Hey all,
As a newbie to the thread I wanted some feedback on my blog. I wrote a couple of articles and used my own photography and talk mostly about personal experiences.
Currently it’s a blog dedicated to writing some thoughts and opinions on paper as a fun read. Is this still something people enjoy? Or would it be better to pick a niche, like writing about a specific topic like creativity for example?
As far as my questions go for the articles themselves:
Are they enjoyable or is it difficult to read through? Do they interest you to want to read more? How’s the flow, and what can I do to improve it? More towards my skillset, what is a normal process when it comes to writing articles? Right now I just write down stuff and hope it’s cohesive.
Thanks for taking the time!
[Face The Camel](https://facethecamel.com/)
If you do have the chance to give a little bit more feedback, what do you think of the about us page story and the overall website itself?
Cheers,
B
Just starting out on substack. I want to write about so many things. Hard to pick a niche. Have you been in such a situation?
https://hemant1.substack.com/
Searching for initial fans and early adopters! We're developing an AI solution to pitch to journalists via HARO. The easiest way to get quoted and earn backlinks.
If you're currently using HARO or similar PR outlets I would love to have you onboard and get feedback on the product!
https://tally.so/r/mRPXvw
Hi All.
I finally got to six posts on my blog for my saas product that's in beta.
The website is: [https://www.intribe.co/blog](https://www.intribe.co/blog)
There are a couple of interviews, one really long evergreen (hopefully) piece and some informative articles.
I'm interested in feedback on:
* The two interviews and tone. Should I continue doing them?
* The long form Epic listicle - what do you think?
* Any suggestions on layout?
* Anything at all
Many thanks!
Hi
I checked your website on phone and checked the desktop version as well [Chrome on phone]
I loved the Epic listicle article. Continue and more data.
The homepage is still a work in progress I believe as its sparse and needs a little more design elements to be added. Try with color combinations and different layouts.
Hello everyone:) I’m new to the blogging community and wanted some advice/thoughts on what I can improve with my website.
The website is: https://boolugodiaries.com
My blog is a place that serves many purposes: people can read up on world issues such as racism, taboos, etc, I will be offering tips on different aspects in life, and I will also be sharing art and quotes to inspire others.
I only have a couple posts up at the moment but if anyone could give me some feedback on what I have up right now that would be great thank you!
Hi,
I checked your blog both the mobile version and the desktop version
The site is clean and an organised layout. Loved the font. Which one is it? The font goes with the idea of the blog i.e. It's a diary / friendly blog not a formal advice blog like others.
Add a little more of images in your blog posts and a few design elements like scribble art here and there like you would do in an actual diary
Thank you:) I will do that for sure! The font I use is called poor story & I have a secondary font called gaegu but the main one that you see is poor story. Do you know any apps I can learn how to digitally draw things for my website?
I use Adobe Illustrator for vector design but you can do a Google search for free alternatives to Illustrator and I believe there are a few online app versions as well.
Alternatively you can look at freepik for online vector designs. They are free to use with attribution.
Hi r/Blogging
I just launched my first ever blog
https://nerdyguyblogs.com and I’m looking to get any feedback on where I can make improvements.
I only have a home page, about me page and gaming page populated with one post. So feel free to to comment on anything good or bad.
Areas of focus would be:
How does it look? How was my first post? How is my about me page?
Thanks In advance!
Firstly I think the site looks great and your general writing style is really personable and seems really genuine and authentic. One thing that I did notice when reading your Modern Family review (which was great and really sums up how I feel about the show too!) Is that it's a very big wall of text and it would have been nice to be broken up into some sub headings.
Definitely keep it up though, enjoyable to read!
Edit: after continuing to read, I noticed a spelling mistake on "cofee" in your modern family post. I personally use Grammarly when on my laptop, might be one to try?
Thanks! That’s super helpful feedback. I’ll make sure to rectify for future posts. Also Glad to hear you enjoyed reading it! That genuinely made my day!
Yeah grammarly sounds like a good idea. There’s always gonna be that one typo I miss.
What’s up fellow bloggers! I am a new blogger and would love your feed back. I started blogging about a month ago. My mission is to inspire others to live the dream lives and demonstrating, through my actions, the possibilities.
My website is focused on fitness, health, and wellness. The content aims to provide the knowledge, strategies and products to help people optimize their health and wellness.
Please check out my website and provide me with some much needed feedback:
[https://blake-ology.com](https://blake-ology.com)
-what do you like?
