Feedback Welcomed

I like the content and what have you – so do visitors judging by the amount of comments you have.

I dont like the theme though – it seems really bland (no offense) and the header looks like a paint job (again, no offense!).

Theres also about a million things going on in your sidebar – once I get past the SB buttons (which look great) I just dont want to read any more as it seems so busy.

I think the best thing to do would be to work on the theme – give it some punch! Make it so it shouts “Hello! Read me!” if you see what I mean.

I’ll be bookmarking your blog – I need some marketing ideas for a couple of forums and I’m sure I will be able to pick up a few tricks!

Thanks for the feedback, Purplecow. I dont’ take offense to anything since I asked for an honest opinion. ??

I was thinking the same thing about the sidebar…too busy. I guess what I really need to have there is enticing information that will convince visitors to read more. But, what? I have the drop down categories that I like because it shows the post titles…but what else?

My goals are two fold: I want to promote myself & my brand, but I also want to monetize my work somehow. So, I’ve tried to keep my own info (social networks, subscriber form, recognition) above the fold or close to it. And then I put some affiliate ads up, but not many conversions are happening yet. So, I was thinking of taking them down (again..I did this once before) and creating some of my own info products.

I like the look of blogs like Copyblogger or many of the other top blogs because they are simple and focus more on making the content what stands out rather than the colors or flashy design. So, I guess I like the white background, but I screwed up my uncluttered idea by cluttering my sidebar. ??

I’m thinking I probably don’t need the Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs widget, plus I’ve read that anything that calls another site slows down load time.

I also want to promote more blog comments and build a community, so I think promoting my commenters with a top commenter and/or recent comments display would help.

I’m not a girly-girl that likes a lot of frills, but more of a strong female voice with a trendy, no bs, feisty spin. By the way, I spent HOURS making that header in GIMP from scratch because I couldn’t find anything to reflect my personality..so it is amateur, but I’d want to stay close to that feel, if you know what I mean.

What about the tabs at the top? Lame, huh? I don’t like them. It’s all about me, and nothing to offer my readers. No resources.

Thanks again for any feedback!

I think you would benifit hugely from having two sidebars. I also agree removing the Friend Connect and Networked blogs thing would be a good idea – it looks unprofessional IMO, it suits personal blogs well but not the type you have.

The theme… You want it to seem professional and the content to stand out, keep the content with a white background but offset the sidebar/s with a different (pale) colour. I think a theme like Arjuna would suit your blog. I use it on mine, Cottage Witchery, although I’ve made a lot of changes to the colours etc.

I’m not a fan of the tabs either – you could merge some of them and have drop downlists and the rest of the space be used for things you offer readers.

Havent had coffee yet, so if this makes no sense I’m sorry!

Great job on the site, heres my 2 cents.

First things first – make a back up of what you got

Second –the page not loading may have something to do with zulu.tweetmeme API hanging up. The page is waiting for this connection to complete itself but since it hangs the page won’t finish loading.

Third – try wpcache to speed up your blog and then reload your page to see if still hangs. If it still hangs up try disabling plugin by plugin to get to the source.

Marketing from a womans point of view – love this tag line!
I would love to logon to this site, and see a buddypress install over MU – (or WP 3.0 now) and read the success stories of all the users that participate on this site. This will give you great adsense revenue and will attract a larger audience. By giving your audience the tools they need to succeed you also succeed.

Aesthetically speaking – yes the site appears to be to busy for my personal taste. However that is not to say that it’s not working. Maybe it’s time to look at paying for a good theme?

I like this site flow: While its in a different market I like the way the info flows on : https://www.mikeroweworks.com/mikes-office (the guy from dirtiest jobs)

Also before you start thinking about what you need, It is in my onion that letting your users define the direction of your site is the best thing to do. So while asking us wordpress groupies what we think, perhaps a user survey may be just what the doctor ordered. From there you can take a look at the order from the audience and then make a better plan from there before you move forward.

Good luck!