Monday, March 12, 2012

Blog Critique: Magpie Writes

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.

This Monday brings us magpies. Well, Magpie Writes, that is, a blog from Alex Villasante. Go visit and we'll jump right in with our Monday critique.


This is going to be a quick little critique, I think, because overall I really like your blog, Magpie Alex. I'm never short of opinions, though, so I do have a few to share:
  • Magpie. I love that. But I'm curious what that has to do with you, Alex. I don't need to know, but I do need think you need your name - your author name - in your title or subtitle. I'm not really sure how to do that with your current title. 
  • Graphic Designer Joe wants some break up of the minty color. He admits that it may be a personal thing, but I also think its a tad too minty for me. Joe's suggestion is a header with some different colors  in it. Or maybe your navigation bar could be solid. My suggestion is to change the hue of your post boxes - make it a light cream or something. Joe is the graphic designer, so he's probably the one to listen to.
  • Joe also recommends using more of that orange highlight. I like it too. It would be nice if that was your navigation bar alternate color instead of that greenish hue. 
  • Yes! Your profile info is at the top!
  • I'd put your followers right under your profile. Make it easy for people to follow.
  • I usually am not too big of a fan of side columns, but yours is nicely organized and not over cluttered so good job.
  • I love your posts and your personality. Fun reads.
  • You use nice photos to add color to your blog.
  • I'm happy you have your WIPs on your blog. I have heard more than one story about agents asking for material from a blog. When you get an agent, you'll have to take your excerpts down, just by the way. Be prepared for that. Another option is to just have a blurb about your work, such as what you include in a query letter. Either way - good job at having this.
  • Include an email subscription. This is good not only because it gives people options to follow you, but it also helps you build up emails for the future.
  • The shelfari gadget at the bottom of the page is nice too.
  • Personally, I like it when blogs that have a good amount of posts have a search box. Yes the box at the top does searches, but it isn't a great search box. And I use search boxes. We've talked about it on this blog before and others don't care so much. But I do.
  • Um, I'm a huge proponent of no word verification on comments. It kind of pisses me off when I see it. And sometimes I won't comment if I see it. There are other awesome bloggers out there that have recently spoken out against them as well. Do you really get so much spam that you can't deal with turning it off? See, I think that if you are trying to invite people to follow you and engage with you, you need to make it easy for them. Don't put up barriers. Okay, I'm off the soap box about word verification. Moving on...
That's really all I have to say. You told me you were ready to move your blog to the next level, though. So I have to ask where exactly you want to go now. Do you want to build followers? Or just make sure your blog is tip top presentable? I'd be happy to continue the conversation in the comments. 

What are your opinions, dear readers?

15 comments:

mithrilwisdom said...

I really like it :) It's clean but it's got personality :) I'm with you on the double side bar thing - you could happily fit everything on one side and it'd still look good.

Nicely done, Alex!

Callie Leuck said...

Well I've already stated my stance on dual columns and the search box (I'm adding the search box back, though!) but I am 100% with you on the Word Verification. It sometimes takes me up to 3 times to get the damn things right! I took it off mine, and the spam filter has caught everything -- I also set it to require review from me to publish comments on older posts. I find that I am *much* less likely to leave comments on blogs that require word verification (the extra 2 minutes spent fiddling with the word verification are frustrating) especially if the writer isn't involved in the comments. It's just not worth it. However, I'll give a person with a nice blog a chance...even with word verification. It isn't a total turn-off. If the person interacts with commenters via email, comments, or checking out their blog and commenting, I'll put up with word verification. So I guess yes, it is annoying, but how much I'll put up with depends on other factors as well :)

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Someone else with a double sidebar that works! And yes, remove word verification if you want comments.

Laura Barnes said...

Hey now, don't get cocky about that double sidebar stuff. :)

Laura Barnes said...

She does have personality. Thanks for supporting one sidebar. :)

Laura Barnes said...

I will put up with word verification too. But not if I'm in a hurry or pissy mood. Or it can put me in a pissy mood. I'd love a world without word verification. :)

Melissa Sugar said...

Another productive critique. I am so glad that you and so many others are putting the word out about what a hassle the word verification is. I really do think the words have become much more difficult (surely my eyesight has not tanked). I feel better knowing that I am not the only person that sometimes has to make two or even three attempts to get the words right. Yes, I said words. There is a two word requirement now. I like that Alex's blog is clean, not cluttered, but anything from boring. I agree with the other commenter, it is clean, but has personality. I agree that an additional color would brighten her blog and the coral or orange that she has is perfect.

Laura Barnes said...

Thanks, Melissa! And I noticed a tweet from you today - maybe you can tell that since I haven't answered that I'm not really tweeting too much. It sucks me in too much and yet doesn't yield anything productive for me. But I will gladly follow you. :)

Alexandra Villasante said...

Hey Laura (and all the lovely commenters) Just wanted to say a very big THANK YOU for your thoughtful, insightful crit of my blog. I pretty much agree with everything (thank you designer Joe!) and will get my own in house designer (designer Tim) involved in a re-design. It's time for the amateur artist to take a back seat! I'm embarrassed about the word verification - I didn't even know my comments were requiring that! How clueless is that? Will figure out how to change that today. Thanks again, Laura. You are a treasure. ;)

Southpaw said...

RE: word verification
You know I think Blogger automatically puts it on when you start a blog and you have to go in and turn them off. It seems like it should be in a more prominent area as I am hearing a lot of bloggers saying the same thing.

Emily Rittel-King said...

I, too, have wondered how "Magpie" pertains to Alexandra. With a distinguished name like Alexandra Villansante, I'd use it!

Callie Leuck said...

After the third time, I'm usually in a pretty pissy mood! At that point, I've got to REALLY like you to try to comment again!

Callie Leuck said...

I'm just waiting for someone to come out as Team No Sidebars...

Laura Barnes said...

Ha ha, Callie, we'll leave that for you.

Laura Barnes said...

Or really be set on what I have to say! Sometimes I have something I WANT to comment about and the stupid captcha...grumble grumble grumble...:)

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