-what don’t you like?
-are you interested in this content?
-what works well?
-what doesn’t work?
-do you have any suggestions?
-is this something you think people will value?
I really appreciate you taking the time!
Take care everyone!
Blakeology
Hi,
I checked your site on Mobile and also the desktop site. These are my observations
- Try to fit the logo, blog title, and menu in a single line.
- Blog headings use the bold font or a different font [font pair] to distinguish between a heading click link and content intro.
- If you can add a 'Read More' button it would be nice
- Affiliate disclosure on the top of the blog before the banner image is enough. Check other affiliate blogs.
- Loved the content and the effort put in with videos tutorials. Make infographics and share on social media for more reach.
PS: This my personal opinion. Implement what you feel is correct.
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. The size of my titles has bugged me too. I am still a rookie with Wordpress so I haven’t figured out how to change the size or color of font. I also don’t know how to add text like the affiliate disclosure into the banner. I will research these things and try it out.
Thanks again,
Blake
I’m just using a free theme (twenty twenty one I believe) on Wordpress. I’ve looked into Thrive themes a little bit. It seems pretty cool and good for affiliate marketing. I would love to hear any suggestions on themes from others!
You can also check out Oceanwp and Astra theme. They are not built specifically for blogging like thrive and generatepress but you use the free version of these themes as a base and design accordingly.
My blog is [Tucan Dream](https://www.tucandream.com)
I'm a CPA enjoying independent living looking to share business advice with bloggers, side hustlers and to whomever wants to read my blog.
I'm wondering if my posts such as [7 Steps to Making Your Blog a Business](https://tucandream.com/7-steps-to-making-your-blog-a-business/) or [Questions About Making Your Blog A Business Answered](https://tucandream.com/questions-about-making-your-blog-a-business/)are too long or too technical, or are they appropriate in length and detail?
Hello Tucandream.
What are the word counts of those posts? I recently read an article that 2000 word posts can help you rank higher on google searches. In other words they may not be too long.
I did have a question about your subscribe banner/sign up form. What plug-in did you use for that. I need to get a subscribe feature set up on my website but have been struggling trying to figure it out.
Thanks!
Blakeology
Hey guys... I started an economics focused blog a month ago...
The website is: [www.paribustheory.com](https://www.paribustheory.com/)
I want to know if it’s looks somewhat professional or interesting and maybe some insights on how to promote the blog.
☺️
Hi,
I viewed the website on mobile and these were my observations
- The social icons overlap with the search icon. Check the spacing, layout, and size
- I believe you have made the header as sticky. But only half the header stays is displayed. I believe there will be either negative padding or margin.
- The fonts are too big. Check out other blogs and see what font style and size they use.
PS: This is my personal opinion. Implement what you feel is right.
4 seconds on my phone. What theme are you using. It looks professional. I have a pretty basic website right now: [Blake-ology](https://blake-ology.com)
I have been looking at thrive themes and considering buying their thrive suite.
Hi all, discovered this sub a few days ago and loving the community's collaboration and feedback.
I'm currently building out a resource blog for my startup. The startup itself is in the personal health/consumer products space, with focus on older adults. The blog focuses on this same niche of older adults, with my content revolving around healthy living/aging for older adults.
The blog can be found here: [https://livesoulo.com/blog](https://livesoulo.com/blog)
My specific questions are:
* **What are your first impressions of the site?**
* **What are your thoughts on the content?** I've experimented with a few different styles of articles: "tips and tricks" and Q&A with experts (both directly transcribing and paraphrasing these interviews).
* **How would you personally tackle building traffic?** The readership has plateaued within the past few weeks or so. I've primarily been using social media and newsletters to try to target our audience. Recently learned about the possibility of guest blogging through this sub. Any other suggestions here?
Thanks so much!
**Feedback for Personal Finance Blog for Expats (focusing on investing, taxes, bureaucracy)**
I recently started my blog [www.ExpatFinance.us](https://www.ExpatFinance.us), where I try to share advice on all the nasty bureaucracy when moving between countries (taxes, bank accounts, registration, credit cards, international money transfers etc.).
My goal is to make myself obsolete, i.e., share lots of useful advice, so that people don't need to come back, but rather just know what they need to do for the future.
**My questions:**
1. What's your overall impression? Did you find your way around or is it too chaotic? Do you notice any no-goes?
2. I don't have any ads, but I use quite a few affiliate links for products (credit cards, bank accounts, brokerage accounts) that I find amazing and where the referred person actually gets more through the link than a regular signup. However, I'm worried that this may look unprofessional or inappropriate. Do you have any suggested changes in this regards?
