It’s baaaaaaaack! Last month on a whim, I decided to have a #Blogchat where we all reviewed 3 blogs submitted by #Blogchat regulars. It ended up being a HUGE hit with all of you, so we’re going to make it a monthly feature on the 3rd Sunday of every month!
So if you want to submit your blog to be reviewed this coming Sunday (the 19th), please leave a comment to this post with the URL of your blog and exactly what areas you want us to look at. If you want to know what everyone thinks of the information on your sidebars, let us know that. If you want to know what you should be writing about, tell us who you are trying to connect with. If you want feedback on your post titles, let us know. Please be as specific as possible, if you leave a comment and all you say is ‘I would love to have my blog reviewed, thanks!’, then we have nothing to go on. The more specific you can be, the better the chance you have of getting your blog picked.
I’ll pick three blogs to be reviewed, and those will be announced on Saturday. We’ll spend the first 20 mins of the next #Blogchat reviewing one blog, the second 20 mins on the second blog, and the final 20 mins on the third blog.
To give you an idea of what type of information you should include in your comment, here’s the blogs that were chosen last month to be reviewed. Good luck!
I’d love to get reviewed. My blog is The Nerd Connection and is mainly about Geek things and WordPress/site related blogging topics.
However, lately I’ve been feeling like the sidebar is too busy and maybe the SM things I have on there are just not working. It would be nice to get feedback and find out if there is a readability problem/follow on problem or if it’s all in my head.
Thanks for considering my site!
Allison
I would love it. http://www.uniquefamilyvision.com You can review anything.
@turkanastribe Please give us more information on what you want reviewed as outlined in the post. Thanks!
Wow. So my last comment got all coded. Anyway, 2nd time’s the charm. I’d love to have The Nerd Connection [http://allisondduncan.com] looked at for readability. I feel like the sidebar may be too cluttered and the articles may be too indepth to garner much readership.
I’d like my blog reviewed for relevance and readability and also any glaring issues 😉 (BTW I *love* livefyre!)
@MackCollier I guess the layout and the color for sure. I am not sure if it is hard for people to read being a dark background. Also, how are my sidebars? Too cluttered? I have only been blogging about a year, so I am sure I have lots to learn and I am just open to suggestions on making it top notch.
Err that’s http://ariemoyal.com
I would love to have the titles of my posts reviewed along with the opening sentence for my posts. They always say that your title and opening sentence are key in getting the reader to want more! http://www.socialtechzone.com is my blog.
Guys when you leave a comment, please include who you are trying to reach. Are you writing for poultry farmers in Wisconsin? Ad agencies? Your 5 best friends from high school? Please let us know who your target audience is, as that will help us determine if the content is appropriate. Thanks!
I’m trying to reach bloggers in general, Nerds/techies as a niche, and wordpress users as a whole.
@MackCollier I am sorry…now that I actually read what you said, it makes me laugh that I did that 🙂 My blog is not your typical “journal blog”. It is a resource for families and homeschoolers. I feel that it may be a hindrance because I am not blogging daily on it about my day. Frankly, I don’t think anyone cares about my day, so I want to keep it a resource. There are so many homeschooling blogs out there and I want the family tool building aspect to be what makes it different. Is it enough information to draw that attention, to keep people going back for more or is it a one stop, get what you need and move on to the next blog? I don’t want to be that. Also, does that dark background hinder readability and are the “follow” areas on the sidebars too much? Are my ads okay only at the bottom? I am not a fan of clutter. My goal is an easy to navigate blog with useful tools and I would love to start making some money on it. Do you think I have accomplished an easy to navigate, useful blog? That is basically it 🙂 Thanks.
@MackCollier I’m ultimately trying to reach readers that are new to social media and give them a beginners perspective into social media. I also am trying to reach those readers that I can help out with their computer issues.
@MackCollier Okay, I will try this again, it disappeared…I am so sorry for not following your suggestions up top…I didn’t read it all to be honest. LOL. Okay, I am reaching two groups of people with my blog, families and homeschoolers. My blog was not set up to be a “journal blog”. I doubt people are interested in my day to day life, so I have set it up as a resource to families to learn to create and implement a family mission and vision statement along with tools to help curb sibling rivalry etc…the end goal, to turn your family into the team it was created to be AS WELL AS be a homeschooling resource, mostly for newbies to homeschooling.
I am wondering if the fact that it is just a resource, it that limits my audience in that they come get what they need and never come back. I also wonder about the color of my blog (dark might be hard to read on by some) as well as the length of my posts. I am long winded as you can see 😉 Also, are the “follow” areas in my side column overkill.
I would love to know the best way to reach families in general with my blog without making them feel like they have to be homeschoolers to use my blog.
I’d like my blog reviewed at: http://www.ricardobueno.com
My target audience is primarily: Real Estate Agents & Small Business Owners.
Areas I’d like reviewed:
1.) Primary navigation,
2.) Conversion points in Navigation and after-post content
I want people to do 1 of 3 things when they come to my site:
1.) Subscribe,
2.) Contact me to request an interview and/or hire me to speak via my Speaking Page: ricardobueno.com/speaking
3.) Sign up for my Real Estate Blog Topics course: http://www.ricardobueno.com/real-estate-blog-topics
How obvious are these things? Can I make them more obvious? Is the content effective? Etc.
