Comments on: Creative Penn Blog Critique

By: Ronnie

Ronnie — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 05:44:19 +0000

Very interesting post and wise comments

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:03:07 +0000

Writing anything in ‘red’ won’t look good .. for getting attention we can go for other colors or fonts.. anyways tips are good and really a simple look is needed for any kind of websites!

By: Annabel Candy

Annabel Candy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:12:06 +0000

Thanks for all your great articles so far. I think TCP’s well laid out with great content but the colours don’t work for me. Colour is pretty personal though and easy enough to change.

I’m just starting out with my blog and would love to know what you think of my humble site, In the Hot Spot. It has Inspiration, Information and Idiosyncrasies for Living Your Dream. Fingers crossed that you can swing by and give me some of your excellent advice. Thanks again! Annabel

By: Rhianna Knapp

Rhianna Knapp — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 15:01:06 +0000

I quite like nice clean layouts. Our blog is a bit messed up at the moment – I’m not that good at modifying the layouts & find the template seems to mess up at the bottom when we add in pictures… It’s quite frustrating but I’m getting someone to take a look at it soon. Titles reading like keywords isn’t necessarily a bad thing – you still need the search engines to rate you highly so new people can find the blog/website. She probably had the title in H1 tags?

By: James

James — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:54:21 +0000

Totally agree with Neill Watson on this one. Joanna is mainly an author and speaker, so her content should dominate more. It really depends on what your blog/website’s goals are. If your a writer/speaker like Joanna you have to have great articles/content. If you’re a web designer, the theme/design of the site itself should stand out. What people see in your blog/website is already part of your portfolio.

By: Mark Waterfield

Mark Waterfield — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:49:31 +0000

A very insightful critique – particularly to do with the clutter and the need to simplify the layout.

A good designer, as you point out, could be valuable. The color scheme of red and logo do not reinforce the idea of creativity

By: Samantha Lewers

Samantha Lewers — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:21:51 +0000

Great point about the ‘clutter’ and ‘noise’ distracting the buyer from even getting started on reading what they came for. So many blogs have all these extra distractions and often you leave a site not doing (or reading) anything – click, and you’re gone!

By: Absolutely*Kate

Absolutely*Kate — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:10:06 +0000

AIDA ~

It’s always the AIDA theory at work, back from Advertising Marketing 101 . . .

ATTENTION
INTEREST
DESIRE
ACTION

Joanna has Attention & Interest down, “because she’s Joanna”. The folowing has not built for any reason other than SUBSTANTIALLY, this savvy lady of “the industry” is both content and genuine, genuine. I like the suggestionaries of showing the book or class offering to click on – as competition for attention is fast and frenzied in web’read scans … Likewise the good sensibility of the Alex guy just up above me there ^^ that content is king – or queen in this case – royalty holding courtside either way. So a place to rest the eyes welcomes ‘em on in a little more, a little longer and the easy click and follow desires to buy vs ‘bye’ brings it all home.

Hearty congrats to you all.
~ Absolutely*Kate of RiverView Studios
~ currently launching HARBINGER*33 – promotional publishing sailing forth 33 stellar Authors, 3 stunning Artists and 3 scintillating Authenticators – hopefully, one may just be Ms Joanna . . .

By: Alexis Grant

Alexis Grant — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:49:31 +0000

I love Joanna’s content, but to be honest, I never loved the look of the blog. It’s just too busy for my attention span. I think your suggestions are right on target, great ways to draw attention her her awesome posts!

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:48:52 +0000

Great critique. I’m a fan of Jo’s and I think your comments would help her improve a lot. Any chance you want to crit my site?

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:44:36 +0000

Good critique. Everyone is going for Thesis or some theme. Personally, I like the message and don’t care about the theme except the theme in the posts. If a site is about writing, that is the theme I expect in the posts.

Just my opinion.

By: Neill Watson

Neill Watson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:49:51 +0000

Alex wrote “But neither does your theme stands out”.

But for me, the theme shouldn’t stand out, the content should. Sure, if you were a website designer, selling website design services, then a cool, funky site would be fine. But for someone selling a product and engaging readers, the content should dominate

By: Neill Watson

Neill Watson — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:30:04 +0000

Good analysis, Chris. I moved to Thesis just last week for my new car photo blog and the learning curve is not too steep.
My first concern was that it would just look like all the other Thesis themes out there, but then I realised that’s not too bad a thing. After all, it’s probably the biggest selling Wordpress theme out there and the designers have a lot of experience of ‘readability’
Going for a radical website look can sometimes backfire, as you’ve pointed out and ‘conventional’ doesn’t always mean ‘boring’.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:29:42 +0000

Well, you can’t expect too much from a free template, you know? It’s good you told her to get a professional theme or at least go to someone who can help her customize it. But neither does your theme stands out

By: Dr.Mani

Dr.Mani — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:26:11 +0000

Nice critique! I’ve read Joanna’s blog often, but hadn’t noticed some design issues you pointed out in this review. I agree they would make the blog better. Your heirarchy of “Read – Subscribe – Buy” is of use too, will apply it on my blog as well.

All success
Dr.Mani