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Post by mamarabia on Nov 10, 2014 13:47:12 GMT
Good morning! Two questions today: 1. How does my blog look? I had been told it was too green, so I changed my background and then got rid of a lot of clutter. I'd really appreciate honest opinions. You won't hurt my feelings!
2. I never know the answer to the "niche" question, so looking at what I write about, what niche would you put me in?
I'm at thelieberfamily.com
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Post by asideofsweet on Nov 10, 2014 14:02:47 GMT
One thing I noticed right away is that your blog design doesn't seem to be responsive to the size of my browser window, meaning I have to scroll back and forth to read things. It does resize when I opened it on my cell phone, but the font is pretty small because the sidebar doesn't get bumped down to the end of the page. You can check out my design if this doesn't make sense. I think the fancy term for this is "mobile responsive".
Of course your get to choose your own niche, but I'd probably guess mom blogger if I had to be nailed down on something!
Hope that helps!
Kelly
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Post by maralee on Nov 10, 2014 14:11:29 GMT
Greetings, Mamarabia! Your blog is lovely. I especially like the scroll pattern and the shade of green you chose. The site is modern, pretty, clean and easy to navigate. The family photo in the header is the only thing I would change. I would switch it out to one where your faces are more visible and in less in the shadows. I understand that you might have chosen the photo for privacy sake. If privacy is a concern, use a photo from several years ago when your children are younger. Someone would expect the photo to be new and your children to be that age currently and wouldn't recognize them if they saw them out-and-about. Or, use just a photo of you. The photo of the feet is adorable and does a great job at symbolizing a family firmly grounded. As for your niche, I'd say, "Real life and real reviews." I see you as both a family and review blogger. That's what I would tell people who ask in general. If you're approached to work with a brand, focus on the fact that you're a review blogger. If writing a guest post for a family blog, focus on the fact that you're a family blogger. I hope any of this is helpful at all. It was lovely to meet you through your blog! Blessings, Maralee MannersMentor.com
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Post by mamarabia on Nov 10, 2014 14:51:59 GMT
One thing I noticed right away is that your blog design doesn't seem to be responsive to the size of my browser window, meaning I have to scroll back and forth to read things. It does resize when I opened it on my cell phone, but the font is pretty small because the sidebar doesn't get bumped down to the end of the page. You can check out my design if this doesn't make sense. I think the fancy term for this is "mobile responsive". Of course your get to choose your own niche, but I'd probably guess mom blogger if I had to be nailed down on something! Hope that helps! Kelly That's odd about the sizing issue. I've looked at it in three-four different browsers and it looks fine to me. What browser are you using? I'd love to know how to make it work in all browsers! Thanks for you feedback!
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Post by mamarabia on Nov 10, 2014 14:54:01 GMT
Greetings, Mamarabia! Your blog is lovely. I especially like the scroll pattern and the shade of green you chose. The site is modern, pretty, clean and easy to navigate. The family photo in the header is the only thing I would change. I would switch it out to one where your faces are more visible and in less in the shadows. I understand that you might have chosen the photo for privacy sake. If privacy is a concern, use a photo from several years ago when your children are younger. Someone would expect the photo to be new and your children to be that age currently and wouldn't recognize them if they saw them out-and-about. Or, use just a photo of you. The photo of the feet is adorable and does a great job at symbolizing a family firmly grounded. As for your niche, I'd say, "Real life and real reviews." I see you as both a family and review blogger. That's what I would tell people who ask in general. If you're approached to work with a brand, focus on the fact that you're a review blogger. If writing a guest post for a family blog, focus on the fact that you're a family blogger. I hope any of this is helpful at all. It was lovely to meet you through your blog! Blessings, Maralee MannersMentor.com Hi Maralee! I am not a huge fan of that header picture either, to be honest. It's just the latest I have. I'm hoping to be able to take a new one soon. My husband just doesn't like being in pictures! LOL!
