Feedback would be great

[Laurie PK]

I think I need to revamp my writing blog....but some objective feedback on my 2 blogs would be wonderful. The more critical you are, the better (famous last words from a writer!).


Quips & Tips for Adventurous Women (http://theadventurouswriter.com/blog/)

Quips & Tips for Freelance Writers (http://writingtips-writingquotations.blogspot.com/)

[veinglory]

The adventurous woman one took about 10 seconds to load because of the featured article thing. To be honest it struck me as a commercial (c.f. an enthusiast's) blog. So I wasn't very drawn in despite being female and probably in your target deomographic.

The second one struck me as far more interesting, warm and appealing--until the i was hit with the pop-up advertisement which is an auto-leave for me (only three things are auto-leave, pop ups, music and graphic pictures).

I hope that helps, just my personal reactions bluntly rather than diplomatically. 0.02 etc

[She_wulf]

I have cable so the download should have happened in 30 seconds or less...guess what, a minute passed and nothing.

You might do viewers a favor and change that problem. Or not. It's your site. But if you want traffic, make it quick, clear, and concise.

Here's some sites to give you ideas:

www.perezhilton.com (very funny, about 60% accurate Hollywood gossip site - and popular to boot)
www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com (popular amongst romance readers and writers. Founded by lovers of romance books, and full of snarky commentary, lots of comments, and breaking news)

These are the only two blogs I check on a regular basis. Why? because they are funny, have news I want to hear, and present it without a bunch of hooey. They are not afraid to be wrong and admit it when they are.

Plus, they are controversial. And...huh...they have pink headers (a taboo) - imagine that!

Amy

[Laurie PK]

Thanks for your input! I fixed up the Quips and Tips for Adventurous Women, so it loads more quickly.

Amy, could you try it again? I'd like to know if it does end up loading within 30 seconds. (link below)

And -- I switched Quips & Tips for Freelance Writers to Wordpress, not Blogger! A whole new look........

How do you make money blogging if you don't advertise? I thought slapping those ads up would work. Nothing is ever as easy as it would seem :-)

[veinglory]

Ads, yes. Pop ups, no. You will lose too much traffic because of them.

[Laurie PK]

I don't even know how the pop ups got there; I suspect it was with my WidgetBucks code, but I never knowingly agreed to popups.......

[She_wulf]

They all load quickly now.

The Women's one has a small header. That gets lost on the page. You might want to do a background color change, font size enlargement and other things to make it stand out a bit more.

Amy

[Pink Ink]

I agree, my first impression was, mmm, there's a lot of ads. Is there a way to have them concentrated on one column instead of all over the place?

But when I clicked on some posts, I thought there was a lot of helpful stuff there. It was hard to tell, though, which were your own words and which were the quotations. Maybe you could italicize the quotes?

The search option is good.

Um, what else...

I loved your personal insights. I am a freelance magazine writer, so whenever you mentioned about your national gig, I kind of sat up and paid attention. I liked it when you personalized your post.

I think that's about it. Good luck!