I've been told by someone who posts here that my articlewritingnews.com website looks like spam. Does anyone else think that? Thanks, ~cj
Personally, I don't think it looks like spam. However the font is horrible in my opinion and that's why people might've said that. It looks like one of those landing pages that's trying to sell you something, the font I meant. Otherwise, when it comes to content, layout and colors - I think it's great. Except maybe that area where you select "Subscribe, Recent and About" pages it just looks too "different" from the rest of the site, and doesn't blend in too well.
Okay...I certainly appreciate your input! Now I have more questions. How on earth can this blog look like a landing page? There's no "squeeze" to get someone's email address! And the "Subscribe, Recent and About" block CAME WITH THE Wordpress Theme! It the Branford Magazine theme, which I chose because it's not your run-of-the-mill theme--the ones that REALLY look like spam blogs. Wow! I am completely blown away by how anyone can think this is a spam blog! I have a LOT of great article writing/marketing content there! Wow! I'll look into the font, too. I chose it (Palatino Linotype) because it looks like Newspaper print. Or, that's what I thought, anyway. But, anyway, thank you for your insights. I'll take them into account, for sure! ~cj
It looks fine to me. Theonly thing I'd look to improve is the header which looks less then professional.
jangkrikjr and Alan|AzH, thank you for your input! I definitely appreciate it! Alan, can I ask what makes the header look unprofessional? Granted I'm no graphics genius, but I made the header under the direction of a famous blog course that I'm enrolled in that says one's picture in the upper left hand side is a very effective method of making the reader feel more comfortable, not like he's reading an anonymous blog by someone he doesn't know. A picture is supposed to give the reader a sense of at least knowing SOMEthing about the writer before he has a chance to read anything else. Is it the picture, the way I put the header together or is it the lack of graphics, altogether? OR...??? Thanks again for your input. I'm finding this all very valuable! ~cj
The quality of the image is poor and grainy. You may have been better with a PNG format image. Also, the font looks squashed. If you have the two images you used still in better quality, send them to me ( alan [at] the - culture . co . uk ) or attach here and I'll improve the existing header. No payment required but maybe you can add a link or a mention for me somewhere.
looks fine to me - although i'd agree it does look a little like a landing page due to the empahsis on subscribing. I also found the article titles a bit narrow due to the ads on both sides overall a good start though!
I looks like a decent blog. I the image in the header looks a bit fuzzy and could sharper though. Also, maybe the search bow could be below the menu bar so the rss feed area is in line with the header.
Here is my review of your site. Theme: You have a good and catchy theme, and best of all, its related to your niche. Content: Your content is good, and NO i dont think your blog is spam. However i can understand those reactions by some, i see you only display the first sentences of a article. So naturally there are alot od titles displayed on your homepage, combine this with your ads and all your pictures and you end up with a some kind of spammy looking blog. Have you tried displaying the full articles on your site. maybe this gets you the results you are looking for Here are some of your site stats: Google Pagerank: 1 Alexa Rank: 785278 Technorati Rank: 4978471 Listed in Digg: 0 DMOZ: Not Listed Link Popularity Google Backlinks: 14 Yahoo Inlinks: 123 Altavista Links: 138 AllTheWeb Links: 136 .gov backlinks: 0 .edu backlinks: 0 Pages Indexed Google Indexed: 1 Yahoo Indexed: 2 MSN Indexed: 0 I hope you found this information usefull, if you have any questions then please leave a reply and i will be more then happy to answer them.
What might make it look like spam is the fact that it's so busy and backed up now. There's no room enough for your content. I believe too much google ads on front page and it starts looking like spam. Why not placing them on post page? Try "Why do work"-plugin for example. If you just cut off some stuff from frontpage it looks more professional to me. Let readers find and evaluate your content and they will click relevant ads and subscribe.
The blog looks ok however, I think the header could be improved the graphics in the header are a bit pixelated.
I am looking at the page in Firefox. I would say the yellow background of the adsense form, does not blend well with the rest of the site. Also I would put a little space between the search box and the line under it.
I would say that it looks relatively good, however you should maybe think a little about how you blend certain elements in. Adsense seems to stick out quite a bit like indigobean2003 said.
Wow, lots of great stuff here! Thanks, everyone! I'm currently working with Alan|AzH to replace fix the header. I look at it mostly from Firefox, and I didn't think it was that grainy, but apparently it is. Thanks for the heads-up. I've since narrowed the left column and given all the extra space to the center column, where the articles are. Giamatti asks: Have you tried displaying the full articles on your site. The front page is designed to display the most recent post in EACH category. I have 10 (out of 12) categories posting and I feel that posting the full article in each would be detrimental. For one thing, the home page would end up being 40 miles long! For another, the average reader is not going to read very far before feeling overwhelmed. Seeing all those full posts would be excessive. IMO. I feel like a catchy or provocative summary would help the reader decide if he wants to click thru to the post. Having said that, I am beginning to think that the general feeling is that the blog's front page is too busy. That seems to be the general consensus in the responses I'm getting here. I'll work on that. About the Adsense and background color--I am of 2 thoughts on this. Originally, I would opt for white and blue, which would blend in completely and go completely unnoticed. Now, the purpose of Adsense is to generate income, and if readers are missing it, nothing happens. Right? So a contrasting color would catch the eye. That's my thinking now. It used to be that I had a more purist's ideology and wouldn't even place Adsense or anything else on my blogs. You can imagine how far that got me. I'm not is this JUST for the money, but my online work IS my only income, so... I guess it's time to try blending Adsense into the background and see what kind of results I get. Thanks again, everyone. ~cj P.S. About the search box placement. I would LOVE to place it in the nav bar, but I can't get it to situate exactly where I want it. The RSS box and search box are both on a searchform.php page which is called for in the header. I have tried moving just the searchform.php to be called for in the nav bar section of the hearder, ( and removing the RSS coding), but the search box alignment screws up the whole nav bar. AND I can't figure out how to place the RSS coding to get it to stay where it is now. I really don't like php.
Just three to start with. As discussed though, really need a better photo as the quality of the existing one leaves a lot to be desired. What do you honestly think?
Alan, I owe you a HUGE apology. Right after you posted those banners (which I saw briefly and should have grabbed then!), my life fell apart. I have lost a home and a website! In any case, I'm only now starting to get back online and try to rebuild my life. What I saw of the banners was FANTASTIC and I am here, publicly, to thank you for the hard work. Please know it wasn't in vain.
I personally do think it looks like spam, it doesn't look like a legit blog right off-top and that's where you'll lose a lot of people.