I'm posting late today so let's just jump right in. Today's blog comes from Celeste Vaughn at Celestial Prescriptions. Not a writer blog today, but there's lots we can learn from her. Head over and return below.
Celeste, you have done a really great job at creating a total package product. The name of your blog ties in to your name plus your job plus what you do on your blog plus the Christian aspect. Awesome. And your blog header is unique and has a distinct color palette. All good.
As for suggestions to improve, let me first start with Joe, our graphic designer. He (and I) feel that your body font is a little too big. You also need sidebar separation - a different color on the sidebar or a line separation would be good.
Now, I'm not all about fonts like the designers, but Joe suggests not using the Zaph Chancery font in all caps for your date and other headers. It's meant to be a font that is only used for the first letter of a page because all the letters run into each other. You might like the look, but it's not really clean and can be hard to read.
You have a nice palette, as I said before. But you can go further.There are two different blues in your header - did you know you used two different? They are only slightly different. Joe suggests increasing the difference and playing with that more. You could also add another color to the palette and play with that through your blog.
I love the layout of your navigation tabs across the top. And the topics themselves are great. For the sidebar, though, I would place your profile at the top so people can see who you are first thing. The twitter bird by himself is cute, but you already have a twitter link smaller with facebook and email and all that. I'd stick with that to clean things up. I think you should move your "Follow this blog" up higher. People have to search too long before finding it. I also prefer having less in your sidebar. I think it's too long, but so are your posts. I say 5 posts on a page at most and your sidebar should not be longer than that. Are there things you feel you could cut or put on another page?
Overall, I think you do an excellent job of having your blog speak your message. I'm glad to read that your health is better and your sharing of your story is very inspiring. Thanks for being a victim and God bless!
Any other thoughts to add, readers?
74 comments:
I'd add move the Google Friends Connect up higher - all the other ways to follow are up the top and I had to really search for it.
I like Celeste's colors a lot (I agree playing with some other colors might enrich the look), enjoy the crisp and clean layout, and admire her dedication and gentle expression of faith. The Bible quotes are great. I also think it's smart that she's got a page linking to her photography business for folks who were looking for that but landed on her personal blog accidentally (or...maybe not so accidentally, as He works in mysterious ways, eh?) :-) Lovely blog, Celeste.
I wouldn't have noticed those two colors of blue. But I'm taking notes on everything you point out, and I've changed my posts on page to 7 instead of 10. Thanks for all the tips! :-)
I agree with fewer posts on the main page, and would suggest truncating the posts, so that readers click "read more" to do so. There is so much scrolling to do, otherwise. I found the Chancery font difficult to read, not impossible, but it wasn't easy reading.
I was surprised you didn't mention the number of tags, Laura, as you usually caution us to use fewer tags. That said, they were very neatly done -- I wish my tag cloud could look so tidy. (I deleted mine, put it back, deleted it again, because mine looked so untidy. I might have left it if it had looked like this one.)
All the best to Celeste!
I did let her go on that one didn't I? See you guys don't need me anymore. :)
Excellent point.
Well said, Mina!
We definitely still need you, Laura! You keep us on our toes!
I didn't notice either. And when Joe mentioned it I said to my husband (the other graphic designer), "Is there two blues?" And as if I was an idiot he said, "Uh, yeah."
First let me say "Thanks Laura!" for your great input on my blog. I've only been doing this for about a year, and was pretty computer illiterate before that. I'm about to redo my blog and switch to Wordpress, but I wanted some great critiquing first. I have played with different gadgets above the fold, and the most common I've heard is to be sure to put the "follow by email" so it can be seen without scrolling. You mentioned the profile at the top. I'll consider all of this as I rework it. I do know my posts are usually too long. Unfortunately, I write like I talk! ;) But I'm working on it. Thanks again for a great review!
I love your idea of truncating the posts. I've never even thought of that! As I switch to Wordpress, I'll choose a theme and make that happen. I do have too many tags. I used lots of labels when I first started blogging because I thought it would help with SEO. I now realize that's not necessarily so. I'll definitely tone it down in the future—become more focused with tag words. Thanks for the comment Beth!
Thanks Mina! I love these colors and have played with others, but could never seem to find the right one to blend. And yes, I link the two sites together. Though I really linked in hopes that people that go to my photography page will jump over to the prescriptions page for a little encouragement :) Thanks again for commenting!
I used to have the google friend connect up higher, but I heard that google was doing away with it, so I haven't put much thought into it. Plus, how many people actually read the blog based on the google friend connect? I tend to read blogs that I get in email. I "follow" quite a few blogs, but I rarely have time to search through the ones I follow to read them all. I make sure I get them in email if I want to see every post.
Thanks for commenting Alex!
I like that the page tabs are above the header graphic - I've not seen that done before. Good advice on shortening the sidebar and # of posts per page too, and I'm with Beth on lessening the number of tags on the sidebar.
That was really interesting. Even though it was for someone else's blog, I feel like I learned something just by seeing what you pointed out.
As for Google Friend Connect, if Celeste is moving to Wordpress she won't have much luck with that anyway. Apparently they did away with the ability to use it with Wordpress.
Off to check out my own site to see if I broke any of the rules you mentioned! :-)
Just a note, Celeste. Although you won't be able to have Google Friend Connect on your Wordpress blog, as someone who regularly clicks to follow blogs by either RSS feed or Google Friend connect, people do use them. I read nearly all blog posts in my Google Reader, and only click through when I want to comment. I do read some in email, if that's the only option for following, but I prefer the reader.
So whatever type of "follow" option you elect to use when you get to Wordpress, it's good to have it up where people can find it, and keep in mind that a lot of people these days like to read in a reader rather than email.
To see how mine is set up, you can click on my name to get to my blog.
Hope this helps.
Nice article, thanks for sharing.
Your insights are pretty awesome Laura. I'm so glad that I found you, I plan on using some of your ideas with my own blog!
Thank you! Glad to have you and hope I've helped. :)
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