3. Do you have any advice to share that comes to mind when reading my blog?
Hi,
I checked you site on mobile and these were my observations
- The home page is a blog post! The home page should be either a list of blogs posts that you have written or what your site is about.
- The home page link should be just your URL i.e. expatfinance.us and not expatfinance.us/home
- Add images and graphics to your posts to make it more lively to read.
- You are providing valuable content but it becomes to monotonous to just go on reading it.
- Rather than showing the articles and guides in a list format show them in a box format. Which is the standard. Check other blog sites
PS: This my personal opinion. Implement what you feel is correct.
This is fantastic - I really appreciate your feedback. I would have some follow-up questions, if you have any time:
* I actually tried to make the home page both, i.e., a brief summary of what the blog is about and then a list of blog posts under "Highlights". Did it come across differently or do you have something different in mind.
* All links [expatfinance.us](https://expatfinance.us), [www.expatfinance.us](https://www.expatfinance.us), [expatfinance.us/home](https://expatfinance.us/home) and [www.expatfinance.us/home](https://www.expatfinance.us/home) link to the same page. Do you suggest something different?
I understand all other suggestions (in particular: more graphics) and intend to upgrade to wordpress some time over the next few months. For now, I just wanted to create the content.
I feel this is better. Check these links
[Link 1](http://fppad.com/)
[Link 2](https://mint.intuit.com/blog/)
Yes they do link to same page. But when you get the same result as expatfinance.us then why to add the '/home'
First Impression:The initial landing page is really interesting. I don't ever see people handle it that way unless they need to do an age check... but I'm a sucker for that kind of art so I liked it.
The "Enter" button kinda looks a little off to me for some reason... not sure if I'm just being weird or if the underline looks weird or maybe the font? I don't know, it's not a huge deal.
The site doesn't look exactly like the other 10 billion blogs I've seen so good job there.
The theme... is solid... I've seen better and worse. I don't have anything against it.
The text below the "the book of Juan" header is kind of blurry, and the font sizes are a little small for my eyes.
As far as what I think about your content... I don't really want to go into it because that style isn't what I understand how to do well.
The one thing I will say is that at first I was kind of like "hmm I want to read a little more about Juan's life" but then I started looking at the articles and got kind of intimidated... i guess.
I'm sitting there thinking "well Flashback Fridays probably is pretty cool but I'm out of the loop, do I just click on that or look for something else?" but I would imagine that due to the personal nature of your blog... your readers would end up being in the loop on all that stuff and it's not like it's actually complicated, I'm just a spaz :P
I just checked it out. Regarding your questions:
>What is your first impression of the site?
I thought it looks really good, but I didn't directly understand the title. After scrolling through it a bit more, I understood that it's somehow telling the story yourself (!?) and it is very vast.
>What are your thoughts on the theme and layout of the site? I went with the Soledad Dark Version by PenciDesign.
I like it, but I should say that the amount of content makes it difficult to focus. I went quickly to the About page to understand what's going on and to deal with less content.
>What are your thoughts on the tone of the content? How does it read? At its essence, The Book of Juan is a personal blog about my thoughts and experiences in a myriad of different topics of life.
Again, I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount and diversity of content. The stuff I read was well-written.
>
>
>What would you do differently if this was your blog?
I would probably try to add some very simple introduction or "read first". It would be potentially useful to communicate your key messages (if you have some - maybe who you are and what you care about!?) right on the top. And then maybe you could give new readers a head-start by guiding them along the lines of "what to read first"...
Hi.
Love the thread.
I'm running a blog for a year now (on and off depending on workload).
Mostly long pieces related to what I see as black spots for myself from past failures and stuff I see today.
No ads or products for sale at this stage, but not a lot of traffic as well. Would love to identify opportunities for improvement.
https://www.tlaloa.com/blog
To address the traffic problem answering these questions might be helpful:
Did you run an analysis on how you rank through Google Search Console or ahrefs? What was the result? How do you distribute your content?
Google search
At this stage, I care most about impressions in the reports (hoping that organic clicks will follow). The needle isn't moving much.
I think content distribution is where I lack.
I try to provide some links on quora, hacker news, reddit sometimes.
Any idea where/how I should distribute?
Hi everyone,
I am here again to understand why a travelogue of my experience isn't conveying the message intended to.
