Hey y'all, I have been absent for a little while. Mainly this was because I was camping with friends in areas that had poor cell reception. The best of these campspots was The Grand Canyon, which was breath taking. I am currently around Vegas, looking to head to the strip one of the nights. <div><br></div><div>But more recently I have been hard at work on a (gulp) website. I did not want to become "that guy" who starts a travel blog, but here we are.</div><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">A portion of the articles I plan on writing with a statistical bent involved, and with that in mind I went with a "newsy" type interface. Really not sure how I feel about the look. Most all of the photos I took by myself.<br><div><br></div><div>I am very new to writing anything of actual length. Please, do not hesitate to give any sort of feedback. You would be helping me out greatly. I am young, and if I apply myself hard enough I might be able to scrape by on this writing thing down the road somewhere. Lord knows vandwellers are good at scraping by. </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://travelandgraphs.com/" target="_blank">http://travelandgraphs.com/</a> </div><div><br></div><div> (There may still be glitches involved. Only been working on it for about 4 days. Mainly concerned with what you guys think of the writing!) </div><div><br></div></div>
New log, New Website!
- Thread starter Ryan24
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I like it ! Suggestions - more photographs please.<br>When you scan down through the short clips of the posts only the Mardi Gras one has anything to indicate that there is more to the post.<br>
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I wrote this all out, but I'm reluctant to send it. It could discourage you and I don't want to do that. You are off to a great start but made one small mistake that I'm afraid could ruin it all. I also run the risk of coming across as a a smart-ass, know-it-all. So please, take this in the spirit of constructive criticism.<br><br>When I started my sites, I asked myself what I liked and didn't like about surfing the net, and tried to give that to my readers. I'm impatient, so when i get to a site, I want an overview right away what it is all about. I tell my readers right away what It's about and what I want to do for them. If that appeals to them, they keep reading, if not, they leave. I also hate sites that make me click to different pages to read anything. My connection is often slow so I don't click unless I'm pretty sure I want what they are offering. So all the articles are on one page, no matter how long the page has to be. I look at like this, I'm lucky if I get someone to click on my site even once, but to force them to click again to find something to read is asking too much of them. <br><br>There literally is nothing to read on your home page. I might love your writing, but I'm not going to go search for it, so I'll never know. Mark Twain said this about speaking and writing:<br><ol><li>Tell them what you are going to tell them</li><li>Tell them.</li><li>Tell them what you told them.</li></ol>That is great advice! Give me at least an intro paragraph on the home page (and I think one whole post is a much better idea). If you don't catch me with that first impression, if I can't figure out right away what the site is all about, I'm gone. <br><br>Remember this: <b>Content Is King</b>. Your home page looks good, but is lacking in content. You've already put in a lot of hard work, and it looks really good, so don't give up, just give your readers more info on the home page. Bob<br><br>
Thank you so much for the responses guys, really means a lot that you are taking time out of your day to articulate your thoughts about how I can get better. <div><br></div><div>Bob, that was especially in depth and helpful! A more informative main page is now my next main objective. I expect a significant amount of future traffic will come as a result of direct links to specific posts, so the clicking twice issue may not arise there. But if I want to grow the site at all, then I will need to give the homepage better definition.</div><div><br></div><div>Anybody have any thoughts of how I might be able to do this and keep the main menu slider? Maybe an eye catching summery in the right side bar. Another idea is to turn the direct travelandgraphs-com link into a dedicated "about", with links then that lead to the main site proper. </div><div><br></div><div>Thanks again</div>
stude53
Well-known member
<p style="margin: 0px;">Ryan, Since you invited comment, I took the time to rove around your web site, and the content and writing I found there were good. I like the look of the site as well.<img border="0" align="absmiddle" src="/images/boards/smilies/thumb.gif"></p><p style="margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="margin: 0px;">I agree with akrvbob in that you need a grabber on the home page that gives the reader what to expect from each section, and a little about your general philosophy.</p><p style="margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="margin: 0px;">Keep it up!</p><p style="margin: 0px;"> </p><p style="margin: 0px;">Bob</p>
Thanks Stude!<div><br></div><div>Here is one google's highest ranked travel bloggers homepage. What do you guys think? I like the quick, short paragraph right in front of the readers eyes.. It also includes links to more grounded "guide" like pages. I have not created any content like that yet, but since most successful websites include them, it couldn't hurt. </div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/" target="_blank">http://www.nomadicmatt.com/</a> </div><div><br></div><div>A different approach is an attention grabbing headline sentence like this:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://gobigorgohomeblog.com/" target="_blank">http://gobigorgohomeblog.com/</a> </div>
Very good design on both of the blogs that you linked. It's easy to tell at a glance exactly what they're about. I noticed that your blog has a place to insert categories right under the heading. You could insert links in that spot like Nomadic Matt has done. He also has a bit about the blog in his header and an "about" blurb on the sidebar which makes it very easy to find the important information.<br>
Small update. Put a new green background header. <div><br></div><div>Have an about page in the main header menu (I thought I had this before, for some reason my about page was not showing up there). Also,downloaded a widget that allows a small "About This Site" blurb on the right hand side. </div><div><br></div><div>Doing a page like Nomadic Matt seems a bit unworkable with the current theme I am using. I really like the way his looks, may opt for something like that in the future.</div><div><br></div><div>Do those of you who agreed with Bob's initial comments think the amount of info I have on there now is sufficient?</div>
Nice improvements. I think that you have enough information to give people a good idea what your site is all about. I agree with the advice that Bob has given you but you'll probably be making a lot of posts and it would not be practical it to put all of the articles on one page. <br>
Ryan,<br>Nice blog, you might want to try the free "Greg's High Performance SEO" plugin because your meta tags are not showing. Also I like to change my permalinks to custom and use /%postname% as the code, this will use your titles as your long link instead of /?p=292<br><br>Just my thoughts.<br><br>Here's a theme I've been playing with DownloadHarbor.com<br>I like it because it shows more posts without scrolling.<br><br>Also, if you want $100 in free Adwords advertizing let me know and I will send you a code, fact that goes for anyone with a blog till the end of the month.<br><br>Keep up the good work!<br>
Thanks for the feedback Robear! I will look into some of those things when I get a chance to settle down with some wifi (I am currently lugging the van through Utah).<div><br></div><div>I really am just starting to get my hands dirty with SEO and all that, so I will check out that app. And I would be very grateful for some adwords credit....if its legit that is haha</div>
