As far the forum:
- If you do start then make sure to go with vbulletin. Paid but great resources
- Make sure to have a same header for both blog and forum. its tough to get this part done but if you ask around then you should be able to get it done cheap. ( An example will be my Cell Phone Forum.)
- You can monetize you forum at that point as well

As far the forum:
- If you do start then make sure to go with vbulletin. Paid but great resources
- Make sure to have a same header for both blog and forum. its tough to get this part done but if you ask around then you should be able to get it done cheap. ( An example will be my Cell Phone Forum.)
- You can monetize you forum at that point as well

One thing I didn’t like is the Google Adsense on the site. I don’t know, for some reason that immediately turns me off on most sites. It gives the flog feel to me. I do use feedburner and have adsense in my feeds (which I’m thinking about removing) but not on my site. I too use the Thesis theme but have customized it quite a bit, kept it simple. Originally I intended to use Adsense or ads but reconsidered and decided to concentrate on content and building relationships and readers. I still have trouble with the “I’m here to help so let me sell you something” feeling. That’s just my take… and if I’m to do it full time or benefit monetarily from it then that opportunity will present itself in time.

I agree about adding additional areas of focus, self-help, personal growth (although that’s a HUGE niche). But Patrick hits a great point in his The Creative Theory of Recovery Explained with “You’re either creating a new life for yourself or you are sliding back towards relapse.” I’m either moving towards the solution or spiritual growth or away from it. In every decision I make. His creative theory can apply across many areas of personal well-being.

Many of us in recovery and working a program have often wished for those not recovering from addiction (but still struggle with accepting life on life’s terms or finding serenity) had some type of program based on spiritual principles. We’ve found happiness and serenity and simply want others to experience it. Although its hard to practice “attraction rather than promotion” in the online world. I guess which is one reason I try to use “me” and “I” for the most part in my posts and not tell my readers what they should do. I’m simply talking from experience. After all that’s all I have, I don’t have the answers, just my experience of what worked for me. Sorry, got away from the subject.

I noticed there’s no real Categories, topics, or way to navigate the topics on the site other than the Archives tab at the top. Maybe give the readers more clear sense of “Hear what I have to say on this topic.” Which reminds me to take a look at my own site.

Thanks for the critique and great site Patrick! Keep coming back!

One thing I didn’t like is the Google Adsense on the site. I don’t know, for some reason that immediately turns me off on most sites. It gives the flog feel to me. I do use feedburner and have adsense in my feeds (which I’m thinking about removing) but not on my site. I too use the Thesis theme but have customized it quite a bit, kept it simple. Originally I intended to use Adsense or ads but reconsidered and decided to concentrate on content and building relationships and readers. I still have trouble with the “I’m here to help so let me sell you something” feeling. That’s just my take… and if I’m to do it full time or benefit monetarily from it then that opportunity will present itself in time.

I agree about adding additional areas of focus, self-help, personal growth (although that’s a HUGE niche). But Patrick hits a great point in his The Creative Theory of Recovery Explained with “You’re either creating a new life for yourself or you are sliding back towards relapse.” I’m either moving towards the solution or spiritual growth or away from it. In every decision I make. His creative theory can apply across many areas of personal well-being.

Many of us in recovery and working a program have often wished for those not recovering from addiction (but still struggle with accepting life on life’s terms or finding serenity) had some type of program based on spiritual principles. We’ve found happiness and serenity and simply want others to experience it. Although its hard to practice “attraction rather than promotion” in the online world. I guess which is one reason I try to use “me” and “I” for the most part in my posts and not tell my readers what they should do. I’m simply talking from experience. After all that’s all I have, I don’t have the answers, just my experience of what worked for me. Sorry, got away from the subject.

I noticed there’s no real Categories, topics, or way to navigate the topics on the site other than the Archives tab at the top. Maybe give the readers more clear sense of “Hear what I have to say on this topic.” Which reminds me to take a look at my own site.

Thanks for the critique and great site Patrick! Keep coming back!

While I have little to add to your comments about Spiritual River. I am more appreciative with stumbling across your site and learning something about how I should move forward with my own site. I have two already and finally doing the site I always wanted. I think your advice helped even though I am doing nothing similar to this critique.

Thanks,
devin

While I have little to add to your comments about Spiritual River. I am more appreciative with stumbling across your site and learning something about how I should move forward with my own site. I have two already and finally doing the site I always wanted. I think your advice helped even though I am doing nothing similar to this critique.

Thanks,
devin

I read your post on Everything You Know About Addiction is Wrong when you first published it – and I still remember it!

I agree with Chris – you need to show more clearly what people will get from your site: offering support as you recover from addiction, or, information to help you stay straight, or whatever. Also that you could point up your difference a bit more, I really like your emphasis that recovery is a spiritual process (I might be very untypical but it’s worth finding out (if you haven’t already) whether this could be your uniqueness).

I read your post on Everything You Know About Addiction is Wrong when you first published it – and I still remember it!

I agree with Chris – you need to show more clearly what people will get from your site: offering support as you recover from addiction, or, information to help you stay straight, or whatever. Also that you could point up your difference a bit more, I really like your emphasis that recovery is a spiritual process (I might be very untypical but it’s worth finding out (if you haven’t already) whether this could be your uniqueness).

Maybe the Google Ads block on the 2nd page is a tad to big. But I am sure you will soon find a balance between usability and revenues here

The homepage itself may need some more teaser texts to attract readers’ attention and to drag them into the subpages. Can’t you provide a summary of your 10 latest blog posts on your homepage? That way more people may want to explore your site.

Otherwise, good job!

Maybe the Google Ads block on the 2nd page is a tad to big. But I am sure you will soon find a balance between usability and revenues here

The homepage itself may need some more teaser texts to attract readers’ attention and to drag them into the subpages. Can’t you provide a summary of your 10 latest blog posts on your homepage? That way more people may want to explore your site.

