Blog Critique and Questions

[thecubemonkey]

Hi everyone,

I started The Cube Monkey in January of this year. It is brand new but I've got enough content where I'd like your comments.

My goal for the site is to take a personal development approach for business people. I hope that comes through in the posts I have out there now.

I have not really tried to drive traffic yet but feel it is about the right time since I (think) I have enough content.

I do want to make money with the site. My long term goal is to pull in $1,000 per month. Since January I've made $20 (not bad for a 1 and a half month old blog (and with relatively little traffic)). Is $1,000 per month realistic? I work full-time so I don't have time to spend all day posting comments on other blogs, responding to forums, etc. I plan on doing this and other traffic building activities but the amount will be far less than someone doing it "full-time".

Thanks for the help.

[LawofAttractionHandbook]

$1000 per is realistic, considering you offer the following criteria:

(1) Offer unique content of incredible value.

(2) Build a community of dedicated supporters/readers.

(3) Build a solid relationship with that community.

(4) 100% committment to your audience and blog.

Also, read this article for tips on blog posting:

13 Questions to Ask Yourself before You Blogpot

However, your main focus should NOT be to make $1000 per month. You main focus SHOULD be to offer $1000 of value to your audience every month. Catch my drift?

[finandom]

Hi Ron, I found some coding bugs around your header. Between your header banner and adsense ads, I saw a "//-->". Maybe you can fix this up.

Overall, the blog is good. I think you should add more contents and keep adding. Maybe you can introduce some articles to show your expertise. You can put them into your popular articles and show them from your sidebar.

[thecubemonkey]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a look at the code. I don't see it in IE7 but I'll check. Thanks for pointing that out!

Any one else have some advice?

Thanks!

[Adrian]

Having a nice, uniform Archives page (like on Steve's blog) would be a total plus, because people like me like to skim the entire archives at a glance and pick out the posts we want to read (and not necessarily trudge through pages upon pages in your monthly posts or category pages.)

The sidebar also looks cluttered - if you don't want to take anything out of the sidebar, it might help to rearrange what you have on there (e.g., put the Archives section above or below the Categories section). Hard-to-navigate website = lost traffic.

If you can get a link to your RSS subscription and "Related Posts" underneath every post, that'd be great as well; people are more inclined to check out related posts with catchy headlines this way and thus stay on your site. (The latter can be done with a simple plug-in.)

Hope that helps!

[AndrewPavelski]

Hi cubemonkey,

I saw the same thing as finadom w/ your header. I like your blog -- it has good content. I like the content and definitely recommend having a "popular posts" plugin in your sidebar.

Best wishes,

Andrew

Originally Posted by ********

Hi Ron, I found some coding bugs around your header. Between your header banner and adsense ads, I saw a "//-->". Maybe you can fix this up.

Overall, the blog is good. I think you should add more contents and keep adding. Maybe you can introduce some articles to show your expertise. You can put them into your popular articles and show them from your sidebar.

[Gewyne]

Cubemonkey

I like the lay out of your site and the content seems good. I would suggest proof reading the articles as there are a few mistakes (e.g. first page Request a meeting or at least a brief call you’re your HR representative. ). I would also suggest creating a web site and making the blog part of it. This will give you easier options in the future if you decide to expand your concept.

Gewyne

[Peter S C]

Hi,

I love your header - it brought an instant smile to my face. Like someone previously said, though, there is some sort of coding bug just below the header that displays "//-->" (I am using Firefox).

Apart from that it all looks pretty good to me - good luck with your quest for $1,000 per month!

Peter

[Jonathan Mead]

Everything looks pretty good, I like the layout and your use of bright colors. Good luck on your goal!