Thanks for the consideration Mack and the rest of the #blogchat family!
Mack, I really value the discussion and the community on #BlogChat and would love (though admit to some cringing) to get the community’s feedback on our blog at http://seniorcarecorner.com to help us reach a greater audience.
Our blog is written primarily for adults who have elderly family members for whom they are caring and/or about whom they care, often while living some distance apart. The blog is first an outlet for sharing information to help both the family members and the seniors about whom they care, which is an interest of ours from both personal experience and work. We would like to earn revenue by providing attractive products/services that solve problems faced by our audience but realize we need a larger regular audience to make it meaningful financially.
We value the #BlogChat community’s suggestions regarding design changes or feature we should consider to get more repeat visitors. From our stats, the overwhelming majority of our visitors are first-timers and we would like to get more of them to return or at least to follow our content through some means. Are we making it easy enough to get our information? Does the overall visual effect of our site turn off visitors or negatively impact their perception of the information we provide?
Many #BlogChat participants are either part of our target audience or will be at some point so the feedback would be valuable from that standpoint as well as their experience with successful blogs.
Thank you for your consideration, Mack. Looking forward to another great #BlogChat on Sunday and the #BlogChat Live! At #SMIATL in September!
Hi Mack, Here is our company’s blog with a weekly frequency: http://www.mementosecurity.com/Forums/Bank-Fraud-Forum/Blog.aspx
Thanks 🙂
We blog about Indian social media insights and updates 🙂 at lighthouseinsights.in . We dont plan to be a mere news site but also provide our insights. that’s why we are trying to incorporate more and more case-studies that are happening in India specifically .
1. We would like to know what people think when they land on our blog, are they disgusted or they find exciting to click on the articles. in short are they comfortable 🙂
2. Next is the content, we try to cover news,updates and provide insights. so we think of why then what and how. and we would like to know do you think reading our posts is helpful. do u find worth reading it. or what is ur reaction.
3. please tell us about the style and the way we present is excitng to you. we would like to know that since english is not our first language.
4. what do you think about the widgets. do they create pain in ur eyes or its fine.
5. we have also done couple of app reviews. how do you like it are they useful for you and does our app review make ur trying out the new app more easy?
6. we have done couple of sm-interviews, what do you think about the pattern of questioning. going further we want to incorporate this with podcast. ur thoughts on it ?
so in short we would love if you can rip it as hard you can 🙂 though it will pain but will be helpful in a long run.
thanks,
Prasant
I humbly submit my portfolio blog for consideration: http://jtdabbagian.com
I use my blog as a resume, kind of. I want it to not only demonstrate my portfolio and my abilities, but also be able to sell my services. Things like pricing, FAQ, proper wording to increase potential sales, etc. So things like navigation, clarity and the site map are of utmost importance to me.
Things in particular I could use advice on, in order of personal importance:
1. How can I improve my bio? (Found here: http://jtdabbagian.com/about-me/)
2. How do I explain my services (Blogging and Social Media)
3. How to make it easier/more likely for clients to contact me?
4. A primer on categories (This has ALWAYS given me a headache…I end up having more than I probably should.)
5. Anything else I can do to increase readership/hits
6. Is the blog overall readable?
Blog stats at a glance:
Blog name: J.T Dabbagian (Should I do something for the brand?)
URL: http://jtdabbagian.com
Target: Prospective clients and employers
Typical blog entries: Tips/Howtos with some Op/Ed
Posting frequency: 2-3 posts per week
Social Media used: Facebook/LinkedIn and Twitter posting
Thanks for looking!
Hi Mack. Great thing you’re doing here. I would like to submit my blog, http://kaidez.com/ It started as a journal I use to track my progress as I learn new web dev techniques but I would like to make more of a learning resource for others that want to learn the same thing. I’m trying to write in a style where the user feels that I’m holding their hand has learn; that’s the main way that I’m trying to stand out among the crowd.
Hi Mack,
My blog is http://borderlessthinking.com. The audience I’m targeting is women in the age range of 35-55 who want to make changes in the direction of their lives but are stuck in negative personal paradigms. They started out believing in a world of possibilities for themselves, but then other people – society – told them how to behave, who to be. They lost confidence in themselves.
I want to know if the content fits the audience and if the writing style is engaging & makes you feel like you’d want to meet me &/or work with me. I’m not interested in anything about appearance or layout of blog as that is being changed & finished in July. If there’s something you’d like to see or think is missing, that would be great to know.
Thanks so much for your consideration of my blog for #blogchat Cherry
Mack, I am a real estate Manager in Connecticut. I have gained my knowledge from fellow bloggers and through a lot of trial and error (mostly error:). My blog is focused on Westport, CT and the surrounding areas. I also use it to recruit local real estate agents. After blogging for many years, I would like objective opinions on the following topics:
Loyalty-How do I increase readership and keep them coming back to my blog?
Video-If I added video, what topics would be of value to readers?
Content-Is the content interesting and give the reader a sense of Westport, CT? What other content would a reader of a real estate blog look for?
Engagement-Is the writing style engaging, and worth reading? If not, what would you suggest?
I would be open to any suggestions from the group. Thanks so much! http://www.HyperLocalRealEstate.com