Honest review of my blog...

[imnathanjames]

Hi Everyone,
Hope you are all having a great weekend.

My blog is a work in progress, always has been since i started.

I recently had an email from a subscriber saying

" you have too much content, and way to many adverts on your site...change it"

Well at first i was a bit stunned.I have 3 external ads and 1 optin for a free gift. Theses are services that i personally use so it felt natural to advertise them.
And what's a blog without content.

If anyone has the time to give me an honest review then i would very much appreciate it. There are always things i can change and improve.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Chancer]

1. the featured image took an eternity to load
2. adding categories or something else to navigate by might be beneficial as clients might stay on your site longer
Maybe just add a sidebar with all posts, because if i click on your post i can no longer access other posts (unless i click 'back' - but we (the customers) are too lazy to do that )

Apart from that it looks great to me.

 

[imnathanjames]

imnathanjames

Thanks very much Chancer,
I do need to optimise my images, especially the featured ad on the homepage.I need to make it more apealing but loading times are a must.I need to keep on top of that.
Adding categories would be highly beneficial.I need to sort and order my content more.

Thanks for the feedback mate, I really appreciate it.

Enjoy your weekend.

 

[HighProxies]

I clicked on it a minute ago and it is still loading.....
When it finally got done loading, I checked it out. Content is good. Not too crazy about the images that you have posted as they are rather blah to me.

 

[Mike001]

Nathan,

As Chancer pointed out you need to do something with that main image, it takes a few seconds to load and that is an eternity for most website.

I like the colors of the site, they are muted and pleasing to the eye. But then I have always liked blue so that opinion is very subjective.

I think the ads are kind of big for the page and that could be why you received that comment. They are kind of large and the PLR ad seems to be very fuzzy it may be that the ad has been resized and it was not a vector image so it became distorted as it was resized. I would size both ads the same size and stack them on top of one another centered in that column. It would make it appear more professional.

I would also resize that sidebar. It is kind of wide. A sidebar should be around, and this is approximate based on the site content, 30% of the total width of the page. That is a design "Best Practice". Of course, that is subjective based on the content.

I would also reorder the sidebar.

Search area, products, ads, recent posts. After all your products should be taking priority if you are going to display them in a sidebar.

The pagination is kind of squirrelly. The missing numbers makes it look incomplete. I see what you are trying to do but most of us will have the active page and then plus or minus 3 or 4 pages on each side of the active. Having it jump 1, 5, 6, 7 just doesn't look right.

There is way too much dead space between the post and the footer in the main content area. Add an additional post to that section to better balance the page. Having all that dead space is wasting real-estate. Use that space to promote a post or something. Vast amounts of white space is a killer.

The mobile responsiveness looks good except for the hamburger menu. Since you only have one page there is no need for that menu, I would remove it.

Oh and by the way, if the content pertains to the subjects and is well written, there is no such thing as too much, unless you just keep repeating yourself over and over again, which reading through it I did not see that. That was a knuckle-headed comment that he made when he said that you had too much content.

Just some thoughts, take then for what you think they are worth.

One thing about site design, everyone will have an opinion and most all of them are subjective. If you are getting good traffic, positive responses to your content, and YOU are pleased with the design, that should carry more weight than most opinions.

 

[imnathanjames]

I clicked on it a minute ago and it is still loading.....
When it finally got done loading, I checked it out. Content is good. Not too crazy about the images that you have posted as they are rather blah to me.

Thanks Highproxies, I have installed wpsmush so hopefully that will go and load the site a little quickeer. Failing that i will need to get back on to w3 total cache again.
You are right the images are very boring. I have been focusing more on writing , and ended up putting things form a image pack i have. I will need to make these more appealing.

Thanks for your feedback mate. Enjoy your weekend!

Nathan,

As Chancer pointed out you need to do something with that main image, it takes a few seconds to load and that is an eternity for most website.

I like the colors of the site, they are muted and pleasing to the eye. But then I have always liked blue so that opinion is very subjective.

I think the ads are kind of big for the page and that could be why you received that comment. They are kind of large and the PLR ad seems to be very fuzzy it may be that the ad has been resized and it was not a vector image so it became distorted as it was resized. I would size both ads the same size and stack them on top of one another centered in that column. It would make it appear more professional.

I would also resize that sidebar. It is kind of wide. A sidebar should be around, and this is approximate based on the site content, 30% of the total width of the page. That is a design "Best Practice". Of course, that is subjective based on the content.

I would also reorder the sidebar.

Search area, products, ads, recent posts. After all your products should be taking priority if you are going to display them in a sidebar.

The pagination is kind of squirrelly. The missing numbers makes it look incomplete. I see what you are trying to do but most of us will have the active page and then plus or minus 3 or 4 pages on each side of the active. Having it jump 1, 5, 6, 7 just doesn't look right.

There is way too much dead space between the post and the footer in the main content area. Add an additional post to that section to better balance the page. Having all that dead space is wasting real-estate. Use that space to promote a post or something. Vast amounts of white space is a killer.

The mobile responsiveness looks good except for the hamburger menu. Since you only have one page there is no need for that menu, I would remove it.

Oh and by the way, if the content pertains to the subjects and is well written, there is no such thing as too much, unless you just keep repeating yourself over and over again, which reading through it I did not see that. That was a knuckle-headed comment that he made when he said that you had too much content.

Just some thoughts, take then for what you think they are worth.

One thing about site design, everyone will have an opinion and most all of them are subjective. If you are getting good traffic, positive responses to your content, and YOU are pleased with the design, that should carry more weight than most opinions.

Thanks very much for the feedback Mike.
I will get around to doing most of that myself, Unfortunately somethings, like the side bar i can not change myself. according to the theme author if we change the side width it takes away functionality for some of the plugins and widgets.
. It is rather opposing on to the main content. But i think it's one of those things i can put up with...for now.


It takes a fresh pair of eyes to look at your projects. You get used to what you are working with.
These comments have been excellent.

Thanks guys!!

 

[Mike001]

No problem Nathan. If there is anything I can do to help let me know.

I am kind of surprised by the sidebar width comment. Looking at the template it is a very simple generic template, changing the width should be very easy and it having an impact on widgets and plugin, looking at what is part of the site, does not make a lot of sense. But it is what it is.

That is why I write all my own CMS systems keeps a lot of the problems like these to a minimum.

 

[ZAPPY]

Thought about adding a tagline?

Hiya

Visited your website and as a first time visitor, I couldnt work out what your site is about.

Scrolling and clicking, I see:

• What is Shopify Part 2
• Buying gigs on Fiverr
• Building an email list.
• Learn How To Make Easy Money With Teespring
• Free traffic, case study …Part 1

These post titles left me asking the question again what is this site about because there seem to be no connection to these titles and came across as random posts.
However, as a suggestion, perhaps by adding an explanatory tagline (similar to the one in your signature) can answer this question to first time visitors like me?
How does this suggestion look?
WEBSITE NAME: imnathanjames.com
TAGLINE: My journey on escaping the factory grind

With a tagline, (as in your signature) the webpost titles seem to reflect what you're up to to 'escape the factory grind'

My 2cents

 

[boostid]

very informative blog you have, awesome!
you just need pay more attention to the speed of your site mate
good work!

 

[Shimei]

Loaded super fast on my end. The color contrast is good. I like it!

 

[kim16]

I love curating other people's website/blog. Ironically, I have mine too, but am very much unwilling to show it to people. Just weird.