Blog Critique: Sher A. Hart

A Wednesday critique to try to keep up with the overwhelming requests I've had. In this series I give constructive feedback about the look and function of an author blog from a marketing perspective. This time I got help from graphic designers Tom Barnes (my hubby). To review the blog elements we look at or to submit your own blog for critique, go here.

Our blog comes from Sher A Hart who matches her catchy name with many punny statements.  Take a peek.

Sher, overall, we like your blog. It's clean, easy to read, easy on the eyes. The colors are soothing and you do an excellent job of using pictures to spice up your posts but not clutter them up.

But, as always, we have some suggestions, though not many:

• Title and Message: You use your name! Love that. Major bonus points. But we are confused. Is your blog mostly directed to the fancies of a fantasy writer or to writing for right? You seem to have two messages. I would stick with the Fantasy Writer's Fancies and cut your subtitle. Maybe you could share more about your "write for right" on a separate page. Of course you could still include posts about writing for causes. Just don't make it your title unless every post is about writing for a cause. Also, the color of your title is a little hard to see. Maybe try black and a thicker font.
• Background: Your background photo doesn't tell us a lot about who you are or what your blog is going to be about. We get the connection if your message is the "Fantasy Writer's Fancies" but it doesn't tie in at all to your write for a cause. This is fixed just by removing the subtitle.
• Profile: It's too low. I'm glad you have your Google+ pic up high so we can see your face right away, but your profile is more important. It should be top on your sidebar. In fact, let's talk about just that....
• Sidebar: Though your sidebar doesn't look cluttered, it seems there are a few things that are taking the wrong priority. I suggest the following order:
• Profile
• Welcome to Erth One
• Followers
• Subscribe to
• Social Media 
• Search Box (you don't have one, but you should)
• Popular Posts
• I'd lose the blog awards and the linky list (is that a current linky list?) If you really want to include them on your blog, move them to another page. Right now, though, your sidebar extends past your posts which is a no-no.
• Facebook "like" box: it extends off your sidebar. You should be able to adjust the actual HTML code for this. Open up the box that has this code and change the "width" number to 250 instead of 450.
• Captions on pictures: Tom doesn't like how your book covers have the titles above them because you can already see the title on the picture. I think it's a good idea, though, because it helps in search engine optimization. In fact, carry it further. Add the author's name.

Ok, that's all I got. What about you awesome readers? Any tips for Sher?