Please tell me what's missing

[ritinrider]

or needs improvement. Tell me something. I have to leave, but I'll try to review some of the other blogs listed. Although I'm not sure I'm who you want to listen to. I started my blog to build a platform for my, as yet unpublished book, but I need to attract more viewers, any suggestions you can offer are truly appreciated.

I noticed someone said he didn't go to free blogs. But, I haven't figured out the whole domain thing yet, so I'm with wordpress for the moment. Do I need to get the domain thing figured out and move it?

Thanks for all your help. Oh, the blog is in my siggy.

[mada]

One thing I think would help would be to categorize. If a certain scholarship is only open to certain students, they wouldn't have to look through all of them. You could even do multiple categories such as limitations, deadlines, etc. That way, if a student or parent is looking now, they can skip over anything that had to be submitted by 3/31. Right now, I see that you have tags, but no categories listed.

And if you choose to do that, it's relatively easy to go through previous posts and categorize them.

[veinglory]

It seems reasonably clear to me. You might want to introduce at least one picture element for appearance and branding

[ritinrider]

Thank you both sooo much. Guess I just need to do a little more promoting, and posting. Eventually they will come. I hope.

Veinglory, like a picture of me? yuk. I've been thinking about a picture of a college diploma, maybe with some money next to it to indicate getting the diploma costs several dollars. But, getting that picture may take some time.

Mada, I don't have any idea how to categorize, I'm not even real sure how I did the tags right. Can you explain it to me, in kindergarden terms? You can PM me or send me an email. Should I put my email on the blog?

Again, thank you both, I appreciate you taking your time for me.

[She_wulf]

I'm going to post a link here for you and others to utilize to self-determine the viability of their blog:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2004/10/beware_the_ceo_.html

It gives the FIVE main things that blogs that work have.

If you want more information on the design factor of your blog, go here:

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com

This will address issues like contrast and font size/readability and link list length. (your site is on the light contrast side, although I DO appreciate the fact you chose a white background for your text. It makes it much easier to read on white)

More than five/10 links in a row is hard to read especially if they are cramped together. (your tag cloud, I know...everyone's doing it...why?) Separate them by categories or sub-categories if possible. Or group them in another fashion. Or, make it more artistic. nlbshear doesn't make sense to me, so why should I be enticed to click on it?

Graphics and links. Adding graphics breaks up the monotony of the text stripe. Adding links (to explain for example what the FFA is) would be helpful as well.

Amy

[Polenth]

You could put deadlines into the post titles. So "Scholarship Essay Contest - Deadline April 2008". It'll make them a bit longer, but it would be clearer which posts were general info and which were opportunities with deadlines.

[ritinrider]

I'm going to post a link here for you and others to utilize to self-determine the viability of their blog:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2004/10/beware_the_ceo_.html

It gives the FIVE main things that blogs that work have.

If you want more information on the design factor of your blog, go here:

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com

This will address issues like contrast and font size/readability and link list length. (your site is on the light contrast side, although I DO appreciate the fact you chose a white background for your text. It makes it much easier to read on white)

Amy Thanks for those links, I'll check them out and work on my blog this afternoon. My text is on a white background because I have trouble reading blogs that are color on color and I wanted to make it as easy to read as possible. For me and for my readers.



More than five/10 links in a row is hard to read especially if they are cramped together. (your tag cloud, I know...everyone's doing it...why?) Separate them by categories or sub-categories if possible. Or group them in another fashion. Or, make it more artistic. nlbshear doesn't make sense to me, so why should I be enticed to click on it? Amy

Tag cloud, that's the list of tags on the side, right? I don't have any idea how to change that. Although Mada is going to help me make categories which I hope will address this issue. The nlbeshear is so when people type my name in google my blog will come up. Wrong idea?

Graphics and links. Adding graphics breaks up the monotony of the text stripe. Adding links (to explain for example what the FFA is) would be helpful as well. Amy

I hadn't thought about adding the FFA link, I figured if they didn't know what FFA was, they didn't care about what FFA did.

Polenth, sorry I forgot to multi-quote but I love your idea of putting the scholarship deadlines in the title. Yes, it will make the title longer, but I don't think that's a big issue with blogs and you're right it will make it easier for readers to know immediately if it's a general info post, or actual scholarship available post.


Thank you both so much for you input. One of these days I'll get this thing looking good and attracting viewers.

[KellyC]

Ritinrider, I took a look and thing your blog is very easy to read and navigate. It's missing a little color, in my opinion, but I include a lot of photos in mine, so that's just what I'm used to looking at.

I agree with Polenth - including current scholarships and their deadlines in a prominent way would create a readership for you. You might even be able to get a widget that would display it on your sidebar.

Very useful site - and focused. Well done!

[KellyC]

Another point - maybe it was addressed already -- you don't ask your readers to subscribe, at least as far as I can see. I actually tried to subscribe because I used to be a high school counselor, and my daughter could use this kind of resource as well.

But I couldn't find the little gizmo to click. If you look at my blog, I ask for people to subscribe all over the place;) If you don't ask....

[ritinrider]

Another point - maybe it was addressed already -- you don't ask your readers to subscribe, at least as far as I can see. I actually tried to subscribe because I used to be a high school counselor, and my daughter could use this kind of resource as well.

But I couldn't find the little gizmo to click. If you look at my blog, I ask for people to subscribe all over the place;) If you don't ask....

:partyguy::Cake:HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY
I really appreciate you taking time to help me on your birthday. Aren't birthday's supposed to be national holidays or something? You couldn't find the little gizmo to click, because there isn't a little gizmo. I never thought about having people subscribe, actually I don't think I knew I could. How exactly do I add the little gizmo. Do I have to get off Wordpress? I checked out your blog, very good btw, and it didn't look like you were with one of the free companies. I don't mind getting a domain name and putting my blog there, it's just something else I have to learn.

Yeah, I thought it was a little bland too. Veinglory suggested I add a picture, for branding if nothing else. Now to find a picture, and maybe some more art to add.

Thanks to everyone who is trying to help me make this blog better, and obtain more readers. You all Rock!
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[KellyC]

Thanks for the well wishes! Yes, it should be a national holiday, but you know that writers work every minute of their lives, whether it's a holiday or not;)

I pay to host my blog, through blogs-about.com (http://blogs-about.com/). It's about $100 per year for hosting and cost about $300 to set up the first template. But I started out on Blogger and had a feed there too. I think you can get a feed and offer subscriptions whether your blog is hosted for free or not.

I use Feedburner (http://feedburner.com) - and I can't give you a tutorial on how to set it up because my designer did it. But I don't think it's very hard, just follow the instructions. There may also be a box you need to check at your hosting site. Something that says "yes I want to burn a feed". RSS is the abbreviation you'll often see - it stands for Real Simple Syndication. I think it's a good idea to offer feed via bookmark and email.

Hope this helps!

[KellyC]

There's a great conversation going on next door about Feedburner: http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2238662#post2238662

[Cate]

I think it looks attractive and it is a good subject too!
Best of luck!