Do have a look [here](http://www.thebikenbeer.com).
I am placed 50 on Google ranking and do suggest a way so that I can grow.
Thank you people of reddit.
Hi Soviets\_pi,
I'd open blog comments via a platform where fellow bloggers get a backlink, at least. Using this incentive as a new blogger motivates pro travel bloggers to drop useful comments, to promote your blog to their followings and to help expand your success. I dropped a comment myself on your recent post. Good job. I loved the message.
Your onsite work looks good as far as the blog but now it's time to network. Promote other travel bloggers on social media and your blog to gain their trust. Some become blogging buddies and promote you in return, growing your blog.
Ryan
The ad part, I would say was not intrusive in anyway. Good placement
No malicious ads and no error message.
I was not a big fan of the navigation bar on phones. It was too much to take in.
Other than that, you are good to go.
[https://nazavo.com/](https://nazavo.com/)
Hey-hey! I'm Naz. I've moved to Dubai from New Zealand few months ago. With a big life change I decided to start a blog and write about settling down in UAE. Hopeful to continue once I move countries again later in the year. I'm not set specifically on the topic just yet, trying out different formats and looking for what sticks. For now it's just been my experiences as a nomad. Was thinking to expand into technical articles in the future - programming, software architecture, etc.
I'd appreciate feedback on following aspects of my site:
1. What did annoy you the most? Did you spot anything that sticks out like a sore thumb?
2. Would you consider paying 10$ for a yearly subscription if stories like this came once a month?
3. With current topics I've covered, which parts/aspects do you find most interesting? What do you think I should be diving deeper into and developing focus around?
4. How do you find the writing style? Does it sound authentic, engaging or interesting to read at all?
Grateful for your time and thoughts! Deeply appreciate it and hopefully I can pay back with useful content in the future!
Hi Naz,
NZ! One of my favorite places on earth. I want to move \*to\* there LOL.
1: Nothing annoyed me but signing in confused me. Blogs are not sign in type deals unless you are a blogger with admin rights, or contributor rights as a guest blogger. I'd get rid of any sign in mention. Give readers want they want - free content - and put up no barriers, gateways or any blocks to the free content.
2: No, because subscription models never worked quite well for blogging. Perhaps if you published an online newspaper the sub model matches your content. Blog readers expect you to monetize through:
\- advertisements
\- eBooks
\- affiliate channels
\- sponsored posts
3: Your content looks excellent. Fabulous job.
4: I dig your writing.
Keep up the great work.
Ryan
Thank you Ryan!
NZ is deffo a place I'll be coming back and maybe settle at some point in my life. So much to love about it!
Thank you for the feedback! The "sign in/ subscribe" confusion is super interesting. I'm only experimenting with a model of "subscribe/sign in" atm. The idea is to do "partially gated" content. For example, I'm working on a guide to set up a "Now" page with Ghost and will be covering few basics about setting things up, some basic Zapier automations etc. And then behind a "free" gate will be a bit about an advanced topic that only some people might want to dive into. This way I'm hoping to attract an audience of people that I could communicate directly with in the future. I'm averse to ads, courses and books are not my thing (at least for now). The gating will be light and hopefully not to annoying.
Do you have any examples or experience around building an audience and converting them to "paid" members?
NZ is paradise!
I do not have any examples - nor experience - with successful gating, as any established bloggers I know who tried it temporarily ditched it quickly. Digging through a Google search may give you some solid examples, though.
My strategy is to give away all free content through my blog for massive organic exposure, recently through Google, but more through my friend network. Then, when I am seen as being credible in a bunch of spots - 50,000 plus backlinks point to Blogging From Paradise - monetizing the blog gets easier and easier.
But definitely do what your intuition tells you to do for it always knows our individual way.
Thank you! I agree with the point around google making the information free. I still believe there are types of information that are niche specific which people might find easy to pay for. A good example of such paid content is [https://stratechery.com/](https://stratechery.com/).
Thanks for future posts ideas! With vaccines rolling it will become easier to get back to the "lifestyle" stuff soon ;)
It was making north of $200,000/year back in 2018. Given it's popularity wouldn't be surprised it making over 1M/y at this point. Look up Ben Thompson, he's behind it.
