The class spent most of last week learning about the elements of a good blog - their own, and the ones they will be seeking out as potential hosts for their blog book tours. Today we start with critiques of the member blogs. Alex J. Cavanaugh has agreed to let me post the review that started off his critique this morning. Go to his blog here and then compare it to the comments below. These are all tips that can help improve your own blog.
Basic Design Attractiveness?
Excellent and right in line with the book theme.
Title and URL cohesive?
Yes. Easy for readers to remember.
Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?
Mostly.
Loading speed?
The header hangs up on my dial-up. It takes quite a while to load but presumably slow connects aren't an issue in outer space.
Follow widget in place?
Perfect - all of them up high and right.
Hit counter?
Yes, and well-placed towards the bottom of the page with actual count showing.
Bookmarking in place?
Positioned with the follow widgets, but maybe could add an RSS feed link?
FB and Twitter widgets?
Didn't see Facebook, but Twitter is there.
Blogrolls?
Yes, very good. Could be organized a bit more concisely.
Linking effective? Tags/keywords used?
Good enough. Could have more linking within posts and between posts.
Frequent posting 2-3 x weekly?
Yes, very good, and a nice mix. Could include the occasional shorter post, or split longer posts into two.
Quality of overall posts?
Excellent, and clearly readers love this blog.
Comments section working?
Yes, and Alex gets enviable comment interaction. I suspect his ability to cyber-schmooze and interact with other bloggers (make friends) results in long-term loyalty. All bloggers should try to achieve this. Then you don't have to look for blog hosts - they beg to host you!
Blog components arranged in optimum manner? (see tomorrow's post for more about this)
Yes, except where noted.
Too many/too few third-party gadgets?
The blog award gadgets are a bit much - I know that it's hard not to accept these tokens of friendship, but maybe add older ones to the bottom of the page, and keep only a few of the most recent at the top?
They are both a psychological attractant and a visual repellent, so may take some clever managing.
Pages used effectively? Can the reader easily learn more about this writer and book?
Separate pages with tabs - with author bio, maybe an excerpt under another tab, a list of your favorite books - these could all engage the reader even more.
What's great?
Almost everything!
What can be improved?
Not much.
Is it ready for a blog tour?
Without a doubt.
Nice job, Alex! We'll expect a great blog book tour from you sometime this autumn.
Showing posts with label good blog criteria. Show all posts
Showing posts with label good blog criteria. Show all posts
Monday
Tuesday
First Day of Class Review
We jumped right into making our blogs better using our usual list of criteria. Monday's prompts included these points for consideration:
Basic Design Attractiveness?
Title and URL cohesive?
Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?
Loading speed?
Let's discuss the second point. Is the URL consistent with the blog's title? Why does it matter? If you as an author plan to use your name in the http://yourname.blogspot. com then reinforcing this in your blog's title will make it easier for the reader to remember you. So your blog's header might read something like Your Name Talks About Writing. This is a simple form of branding that will serve you well in the long run. You should also try to stick to one name when setting up your accounts on other social networks. It's a lovely thing when a search for Your Name brings up six of your accounts in the first ten hits! So plan carefully early on.
Focus often on the blog's purpose. If you, as an author, use your name (and particularly if you have a pen name) in the blog URL and title, then it makes sense that your blogging will relate to your writing career, even though you may add personal notes to engage your readers. Periodically critique your blog to make sure it's sending the message you want to readers. If a major goal is promoting your books, then don't bury them in layers of unrelated material. This happens over time, especially as you add outside widgets and links. Housekeeping is important to keeping your blog crisp and on-task.
Everyone loves an attractive blog, but graphic templates can be so image-heavy, they take forever to load. Remember that your readers don't all have high-speed Internet, so don't try to get too fancy with your imagery. The best way to test your blog is to ask a few readers to comment about loading speed. Sometimes your blog header will take eons to load. Also be sure to keep third-party widgets a bit lower down in your sidebars, as they will tend to slow down blog-loading speeds.
Take a look at your blog today and assess how you stack up. Tomorrow we'll look at some widgets/gadgets that every blog should have.
Basic Design Attractiveness?
Title and URL cohesive?
Consistency and clarity of blog purpose?
Loading speed?
Let's discuss the second point. Is the URL consistent with the blog's title? Why does it matter? If you as an author plan to use your name in the http://yourname.blogspot. com then reinforcing this in your blog's title will make it easier for the reader to remember you. So your blog's header might read something like Your Name Talks About Writing. This is a simple form of branding that will serve you well in the long run. You should also try to stick to one name when setting up your accounts on other social networks. It's a lovely thing when a search for Your Name brings up six of your accounts in the first ten hits! So plan carefully early on.
Focus often on the blog's purpose. If you, as an author, use your name (and particularly if you have a pen name) in the blog URL and title, then it makes sense that your blogging will relate to your writing career, even though you may add personal notes to engage your readers. Periodically critique your blog to make sure it's sending the message you want to readers. If a major goal is promoting your books, then don't bury them in layers of unrelated material. This happens over time, especially as you add outside widgets and links. Housekeeping is important to keeping your blog crisp and on-task.
Everyone loves an attractive blog, but graphic templates can be so image-heavy, they take forever to load. Remember that your readers don't all have high-speed Internet, so don't try to get too fancy with your imagery. The best way to test your blog is to ask a few readers to comment about loading speed. Sometimes your blog header will take eons to load. Also be sure to keep third-party widgets a bit lower down in your sidebars, as they will tend to slow down blog-loading speeds.
Take a look at your blog today and assess how you stack up. Tomorrow we'll look at some widgets/gadgets that every blog should have.
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