I used to do website critiques fairly regularly, and fantastic web designer Kathleen MacIver gave wonderful in-depth critiques to our participants. We’ve fallen out of touch (but Kathleen, if you’re reading this, I’d love to change that!), but a lot of her wisdom from previous critiques is just as applicable to our victims volunteers from this round!

On defining your site through blog goals:

Is [your blog] primarily for you, as a method of self-expression? If so, then who cares what it looks like!

The fact that you asked for this review, however, makes me think that you ARE hoping this blog achieves something. It doesn’t appear that you’re trying to promote your own writing, since a skim down through the posts showed me nothing along those lines. Are you trying to build a small community? Just meet people online? Right now this blog is a pretty clear reflection of you, as a person, and your love of words. It’s not a reflection of your stories or books or poems, or of a particular genre. Do you want it to be?

I’m not really sure what to suggest, since I don’t know what that goal is. But think about it. This is where every website should start . . . with a careful assessment of what the goal of the website (or blog) is, what you hope it will achieve, and who you hope to reach with it. Everything else needs to follow that.

On matching your design to your theme, and the purpose of design:

A website made from a basic, generic template (99% of the time) is like finding a hardcover book that’s missing its dust jacket (the old kind that had nothing more than a solid color and gold lettering on the edge). There’s nothing to turn you off to the book/site, but you really had to have a compelling reason from somewhere else in the universe to open up that book and start reading, because the book cover itself is offering you nothing.

You do have that little paragraph that explains a little. Now you need to find a design that is the visual interpretation of your concept. . . .

Basic layouts for blogs are often best, since people are there to read content (once they know they’re interested, of course).

So all-in-all . . . you don’t have anything wrong here, but you haven’t really taken any steps toward the two main goals of a website’s design, which are:

1. Instantly portray what your website is about, and what the visitor will receive if they hang around. (In your case, interesting information that they’re not likely to find anywhere else on the Internet, since the number of brain scientists blogging about writing has got to be extremely small)
2. Make the site stick in their mind, thereby upping their chances of wanting to come back, coming back, and remembering why they bookmarked it when they do come back.

And this one is actually from me, on the purpose of a website:

Also, make your website somewhere that people will want to come back to—do something for them, reach out to them (see building a community), be accessible. Even if they’ve already bought your book, they’re still your customers, your readers, your fans, and striving to build a relationship with them (individually and collectively) can help sustain you, both emotionally and financially. . . .

Always remember: your website will be the major way you’ll interact with most of your readers and potential business associates. Use it wisely!

I’d forgotten how much good advice has already passed through here, and I know many readers weren’t here two years ago when we were doing these. Luckily, I’ve already collected the generally-applicable advice from several of the critiques and put them together into a handy, free PDF: a Guide to Aspiring Author Websites!

What do you think? What did you take away from these critiques that will help with your site?

Photo credits: heart in a book—Piotr Bizior; book without cover—Marcos Ojeda

In yesterday’s website review, Kathleen mentioned how important it is to convey your genre with your website. It can be hard, depending on the genre. Even some published authors’ sites don’t do it well.

Quick: Can you tell me what genre these published authors write in? (I took the name off a couple and removed outright genre identifiers because that would be too easy, and that’s not what this is about—it’s about looking at the graphics on their site to see if they convey their genres. If you’ve read any of them or recognize their sites, try to judge only by what you see here.

Links and answers to be posted in the comments!

1.)

2.)

3.)

4.)

5.)

6.)

7.)

8.)

Post your guesses in the comments! The person with the most answers right (without cheating) will win . . . something!

Today we have a great example of a blog with a niche—The Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Kathleen’s comments

Thank you for sharing your blog with us!!! Why am I so excited? Well . . . twice in the past week, I’ve suggested that blog authors find something quirky to center their blog around when a single genre didn’t fit . . . and here you are, with a blog called the Chocolate Chip Cookie!

This is the kind of thing I mean. Doesn’t hearing about a writing blog with that name make you sit up and take notice? When you find links listed under such headings as “Some delicious books,” “Quotes to snack on,” “Some tasty side dishes,” and “Some cookie bites,” don’t you want to click on them, just because they follow her memorable idea? My favorite heading is what she put over her blogger profile picture. She calls herself “The word & cookie chef.” And that says it all.

