Welcome to the 12th Reader Blog Critique. Last weeks critique of Thou Shall Blog had some great suggestions so it will be interesting to see what you guys think of this weeks blog.
This weeks review is on TechZilo, a software and technology blog which was moved to it’s current domain in April 2007.
Here are the questions the owner Sumesh would like to ask you all about the blog :
- What do you like and hate about the design?
- How many ads would be too many? (Currently, I have AdSense shown only to search traffic and a CPM-based banner ad)
- Is typography and whitespace adequate enough such that reading is comfortable?
- Ideas to increase subscriber count?
- If I write content suited social media (typically resources and large tutorials) to attract a larger readership, would readers hate it? How often would content aimed at social media “not be too often”?
The most helpful and constructive commenter will get $10. Alternatively, if you prefer, I can register a domain for you at eNom and push it to your account 
Sumesh will decide who the best commenter was.
As usual, I remind everyone that positive or negative, all feedback should be constructive.
If you have any questions about any of this please let me know in this thread
Blog to be Reviewed : TechZilo
Clare | November 11th, 2008 at 10:35 am #
* What do you like and hate about the design?
I really like the design - it’s easy on the eye - there is a lot of white space - and it looks professional. I like your use of a featured article and featured headlines callout. Good to just have excerpts on the homepage too for SEO.
* How many ads would be too many? (Currently, I have AdSense shown only to search traffic and a CPM-based banner ad)
I don’t mind ads on a site as long as they are relevant and they don’t take over. I’m not sure where your adsense banners sit as I clicked straight through. As a direct visitor I wouldn’t mind seeing something in the header or the sidebar.
* Is typography and whitespace adequate enough such that reading is comfortable?
I think the text size of the links in the sidebar could be increased. But otherwise it’s good.
* Ideas to increase subscriber count?
Your subscribe options are clear. Try offering a free download for people who download perhaps. To be honest if your content is well written people will subscribe. Oh if you are using Wordpress then get the WWSGD plugin which allows you to display a message to people on their first few visits prompting them to subscribe.
* If I write content suited social media (typically resources and large tutorials) to attract a larger readership, would readers hate it? How often would content aimed at social media “not be too often”?
I would think that resources and tutorials would be welcomed by your regular readers. Perhaps you could use a poll to ask that question to your readers?
Overall I think it’s a good looking and useful site.
Desk Coder | November 12th, 2008 at 1:22 pm #
1) a)Maybe too much whitespace.
b)Menu links (About, Contact) are too high, not vertically centered. Search is too low.
c) Links are different colors and when you hover you get different colors
d) I like the sidebar headings, but the S in resources is cut off, and resources is not lined up with tutorials.
e) Icons on textbox for feed subscribe look awkward. Not lined up, and they just look shoved together.
f) Subscribe icon is overused (man reading rss newspaper).
g) Link icon next to read full post is confusing.
h) Is rss reader count necessary on single post pages? It can confuse readers when entering their email and finding the button to click.
i) Follow me on Twitter in same block as email subscribe is confusing. Email and Reader RSS subscribe buttons are separated, but why lump twitter with email rss?
j) No dates on when posts were written, or categories on posts.
k) No categories? (found it, but had to search). You need category links and put the archive link in a better place. On archive page, tell me how many posts are under each month and in each category.
2) It is tough to answer without seeing them on the site, and knowing what sizes you will use. I say test and tweak.
3) No problems in my opinion when it comes to readability.
4) I would be more worried about repeat visitors first. Your site seems like a one and done site to me (people come, view one article and leave). This can be improved with j and k listed above.
Kevin Muldoon (Post Author) | November 13th, 2008 at 10:20 am #
Here are my first impressions of the blog
* The advertisements were completely unrelevant to the content of the site. The top bottom and right hand side banners were all advertising specsavers. I think you would be better off placing tech related advertisements here.
* I like the logo but I think it would be good to include a brief description of the blog to the right hand side of it. At the moment it’s just whitespace so you could write the tagline ‘Software, internet and productivity tips’ or something like that.
* The content in the about boxes at the bottom of the page needs tidying up. At the moment there are a few commas here and there out of place.
TechZilo was launched in May 2007, and is a blog dedicated to bringing you technology tutorials, reviews of the best software, web tools and applications, design and web resources. TechZilo has been quoted on some of the most reputable blogs - Lifehacker, Download Squad, 901am, Digital Inspiration and Quick Online Tips.
would be better as:
TechZilo was launched in April 2007 to bring you high quality tutorials and reviews of the best software, web tools, technology applications, design and web resources. TechZilo has been quoted on some of the most reputable blogs including Lifehacker, Download Squad, 901am, Digital Inspiration and Quick Online Tips.
