Please Review - CCE's blog

[CCE]

I would really love to receive some honest comments about my space on Blogspot and how I can make it more effective. http://chellecordero.blogspot.com/

Please note, this is a promotional site for my fiction writing - I don't allow comments, but I do post an email address for folks to correspond. I know that total promotion is really egotisitical but to me, it is the same as taking ads out for my books, etc.

I am not sure if my Blogspot site qualifies under this section of the forum. I do have a blog over on Myspace which is an actual blog and I welcome interactive comments.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
-Chelle

[JJ Cooper]

Hi Chelle,

So I'm not keen on the colours you use, but that's just a personal choice.

Overall the Blog feels like a website crammed into a blog. As a promotional tool I think a website with plenty of colour and more space would be better suited. A lot of links and the longest front page I've seen.

I'd really like to hear the reasoning behind not letting the readers leave a comment on the blog. This is the first I have seen. I would think your fans would love to leave a comment. You don't have to reply, but it would make their day to leave a reply of just one sentence, and you'll have a reader for life.

JJ

[KellyC]

Hi Chelle,

There's nothing wrong with promoting your books! If you don't, who will?? Great idea to have a site dedicated to your books.

I took a look and don't mind the colors, but I agree with JJ about the length of the front page. You may have a reason for this, related to Google searches or something.

In Mozilla, the award buttons on the left sidebar get cut off. You may need to go into the code and change the width. Also, several of you photos (like the USA dog) are pixelated (spelling??) so you may be showing the thumbnail version and it's too big to be clear.

Maybe the blog could be more navigable if you had categories for each of your books (or whatever it is you really want readers to find.) In Blogger I think they might be called "labels" instead. You just have to figure out what it is that you really want people to find.

Best wishes!

[melodychef]

Hi Chelle,

Congrats on being the writer of the day over at Fumbling with Fiction.

If you are trying to promote yourself and your work, why not post a picture of yourself? Or post a picture of your book covers.

I see one of your books was published in 2001. Is there a link where someone could buy the book? If so, you could provide a link to it.

Hope this review helped.

[CCE]

Thank you all for your responses.
I am heading over to the site now and I am going to take your suggestions with me.

As far as the length of the page and the images, I guess I have to learn how to work with this stuff a little bit better. But I certainly want to optimize my page and of course my exposure.

Thanks again.

[CCE]

Just to update - thanks to your suggestions, I did go to my blog and changed the colors and layout a bit, I hope this is more pleasing to the eye. I also reduced the number of visible posts so the page won't go on forever.

I tried to change it to allow for comments but I don't seem to have figured that one out yet. Also, I still have to learn to work with the pics so they don't look so distorted.

Thanks again. Please let me hear if there are any other suggestions.

-Chelle

[CCE]

Yeah! I got comments to work!

[veinglory]

Hi CCE, glad to see comments on. I think the pink in the background is a bit hard on the eyes (and I *like* magenta, but not next to text I am trying to read)