How do I Improve my Blogging Site?

I'm fairly confident that my content is ok, but how does my site look? I've been tweaking it and adding in little bits here and there for a couple of weeks now and would appreciate some honest feedback on the design of the site. I don't have a custom domain yet or any 'premium themes' but I've tried my best to make it look as professional as possible!

Thanks in advance!

http://thetragiclifeoffrank.wordpress.com/

 

The font is good. I think it is time for you to get a domain on your own and have a theme. But so far it looks decent.

 

Thanks, yeah I need more customisation features. Cheers for the feedback!

 

No problem. Also try adding a widget for Twitter feed. That should help!

 

Simple design that's easy on the eye. I'd go in for a bit of customisation and start branding your site. Create a nice header for a start and consider shortening your post length on the homepage using "read more" feature. This will let people browse the main page and let them choose the post that interests them. Hope that helps.

 

You're blog looks good and the look is simple. A domain name will allow you to create brand, I recommend that right away! As for your content, its good but there is no call-to-action to encourage comments! Once thing I do with my blogs is that I always ask the readers questions throughout the blog post. Then I end the article with two written call-to-action statements, the first one encourages readers to share my article to show me support for writing it for them, the second which I usually put into a colored block (to catch the attention of the reader), I ask them to comment with a couple of starter questions to help give them an idea of what to say in case they cannot think of anything.

 

You can also improve your blogging site thanks for free themes for Wordpress or Joomla. Some website, like Gavick, offer free templates.

 

I think you should have one new custom domain for your site. Your content is rich. Your blog looks simple. This is not a problem rather those are the signs of a mature blogger. But to engage more people to your blog, add one Facebook page button or create one Facebook page for your blog. On the right sidebar you can add some other things which are a bit colorful otherwise it looks blank and boring. I do not know why, but at first looking at your blog I have got the feeling that no one other is reading your blog rather than you only. So, try to add something which proves that your makes your reader a feel that your blogger has got good number of audience.

Adding a Facebook page box or a Google plus box is a good option I think.

Your pictures are just awesome!

Cheers!

 

As a web designer - the first thing that I noticed is that the font-size is a bit small. You can improve readability by making the body texts a bit larger. If you've seen the most recent and modern websites most texts in their website are bigger so its much easier to read. But all in all I think you did a great job with your site - keep it up!

 

I like the overall look. It is clean.

Posts are too long on the main pages. Look into having a latest posts widget that shows the first bit of each post.
The only way your blog is organized is by the tabs on the main menu. I think you should have drop downs and with subcategories and also have links on each of your main pages to posts. I'm also not a fan of archives. It doesn't organize anything. Create categories and organize yourself.

I think you should also consider having other social media platforms to help advertise your site. Add a twitter account, instagram, and others. You obviously can take good pictures and write well. Use instagram and the like to your advantage.

"Follow My Travel Blog" is in the middle of your menu and it should be off to the side since it is an entirely separate blog. I would consider putting it in your sidebar menu or somewhere else like that.

Your About Me page should actually have a few sentences about yourself. Yes, people should just read your posts to learn more about you but for many people, the About Me page is what actually gets them to read your posts. About Me is the most important post on a blog site. Consider writing a few "tragic" sentences about yourself.

You've done a very good job on a free site. Definitely upgrade to wordpress.org

Look into the Anthologize plugin or one like it. I think you could create a book. good luck.

 

hey @Frank Dynamite !!

Your blog looks very cool. Clean and organized. Not too cluttered!

I liked it!

Keep up the great work!!

I wish you the best of the best~

Cheers!

 

change up the colors my friend. white and black too boring. do a tan background or light grey. maybe dark blue font.

 

I personally would go with excerpt + thumbnails on front page. That scrolling is sooooooooo not fun anymore.
Also a sitemap will be useful for SEO

 

The fonts used and the site looks good. When you scroll a bit lower you will
notice that the sidebar is all but white space. I'm not familiar with wordpress.com,
but if they allow it, you should try to add something there to max the space.

Your blog does have a dark theme though. So if you want to leave that space empty,
it won't really hurt if you want to have your reader focus more on the content instead
of the aesthetics.