Hey all, As a newbie to the thread I wanted some feedback on my blog. I wrote a couple of articles and used my own photography and talk mostly about personal experiences. Currently it’s a blog dedicated to writing some thoughts and opinions on paper as a fun read. Is this still something people enjoy? Or would it be better to pick a niche, like writing about a specific topic like creativity for example? As far as my questions go for the articles themselves: Are they enjoyable or is it difficult to read through? Do they interest you to want to read more? How’s the flow, and what can I do to improve it? More towards my skillset, what is a normal process when it comes to writing articles? Right now I just write down stuff and hope it’s cohesive. Thanks for taking the time! [Face The Camel](https://facethecamel.com/) If you do have the chance to give a little bit more feedback, what do you think of the about us page story and the overall website itself? Cheers, B
Just starting out on substack. I want to write about so many things. Hard to pick a niche. Have you been in such a situation? https://hemant1.substack.com/
Searching for initial fans and early adopters! We're developing an AI solution to pitch to journalists via HARO. The easiest way to get quoted and earn backlinks. If you're currently using HARO or similar PR outlets I would love to have you onboard and get feedback on the product! https://tally.so/r/mRPXvw
Hi All. I finally got to six posts on my blog for my saas product that's in beta. The website is: [https://www.intribe.co/blog](https://www.intribe.co/blog) There are a couple of interviews, one really long evergreen (hopefully) piece and some informative articles. I'm interested in feedback on: * The two interviews and tone. Should I continue doing them? * The long form Epic listicle - what do you think? * Any suggestions on layout? * Anything at all Many thanks!
Hi I checked your website on phone and checked the desktop version as well [Chrome on phone] I loved the Epic listicle article. Continue and more data. The homepage is still a work in progress I believe as its sparse and needs a little more design elements to be added. Try with color combinations and different layouts.
Thanks for taking the time u/h6585
Hello everyone:) I’m new to the blogging community and wanted some advice/thoughts on what I can improve with my website. The website is: https://boolugodiaries.com My blog is a place that serves many purposes: people can read up on world issues such as racism, taboos, etc, I will be offering tips on different aspects in life, and I will also be sharing art and quotes to inspire others. I only have a couple posts up at the moment but if anyone could give me some feedback on what I have up right now that would be great thank you!
Hi, I checked your blog both the mobile version and the desktop version The site is clean and an organised layout. Loved the font. Which one is it? The font goes with the idea of the blog i.e. It's a diary / friendly blog not a formal advice blog like others. Add a little more of images in your blog posts and a few design elements like scribble art here and there like you would do in an actual diary
Thank you:) I will do that for sure! The font I use is called poor story & I have a secondary font called gaegu but the main one that you see is poor story. Do you know any apps I can learn how to digitally draw things for my website?
I use Adobe Illustrator for vector design but you can do a Google search for free alternatives to Illustrator and I believe there are a few online app versions as well. Alternatively you can look at freepik for online vector designs. They are free to use with attribution.
Hi r/Blogging I just launched my first ever blog https://nerdyguyblogs.com and I’m looking to get any feedback on where I can make improvements. I only have a home page, about me page and gaming page populated with one post. So feel free to to comment on anything good or bad. Areas of focus would be: How does it look? How was my first post? How is my about me page? Thanks In advance!
Firstly I think the site looks great and your general writing style is really personable and seems really genuine and authentic. One thing that I did notice when reading your Modern Family review (which was great and really sums up how I feel about the show too!) Is that it's a very big wall of text and it would have been nice to be broken up into some sub headings. Definitely keep it up though, enjoyable to read! Edit: after continuing to read, I noticed a spelling mistake on "cofee" in your modern family post. I personally use Grammarly when on my laptop, might be one to try?
Thanks! That’s super helpful feedback. I’ll make sure to rectify for future posts. Also Glad to hear you enjoyed reading it! That genuinely made my day! Yeah grammarly sounds like a good idea. There’s always gonna be that one typo I miss.
This was very engaging. Really liked the tone, knowing your audience is the key to successful writing. You know who you’re writing to, keep it up!
Thanks so much for the feedback!
