Everyone’s a critic
Are you the type of person that can’t wait to tell your friends about a movie and point out its highs and lows? Do you go out for dinner and analyze the restaurant’s atmosphere, quality of service, or how the toilet was kept? This is a call to my readers be a critic of this blog. I came across this idea from Bryan Baker, a student at Oregon State who got a format suggestion from Wes Mahler and ultimately started, I presume, with David Airey. All are great blogs, by the way. I wonder if this goes back further?
There are several benefits to the budding critic for this little scheme: Fame, fortune, immortality etc… Not only that, the critic will score some major karma points, have exposure to millions* of viewers, and receive a critique of their blog. Don’t you just love The Critic, by the way?
*potentially - results may vary, see below for details
So if you’re up for the challenge, I encourage all of you to please carefully examine my blog and leave a comment below. There are just a few things I ask that you do:
- Criticisms are suggested to be in the form of Positive, Opportunity, Positive. I also encourage specific suggestions and if you don’t like this format, well that’s too bad! Just kidding, just no flat out bashing please.
- If you leave a comment and are a blogger yourself, you agree to allow me to critique your site as well.
Here’s the fun part. I would like to start a program to spread this idea around and reward those that take part, similar to what I posted before. To get started write a post in your blog about critiques, much like I did, then copy the text including links where it states start copying here. Add your blog’s name to the top of the list and paste this along with the links into your post. This should result in many excellent suggestions to improve your site as well as the bonus of having incoming links to your blog to increase exposure. Don’t forget to copy the list exactly and add your own site to the top of The Critics list. Finally, don’t forget to critique me in the comments below. I will take all reasonable suggestions to heart.
***start copying here***
The Critics
James Britton
Bryan Baker
Wes Mahler
David Airey
***finish copying here***
If you would like to follow these comments, subscribe to the comment feed and while you’re at it, subscribe to the main feed as well… Let the critiques begin!
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7 very welcomed comments so far...
Your comments are very welcome:
Bryan Baker got ahead of me! This is the first comment, copied from another post. Read on…
BEST
Colors. Easy to read, great structure for posting comments, and besides the Ireland Google Ads…clean page.
WORST
·Advertisements cluttering posts.
·Bottom of posts has so many links!
I SUGGEST U
·Clean up the site, maybe a few advertisements, but nothing intruding. Content must come before ads.
·Remove “Yesterdays’ Top 5 Links”.
·Remove calendar.
·What is twitter? Remove?
in summary…clean up the ads and un-needed sidebar objects.
Keep up the great content
I’m liking the Top Commentators Widget.
The Category Cloud is a bit odd…not sure if I like it that much.
What are the “Treadless” and “Kayak” adds on here for?
I like how your “Featured Sites” blends well with the rest of your blog…wile I must say that the “Ads by Google” do not blend quite as well.
If you do a google search for “Google Adsense heat map” you’ll see the right sidebar is not the best place for a high CTR(i.e. you won’t get paid $100 in a lifetime).
Add a picture to your About-the-Author page.
Capitalize the Title of your blog…looks sloppy IMO being all lowercase, but if that’s you’re style then be consitent (e.g. all lowercase in post titles..)
I’m all about trying to help you and everyone else get the best site possible. Thanks for this great idea.
*****
And always, please continue to offer constructive criticism at Bryan-Baker Dot Com. Thanks James!
Thanks for the mention. It’s very much appreciated.
I’ve a few blogs that are scheduled for a graphic designer’s critique but if you shoot me a message I’ll be happy to store yours in the queue.
I’m from Bangor, Northern Ireland, by the way. Ireland’s a wonderful country.
@Bryan
Thanks so much for the feedback. I have already implemented a few of your suggestions. I took down the Threadless and Kayak ads, I may add them back toward the bottom later but I do think it flows down the side better. A big thanks for the Google Adsense heat map suggestion. I’ll make those ad adjustments and see how it goes. As for the font case, I still like it lowercase. I may decide to change the titles of the sidebar items to lowercase, I’ll just have to mess around with it. I guess I could make all headers in lower to be consistent. Finally, still trying to find the best picture for my “About” page.
Thanks again!
@David
No problem at all. I just thought it was a great idea and was impressed with all of the comments your post attracted. I love the design and have been thinking of customising Vertigo for another project I’m developing.
I’ll have another look at your blog and leave some feedback. Thanks for stopping by and if I go near Bangor, I’ll look you up.
Slainte!
I like the layout of your site. As I said I almost used the same theme, but decided on the one I’m using now
I’ll give you what I think is negative because negatives is what ultimately helps the most..I think you should get rid of the calendar. Also, I think you should maybe make a seperate page to showcase your flikr photos. Personally it just seems like more clutter on the sidebar, and it’s located at the bottom so people maybe don’t see your photos.
Other than that I think the colors and plugins that you’ve included are great.
@Gregg
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it!
I will remove the calendar since you’re the 2nd person to mention it. I think I’ll have to sleep on the flickr badge though. I like it and I know it’s kinda personal that’s why I have relegated it to the bottom.
Thanks!