Thursday, November 01, 2007

Blog Improvements Underway

I was lucky enough to stumble on a great blog recently when the author was offering to do a review of your blog if you were one of the first 3 to respond to his post. I was the third. Shortly after that he kept his word and posted a very candid review of this very blog, offering several major ideas for improvement.

I had almost forgotten about the whole thing until I got the email saying he responded, so I had never even stopped to wonder what he might have to say. He got right down to business though, immediately pointing out several common "beginner" mistakes I've made, and outlining the improvements he would advise to be made.

Maybe I was expecting just another, "Yeah, that's nice" kind of response, but he really took this seriously and offered some blunt, no-nonsense, almost step-by-step instructions on how to make this site more appealing to you, the reader.

I really appreciated that. It was nice to finally get some honest, impartial advice from someone who's an experienced and successful blogger. So as shocking as it was to hear that I had made so many obviously newbie mistakes, (no coincidence there, either!) it was nice to get pointed in the right direction.

I mean, I never really set out to create a "successful" blog here with this...it was more like just a place to record my own thoughts as I go about experimenting with my little internet business ideas. But if you're going to do something, whatever it may be, you might as well strive to do it well...so I don't see any reasons NOT to use the ideas he offered to make this a better blog. I've already added a profile description, as he recommended. (And moved those irresistable little AdSense ads a bit further down the page!) And I plan to make the other changes as I'm able, as well.

So if this blog begins to look a little different, maybe you'll be noticing along with quite a few more readers if it works out well! Or it might not even be noticeable, who knows? Feel free to let me know what YOU think of this blog too...I kind of enjoy getting the feedback, and I'd be glad to do the same for your own blog, too.

Thanks for reading!
John