Monday, March 19, 2012

Blog Critique: Beth Stilborn

In this series I give constructive feedback about the look and function of an author blog from a marketing perspective. As always, I rely on help from graphic designers Tom Barnes (my hubby) and Joe LaRue. To review the blog elements we look at or to submit your own blog for critique, go here.

I've been excited for today's blog critique because I know that Beth Stilborn is very actively working on improving her blog. She frequently comments here and is obviously very engaged with bloggers. No matter what her blog looks like or is doing, that engagement is more than half the battle. So let's journey on over and see what her blog looks like.


Okay, Beth, overall I like the structure and the clean, simplicity and all the elements I want to see in a blog are there. I have a hard time getting to all that, though, because the first thing we see is that your colors don't fit together. 

Now I admit that I'm not a great color expert. I just know something feels wrong. But Joe, one of the graphic designers on this critique team, picks up the problem right off the bat. The header blue doesn't go with the other blues.  Additionally, you need a contrast color to make it pop. Here's a link to color scheme designer with the colors that should be in your header and your contrast color to fit into your existing palette. If you have a good eye, you'll see that your header blue is not among those colors. 

To decide what you want to make your contrast color, think about what you want to pop on your page. What do you want people to see immediately? Your name? Your titles? Your links? These are all things that you can make one of those contrast colors.

One more thing on your header: those tiny gray words that say "By Word of Beth" - can those be removed?

Now that we're past the color scheme I can really look at the rest of your blog elements. 
  • I love that I know who you are and what you do.
  • Your name is in your title. Score! 
  • You have a good placement of your profile info. 
  • You have a search box! Yay! 
  • I like that you have many ways for people to subscribe to your blog, but that needs to be placed higher. You want to make it easy for people to follow you.
  • You've already told me, but I need to tell the readers that Beth is having difficulty with her template and her navigation tabs. She has to put her links on the side instead. I suggest you continue working on resolving that issue. It would definitely help with the cleanliness of your blog.
  • You use LinkWithin - I love that. I'm always curious why bloggers choose to only use the 3 across version of Link Within though, when you have more room on your template. If you chose the "Show 5" version, you would have five boxes and they would fill the space better.
  • I think you do a good job at informative concise posts.
  • You have a lot in your sidebar, but it doesn't look crowded.
  • You tell us when you blog - nice.
  • And you tell us what's coming up - that's a nice touch as well.
  • Okay, we must address the graveyard at the bottom of your blog. (That blue fits your palette - did you notice it in the link I placed above?) There's just lots of stuff down there. It looks like you're trying to shove stuff under your bed. Get rid of the nonessential and make that area just as clean as the rest of the blog. I'd stick with your labels and the copyright info and that's it. 
  • Speaking of your labels, I prefer that they are alphabetical. One of the main reasons we use labels is so that readers can find stuff easily. When it isn't alphabetical, it's harder to sort through.
Good job blogging and engaging, Beth. You are a very busy writer bee and your dedication to your craft and the arts is apparent in your work.

Did I miss anything? What do you readers think? Oh, and if you want to test your own color scheme skills, take this test. I got a 6.0. I don't think that's a good score (hangs head in humiliation).

68 comments:

patientdreamer said...

Great Critique, Beth has a lovely clean line. I see what you mean about the blues and I love the blue at the bottom of her blog. It could be used as her header and the yellow as contrast, say as menu bar. Not keen on using the orange though. I should talk! I took the colour test.... I am too ashamed to even post the score.....lol.

Susanna Leonard Hill said...

I love Beth's blog, but I found your color comment very interesting. I don't have that eye for color, and I wouldn't have noticed anything was wrong, but I'm very interested in following that link you placed for the color schemes because I think I could learn a lot!

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Laura! I will work on my header color. There's not much I can do with my other colors, as the template has either pink for the background and a different shade of pink for the sidebars (which I don't like), or the blue you see there.

That gray "By Word of Beth" is the only way I have found to be able to have my blog name come up in the top search bar while one is on my blog. Without it, there is just a dash. I will continue to work on my template/header tab problem. I have to admit that it is very frustrating, as one of the reasons I chose that template was because the preview showed nice header tabs.

I chose the three links for LinkWithin because I find the five looks cluttered (I should talk, I'm the Queen of Clutter!) but I will try the five and see if I can live with it.

Watch for changes "under the bed," pronto. I certainly see that it would be easier to read the labels if they were alphabetical -- I'll see what I can do. It will be a wrench to let go of my arts quote. I make no promises on that one!

This has been very helpful in my continuing quest to make my blog the best it can be. I'll be popping back during the day to see what others comment. Thanks again, Laura!

Joanna Marple said...

I also found the color comment so helpful and would not have picked up on that. Beth has done such a great job on applying what she has been learning here over the past months. It is a great testimony to your work here, Laura!

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Diane. I am going to see if there is anything I can do with the colors other than the header, but I think it will involve coding (which I prefer to leave to the experts!)