There are two things I’d recommend for you. (At least right now, while you’re not working to promote a book.)

The first is to have a little more fun with the graphics. Your lovely photo of chocolate chip cookies shouldn’t be hiding on your welcome letter, or shrunk to your sidebar. Crop a wide and short version of it with your title, and put it up at the top in your header! Even doing that much will show how your link colors pull that lovely toasty color from the picture and give the site a bit more style. You can also find (or make) a very simple background image that will add some black and toast colors down the sides of the page. Maybe the template settings in Blogger will allow you do that easily. But spice it up a bit. Have some more fun with your marvelous idea and make it a bit more visual!

Second . . . add the idea of writing into your blog description and/or the graphic that will replace it. “Sanity food for the soul” is good, but neither shows those who don’t already know that you’re a writer that this blog has a lot to do with writing. How about replacing it with “writing with the Word and Cookie Chef” or something else that includes the idea of writing?

One other thing: You obviously have an affinity for art . . . that theme also came across on your blog. I see the novel you’re working on follows that theme, as well. That’s two different themes which, at the moment, almost conflict with each other. I’d say to see if you can join them together a little more, but that would leave you joining art and writing and chocolate chip cookies, and that’s a bit much. Once you finish your YA book and you’re ready to start promoting it, you’ll want to add a YA slant to this, and that would include the art, based on your story idea. So maybe, at that point, the entire site would be YA/art based, and the chocolate chip cookie would be the morning breakfast room in your art gallery, where you chat with your readers. That would work, though it’s a bit much for now.

Just think about it. You’ve got a great idea . . . don’t let it get watered down. ::smiles::

Have fun!

-Kathleen MacIver / KatieDid Design

Jordan’s comments

I’ve visited your blog before, of course, and I’m really impressed.

Like some of the other sites we’ve looked at, your blog looks like more of a “lifestyle” blog than a website for a writer—the content deals more with your life than your writing. And that’s okay—it’s clear from your amazing writing that you are a writer, and an awesome one at that.

But that also means that when you’re looking for publication, you’ll want to add something about your fiction to your blog (or create a separate website).

In some ways, however, a lifestyle blog can be even better than a writing blog. You don’t have to make the switch from writing about writing for writers—you already have a niche. You obviously already have a community around your blog, and your future readers can join in this community.

This is one case where I would say keep your blog at its current address rather than moving it to blog.yourname.com (the only exception: if you have/can get (the)chocolatechipcookie.com). Even if you establish YourName.com, I would keep your blog at the same address.

Your welcome letter is fantastic. As an about page, it does a great job of conveying your blog’s niche and purpose, and most of all you and your writing style.

Search engine presence

Your search engine presence is pretty good. For your name, your blog is #1 and #2 on Google, and #1 on Yahoo. Bing, as usual, doesn’t have your blog. However, your Facebook profile is #1. As with lots of our reviews, most of the rest of the top ten results come from your comments around the Internet (hey—Yahoo has your comment on my mom blog in the top ten. Cool!)

(By the way, Bing is Microsoft’s newest name for its search engine, which is supposedly totally revamped. Microsoft and Yahoo have announced a deal where Microsoft will eventually power Yahoo’s search.)

For [chocolate chip cookie], naturally you have some competition. However, your blog is #3 on Google. Bing obviously needs some more time to understand the whole “blog” thing. But the good news: your blog is #1 on Yahoo. You’re competing with every chocolate chip cookie recipe out there and you win! Woot!

Sidebar

I love the way you highlight your favorite posts in the sidebar, especially with the graphics. However, sometimes I wasn’t sure whether a picture a badge, a link to an essay or just something cool to look at until I hovered my mouse over it. Also, there are so many of them I feel a little overwhelmed. Maybe you could assemble them into few posts on your favorite posts in various areas—a collection of your posts on marriage, child birth and child raising, writing, religion, philosophy, etc.—and highlight those posts in your sidebar (with graphics, of course)?

As always, I recommend having the subscribe widgets (with some explanation) a little higher. You could also add subscribe links to your welcome letter. The button you have in the second slot on the sidebar is a good feature—something I keep meaning to do on my mom blog—a portable badge your fans can put on their own blogs. However, it looks like it only works for other Blogger blogs—and before I clicked it, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to do. You could do a graphic with an HTML scroll box to do the same thing (I think, anyway).

