Monday, May 21, 2012

Blog Critique: Here's What I Think About That

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.

Oh, my dear little readers, let's just jump right in today. My lead in's are always boring, anyway. So pop on over to Kimberly Montgomery's blog and we'll talk below.


Kimberly! That exclamation point is because I love pink, and you got pink so we're automatically friends. That being said, I have some things I'd like to discuss.

First: yes, my laptop screen is on the smaller side, but it isn't that small. Yet, your blog is wider than my screen. I detest that. I don't want to scroll sideways. I want a complete shot of what's up the minute I land on your site. It's okay to scroll down to read posts, but scrolling sideways - not fan friendly.

I love that you use color, but the colors don't all go together very well. I'd use the pink and gray as a base and find some other highlight colors at www.colorschemedesigner.com.

I think you should include your full name in your profile. I don't think you're trying to keep your last name hidden since it's in your blog title, right? So then tell us your whole name. Then move your followers button to below your profile. Make it easy for people to follow you.

Now I'm struggling to go on with my critique, but I keep stumbling on one very crucial question: what is the purpose of your blog? Here's the reason why this is such an issue - if you are just blogging your thoughts on everything as your header suggests, then I would say you that except for those few things, you're all set.

But if you have other goals, then I'd have some further suggestions. Are you writing to be published? Are you photographing in hopes of getting some work? Are you hoping to monetize your site? Or are you just enjoying blogging?

My guess, from your posts (which I adore, by the way) is that you are blogging for fun. Go for it! I love it. I think you have great enthusiasm and you put a lot of time and love into your writing and pics. I'd say you could sharpen those few items I mentioned above. If you have other plans, let me know and I'll address that in the comments.

Thanks for being a victim, Kimberly! I have enjoyed getting to know you and your blog.

Anyone else have any thoughts for Kim? You've all been reading awhile - you ought to know what to say. :)

16 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I don't think I've visited many blogs that were too wide. That would be odd.

Southpaw said...

I have a wide screen and it still is too large. Your header fits, it's the content that hangs out. The yellow in the sidebar is too hard to read and clashes a little other colors. Other than that I love the site. It's fun, warm, and inviting.

Nutschell said...

everytime I pop in here I learn something new. Keep those critiques coming! I love them!
Nutschell
www.thewritingnut.com

Beth Stilborn said...

I liked the pink color -- but found it very disconcerting to not be able to see the whole blog in my screen. I couldn't even see all of the header. If I was just glancing around at blogs, I'd likely just click past rather than working to see everything. The photos are lovely, but are very large! Perhaps having smaller photos and allowing people to click to enlarge them would mean things would load more easily, and it would be easier to scroll through a post?

Angela Brown said...

Okay, so I'm not going silly. I thought it was just my laptop that made things a bit wider. Though that pink is just wonderful. I love learning something new when I check out the critiques.

Gwen Tolios said...

I didn't think blogs could be too wide. I always thought the magic of the internet auto-adjusted things.

Jemi Fraser said...

I love your critiques - they always teach me something new! :)

Alark Betty said...

I liked, Kimberly's blog! What I liked most was that everything was large! Everything just jumps right out at you!

Kimberly Montgomery said...

Hello and THANK YOU for the review and feedback. I have been making tweaks based on this feedback (which is why I took so long to say thanks). I learned a LOT! I had no idea that my blog was "reading" to wide for some monitors. I'm so glad to know this so I could correct this. I think I've fixed that now. I also appreciated the color combo suggestions. I spent way too long playing on www.colorschemedesigner.com. :) I plan to go back to play there again.

I just wrote a post to share your blog review and how I addressed the suggestions.

Lastly, you are correct that I am blogging for fun. :) I have no "real" marketing goals. I simply love having a creative outlet for both writing and photography. Hubs and I are photographers (he is a serious photographer with a degree and 'credentials'.) I'm a amateur...though a serious amateur.

Thank you again for your review.

Kimberly Montgomery said...

Thank you so much. :)

Kimberly Montgomery said...

I thought the same thing. I never realized that the width appeared differently on different monitors. I'm so glad to know this now.

Kimberly Montgomery said...

Thanks for sharing that you had a viewing issue too. Hopefully I've fixed that now. Thanks for the "Pink love". :)

Kimberly Montgomery said...

Thank you for your feedback. I hope I've fixed the width issues now. I resized which required me to resize photos, etc. so that they didn't "hang off" the edge of the "post area" into the sidebars. I think /hope it's fixed. Thanks also for the feedback on color. I changed some of the font colors to try to keep it easier to read. I'm so glad that you like the blog :)

Kimberly Montgomery said...

Thank you for this feedback. I can see how annoying a blog too wide for the screen would be. I hope/think I've fixed that now. I appreciate your honest feedback that this issue most likely turned readers off...enough that they wouldn't (didn't?) come back. Good lessons. I'm not sure I was able to fix the photo sizing concern. I'll have to learn more about that.

Laura Barnes said...

I know about colorschemedesigner. It's a total time suck. Glad it's been helpful for you. And I'm glad to have done the critique. It's great to know you. I really enjoy your blog!

And thanks so much for the shout-out! I love the changes you've made so far. It's SO MUCH better! Being able to see the whole blog at once is awesome. And the big pictures are AWESOME. They're beautiful. :)

Melissa Sugar said...

Excellent critique as always. I think you provided some really good suggestions that will her blog rock.

I have a blog award for you over on my blog. I have been away from blogging for a while. If you are interesting in knowing what is going on (and it is horrific and traumatizing) you can read about it on my post just before the award. It is , titled something like,I have a nasty troll stalking me,

Post a Comment

I love hearing from you! You can choose to comment as a guest or use any of the other login options available after you hit "Post As". Thanks for contributing to the conversation :)

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...