Very first blog; sharing life & college stories, funny stuff, rants/raves

[artizhay]

I told my self way back in the day that I would never open a blog. I don't know why, it just didn't appeal to me at all.

But I caved! -apologizes to self-

I'm looking not only for feedback on my blog, but blogs that are similar to mine so we can exchange readership.

My blog is about anything that interests me that I think others will find interesting. I have opinion stories, uncovering of secrets, and other things about the stuff in the title. I try to add my humor to all my posts.

http://www.artizhay.com

I think it's pretty fun and I'm actually happy with my results, considering the domain's only been alive for 2 weeks and some of that time involved setting it up and fixing some shenanigans. I have a total of 421 unique visitors and I already have an Alexa rank, so...yay!

Anyway, do you find it interesting? Is there anything I can change? What do you like about it?

If you don't think it's interesting, how can I improve?

I know I need more content, but I'm looking for some initial feedback.
What I'd like to do is put some of my humor into my cover images (like the Asian lady on the homepage for my recent post)...I could have a photomanipulation of some kids charging at a foreign teacher. I don't know. I'm lazy.

And for the link...if you missed it! Skedaddle on over at http://www.artizhay.com =D

[The Gentleman]

I like it!

The look is very sleek and navigation is fairly smooth, the only issue is that it is all too busy, something important is that I be able to know what the important part of the page is.

The articles are also quite good, I look forward to watching this blog grow.

[artizhay]

Originally Posted by The Gentleman

I like it!

The look is very sleek and navigation is fairly smooth, the only issue is that it is all too busy, something important is that I be able to know what the important part of the page is.

The articles are also quite good, I look forward to watching this blog grow.

Thanks! How is it hard to find the important part of the page? <-- That sounds rude. It's not. XD I don't know how to better phrase it.

I was sort of inspired by the blog xiaxue.blogspot.com because she blogs about life, has all sorts of stuff going on on the site, and has loads of visitors. ^_^

I appreciate the quick feedback. =]

[Melody]

That is a busy blog! Too many widgets. Not a clean appearance. Your twitter bird up top is strange because you cannot click on it to get to your twitter profile - You have to use the widget on the lower right of the screen.

Your blog posts are all very long. You should read the blog thread about length of post here. I have produced some content close to 2000 words, but to have a number of those back to back wears on your reader.

Your archive should be more clear. How about an archive page or a simple date archive on the side.

The conventional wisdom on tag clouds is that there 'so 90s' - I have heard this from a number of more professional bloggers who believe that now with sophisticated search engines, and very sophisticated word press blogs, that a tag cloud just clutters.

Since you are using twitter, I highly suggest that you follow @MackCollier who is a professional blogger about blogging. He dominates that conversation, and hosts #blogchat sunday nights at 6 pm (PST) on twitter.

It is also a bit much to have a whole stream of tweets on your side bar.

I hate to say this, but I recommend looking at my blog to see a really clean site.

Do you have Google Analytics installed on your site?? I question your statistic of 421 uniques in 2 weeks. That's about 30 a day. It sure is possible. I had that (slightly better actually) when my blog was brand new but I got really really really lucky and got a Seattle Times Coffee City Blog mention when my site was brand new, and thus got immediate traffic.

By the way, I see you are in Texas - My own blog has significant readership in Texas. Not sure what it is about Texans but they love their coffee, which _stuns_ me because I would think it would be too warm down there!!

The "browse the archive" link at the bottom of the screen is kind of what I was thinking should be more visible, higher up.

Generally speaking, as you browse blogs, the more professional and mainstream the blog, the cleaner the appearance. Granted there will be exceptions, but that tends to hold true.

Good luck with blogging. As to your content, it's well-written, and you've found some interesting posts. Not really up my ally but the one about the things fast food restaurants won't tell you, struck me as very interesting!

Despite my long thoughts above (I do not give flimsy blog review - I take my blog seriously, and expect you take yours seriously), I think you are well on your way. Your command of the English language is superb. You have original content. You have a sense of humor (I liked the about page with the thing about the fluffy squirrel). But as with all blogs, most of blogging is a test of time. Slow and steady win the race. Most blogs get abandoned fairly fast.

