Just started a new blog about non-profit blogging

[petercasier]

I just started a new blog, BlogTips, in which I want to share my experiences in setting up and managing blogs, specifically for non-profit organisations...

Trying to cover both the "how to" technical end, but also the "why"...

It is also my first self-hosted Wordpress.org blog, so would welcome any feedback!

Peter

[mlbbabble]

The information is really good. My only criticism is that I was a little overwhelmed when I first logged on. There was a lot of text and images staring me in the face.

[petercasier]

You might be right.... There is something that does not go down well with neither... it might be the 'busy' impression... Maybe I need to make the framing for the sidecolumns easier (they now have grey title bars, boxes around them... ) Maybe that is a bit too much.

More opinions anyone!

[Nathan]

This looks like a very nice start on a blog.

The articles are great, and the images that you have accompanying them are amazing. Where did you find those images of street signs and traffic lights?

I think that one thing you should remove is the related posts list on the main page. Related posts should show up on post pages, but not on the main page of the blog. Just this one thing can do a lot to clear up the cluttered, overly busy look of the blog.

Good start, though.

[petercasier]

Hi Nathan,

thanks for your comments!

Originally Posted by Nathan

Where did you find those images of street signs and traffic lights?

If the pictures are not mine, there is a link with accreditation at the bottom of each post...

Originally Posted by Nathan

I think that one thing you should remove is the related posts list on the main page. Related posts should show up on post pages, but not on the main page of the blog.

Done! (Was not part of the plugin options, so this was the first time ever I did anything in PHP... feel proud of myself!)

Peter

[Nathan]

That is much better.

It made a huge difference, just as I had expected. The blog already looks a lot cleaner, and now there is more focus on the "Read More" link.

[Captured Ink]

Yes, I completely agree this is alot of information when you first login to the site. But its a clean website with some great graphics. I think that is a site to watch.

[Ben]

I have a blog in the same niche as you (blogging tips, rather than content relating to not-for-profit organisations). I think you have made a good start and the posts look useful. There are a few things that might help to improve the blog - these are just my thoughts, and not necessarily the best way to do things:

I haven't read most of the content, but at first glance it doesn't look like you're staying true to your niche. I may be wrong, apologies if I made a mistake here. Your URL is a giveaway though - it seems like you're trying to run a general purpose "blog tips" site - there's not a huge amount to do with "non-profit".

The "non-profit" part of your tagline doesn't sit too well with me, to be honest. This is because it's not clear if you mean "I don't blog for profit" or if you mean "if you're a not-for-profit organisation, these blog tips will be of use to you". In fact, it might even mean "my blog is not planning to make money, but that's not what I'm writing about, I'm just publishing general blog tips". I think you need to make this clearer.

The theme isn't particularly memorable. Using a different background colour for your sidebars might help a bit, or you could make the headers in your sidebar stand out more. In particular, I don't understand why you chose the header image you're currently using?

I also think your categories could do with a rethink. For instance, what's the difference between "Easy", "Blogging 101", "FYI", "What is" and "How to"? They all seem quite similar. "Advanced" and "Geeky" are quite similar too. It's not a bad idea to split things by experience level, but you may end up with some very busy category pages if you do it this way. I prefer to split the topics by category.

Anyway, just some ideas - feel free to do your own thing if I'm not making much sense

[petercasier]

@TTBT:

I love the feedback... It is always useful to see what the impressions of others are, especially if they have the same interests as me...!

You are absolutely right that at first glance, this site looks like the normal 'blog tips' and it is not easy to see the 'nonprofit' part in it... I will need to do something about that.

As I work in nonprofit (and gradually seem to make my profession out of my hobby, using a lot of social media in the job I do - how lucky can one get?), I am sometimes too deep into it. I get the questions from others in the nonprofit sector, and more or less publish the answers on my site...
Doing so, I forget to stress the applicability to nonprofit organisations etc...

That having said, of course, 90% of the stuff I write about can be applied for profit as well as nonprofit organisations...

I will try to profile it better... Points well taken, Ben: branding is important, but sticking to one's brand even more so...

On the theme and banner...:
I think the preferences really depend on the individual. I like the theme as it is pretty clean. The banner is more geared to the nonprofit and aid sector... For me, it also represents 'bloggers in a world of information and media', as the two people stand in between the cows... (am I too poetic? ).

On the categories:
I think you are right... Will have to rethink. (the tagging also, BTW)...


PS: if you have time, go through some of the content also... I try to put together quite a bit of original material..

@nathan and @mlbbabble:
thanks again so much for your feedback.. I worked more on the cluttering. I deleted the boxes around the widgets, and removed the underline attribute for the links. I think that takes away some of the clutter effect too.

@event-promotions:
Thanks.. hope to see you back!

Have a great weekend, friends!

Peter

[fighter10]

nice start, good looking blog