Otherwise, good job!

Hello Patrick…I most certainly do think you should build a community. Adding a forum would be a fantastic move since it would allow visitors to communicate with one another…great idea since, as you know, no one recovers alone. It has been my experience that helping others in their personal recovery helped me with mine. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. When you spend a long time wrecking your life, that sense of helping and accomplishment is priceless. You know this. I particularly like that you offer the ebook sans strings. Classy touch my friend.

Chris mentioned the importance of comments and I would like to build on his premise. Now, I am by no means an expert on blogging, not even close, yet, I know people and I seem to have a knack for understanding things intuitively. You need to let your readers know how important they are to you. There are simply not enough bloggers doing that one simple thing. If they are your inspiration, tell them so. For example…when requesting a comment, you might add something like…”You, Dear Reader, are my primary source of inspiration!” or “You, Dear Reader, are the voice that guides my pen!”. You see…let them know.

Peace and Peace

Hello Patrick…I most certainly do think you should build a community. Adding a forum would be a fantastic move since it would allow visitors to communicate with one another…great idea since, as you know, no one recovers alone. It has been my experience that helping others in their personal recovery helped me with mine. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. When you spend a long time wrecking your life, that sense of helping and accomplishment is priceless. You know this. I particularly like that you offer the ebook sans strings. Classy touch my friend.

Chris mentioned the importance of comments and I would like to build on his premise. Now, I am by no means an expert on blogging, not even close, yet, I know people and I seem to have a knack for understanding things intuitively. You need to let your readers know how important they are to you. There are simply not enough bloggers doing that one simple thing. If they are your inspiration, tell them so. For example…when requesting a comment, you might add something like…”You, Dear Reader, are my primary source of inspiration!” or “You, Dear Reader, are the voice that guides my pen!”. You see…let them know.

Peace and Peace

Just to clarify, the Adsense is not on the home page, and I’ve also removed it from about 30 other posts and pages, including some of the navigational pages.

I tried having “share this” for a while but it did not do well. My traffic is 80 percent from Google and they are a low-tech audience. 95 percent of them have never heard of RSS.

I get 1 to 3 emails every day from people asking advice directly. Another 1 to 3 in the comments as well. I have turned a lot of that into “reader mailbag” posts.

Question: does anyone think I should try to build a community? I have a unique slant on recovery ideas and could possibly add a forum.

Thanks Ted and Randy for your feedback. I appreciate any comments you guys can give me!

Just to clarify, the Adsense is not on the home page, and I’ve also removed it from about 30 other posts and pages, including some of the navigational pages.

I tried having “share this” for a while but it did not do well. My traffic is 80 percent from Google and they are a low-tech audience. 95 percent of them have never heard of RSS.

I get 1 to 3 emails every day from people asking advice directly. Another 1 to 3 in the comments as well. I have turned a lot of that into “reader mailbag” posts.

Question: does anyone think I should try to build a community? I have a unique slant on recovery ideas and could possibly add a forum.

Thanks Ted and Randy for your feedback. I appreciate any comments you guys can give me!

I’ve been doing a local real estate blog for about a year and it’s given the me the confidence that I can generate the content and have the discipline to launch a more ambitious project and try to claim a niche in real estate, that is, developing best practices for selling houses.

Most real estate agents are taught to generate leads and sell themselves, not market homes. I set out to create some “Killer Flagship Content” and wrote an ebook that I’ll offer on the site. This leads to my question about the critique of Patrick’s Spiritual River blog. He too has created an ebook. I was surprised that downloading it did not require me to register. One of my motives for writing the ebook was to have something of value to offer in exchange for permission to continue communication. Is this a special case where the intention is to get valuable information into the hands of people who need it and may want to maintain anonymity? In any case, are there pros and cons to the approach of exchanging the ebook for a subscription sign-up?

My own plan for monetizing is to try to build a following and gradually involve affiliates that offer quality products that listing agents can use to market homes and possibly develop some training and info products too.

I’ve been doing a local real estate blog for about a year and it’s given the me the confidence that I can generate the content and have the discipline to launch a more ambitious project and try to claim a niche in real estate, that is, developing best practices for selling houses.

Most real estate agents are taught to generate leads and sell themselves, not market homes. I set out to create some “Killer Flagship Content” and wrote an ebook that I’ll offer on the site. This leads to my question about the critique of Patrick’s Spiritual River blog. He too has created an ebook. I was surprised that downloading it did not require me to register. One of my motives for writing the ebook was to have something of value to offer in exchange for permission to continue communication. Is this a special case where the intention is to get valuable information into the hands of people who need it and may want to maintain anonymity? In any case, are there pros and cons to the approach of exchanging the ebook for a subscription sign-up?

My own plan for monetizing is to try to build a following and gradually involve affiliates that offer quality products that listing agents can use to market homes and possibly develop some training and info products too.

I liked the header image quite a bit, but I agree that you should include a tag line clarifying what the site’s purpose is.

I noticed at the end of your posts that you have a boilerplate sentence that reads, “If you found this helpful, please share it with others.” That’s great, but even better would be to include some kind of functionality like ShareThis, which is a javascript button you can add to your posts which will allow your readers to share your content any way they like. (Via email, Delicious, or whatever.)

Hope that helps!

Randy

I liked the header image quite a bit, but I agree that you should include a tag line clarifying what the site’s purpose is.

I noticed at the end of your posts that you have a boilerplate sentence that reads, “If you found this helpful, please share it with others.” That’s great, but even better would be to include some kind of functionality like ShareThis, which is a javascript button you can add to your posts which will allow your readers to share your content any way they like. (Via email, Delicious, or whatever.)

Hope that helps!

Randy