Critique blog please

[jgbama]

Hello All

I've been working on a blog for awhile now trying to use all the advice from Lynn and the rest of you. It's not been up long so if some of you would look at it and tell me what you think I would appreciate it. Any helpful advice good or bad will help me improve.

Thanks Jerry

[angienewton]

Hi Jerry,
Have you thought about changing over to a self hosted Wordpress blog? I think that would be my first suggestion.

I see you are using some keyword phrases which is great. I would love to see some images on your blog too.

The compensation disclosure takes up a ton of space. Can you put it on it's own page?

Those are just a few quick thoughts that came to mind. You have great info on there. Looking forward to watching your blog grow.

[dougguitar]

Hi Jerry,
I took a quick peek, and it looks like you're off to a nice start. The first thing that struck me, though, was that there seems to be quite a few typos and grammatical errors in your posts (e.g. "Please leave a comet" ). If you're trying to establish yourself as an authority in your niche, I wonder if those things might detract from your credibility...

I agree with the suggestion for more images. In this niche, I would expect to see photos of your projects, tools, etc.

Good luck,
Doug

[jgbama]

Thanks so much for looking at the blog I appreciate it. Angie the disclosure is giving me a problem I put it in a footer wedget and can not get it to close. I didn't get wordpress because I want to see if this niche would work for me before I starting investing anything.Maybe not a great idea? Doug thanks for pointing that out I'm not great at typing and get in too big of a hurry.I will go back and fix those. I'm still new to using blogger and not sure how to upload pictures just off the web.
Thank both of you so much for taking the time to look and give me tips.
Jerry

[angienewton]

You're welcome, Jerry! Sorry the widget is giving you issues. Not sure how to help since I don't use Blogger on a regular basis. I have one blogger blog but haven't posted to it in forever.

I would definitely invest in web hosting (http://www.angienewton.com/hostgator.html). Domain names are very affordable on a yearly basis as is hosting. People will definitely take you more serious when it comes to purchasing things on a hosted blog.

Spell check is a great thing! And as far as uploading pictures off the web, be cautious and don't just take any picture you find. You'll need to find websites that have images you can use. Here is a great thread about places to find images online (http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/members/showthread.php?t=1952), both paid and free options.

Hope this helps!

[amibr]

Hi Jerry,

Angie and Doug has definitely given you some great advice and I agree with WP. It will be worth investing in hosting for you. Imagine you build up all this now on free blogger, something happens, blogger shuts you down or you decide to then move to wp... it's better to start at the right place. :)

Anyhow, if you still want to stay on Blogger; I'd like to see some customization on the blog design. A custom header would be the first thing and then change the background color to something a bit more cheerful. Don't have to be bright, perhaps a nice yellow color. Something to make the readers feel you are investing and caring about your blog and those coming there to read it.

I'd also put the about info up to the top of the sidebar.

Regarding the discolsure policy. Ideas: Write a new post and backdate it so that it is the second post after the very first original post. That way you will hide it a little. Take the link and put it well visible in the sidebar instead. Or add a navigation bar and add it to that. Blogger won't let you add pages so that is why you add it to a post. Or, another option. There is a script called Flooble Scripts. Flooble.com. Find their expandable script, install the required java and add to the widget. That way it will be expandable and will only show when someone clicks on it.

[lindastacy]

Can you keep a local backup of a Blogger blog? That way you won't lose everything if the "worst" should happen. If you want to stay on blogger for a while, how about buying your own domain name instead of using the blogger sub-domain? That way, when you do move to your own hosting, your URL will not change.