Day 2 of Blog Critiquing Awesomeness: I really enjoy critiquing published author's blogs like Susan Roebuck's because after publication, platform and blogging becomes critical. Why don't you take a peek over there and come on back.
Susan, first of all, you are one of the sweetest bloggers out there. I love to read your blog and see your personality pop through. Just lovely. Your blog is set up and organized very well and the layout is clean and clear. There is a great separation from your sidebar and main area. The background is a nice touch. You should be very happy with it. There are just a few minor graphic notes, mainly from Joe:
- Header: The black box around your text is sloppy compared to the rest of your blog. The tagline should be indented to match the indent on your "Home" button. Even better, center your tagline. Also, it would be nice if your headline color matched a color from the graphic. I'm also not sure who you are from your header image. I don't get published author from it.
- Title: I love the title because is the origin of my name, the beautiful lauracea plant (laurel plants). However, it doesn't say your name or what your blog is about either and that's really preferred. It's hard to remember what lauracea has to do with Susan the writer. Know what I mean?
- Navigation: Your navigation text is a little on the small side. Also, the green color that shows up when you are on that page needs to be lighter so it can be seen better.
- Sidebar order: For a published author I recommend that your book(s) should be first, then your profile (which you don't have at all), then followers. You want it to be easy to follow you so make that accessible. Even though you have an about me page, a small profile is good so people don't have to look for you. And awards are not as important as being able to make a book purchase. Also, if you declutter your awards and such your reviews will stand out more.
- Some pictures go over the posting area. Adjusting your blog widths will fix this. See my Sunday post if you need help with this. You can also change your Facebook graphic that goes over in your sidebar by adjusting the width in the HTML text.
- Formatting: When you copy and paste text into your blog, make sure to erase the format and so that it looks uniform.
Sincerely, those are really small corrections and as I went through my blog checklist, I found very little for you to change. Great job!
There is one overall question I have, though, and I think addressing the answer could really bump your blog to the next level: what do you want your blog to say? Right now I don't know. You told me that you mostly blog as an author helping other authors, but I don't really get that sense at first impression. I also don't have a real sense of what you write from your blog. Romance, right? Or LGBT? Let us have a little more sense of that in your blog colors and your header. I really feel your blog is more scrapbook at this point - which is not a bad thing if that's what you intend it to be. I'd be happy to talk with you more about possible ideas to get across your message once I know what it is. Just let me know!
What do you think, dear readers? Do you have suggestions for Sue? Do you know who she is from her blog? I know she'd love to hear your comments!