The first time I tried the color test, nothing happened, so I'm going back to it to try again. I suspect my score will NOT be impressive.

Beth Stilborn said...

We're both going to learn something about color today, Susanna! Get out your crayons...

Thanks for your comments.

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Joanna!

Beth Stilborn said...

Quick question, Laura. When I look at my labels, they *are* in alphabetical order. Do you see them differently? I think one difference between your tag cloud and mine is that yours has numbers between each label to differentiate them. I like that, as it keeps them from all running together as mine do. I will work on that.

I don't like that my tag cloud is so large (and I was surprised that you didn't comment on the number of labels I have!), but I do like trying to optimize searching possibilities by having many tags. That's a tail-chasing unsolvable problem, as I see it.

Laura Barnes said...

I guess I let you slide :) I do prefer fewer labels. And yes, I couldn't tell they were alphabetical, but I see that now. If you had a separator that would help. Or if you had labels that weren't so long.

Laura Barnes said...

Ha ha! Well, I understand. I'm not a real fan of orange either, but it does look good with the blue.

Laura Barnes said...

Yes, when Joe made the comment I said that most people would think that they go together because they're both blue. He laughed at me. LOL! That colorschemes website is great though!

Laura Barnes said...

Well, that's a bummer. And pink wouldn't really fit in that palette anyway. Ridiculous template designers!

What do you mean about your name in the search bar? I don't think I'm following you there, but it looks like you found a clever solution. Work with what you have available, I suppose!

Have you complained to the people you got the template from about the headers? Can they help you with that?

I get the cluttered response on the LinkWithin. And I guess I'd have to see it each way before I could really agree or disagree. It just feels like the space is empty right now when I look at it. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this - maybe it's just my opinion. :)

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks, Joanna. Yes, I agree. She's done a lot of work. Good job, Beth!

Laura Barnes said...

Oh, wait, I see where you mean. Hmm. Can you make the font of "By Word of Beth" really small and a color that gets hidden behind the header? Just curious.

Beth Stilborn said...

My eyes obviously work differently to an artist's eye (and the color test wouldn't work for me for some reason.) To me, those colors are quite unpleasant with the blue! Obviously, my eye for color needs training!

Beth Stilborn said...

One of the major problems I have with this template is that I can't change font size or color, without knowing a LOT about coding. I discovered that when I received an interview response with the answers in color. The color is integral to the answers, but I can't get it to replicate in my post.

Guess what? I'm going shopping for a new template! (Although it may be something that is inherent to a wordpress.org blog.)

Laura Barnes said...

LOL! Well, then I guess it's a good thing that your stuck with your template colors. :)

What happened when you tried the color test?

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Laura. I'm getting there, anyway, and the good points on my blog are due to all I've learned from reading this site.

Beth Stilborn said...

I'm pondering this conundrum. Stay tuned.

Laura Barnes said...

I bet you can find a template with more flexibility. But I do know that many of them are not. Good luck!

Laura Barnes said...

If you could find a template that lets them spread across the whole width of your blog, that might work better.

Beth Stilborn said...

When I click "start" on the color test, I get a circle that turns to red, and a curve with shades of green going to yellow, for "Hue". There's a little black circle that I can spin all around the shading curve and right around the red circle, but clicking on it does nothing. I can't figure out what I am supposed to do (there are no instructions that I can see). It won't go on to the next parts of the test, because I'm not able to do the first part. This is in Firefox. In Safari, the test doesn't even come up. Is it a PC only thing? I'm on a Mac.

Laura Barnes said...

What you do is spin the circle around until the two shade in the middle circle meld into one color. Then you wait until the timer is out and it will score you on how well you matched it. It takes a couple of tries to get used to is, so I started again after I got the hang of it.

Melissa Mead said...

Laura - great post. I agree with your assessment of the colour. I love the wealth of information that Beth shares. Thank you for sharing the colour game. It's great fun!

Beth Stilborn said...

Good idea, because my current experiment with just the copyright statement and the label cloud in the footer looks dreadful!

Laura Barnes said...

Dreadful is a little harsh...:)

Beth Stilborn said...

I calls 'em as I sees 'em. ;-)

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Melissa. I hope that I can improve the color problem somehow. Stay tuned!

Laura Barnes said...

Glad you enjoyed!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Maybe another blog template will let her put the page tabs in the right place?

Laura Barnes said...

We hope so. She's trying to find one now. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

Beth Stilborn said...

Progress report: I downloaded a theme which I've seen on a friend's blog. She has tabs across the top. They disappeared when I tried it on my blog. I've put my old theme back for now, but have removed the custom header, and everything in the footer. Consider my blog a work in progress!

tiltonph said...

I didn't understand the garbage comment at the bottom -- is that the "You might also like:" with pictures of other books? I think your blog has a crisp look to it and is easy to follow. Other than the comment on color and the garbage, I think she gave you a good review. You've worked so hard on your blog, and I see it as a testimony.

