My first Wordpress site - I have no idea what I'm doing

Discussion in 'Websites' started by Kerosene, Jan 31, 2006.

  1. #1
    My site is: here.

    I wasn't sure what to do with this domain, so I jumped in the deep end and made my first blog.

    It's targeted towards 'adult' PlayStation2 gamers e.g 30+ (wait...that's me!) - in particular gamers looking for specialized controllers and accessories. I know the market is probably too big to make a dent in, but it's what I'm into.

    I have pretty much no idea about Wordpress, and blogs in general - so I'm just hoping for the best. Obviously there's not a huge amount of content yet, but I'm planning on adding something every few days.

    I've hacked away blindly at WP2.0, I don't know if I've done more damage than good :rolleyes:

    I'd really like some comments from some more experienced bloggers, which I guess is pretty much everyone.
     
    Kerosene, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  2. Greenguy

    Greenguy Guest

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    #2
    Well first make sure the site is up. I get error messages when I try to access it, your hacks may have taken it down. There are a number of wordpress resources out there. (Shameless self promotion coming) My seoforblogs, is focusing on wordpress blogs and how to tweak them and what plug ins I find useful. (The link is in my sig, end shameless self promotion). The www.wordpress.org site has a number of usefull topics in its threads as well as links to places with numbers of plugins and hacks you can use to tweak you site. Also makes sure you put on the sitemaps plug-in (I need to blog about that). Without seeing your site I can't give any specific ideas. What exactly are you wanting to do?

    OH and count me in to subscribing, I fit that 30+ gamer market.
     
    Greenguy, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  3. Kerosene

    Kerosene Alpha & Omega™ Staff

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    #3
    Crumbs! What an idiot I am. My hosting provider sent me an email a few days ago about a network upgrade, which I ignored, and is happening now. Site will be back in a few hours.

    Oh well... I guess this post will slide into obscurity.
     
    Kerosene, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  4. Dreamchaser

    Dreamchaser Well-Known Member

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    #4
    so update us when its back, simple :)
     
    Dreamchaser, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  5. GeorgeB.

    GeorgeB. Notable Member

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    #5
    Your host schedules network updates in teh middle of the day??

    Some host you've got there... :rolleyes:
     
    GeorgeB., Jan 31, 2006 IP
  6. Kerosene

    Kerosene Alpha & Omega™ Staff

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    #6
    GeorgeB, would you believe I'm in a different timezone to the United States? :eek:

    Anyway my site is back up :p
     
    Kerosene, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  7. clancey

    clancey Peon

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    #7
    I checked it out and I liked the look of it. I am not a WP person, but I was left with the impression the line between blogs and CMS systems has blurred so much they are virtually indistinguishable from one another.

    Having said that, I have been playing with a blog system for some of my newer sites and it has limitations if you are ruinning a news site. Blogs have the advantage of being easy to get going with., But, as you grow, you might want to find something which is more adapatable to your 'magaziney' style.

    You may want to concurrently play with some of the systems demoed at http://www.opensourcecms.com/
     
    clancey, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  8. WebWriter

    WebWriter Active Member

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    #8
    I like the site!

    The design is really attractive.

    Good job!
     
    WebWriter, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  9. infonote

    infonote Well-Known Member

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    #9
    Good site, i would recommend adding a forum to get repeat visitors
     
    infonote, Jan 31, 2006 IP
  10. Kerosene

    Kerosene Alpha & Omega™ Staff

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    #10
    Thanks for the comments everyone. I'd really like some bloggers to comment too.

    I've thought about adding a forum, but there's probably enough PlayStation forums already, and I don't want to have one of those sad empty forums with only admin posts in it. One day maybe.
     
    Kerosene, Feb 1, 2006 IP
  11. Greenguy

    Greenguy Guest

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    #11
    As a blogger, prolific but unseen, since I do most of it with aliases, I have to say I like it. You have great taglines to begin with. The length is just about right. I would say you want to make your categories a bit more noticable. The grey is awful. People will have a hard time seeing it.

    I would consider going with a more rubust system like Joomla or Mambo as your site could beneift from a more website feel, as opposed to blog. You can download a virtual server on you machine at home for Mambo and try it out before you change over to it.

    Also in your first paragraph you have a number of links. Don't be afraid to make them look like links. It will help get some clicks over to the categories. you may want to try indenting the sub cats too.

    All of these are little tweaks, you have a strong site here. It does what you want I think. From a hard core gamer I like the site. You should register iplayxbox (and xbox360 with a 301) and iplaygamecube too before someone horns in on it. Seriously though if you ever want a guest writer I would love to throw you a couple posts just cause (no charge just for the grins of it).
     
    Greenguy, Feb 10, 2006 IP
  12. Greenguy

    Greenguy Guest

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    #12
    I see you made some changes to it. It looks way better, though not quite as edgy as the first one. Of course its hard to look adgy when you are pumping katamari. You may run into Adsense problems. If memory serves you are only allowed 2 ad boxes on one page. Your home page has three. You may want to read their TOS again and make sure.
     
    Greenguy, Mar 1, 2006 IP
  13. MediaHustler

    MediaHustler Well-Known Member

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    #13
    You can have as many as you please.
     
    MediaHustler, Mar 1, 2006 IP