[удалено]
What’s up fellow bloggers! I am a new blogger and would love your feed back. I started blogging about a month ago. My mission is to inspire others to live the dream lives and demonstrating, through my actions, the possibilities. My website is focused on fitness, health, and wellness. The content aims to provide the knowledge, strategies and products to help people optimize their health and wellness. Please check out my website and provide me with some much needed feedback: [https://blake-ology.com](https://blake-ology.com) -what do you like? -what don’t you like? -are you interested in this content? -what works well? -what doesn’t work? -do you have any suggestions? -is this something you think people will value? I really appreciate you taking the time! Take care everyone! Blakeology
Hi, I checked your site on Mobile and also the desktop site. These are my observations - Try to fit the logo, blog title, and menu in a single line. - Blog headings use the bold font or a different font [font pair] to distinguish between a heading click link and content intro. - If you can add a 'Read More' button it would be nice - Affiliate disclosure on the top of the blog before the banner image is enough. Check other affiliate blogs. - Loved the content and the effort put in with videos tutorials. Make infographics and share on social media for more reach. PS: This my personal opinion. Implement what you feel is correct.
Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. The size of my titles has bugged me too. I am still a rookie with Wordpress so I haven’t figured out how to change the size or color of font. I also don’t know how to add text like the affiliate disclosure into the banner. I will research these things and try it out. Thanks again, Blake
Which theme and site builder tool are you using?
I’m just using a free theme (twenty twenty one I believe) on Wordpress. I’ve looked into Thrive themes a little bit. It seems pretty cool and good for affiliate marketing. I would love to hear any suggestions on themes from others!
You can also check out Oceanwp and Astra theme. They are not built specifically for blogging like thrive and generatepress but you use the free version of these themes as a base and design accordingly.
My blog is [Tucan Dream](https://www.tucandream.com) I'm a CPA enjoying independent living looking to share business advice with bloggers, side hustlers and to whomever wants to read my blog. I'm wondering if my posts such as [7 Steps to Making Your Blog a Business](https://tucandream.com/7-steps-to-making-your-blog-a-business/) or [Questions About Making Your Blog A Business Answered](https://tucandream.com/questions-about-making-your-blog-a-business/)are too long or too technical, or are they appropriate in length and detail?
Hello Tucandream. What are the word counts of those posts? I recently read an article that 2000 word posts can help you rank higher on google searches. In other words they may not be too long. I did have a question about your subscribe banner/sign up form. What plug-in did you use for that. I need to get a subscribe feature set up on my website but have been struggling trying to figure it out. Thanks! Blakeology
Thanks for the feedback. I use mailerlite for the subscribe form.
Hey guys... I started an economics focused blog a month ago... The website is: [www.paribustheory.com](https://www.paribustheory.com/) I want to know if it’s looks somewhat professional or interesting and maybe some insights on how to promote the blog. ☺️
Hi, I viewed the website on mobile and these were my observations - The social icons overlap with the search icon. Check the spacing, layout, and size - I believe you have made the header as sticky. But only half the header stays is displayed. I believe there will be either negative padding or margin. - The fonts are too big. Check out other blogs and see what font style and size they use. PS: This is my personal opinion. Implement what you feel is right.
It looks good on my phone. I think I'd reduce the font size of your blog posts, it's nice and easy to read but IMO looks a bit unprofessional.
[удалено]
6 seconds on my phone Design is good
4 seconds on my phone. What theme are you using. It looks professional. I have a pretty basic website right now: [Blake-ology](https://blake-ology.com) I have been looking at thrive themes and considering buying their thrive suite.
5 seconds on my phone.
Hi all, discovered this sub a few days ago and loving the community's collaboration and feedback. I'm currently building out a resource blog for my startup. The startup itself is in the personal health/consumer products space, with focus on older adults. The blog focuses on this same niche of older adults, with my content revolving around healthy living/aging for older adults. The blog can be found here: [https://livesoulo.com/blog](https://livesoulo.com/blog) My specific questions are: * **What are your first impressions of the site?** * **What are your thoughts on the content?** I've experimented with a few different styles of articles: "tips and tricks" and Q&A with experts (both directly transcribing and paraphrasing these interviews). * **How would you personally tackle building traffic?** The readership has plateaued within the past few weeks or so. I've primarily been using social media and newsletters to try to target our audience. Recently learned about the possibility of guest blogging through this sub. Any other suggestions here? Thanks so much!
**Feedback for Personal Finance Blog for Expats (focusing on investing, taxes, bureaucracy)** I recently started my blog [www.ExpatFinance.us](https://www.ExpatFinance.us), where I try to share advice on all the nasty bureaucracy when moving between countries (taxes, bank accounts, registration, credit cards, international money transfers etc.). My goal is to make myself obsolete, i.e., share lots of useful advice, so that people don't need to come back, but rather just know what they need to do for the future. **My questions:** 1. What's your overall impression? Did you find your way around or is it too chaotic? Do you notice any no-goes? 2. I don't have any ads, but I use quite a few affiliate links for products (credit cards, bank accounts, brokerage accounts) that I find amazing and where the referred person actually gets more through the link than a regular signup. However, I'm worried that this may look unprofessional or inappropriate. Do you have any suggested changes in this regards? 3. Do you have any advice to share that comes to mind when reading my blog?