Also, you could consider adding a few ways for people to contact you—I know you have Twitter and Facebook in your sidebar, but I missed them because they didn’t have the usual icons. I love the artistic theme to your blog and your sidebar, but be careful not to confuse your visitors or make them accidentally overlook something.

At the minimum, we need a way to contact you directly. (And as always, I’m going to say that a contact page is the best place for that—but it would also go well in your welcome letter.)

What do you think? How do you make sure your visitors can contact you?

Photo of book by Marcos Ojeda

If you’ve been following our website review series, you’ve learned some great things to do (and not to do) when setting up your website. Maybe you’re ready for a “real” website, but not sure how to get it. It’s okay; I’ve worked with websites and Internet marketing for the better part of my life and I still didn’t know exactly how to set up a website until I did my own. And it’s easy.

There are three basic things you need for a functioning website:

1. a domain (you get this from a domain registrar, like GoDaddy)
2. a host to store your website’s pages and files (from a hosting company)
3. (technically, you don’t need this, but unless you’re going to be doing all your coding by hand, you’ll want it) software to work the back end—and hopefully generate the HTML code (usually provided by the hosting company, too)

Sometimes you can get these things together. Blogger, for example, will give you everything—your domain is whatever.blogspot.com, Blogger stores your pages and files, and Blogger software generates your HTML code and provides the software that lets you maintain your site.

In fact, you can make Blogger into your “real” website, which can be especially useful if you’re going to be the one maintaining it. You can also use Blogger Custom Domain to put your Blogger blog at YourDomain.com, and Camy Tang has a useful guide on how to make a a basic free blog more like a website. UPDATE: Blogger has now added a feature to make official “pages” instead of making posts look and act like static pages of your blog. It’s even more flexible and professional-looking now!

Getting more advanced

If you feel like you’re ready for a more “real” website, but still apprehensive about setting one up, here’s my advice: use WordPress. This is especially great if you’re already comfortable with blogging software, because you get the ease of blogging software and the features of a “real” website.

You can use WordPress.com (and you can get a WordPress.com blog to show up at YourDomain.com, too, but it’s not free like it is on Blogger)—or you can use WordPress.org. It’s the same software, but with WordPress.org you can customize your blog however you want.

However, for WordPress.org, you also have to get hosting—space on a server to store your website’s files for others to access them. I’ve been with BlueHost for over two years, and they’ve done really well for me. I chose them because they were inexpensive ($7/month), and one of WordPress’s recommended hosts.

WordPress has some advantages over Blogger that make it more like a “real” website. Camy Tang’s guide above will help you create static pages like an about page or a contact page on Blogger. That’s great—but they’re still going to look and act like posts on your blog.

With WordPress, however, you can keep blog posts and pages separate. Don’t want a blog? That’s okay—you can do that with WordPress, too, and just use the page features to easily create a static website instead. Check out the menu bar at the top of my site. See how it says “About” and “Projects,” etc.? Those link to WordPress pages—timeless, static webpages that aren’t posts on the blog.

Also neat: WordPress made that menu bar all by itself. I didn’t have to do a thing. It updates the menu bar whenever I update a page. WordPress is highly customizable, in both the site design and software—and for free.

If you want to create a WordPress website on BlueHost, sign up for BlueHost using my affiliate link and I’ll send you a free PDF guide to setting up WordPress with BlueHost*—with info on installation, set up, importing blogs, add-ons and more! (If you’re planning to import another blog, also check out my search-engine friendly guide to migrating from Blogger to WordPress to make your switch safe and easy.)

What do you think? Are you ready for a real website?

* To get the guide, be sure to email me at guide at jordanmccollum.com once you’ve completed the sign up.

Another website review for you today! Carol/Careann of Careann.wordpress.com is another one of those bloggers I feel like I’ve seen just everywhere. We’ll look at how she can find and apply a niche to help grow her blog.

Kathleen’s comments

Hello Careann!

Yours is another blog that I’m honestly not sure what to talk about! Your title and picture accurately represent the content, and it’s laid out in an easy-to-follow and eye-pleasing way!