Good luck!

PS: Sorry for a million typos in this - I'm on a slower old computer at the moment, it's a pain, and I'm in a hurry.

[The Gentleman]

Originally Posted by artizhay

Thanks! How is it hard to find the important part of the page? <-- That sounds rude. It's not. XD I don't know how to better phrase it.

Basically what Melody said, it looks nice but it is too busy and your eyes are drawn everywhere rather than just to the important information.

[artizhay]

Originally Posted by Melody

That is a busy blog! Too many widgets. Not a clean appearance. Your twitter bird up top is strange because you cannot click on it to get to your twitter profile - You have to use the widget on the lower right of the screen.

Your blog posts are all very long. You should read the blog thread about length of post here. I have produced some content close to 2000 words, but to have a number of those back to back wears on your reader.

Your archive should be more clear. How about an archive page or a simple date archive on the side.

The conventional wisdom on tag clouds is that there 'so 90s' - I have heard this from a number of more professional bloggers who believe that now with sophisticated search engines, and very sophisticated word press blogs, that a tag cloud just clutters.

Since you are using twitter, I highly suggest that you follow @MackCollier who is a professional blogger about blogging. He dominates that conversation, and hosts #blogchat sunday nights at 6 pm (PST) on twitter.

It is also a bit much to have a whole stream of tweets on your side bar.

I hate to say this, but I recommend looking at my blog to see a really clean site.

Do you have Google Analytics installed on your site?? I question your statistic of 421 uniques in 2 weeks. That's about 30 a day. It sure is possible. I had that (slightly better actually) when my blog was brand new but I got really really really lucky and got a Seattle Times Coffee City Blog mention when my site was brand new, and thus got immediate traffic.

By the way, I see you are in Texas - My own blog has significant readership in Texas. Not sure what it is about Texans but they love their coffee, which _stuns_ me because I would think it would be too warm down there!!

The "browse the archive" link at the bottom of the screen is kind of what I was thinking should be more visible, higher up.

Generally speaking, as you browse blogs, the more professional and mainstream the blog, the cleaner the appearance. Granted there will be exceptions, but that tends to hold true.

Good luck with blogging. As to your content, it's well-written, and you've found some interesting posts. Not really up my ally but the one about the things fast food restaurants won't tell you, struck me as very interesting!

Despite my long thoughts above (I do not give flimsy blog review - I take my blog seriously, and expect you take yours seriously), I think you are well on your way. Your command of the English language is superb. You have original content. You have a sense of humor (I liked the about page with the thing about the fluffy squirrel). But as with all blogs, most of blogging is a test of time. Slow and steady win the race. Most blogs get abandoned fairly fast.

Good luck!

PS: Sorry for a million typos in this - I'm on a slower old computer at the moment, it's a pain, and I'm in a hurry.

That is a good point about the Twitter bird. It's a premade layout and I have made several changes to it, but I didn't think of that bird. I added that in there now. =]

I had two options to choose from when displaying posts: excerpt or full post. I keep my excerpts short because I use them in that gray box at the top for the most recent post. So I opted for the full posts on the main page. Some solutions that I can come up with are:

• Use only 1 post on the main page (full length) and it'll be the second newest one, meaning the newest will still be in that top box.
• Keep the 3 but write a script to limit each one to say...300 words and then have a "Read More" link.
• Use just 2 full-length posts.

For some reason, I specifically excluded including the Archive page at the top in the nav bar...I have no idea why. I'll add that back in soon.

Just for your benefit:

I am very sure of my stats. I also have AwStats and a few others that my host provides, but the numbers are inflated because they include my visits. I exclude my visits from GA. The reason for the uneven traffic (though it starts to level out there at the end because of a building of a Twitter following) is because it peaks on blog post days when I ping to about 20-30 social sites. That massive spike is actually the fast food secrets post you referred to.
I can make these numbers go up even more because I own 2 sites and manage one other. My most popular site (online texting) gets about >100 visits per day so I can advertise there plus I can inject my own ads in the texts sent from the site.
So while I'm concerned with traffic generation, I'm more concerned about retaining traffic by making blog improvements.

