Critique My Website!

[MetaFitX]

Could anybody here do me a favor and critique my website very briefly?

I'm mostly concerned about the layout and the aesthetics. Are they pleasing to the eye? Should I change it?

Bare in mind that I'm somewhat a newbie when it comes to this! This is my first website and I've only had it up a week.

Overcoming Social Anxiety

Thanks!

[FazK]

your site looks good, i suggest you make the middle column thinner and get rid of either the left or right column

One of the most important things with any blog is that it is "aesthetically pleasing" and your's could look far better

[spirit4711]

It looks quite familiar (see below) so I love it!

[JustinPopovic]

Not a bad looking site overall.

What is your ultimate goal here?

In terms of look and feel, I would definitely have fewer posts on the home page. I would add some images to accompany each post.

You may also want to consider a more professionally designed theme. I recommend Woo Themes or Studio Press.

Do you want to build your own personal profile as well? If so, you should get some professional photos of yourself and upload them so people can learn more about you.

Hope this helps!

[nightdiamond]

Hi MetaFitX

Your site looks pretty good, professional and right to the point with tips and advice.

Just my opinion, but the grey and black text and links can seem harder to read and to pinpoint certain areas , and they also contrast against the pretty picture of the green plants.

Can you think of any colors for texts that would match the picture, and yet be easy to read, and for the reader to pinpoint certain areas of the site?

Do you have an offer for a newsletter?

Newsletters can be a source of income from websites.

If you can get enough people to subscribe to your newsletter, and after having them read it regularly, you can send full, one page offers to each of them, and even if a small number respond, it can possibly produce a small to good profit for you.

For example, let's say you have built a list of about 2,000 subscribers to your newsletter, and then one day you send a full page email to them, offering a special e-book .

Perhaps only 50 of the 2,000 respond. If the ebook is only $15, then $750.00 was made from that mailing.

Of course, it depends on what you offer, and how you write your ad and other things, so the results can be different.

Good luck..

[MetaFitX]

Originally Posted by FazK

your site looks good, i suggest you make the middle column thinner and get rid of either the left or right column

One of the most important things with any blog is that it is "aesthetically pleasing" and your's could look far better

Thanks for your thoughts.

Originally Posted by spirit4711

It looks quite familiar (see below) so I love it!

Thanks, but actually thank you. I stumbled upon one of your posts mentioning the theme. That's where I got it from!

Originally Posted by JustinPopovic

Not a bad looking site overall.

What is your ultimate goal here?

In terms of look and feel, I would definitely have fewer posts on the home page. I would add some images to accompany each post.

You may also want to consider a more professionally designed theme. I recommend Woo Themes or Studio Press.

Do you want to build your own personal profile as well? If so, you should get some professional photos of yourself and upload them so people can learn more about you.

Hope this helps!

Thanks! I would like to eventually implement a professionally designed theme, however being a complete newb I'd figure I'd go the route of first learning the basics (HTML, coding, writing great content) and move from there.

Originally Posted by nightdiamond

Hi MetaFitX

Your site looks pretty good, professional and right to the point with tips and advice.

Just my opinion, but the grey and black text and links can seem harder to read and to pinpoint certain areas , and they also contrast against the pretty picture of the green plants.

Can you think of any colors for texts that would match the picture, and yet be easy to read, and for the reader to pinpoint certain areas of the site?

Do you have an offer for a newsletter?

Newsletters can be a source of income from websites.

If you can get enough people to subscribe to your newsletter, and after having them read it regularly, you can send full, one page offers to each of them, and even if a small number respond, it can possibly produce a small to good profit for you.

For example, let's say you have built a list of about 2,000 subscribers to your newsletter, and then one day you send a full page email to them, offering a special e-book .

Perhaps only 50 of the 2,000 respond. If the ebook is only $15, then $750.00 was made from that mailing.

Of course, it depends on what you offer, and how you write your ad and other things, so the results can be different.

Good luck..

Thanks! I agree with your point about the text color. I'm doing some research on how exactly to modify a WP theme so hopefully it will come out alright.

As far as my short-term goal, it is simply to write great content and "get it out there", sortofspeak. Monetization will come a bit later. I'm doing this first and foremost to give short, concise and easy to follow practical advise on helping others overcome social phobia.

[DummyChef]

like it. looks really nice.

[Mist]

It looks nice but I think it's too white.

[MetaFitX]

Thanks guys. Just finished up making some changes for today. Appreciate the input.

[spirit4711]

In IE7 the title of the blog is overlayed by the menu bar. In FF 3.5 it looks fine though.

All articles are written by 'admin', a bit unpersonal. You can make another account and make that the owner of the articles (the author so to speak). For my blog I use 'admin' only for blog management and my own name as author.

The about page isn't about you which I would expect. Also there's nothing on this page why this blog is here (it's reason for being).

If you're the only author I would change 'contact us' by 'contact me'.

[MetaFitX]

Originally Posted by spirit4711

In IE7 the title of the blog is overlayed by the menu bar. In FF 3.5 it looks fine though.

All articles are written by 'admin', a bit unpersonal. You can make another account and make that the owner of the articles (the author so to speak). For my blog I use 'admin' only for blog management and my own name as author.

The about page isn't about you which I would expect. Also there's nothing on this page why this blog is here (it's reason for being).

If you're the only author I would change 'contact us' by 'contact me'.

Thanks for the heads-up on that overlapping title on IE. I don't use IE and so I would have missed that!

I implemented your suggestion of adding an author. I know somebody who may help to write a few articles, so this might end up being a dual thing (hence the "contact us").