Blog Feedback Post #3

This is a “blog feedback” post. To learn more about my blog feedback category, please visit the Blog Feedback section. Below are a few reviews of other blogs. I would like to thank the blog owners for submitting their blogs for reviews.

Blog #1
Why Buy Used Cars
http://www.whybuyusedcars.com/

First Impressions: Why buy used cars? Are you sure this is a blog? When first landing on this site, almost everything about it makes me think I have found a used car sales site. The domain doesn’t seem fitting for a blog, and the look and feel of the blog (especially the header) make me feel like I am not at a blog, but rather a marketplace for used cars. Because I am familiar with the components of a blog, I was able to realize after just a few seconds that I actually was on a blog, but I am not sure the casual visitor will make this distinction quickly enough.

Aesthetics: As I mentioned before, your look and feel reminds me of cars.com or something similar. Getting past this obvious abnormality, I do like your theme, although it is a bit plain and white. Your sidebar isn’t necessarily overcrowded, which is good, and you use plenty of visuals in your posts, which helped me stay interested in the content.

I might suggest moving your “tabs” to a more prominant location, if possible - they are lost among the icons strung out above the header. If you can’t move them, you might consider taking out the icons, or giving the tabs a more defining color scheme, or both.

Content: I am happy to see that you have very focused niche content - it is well written, and interesting enough for the non-gear-head to read (me for example). It did take me a trip to your “About” section before I was 100% clear on the goals of your blog, but the posts were readable either way.

Overall: While initially confusing, this blog has a few good things going for it. You might consider spicing up your theme a bit, and visually highlighting the fact that you are indeed a blog, so as to not befuddle new visitors. Keep the good content coming, and you will likely find your audience.

Blog #2
Chicken Fried Therapy
http://www.chickenfriedtherapy.blogspot.com/

First Impressions: I like the name “Chicken Fried Therapy” without ever seeing the blog - it’s a catchy name. I like your header image a lot, it seems someone put some effort into it, and it works. Beyond the header, why is everything else so bland and boring?

Aesthetics: As I mentioned, the header is great. The rest of the blog need more styling to match, though. There is a complete lack of color and almost no defining lines or boundaries on anything in your blog - it seems way too simple when you have such a nice header. Even a simple and very minor color scheme to compliment the colors found in the header would do your blog wonders. Giving the sidebar definition so it doesn’t blend in with the main content column would be a great move.

Content: You seem to have a purpose in your blogging, and your writing is good, so I can’t really suggest a whole lot of improvements as far as content is concerned. I will suggest that you might want to find out how to wrap the post text around your images, as images above the post text seem to somehow detach them from the text context.

Overall: The only thing you should really focus on and improve is your blog’s visual experience. I imagine you know this already, but as a starting point I would suggest taking colors from your header image and incorporating them in different places in your blog (link text color, backgrounds, etc). Or, if you aren’t sure or are unable to do something like that, you might be able to find a good free theme that matches your feel. Of course, blogging isn’t about the looks, but it sure does help to have a decent looking presentation for your well written thoughts.

If you enjoyed this post, Please consider subscribing to my full-post feed, or subscribing to receive my posts by email. Also, please check out my contribute and get reviewed pages. Have anything to say? Please comment!