I’m going to ask you the same question I’ve asked a few others. What is the goal of your blog? If it’s self-expression and telling people who you are, then I really don’t see anything to change! I don’t think it’s to promote the articles you’ve written, as they’re already published in magazines, and you won’t get paid more if they go find an old issue. (Or will you?)

Are you wanting to interest people in your unpublished novels? I don’t think so, since you don’t mention them that often . . . which is fine. Some of us like to do that, while others wait to be published. Neither approach is wrong. Once you DO have novels to promote, you’ll want to change the whole focus of your blog and site . . . but that’s not right now.

The final possibility is that you’re like last Friday’s blogger . . . you’re just looking for community online, and your blog is a part of that. If that’s the case, then I’ll copy something I shared with her in the comments.

In order for something to succeed in today’s world—where the whole world is essentially connected and available to everyone—it has to fit a niche . . . a smaller target or focus. We all can’t “afford” to be interested in everything and involved in everything on the entire Internet, so we “weed out” what is slightly less important. We look for that thing that interests us 101%.

Your website/blog will be more likely to succeed if you find SOMETHING to center it around . . . something a little more specific than just “writing.” If you don’t want to center it around a genre, then you can center it around your location and try to find writers near you, or who are interested in your location. [This might be what you want to do, Careann. All you'd have to do is highlight your location.] Or you could target writers in your age group. Or you could center it around writers-who-live-in-the-country. You could even pick something quirky, like writers who love yellow or writers who love to go barefoot. Of course you’d welcome writers (and readers) who love pink a little more than yellow, or writers who really don’t go barefoot all that often . . . but just the fact that it’s got this “grabby” idea will make your visitors more interested, and also make your blog stick in their minds a little more.

Have some fun with ideas!

—Kathleen MacIver, KatieDid Design

Jordan’s comments

Whoa! My next WIP was going to be set in the Fraser Valley Regional District (in a fictional city between Abbotsford and Chilliwack—I was going to call it Lackaway, but I wasn’t sure if that’d sound too rhymey to be believable as a neighbor to Chilliwack. Um . . . anyway. . . .). Awesome—if I ever go back to it, I’ll know who to call!

Pages

Your about page is good&madsh;personable, friendly and informative. It has links to connect with you and your email address. But if I didn’t already know it was there, I might not think to look on the About page before giving up (and, of course, I might). This is why it’s also good to have a dedicated contact page—it doesn’t have to be long or even say anything interesting. You can use a form or list your email address (but do keep it on the about page, too).

I like that your writing page has your writing credits with links to the articles where possible. That’s great! But, like Kathleen said, I’d like to see more about your fiction WIPs (if you’re comfortable with that). It doesn’t have to be an excerpt; even a pitch paragraph or log line description would be good.

I also like that you highlight your Flickr stream on your blog. You link to your Facebook profile on your About page as well; you could add a badge to your sidebar if you’re comfortable with that.

Search engine presence

You’ve got some competition for your name (without your middle initial)—apparently another Carol Garvin is a painter. Yahoo has your blog at #4 for [Carol Garvin], and Google has your about page as #10. Bing . . . well, let’s just move on.

With your middle initial, your blog is #1 on Yahoo and Google (well, #1 and #2 on Google), and #2 and #3 on Bing. Your IMDb page (that’s right, folks, she’s in the Internet Movie Database) outranks your site on Bing.

For [Careann], Yahoo has your blog at #1 and #2, Google has your Flickr stream at #1 and your blog at #2 and I’m about ready to slap Bing in the face.

As always, the standard advice to improve your rankings is to get more links. In addition to the usual sources (guest posts, etc.), you might ask the magazines with your articles online to include a link back to your blog, either in the byline or if they have a short author bio, using your name as the link anchor text.

Finally, I just want to reiterate what Kathleen said about using a niche approach to blogging. Working to appeal to a specific, if narrow, audience can help to grow your blog more than trying to appeal to everyone. This is just like fiction—we don’t expect that everyone will love everything we write (well, okay, we do, but we don’t reasonably expect that ). We know that we have to write to our audience—our niche, our genre.

Also, check out some recent posts on my other blog for help on finding your blog niche and expressing your blog niche.

What do you think? Have you focused on a specific audience with your blog? How did you find your niche?

Photo credits: yellow paint—Tom; puzzle piece (get it—a niche?)— Andronicus Riyono