What am I doing wrong?

I am just getting into internet marketing and websites due to a friend sparking my interest. He owns several simple websites ( mostly blogs ) and claims that they pay for his rent. Decided I would give it a shot and created a simple blog about tea, hoping to get some small cash off Adsense and possibly affiliate programs. Keep in mind, this is a few days old and created using wordpress, so nothing too fancy here. Please look at my work thus far and let me know what I am doing wrong ( or hopefully right). I am open to any criticism, so don't go easy on me

www.teasensei.com

Thanks for anyone taking the time to help me out.

 

If I were you I'd create a static home page with a recent posts widget in the right sidebar showing your last 10 posts or so. As it is now, if someone visits and isn't interested in your last post, they will just leave. You want to present visitors with options as soon as they reach your site. Also, the theme is a bit dark. Fine teas have a certain lightness and sophistication to them, which your site should reflect. I do like the images though. Lighten up the site a little, make it as visually interesting and relaxing as the images are. Asian imagery is associated with fine tea, so add some if you can. Also, a small ad block right beneath your title, 468x60 or so would help adsense clicks along.

Hope this helps!

 

Great advice and much appreciated. I didn't think about having a static homepage, but that is a great idea. Can I simply follow these directions http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page (sorry cannot post hyperkinks for some reason) ?Thank you again for your response.

 

install a twitter widget so all your lastest posts go straight on your twitter page if you have one.....If you have loads of people following you then you should start to see abit of traffic for the site.All this helps towards seo !

 

I would work on organizing the blog. Add in tags for your posts, have common tags on the right, etc.

 

I would focus on the content and also the layout. I like it that it's simple but it might be too simple? If that makes any sense. Also, I would go to forums and other blogs who discuss similar things and network with them.

 

Try to ensure social media button allow them to share and rss feed to allow them to bookmark your site.
You can monetise your blog , try to post it frequently.
Beside that Google Adsense, you can put some side banner to allow advertise their ads in your blog.

 

I feel like I've cleaned up the site a little bit.. but I still haven't got it tweaked to perfection. Having a bit of an issue with WordPress themes and getting stuff laid out how I want. For instance, how could I put an adsense banner near the title of my page? I wish I had some web design skills, then I could skip WordPress altogether

Thank you to everyone who has provided tips, I am always open for more.

 

I see that you have followed the above advice and it is sound advice that you were given. Still, I find your site very sparse. The header does not do anything to your site. It does not liven or add interest to the site. Your articles are too short (but this may be because you just started) and you may want to improve on that. I checked some of your posts and I can't help but feel the blog is just out there to sell me something. Give value to your visitors by posting articles that show tea is your passion. Why not add some events maybe in your local area or in other cities for tea lovers or maybe any current tea sales?

Hope that helps. Have a good day!