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Post by jnine0712 on Nov 10, 2014 15:06:33 GMT
Rabia, I have been meaning to tell you that I love the changes you have indeed made on your blog. As for the responsive issue someone brought up, I know this is the push nowadays and probably going to here it from saying this as I am a designer, but I don't think it is that terrible to read your site on the mobile view. If you enlarge (which most mobile devices allow) you are fine. But if this were to be an iddue on Blogger, you can chose a different view for mobile.
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Post by asideofsweet on Nov 10, 2014 15:55:44 GMT
One thing I noticed right away is that your blog design doesn't seem to be responsive to the size of my browser window, meaning I have to scroll back and forth to read things. It does resize when I opened it on my cell phone, but the font is pretty small because the sidebar doesn't get bumped down to the end of the page. You can check out my design if this doesn't make sense. I think the fancy term for this is "mobile responsive". Of course your get to choose your own niche, but I'd probably guess mom blogger if I had to be nailed down on something! Hope that helps! Kelly That's odd about the sizing issue. I've looked at it in three-four different browsers and it looks fine to me. What browser are you using? I'd love to know how to make it work in all browsers! Thanks for you feedback! I'm using the latest version of Chrome. The reason I mentioned it is that Google takes into account how your blog looks on all screens and all devices so having a mobile theme is really important in getting your SEO maximized! I agree with Jnine that it looks great, but Google only sees how it resizes, not the pretty design!
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Post by jnine0712 on Nov 10, 2014 18:45:02 GMT
asideofsweet, You make a valid point about Google and SEO being maximized. I know for some this matters and for others not as much, but definitely do agree that Mobile theme does indeed help with SEO purposes.
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Post by mamarabia on Nov 10, 2014 19:16:54 GMT
asideofsweet, You make a valid point about Google and SEO being maximized. I know for some this matters and for others not as much, but definitely do agree that Mobile theme does indeed help with SEO purposes. asideofsweet and Janine, I had the mobile version turned off because it was messing with my comments a while back. I've since switched commenting platforms, but I forgot to go back and turn on th emobile view. It should be working now. Thanks!
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Post by lauragelnett on Nov 10, 2014 20:44:33 GMT
In my opinion, I think that the header needs to be centered or made larger to fit the whole width of the blog. Also if you make those changes I think that the ad that is directly below the header should be centered.
I had a hard time seeing the post tiles because they weren't much bigger than your content fonts so maybe enlarging the post title font.
I think your niche would more of a life blogger or parenting blogger.
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Post by jnine0712 on Nov 10, 2014 21:49:13 GMT
mamarabia Understandable about the commenting and now looks perfect to me on the mobile version
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Post by mamarabia on Nov 11, 2014 14:43:40 GMT
In my opinion, I think that the header needs to be centered or made larger to fit the whole width of the blog. Also if you make those changes I think that the ad that is directly below the header should be centered. I had a hard time seeing the post tiles because they weren't much bigger than your content fonts so maybe enlarging the post title font. I think your niche would more of a life blogger or parenting blogger. lauragelnett I can't figure out how to center either of those things. If you know how I'd love to hear it! I had never thought about enhancing the post titles, so I found where to do it and now I'm playing around with what looks best. Thanks!
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Post by jnine0712 on Nov 11, 2014 16:23:04 GMT
@rabia, Did you just create the header and upload it to the header gadget in your layout? What is the width of the header versus the width of the layout of your blog? Essentially the way to get the header to be more centered is to have the header image width and layout width to be pretty close in size. Hope that helps and makes sense.
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Post by suebird on Nov 11, 2014 21:10:01 GMT
Hi, I'm Sue and I have a pet/dog blog which is geared toward coupons. I use a static front page because I thought Google would look favorably on this and help my page rank. I know that Google loves fresh content which I have, it's just not on my home page. I'm still starring at a big old Goose Egg 0. Please leave me your thoughts about my static page and the look of my blog. Really glad to be here and be interacting with my peers. Blogging is a lonely passion. www.bowwowblog.comPS - All the blogs look great!
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Post by jnine0712 on Nov 11, 2014 21:17:32 GMT
suebird, I left you a bit of feedback on the other post and so happy to meet you, too!!
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