A litle while back I wrote about Easton Ellsworth's Scratch One Another Program (SOAP), where bloggers can share blogging tips.It’s free. How it works is first you’re assigned a blogger. Next you check out their blog and offer tips on how they can make it better. Each blogger chooses what topics they want tips on. And it works both ways – you get tips from other bloggers as well.
My first assignee…graphics artist, David Airey. David and I regularly comment on each other’s blogs, so I’m familiar with his blog alread. David’s request is for tips related to traffic, design and search engine rankings. Let’s see how we do…
Visual Design
The first thing I notice is that I don’t see David’s picture on his site – anywhere. It’s not on any of the blog pages. I don’t even see it on his contact page. This would be the first thing I would add to your design – a photo. Especially since your photo seems to be available through MyBlogLog.
You’ll see from the next image that David recently changed his banner. I like this better. It actually makes the transition from his homepage design to his blog design less jarring. Good choice, David.
Speaking of his homepage, I’d like to see a few minor changes. First, the navigation at the top left of the page should be larger – easier to read. The ‘About’ and ‘Portfolio’ links run together on the same line, also. A slight recoding and a bit of CSS would make your nav group easier to control and update. (David, I don’t want to bore readers with code, so I’ll email you my coding suggestion).
Also on the homepage, try styling your most recent post titles so they stand out from the rest of your content.
Design wise, not much I would change with your blog. My only feedback is one of usability. You have two RSS feed links on the far right of your top navigation. They are a bit confusing. I find myself asking, “Don’t I want to subscribe to his feed? Which one do I choose?” And for those who want to get your feed by email, there’s nothing there that tells me that they ‘Subscribe’ is for them.
What I would do is combine both links to read: ‘Subscribe to my RSS Feed.’ The link would take me to our current subscribe page where you would give the option of the FeedBurner link for my reader or the link to subscribe by email. Ideally, you’d have your email subscribe form embedded on the content of that page as well as a clear link for FeedBurner, with a short explanation of the difference. Currently, it’s a little confusing. Changing this, you may see a slight increase in your subscriptions.
Okay, one more blog thing…on the sidebar under Subscribe…I suggest putting text next to the feed icon to fill the white space and then moving the Technorati Favorites link down beneath the FeedBlitz form. It’s a bit confusing the way you’ve got it now.
As you can see from my comments, I’m as concerned about your visual design as I am about your user’s experience. It’s very important to marry design with usability. Otherwise, I love your design. Three columns work fine. Nav columns easy to follow. Lots of white space. And your use of graphics is top-notch (as I’d expect). And, I love the placement of your comments on the individual post pages.
Increasing Traffic
Boy, I have to say, I feel at a bit of loss here. From what you shared with me by email, your daily traffic is 3 times that of mine. Mine is growing each week, so that’s good. But I’m not sure what I have to offer you other than to write great content for your readers. I’ve noticed that the posts I write that are about my reader’s needs, get high comments and get linkbacks from other posts. So I would say, keep refining your understanding about who your readers are and what they want. I say this guessing that you want targeted readers not just increased visits, right? Have you thought about interviews???
You already have links on your posts to StumbleUpon, Digg and del.icio.us. You could add others, but are they going to generate the readership. My thoughts are not in large waves. Though I do know of people who have gotten a post Stumbled and watched the ripples of that with hundreds of hits over days. So if you don’t already, I would actually submit your own posts to StumbleUpon.
You might want to try submitting your posts to Netscape. I’ve gotten a little traffic there – and they don’t have a web or business category. They do have an art & design category, however.
Sorry I’m not more help. I’m trying to really grasp the viral nature of the blogosphere these days. I’ve had great success myself – doubling my site traffic each of the past two months. Now, my blog continues to increase in reach, but at a bit slower pace. So, personally, I’m looking to break through on traffic myself. I can say, however, that my readership appears stronger than ever – thank you to everyone.
I can remind you of Tony Hung’s post on ProBlogger back in January – How to Market Your Blog in 2007. You might want to got through it for idea. There’s lots of great ideas there. Some highlights for ‘getting the word out’
- Participate in Forums
- Join a Blog Network
- Join a Blog Carnival
- Join BlogBurst
- Use Google Sitemaps
- Submit to Blog Directories
- Get Interviewed
- Create Free Stuff and Give It Away
These are all great suggestions – some of which I have yet to do myself. Maybe that’s how I’ll break through my current traffic pace.
And, of course, Darren always has some great content on his site about growing your traffic…
And there are other good suggestions from Ben Yoskovitz, Copyblogger, Alister Cameron, Daniel from Daily Blog Tips, and, of course, you could always take the Buzz Marketing Challenge.
Okay, so the truth is I do know a bunch of ways to grow your traffic. I just haven’t had time to implement them each myself yet so I could report to you my success.
This seems like a good place to wrap up. I’d love to hear back from you, David, or anyone else regarding my suggestions.
Moreover, I put out a call for any good tips, resources, posts or links on how to increase David’s (and mine and my readers) blog traffic. Share your best tips and I’ll highlight you in a post.
My sincere thanks Dawud!
It’s funny that you write this at just the time when I post about my inclusion of a language translator, only to find it won’t work on my blog. A great first impression for anyone visiting through your blog.
I’m working on an important project but just wanted to drop off the first comment to say thanks. I’ll get back in touch soon.
David
David,
Absolutely. I hope there’s something good here for you to gain from. I think the design tweaks are going to be quite helpful.
And thanks for letting me know you’re busy. I understand that.
Super cool, Dawud. I just can’t believe how thorough most SOAPers have been. I hope David benefits from this, as well as your readers who will inevitably figure something new out blogging-wise from these awesome tips.
Easton,
Thanks Easton. SOAP is a great idea. Plan on keeping it going past the end of the month?
Excellent job SOAPing!
I have had very good experience with Stumble. I still feel the daily effects of traffic to an article that was Stumbled months ago. If you have an article you feel worthy of a Stumble, it never hurts to ask your blogging buddies to Stumble it for you. Most will gladly oblige.
Yes Dawud – I hope to continue SOAP as long as there’s interest. I’ll need to think about how to make it as useful as possible the second time around – any ideas would be appreciated.
Wow.. This is an amazing critique!
Any chance you can review my blog as well, please? You can even win a free re-design for your blog =)
Char,
Thanks. I’m working on the strategies for my next push. I’m definitely looking to take advantage of Stumble. So thanks for the confirmation.
ikler,
I visited your blog. I would think of restructuring your blog to make a wider sidebar. And, perhaps, organize the sidebar a little clearer. That would be my 60-second review. If you want more, perhaps we can do something together. Contact me
Easton,
What about creating a SOAP blog? You take requests like you have, post a site and then all of us get the chance to share our feedback. Think that would work? Could be a traffic magnet.
Also, I don’t think I got SOAPed…so hey, I could benefit from the first time around.
Really nice review of David’s site, and thanks for the ideas as I work on building my online presence as well. I particularly like David’s practice of thanking his commenters and it’s one I’ve begun to emulate myself.
Randa,
Thanks. I was a lot of fun reviewing David’s site. You can see he has a great eye for design. The things I suggested were mostly about making his site easier to use for his audience (usability).
And I love his thanking commenters practice as well.