I changed the date from May to April 2007 as that is when you started posting (check your archives)
Sumesh is a technology enthusiast, writer, part-time designer/SEO from India. He is a former freelance writer, and has worked with some high-profile blogs. He also writes Blog Creativity, a blog for blogging, design, SEO and WordPress tips. Contact him if you have any news tip, technology query or tutorial requests.
would be better as :
Sumesh is a technology enthusiast, writer, part-time designer and SEO specialist from India. He is a former freelance writer and has worked with many high-profile blogs. He also writes for Blog Creativity, a blog for blogging, design, SEO and WordPress tips. Please contact him if you have any news tip, technology query or tutorial requests.
Sumesh | November 13th, 2008 at 9:00 pm #
Thanks for all your suggestions, folks. I’ve noted Kevin and Desk Coder’s suggestions, and will implement some of them soon. As for whitespace and minimalistic design, a)my content is text heavy and b)AdSense performs better in a minimalist template with lots of whitespace.
As for the header banner, I have applied to a couple of better CPM networks, which will have targeted ads.
Thanks for your kind words, Clare.
And thanks to Kevin for the copywriting
Rarst has cool feed | November 16th, 2008 at 2:22 pm #
I think I visited in the past but not really sure. Count as fresh impressions.
Very light and fast design, but ads are totally unrelated as noted above. They are not really overwhelming but totally not matching.
Answering questions
1. I like overall looks, nothing hate-grade on home page.
2. Amount is about fine, but need better targeting.
3. I like typography and layout, two-colored headings are especially good.
4. Fix subscriber area, it’s a mess. More on it later.
5. If you are writing something that can alienate readers - how can it increase readership?
General notes
6. No XML sitemap.
7. Doesn’t validate http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://www.techzilo.com/
Home page
8. Logo (and favicon) is great but there is too much white space to the right. No tagline either.
9. Some elements are bordered, some aren’t. It’s bit inconsistent.
10. Excerpts are auto-generated (bad) and could use some graphics.
11. I don’t like social bookmark links near excerpts. It’s kinda unlikely to promote posts based on excerpt only.
Static pages
12. About and contact pages are in a mad mix. Weird list on contacts page, plenty of contact links on about page.
13. About story both here and in footer has kinda identity clash. There are both blog and author described but always separately. For me personally it creates image of secondary blog that is not very relevant to author.
14. Advertise page has pretty solid prices but no stats to show what you get. No ad sizes either.
15. Archives could use two columns. A lot of people simply won’t see categories links.
16. I totally don’t like top posts page. Too many of them and I highly doubt that posts like “Fix for hang up of Windows Live Writer” are awesome content interesting to lots of readers.
17. What is the purpose of subscription block in static pages? Don’t get it.
Single post page
18. I am not search traffic yet I see two giant adsense blocks in the start and middle of post. Epic fail. If I wander on such page first - I am immediately out.
19. A lot of unused space in area after footer.
20. Tiny link to forum in comment forum? No mention of forum elsewhere and forum itself doesn’t match site… and doesn’t have a single post.
Sidebar
21. Newspaper icon is clever and cool. Problem is (I found that hard way - by using it at my blog) - it totally sucks for getting subscribers. Details are too smal, it’s easy to miss and totally blends with light background.
22. Subscription area - different fonts, different colors, split by border in parts, different graphics used… Complete mess.
23. Lists are good but I’d change them to unordered. Numbers add feeling of ranking.
Footer
24. I’ve mentioned identity clash already.
25. Footer background has too low contrast with white overall background.
Overall
Solid tech blog that suffers from terrible advertisement strategy and badly tweaked subscription areas.
I had also clicked through two pages of posts and hadn’t seen a single comment. Which is kinda weird - where is that community that comes with hundreds of subscribers?
Sumesh | November 17th, 2008 at 8:53 pm #
Thanks for the exhaustive critique, Rarst. Will make changes as soon as I can.
As for no comments, some blogs have readerships that read without being active. My blog is like that. I tend to get more search traffic too, which do not comment very much.
Rarst has cool feed | November 17th, 2008 at 11:26 pm #
>19. A lot of unused space in area after footer.
Ops, read as “after post”.
I know number of comments blogs get is different however zero is still not a good number in my opinion.