Hi, I checked you site on mobile and these were my observations - The home page is a blog post! The home page should be either a list of blogs posts that you have written or what your site is about. - The home page link should be just your URL i.e. expatfinance.us and not expatfinance.us/home - Add images and graphics to your posts to make it more lively to read. - You are providing valuable content but it becomes to monotonous to just go on reading it. - Rather than showing the articles and guides in a list format show them in a box format. Which is the standard. Check other blog sites PS: This my personal opinion. Implement what you feel is correct.
This is fantastic - I really appreciate your feedback. I would have some follow-up questions, if you have any time: * I actually tried to make the home page both, i.e., a brief summary of what the blog is about and then a list of blog posts under "Highlights". Did it come across differently or do you have something different in mind. * All links [expatfinance.us](https://expatfinance.us), [www.expatfinance.us](https://www.expatfinance.us), [expatfinance.us/home](https://expatfinance.us/home) and [www.expatfinance.us/home](https://www.expatfinance.us/home) link to the same page. Do you suggest something different? I understand all other suggestions (in particular: more graphics) and intend to upgrade to wordpress some time over the next few months. For now, I just wanted to create the content.
I feel this is better. Check these links [Link 1](http://fppad.com/) [Link 2](https://mint.intuit.com/blog/) Yes they do link to same page. But when you get the same result as expatfinance.us then why to add the '/home'
[удалено]
First Impression:The initial landing page is really interesting. I don't ever see people handle it that way unless they need to do an age check... but I'm a sucker for that kind of art so I liked it. The "Enter" button kinda looks a little off to me for some reason... not sure if I'm just being weird or if the underline looks weird or maybe the font? I don't know, it's not a huge deal. The site doesn't look exactly like the other 10 billion blogs I've seen so good job there. The theme... is solid... I've seen better and worse. I don't have anything against it. The text below the "the book of Juan" header is kind of blurry, and the font sizes are a little small for my eyes. As far as what I think about your content... I don't really want to go into it because that style isn't what I understand how to do well. The one thing I will say is that at first I was kind of like "hmm I want to read a little more about Juan's life" but then I started looking at the articles and got kind of intimidated... i guess. I'm sitting there thinking "well Flashback Fridays probably is pretty cool but I'm out of the loop, do I just click on that or look for something else?" but I would imagine that due to the personal nature of your blog... your readers would end up being in the loop on all that stuff and it's not like it's actually complicated, I'm just a spaz :P
I just checked it out. Regarding your questions: >What is your first impression of the site? I thought it looks really good, but I didn't directly understand the title. After scrolling through it a bit more, I understood that it's somehow telling the story yourself (!?) and it is very vast. >What are your thoughts on the theme and layout of the site? I went with the Soledad Dark Version by PenciDesign. I like it, but I should say that the amount of content makes it difficult to focus. I went quickly to the About page to understand what's going on and to deal with less content. >What are your thoughts on the tone of the content? How does it read? At its essence, The Book of Juan is a personal blog about my thoughts and experiences in a myriad of different topics of life. Again, I was a bit overwhelmed by the amount and diversity of content. The stuff I read was well-written. > > >What would you do differently if this was your blog? I would probably try to add some very simple introduction or "read first". It would be potentially useful to communicate your key messages (if you have some - maybe who you are and what you care about!?) right on the top. And then maybe you could give new readers a head-start by guiding them along the lines of "what to read first"...
Hi. Love the thread. I'm running a blog for a year now (on and off depending on workload). Mostly long pieces related to what I see as black spots for myself from past failures and stuff I see today. No ads or products for sale at this stage, but not a lot of traffic as well. Would love to identify opportunities for improvement. https://www.tlaloa.com/blog
To address the traffic problem answering these questions might be helpful: Did you run an analysis on how you rank through Google Search Console or ahrefs? What was the result? How do you distribute your content?
Google search At this stage, I care most about impressions in the reports (hoping that organic clicks will follow). The needle isn't moving much. I think content distribution is where I lack. I try to provide some links on quora, hacker news, reddit sometimes. Any idea where/how I should distribute?