Emily Rittel-King said...

Great critique! I'm going to check out Beth's blog now. Thanks for the intro, Laura!

Laura Barnes said...

Beth has already changed the bottom of her blog now but before she had tons of stuff down there. Thanks for the comment.

Kimberlee Turley said...

I didn't know if it was the color as much as the style differences that I noticed first between the header and the rest of the the page. The overall design is simple, but highly effective.

Eric VanRaepenbusch said...

Wow! I really learned a lot by reading this critique. Thanks for putting yourself out there, Beth, for the rest of us to learn. Good luck with your blog redesign!

Sarah Pearson said...

I've just had a look at Beth's blog now. She's really put some work in on it since the screenshot!

I probably should know this, but what is Link Within?

Laura Barnes said...

Yes, she's done a lot to the blog since this morning, which might be confusing to some readers. ;)

Link Within is that widget that says "You might also like" at the bottom of a post. You can find more about it at linkwithin.com

Laura Barnes said...

Someone you don't know? I'm so surprised and happy to introduce you! Thanks, Emily!

Laura Barnes said...

That is true too. She's removed the header now and I like it so much better.

Laura Barnes said...

Yes, thank you, Beth for being my victim. I'm glad it was helpful, Eric.

This Kid Reviews Bks said...

This is cool! I never read a blog critique before. I thought it was really interesting.

Laura Barnes said...

Work in progress is good, Beth!

I really like what your template looks like without that header. If you could get the font to let you type your name bigger and then get the tabs to work, that would be awesome. Good luck with all you do!

Laura Barnes said...

Thank you! I love the feedback!

Stacy S. Jensen said...

I love Beth's blog, but never noticed the color until you pointed it out. I need to check that resource. I used three pix with LinkWithin, because I didn't realize you could add more. I'll have to try that.

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks for explaining why only three pics! I always wonder what makes people make their choices. I think that's a piece of my musical theater degree that I hang on to - always studying character motivations. Ha ha. :)

Stacy S. Jensen said...

Laura, I tried to do four, but my fourth link was cut off. So, that means I guess I need to change dimensions. Not sure I'm ready for that today. :)

Laura Barnes said...

LOL, if you have three and they fit well, then you don't need more. Let me pop over and remind myself what yours looks like...

Oh, yeah - three is great on yours. No worries.

Beth Stilborn said...

I haven't been able to find where to change it to five. Can you tell I'm not a techno-whiz?

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Stacy!

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Sarah. I thought I probably should have left the blog the way it was for today, but I'm too much of a "take action and do it now" kind of person!

(Sorry, Laura, if my eagerness to "fix" things messed with the helpfulness of the critique for others.)

Laura Barnes said...

Ha ha, no problem! Do it when you are so inspired, I say!

Laura Barnes said...

I'm pretty sure you will have to take it off all together and add it again. When you add it again, choose show 5 stories instead of 3.

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Eric! Stay tuned -- we'll see how much I'm able to achieve!

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks, Kimberlee. That's a very good point. I hope I can adjust the fonts in the header as it is now, because I really don't like having the blog title almost unreadable -- we shall see. If I have to go back to an alternate header, I'll keep style in mind. Thank you.

Beth Stilborn said...

It's very interesting, and helpful, Erik. I'm glad we've introduced you to a new experience, too!

Renee LaTulippe said...

You have a musical theater degree?? I did musical theater for years, and have my undergrad degree in theater. YAY! Always nice to find another step-ball-changer!

Renee LaTulippe said...

Wow, Beth doesn't waste any time. Ha! Love it. Looks like she's taken action on everything so far. I do hope she figures out the top navigation, as it would be nice to have her "About" link and other pages up there. I also wish her pic were bigger/clearer on the home page - I always like to see who I'm dealing with the second I click on a blog!

Nice changes, Beth!

Clarissa Draper said...

Wonderful critique. I always learn a lot about what I can do with my blog. Thanks.

J.L. Campbell said...

Very informative stuff, Laura, that we don't think about most of the time.

Coleen Patrick said...

Another helpful critique--thanks Laura!

mithrilwisdom said...

I like the addition of 'what's coming up'. I've used it for what I'm reading, but not for blogposts. this might help me become more organised. Thanks :D

Beth Stilborn said...

Thanks Renee! I really want to get some form of navigation up and running. Even the little menu I was using on the sidebar is being taken away by Wordpress, so I've been searching through available plug-ins, trying to find a replacement!

I'm soon going to have a new picture taken, and will keep in mind your suggestion for having a larger picture on my home page. I hadn't thought of that, but yes, it is good to be able to see the person clearly. Good point.

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks, Clarissa!

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks! I appreciate you stopping by. :)

Laura Barnes said...

That's what I'm here for! You're welcome!

Laura Barnes said...

I liked that too. It's a nice touch. I don't know if I could ever be that organized. :)

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