I don't know how many Starbucks you have in your area, but we have 2 Starbucks right across from each other, 1 more down the street, then another around the corner and down the street. xD Plus some others I probably don't know about.
My girlfriend's parents are actually in that OrGano Gold coffee scheme, her stepdad always saying it's profitable because "coffee is the second most traded commodity next to oil." There are some articles challenging that but whatever. I guess everyone likes their coffee. =D

Except for me. Venti Double Chocolaty Chip Blended Creme Frappuccino with extra whip all the way.

Currently I appeal to a younger population (I get several Twitter mentions or DMs per day from teens saying they love my blog) what with the college posts, etc. but of course if I want to acquire a wider audience, I will need to appeal to both teens and adults. I will work on finding a medium for the layout of my blog based on the things you guys suggested. Especially when my posts cover more "mainstream" topics. My next post is actually about this technology system to convert human power output into electricity to power things like iPods. So that will appeal to a more adult audience and I will need to find a way to retain them with the blog layout.

As for the widgets, would limiting the Lifestream to about 5 posts be okay? I like the Lifestream because it lets people see what I'm doing right now, right inside the blog. I also plan on making a widget for my favorite music since music is important to almost everyone and I want people to be able to find out which music is important to me. Maybe I can use that in place of the tag cloud?

Thank you for all of your compliments and critiques. =] I will also follow that blogger you mentioned.

[Melody]

That was a well-written reply to me. You know, you're a thinker, and that will get your blog a long long way.

I have one blog only. My first, one and only blog, but if your blog is following a pattern like mine, you'll easily have 10 times the traffic in about roughly one year.

Yes it's true, coffee is the 2nd most traded commodity! Makes it a good blog niche!

Those Texans! Now that I know you love a Frappuccino, I expect to see you visit my site.

I see you fixed the twitter bird.

Given your content, I like the idea of showing excerpts and you definitely want to have a few blog posts showing on the main page.

Hey so I'll try to check back in on your blog again. There are so many to visit regularly, but I'll be curious how your blog is developing. I've also always believed that it is a little easier to nurture a devoted readership with a distinct niche, but of course, an in general blog can be a hit too.

[artizhay]

Originally Posted by Melody

That was a well-written reply to me. You know, you're a thinker, and that will get your blog a long long way.

I have one blog only. My first, one and only blog, but if your blog is following a pattern like mine, you'll easily have 10 times the traffic in about roughly one year.

Yes it's true, coffee is the 2nd most traded commodity! Makes it a good blog niche!

Those Texans! Now that I know you love a Frappuccino, I expect to see you visit my site.

I see you fixed the twitter bird.

Given your content, I like the idea of showing excerpts and you definitely want to have a few blog posts showing on the main page.

Hey so I'll try to check back in on your blog again. There are so many to visit regularly, but I'll be curious how your blog is developing. I've also always believed that it is a little easier to nurture a devoted readership with a distinct niche, but of course, an in general blog can be a hit too.

A logical artiste. What my girlfriend calls me. I feel unique. ;D

I may do the 300 word cut-off excerpt but I'm toying with the idea of two full-length posts. That fast food post was exceptionally long and most posts won't be like that. But with the cut-off, I'm concerned about it cutting off in the middle of an embed or something and my site going kaboom. I'll have to come up with a fix for that.

So why not blog about oil? =P

I will visit your blog since you've visited mine. =D

[KaiPhoenix]

I'm rubbish so nearly always get confused by wordpress blogs...curse of being a ditzy daisy I guess

The blog does seem a little busy and I'm not really sure what I'm looking at, once I got over the initial feeling of confusion it is fairly easy to navigate and I do like the bright vibrant feel

Your about me page is good, I like your writing style It's very friendly which is awesome

Okay I just read some of your posts and enjoyed them, I think you will have a good blog on your hands! I would say concentrate on your writing and calm down everything else...but that is only my humble opinion, good luck!

[Alyssa]

Nice blog, keep up the good work!