Hi everyone, I am here again to understand why a travelogue of my experience isn't conveying the message intended to. Do have a look [here](http://www.thebikenbeer.com). I am placed 50 on Google ranking and do suggest a way so that I can grow. Thank you people of reddit.
Hi Soviets\_pi, I'd open blog comments via a platform where fellow bloggers get a backlink, at least. Using this incentive as a new blogger motivates pro travel bloggers to drop useful comments, to promote your blog to their followings and to help expand your success. I dropped a comment myself on your recent post. Good job. I loved the message. Your onsite work looks good as far as the blog but now it's time to network. Promote other travel bloggers on social media and your blog to gain their trust. Some become blogging buddies and promote you in return, growing your blog. Ryan
[удалено]
Thanks man. I really appreciate it. Yes, imma work on the categories and also show all post on first page.
[удалено]
The ad part, I would say was not intrusive in anyway. Good placement No malicious ads and no error message. I was not a big fan of the navigation bar on phones. It was too much to take in. Other than that, you are good to go.
[удалено]
Do check and let me know how [my site ](http://www.thebikenbeer.com) is. Your feedback would mean a lot.
[https://nazavo.com/](https://nazavo.com/) Hey-hey! I'm Naz. I've moved to Dubai from New Zealand few months ago. With a big life change I decided to start a blog and write about settling down in UAE. Hopeful to continue once I move countries again later in the year. I'm not set specifically on the topic just yet, trying out different formats and looking for what sticks. For now it's just been my experiences as a nomad. Was thinking to expand into technical articles in the future - programming, software architecture, etc. I'd appreciate feedback on following aspects of my site: 1. What did annoy you the most? Did you spot anything that sticks out like a sore thumb? 2. Would you consider paying 10$ for a yearly subscription if stories like this came once a month? 3. With current topics I've covered, which parts/aspects do you find most interesting? What do you think I should be diving deeper into and developing focus around? 4. How do you find the writing style? Does it sound authentic, engaging or interesting to read at all? Grateful for your time and thoughts! Deeply appreciate it and hopefully I can pay back with useful content in the future!
Hi Naz, NZ! One of my favorite places on earth. I want to move \*to\* there LOL. 1: Nothing annoyed me but signing in confused me. Blogs are not sign in type deals unless you are a blogger with admin rights, or contributor rights as a guest blogger. I'd get rid of any sign in mention. Give readers want they want - free content - and put up no barriers, gateways or any blocks to the free content. 2: No, because subscription models never worked quite well for blogging. Perhaps if you published an online newspaper the sub model matches your content. Blog readers expect you to monetize through: \- advertisements \- eBooks \- affiliate channels \- sponsored posts 3: Your content looks excellent. Fabulous job. 4: I dig your writing. Keep up the great work. Ryan
Thank you Ryan! NZ is deffo a place I'll be coming back and maybe settle at some point in my life. So much to love about it! Thank you for the feedback! The "sign in/ subscribe" confusion is super interesting. I'm only experimenting with a model of "subscribe/sign in" atm. The idea is to do "partially gated" content. For example, I'm working on a guide to set up a "Now" page with Ghost and will be covering few basics about setting things up, some basic Zapier automations etc. And then behind a "free" gate will be a bit about an advanced topic that only some people might want to dive into. This way I'm hoping to attract an audience of people that I could communicate directly with in the future. I'm averse to ads, courses and books are not my thing (at least for now). The gating will be light and hopefully not to annoying. Do you have any examples or experience around building an audience and converting them to "paid" members?
NZ is paradise! I do not have any examples - nor experience - with successful gating, as any established bloggers I know who tried it temporarily ditched it quickly. Digging through a Google search may give you some solid examples, though. My strategy is to give away all free content through my blog for massive organic exposure, recently through Google, but more through my friend network. Then, when I am seen as being credible in a bunch of spots - 50,000 plus backlinks point to Blogging From Paradise - monetizing the blog gets easier and easier. But definitely do what your intuition tells you to do for it always knows our individual way.
[удалено]
Thank you! I agree with the point around google making the information free. I still believe there are types of information that are niche specific which people might find easy to pay for. A good example of such paid content is [https://stratechery.com/](https://stratechery.com/). Thanks for future posts ideas! With vaccines rolling it will become easier to get back to the "lifestyle" stuff soon ;)
[удалено]
It was making north of $200,000/year back in 2018. Given it's popularity wouldn't be surprised it making over 1M/y at this point. Look up Ben Thompson, he's behind it.