice. Here is a couple of suggestions:

Move your subscribe link to the top of your sidebar. Your sidebar looks a little squished so it kind of gets lost there.

In your search box, instead of "Search and press Enter", maybe change that to "Type and press Enter". A search button might be better though. I don't think the enter button is always called an enter button (macs call it something else i think).

I might also get rid of the Best in Firefox bit or if you need it, move it to the bottom of the sidebar. It is taking up valuable real estate where it currently is. I would also ditch the calendar. Check out this thread for more info on that: DO you use a calendar? - The Blog Experiment - Join the Conversation (http://www.theblogexperiment.com/blog-forum/showthread.php?t=179)

[SarahG]

On Feedburner you want to have it 'burning' your feed. Have you already submitted your feed to feedburner and got the WordPress plugin to set it up on your site? This way all your RSS subscribers will go via Feedburner and you can get some stats on who's accessing it.

Also in Feedburner there's an option called 'Feed Flare'. This can be found by going into the feed section and going to optimize. Feed Flare is on the left. I personally put in at least how many comments are on the post as it's helpful to your readers, especially if they don't subscribe to your comments feed (which is another good feed to offer). You can also add in the option for readers to bookmark the post straight on del.icio.us, stumbleupon and more. Also an option for someone to email you direct from the bottom of each post.

The more you give people the more likely they are to utilise it and get more interactive.

[Michael Martin]

It looks good. I love the banner. It's very unique, and says a fair bit about the site tbh. :)

In terms of design, I'd slash the monthly archives (http://www.problogdesign.com/quick-tweaks/dropdown-the-monthly-archives/) and only show the IE bit to IE users (I'm already on Firefox. I know it looks better in Firefox. ;) ).

You can do that by wrapping it in HTML conditional comments:


<!--[if IE]>
## Foxy bits here.
<![endif]-->

[heyitsjosh]

I followed all the advice you guys gave me, with the exception of feedflare. I cannot get it to work whatsoever. I add the script before my postmetadata tag in the main index template but nothing shows up.
I'm going to work on the look and feel of the site a little bit more, just got a little inspiration. ;p

[Michael Martin]

Looks good Josh, but make sure you get the whole Firefox section with that code. The "Best in Firefox" line is still in there. :)

[heyitsjosh]

yeah michael, i noticed that. The problem is that it's a sidebar widget within wordpress. I don't think i know enough to wrap conditional tags around all that weird dynamic PHP